Comments on: Deals sites: What have your experiences been?

By: Andrea

Andrea — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 20:59:10 +0000

I had a awful eperiance with the hot yoga crowd in sandyford. What a rude, rude person behind the emails. they are sooooo unhelpful and my voucher was too days out of date and wont let me do classes, even though i offered a drs note about my foot. Never again

By: Alexandra

Alexandra — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 09:22:30 +0000

I bought loads of vouchers for the local Thai restaurant that I normally go to so that worked out well although I did feel a bit guilty diddling them out of money.

To play devils advocate though. I think it is rude if you have a voucher not to state that clearly when you are making the booking. It’s like showing up at a dinner party and announcing for the first time that you’re vegan.

My friend got a handy man and he was very pissed off the groupon people took 50%, they weren’t going to pay him for quite some time so he was driving all over the city using up petrol money that he didn’t have. He was making a pittance and at the end of the day he had to advertise it again. The poor fellow was so depressed.

Some of these companies must be on their last legs if they have to do these deals. I hope it’s worthwhile for them.

By: Lorna

Lorna — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 11:13:38 +0000

I’ve had good experiences with deal sites, but I wouldn’t say I use them a lot so maybe I’ve been lucky. I always get my hair cut in Ultimate Hair and Beauty in the GPO arcade with Boards Deals and they are always wonderful. Excellent stylists who listen to you and give you the same time and service as any full fee paying customer. I actually need a haircut right now and even though I don’t have a voucher I’ll be going back there.

By: Lesley

Lesley — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 18:58:35 +0000

Got a manicure in wah nails on groupon last year took roughly 10 mins I had to insist she went back over my nails with nail varnish remover before she started to paint them!! My boyfriend bought personal training sessions on another site and hasnt been able to get hold of them. My best experiences have been with hotels I think they are happy to fill the rooms & bring a bit of money (through the bars, restaurants) into the hotels given it’s a tough industry.

By: AshBrazz

AshBrazz — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 18:57:11 +0000

Anyone else get their hair DESTROYED by the balayage deal just there? €60 for balayage, cut and treatment

First they “forgot” to write down my appointment and sent me on the luas to their other branch

Then they just grabbed two chunks of hair beside my face and bleached the living bejaysus out of them, no graduation or blending or anything.

Then tried to disguise it by giving me a “complimentary” curly blowdry

and the hair treatment? Loreal miracle oil. i mean COME ON i use moroccan oil every time i wash my hair.

When i rang up to complain after washing it, the girl got so angry i was too scared to go back.

Pre-livingsocial i had lovely, bum length, beachy, Style-Club balayaged hair and now i look like those fourteen year olds that have done it themselves. NEVER AGAIN :[

By: Tina~bean

Tina~bean — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 13:05:15 +0000

Mixed opinion overall. Got a voucher for a salon in cork for laser on underarms and I couldn’t recommend it highly enough. I think it might be Ipl, but four treatments in out of a course of 6 or 8 and there is about a 90% reduction. They’re very polite and friendly in there, and I would have no hesitation to use them again.

Got a voucher for another salon in Cork several months previously for a Brazilian and underarms wax. Horrendous.The place stank of damp, no paper towel on the bed, she used a metal spatula and double dipped away. Her technique was horrific, taking off about half the hair, making me bleed and happily spatuling away on top of this. After seeing the state my underarms were in, I faked a phonecall and left.. It would make me very cautious about purchasing an offer without reviewing it first.

By: mackerf

mackerf — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 10:39:23 +0000

I agree that you need to be somewhat savvy when purchasing. Having said that, I took a gamble on laser hair removal (Suburbia, Cork) and I got great professional service and the salon allowed me to buy another deal at the groupon/foffit price, but I hadn’t heard of them before so it was just lucky. Then again my best friend bought laser hair removal at another place in Cork, she had no patch test and ended up with burns. So again, it’s a bit of potluck.

I know that there is a lack of clarity of who is responsible when things go wrong, aforementioned friend had hassle trying to get on to Living Social about a refund. Some deal providers say they sell the deals, others say they merely advertise on behalf of the businesses, this causes problems when trying to figure out who is responsible. Either way, bear in mind that under consumer legislation, any service must be provided with a reasonable level of professional skill, so if a treatment etc goes beyond simply bad attitude / service, you have a right of refund (or suitable remedy) from whoever you you imparted your money to. I imagne the NCA have a pile of resources on this.

By: Miffy

Miffy — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 10:17:01 +0000

I often cannot get appointments, that drives me nuts! Other than that happy enough!

By: Liz

Liz — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 04:26:29 +0000

I’ve also had a horrible experience with The Salon in the IFSC. I bought their Christmas Box deal on Living Social, which included six kinds of treatments. They couldn’t fit me in for any treatment till four months after the deal had started in mid January, and they jammed three treatments into my first appointment and did a really half-assed job: the Shellac manicure came out streaky, the Medi pedicure was literally a soak in lukewarm water followed by very light pumicing with a file and NO polish, and the brow trio left me with uneven brows that I didn’t have in the beginning. When I tried to book appointments for the remaining three treatments (a Swedish massage, some kind of laser treatment, and a spray tan that I could go without), they said they were fully booked till the end of June. When I pointed out that the voucher expired on the 29th of June and asked for an extension, they said they couldn’t do that but they could put me on a waiting list and give me a call if anyone cancelled. Needless to say, I never heard from them. I called to complain but they blamed Living Social for selling ‘too many vouchers’.

This experience hasn’t put me off purchasing deals, but it has completely poisoned The Salon in my mind and I would never give them business again.

By: Katie

Katie — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 23:12:16 +0000

My friends and I all got our teeth whitened in some place near the Aviva stadium. Our friend booked the deal online and when she rang to confirm asked could my sis and I avail of the offer. The receptionist agreed and we all went together. When we arrived my friend made to fine a point of telling them we didn’t pay for the deal like her and so we didn’t get the 6 month top up mouth piece thingys. With the exception of the excruciating pain afterwards we had a great time! The guy who whitened them (I’ve seen a video of him whitening teeth online and he said he was a nurse, so not sure he’s qualified to whiten teeth really…) was great craic. There was no difference in treatment other than our friend getting the top up kit to take home. We even got vouchers to come back for a check up!