Groupon FTD Offer: Buyer Beware

February 11, 2011 by
Filed under: News, Shopping 

If you are one of the thousands of people who purchased the recent nationwide Valentine’s Day Groupon offer from FTD, you may be in for a surprise when it comes time to redeem your Groupon.  Groupon customers are flooding the Groupon discussion boards and the FTD Facebook page with complaints that some terms of the offer weren’t clearly disclosed, and that prices for Groupon FTD customers are higher than for regular customers.  The offer, which started earlier this week was $20 for $40 worth of flowers delivered by FTD or a local florist.

Service Fee

Not clearly mentioned in the Groupon writeup, or on the FTD Groupon website is the $20 or more ”Service Fee” that is required if you want your flowers delivered by Valentine’s Day.  Not having your flowers delivered by Valentine’s Day?  You’ll still be subject to a service fee (sometimes less) regardless of when you chose to have your flowers delivered. 

Determining the service fee for your specific flower selection is very difficult.  The fee is only disclosed once it comes time to check out and pay for your flowers.  Although the Groupon fine print for the offer vaguely states “standard service fees apply”, we think that more disclosure is necessary.  Several commenters indicated that they wouldn’t have paid $20 for the Groupon knowing that there was going to be another $20 in fees to redeem it.

Prices Different for Groupon Customers

To make matters worse, if you are a Groupon customer you’ll pay more for some items than if you just went to FTD.com on your own to purchase them.  One example we found is the FTD In Love With Long Stem Roses Bouquet, which is listed for $79.99 on the non-Groupon FTD page, and $89.99 on the Groupon FTD page. The explanation of the price difference is that the Groupon cannot be used for sale items.  If you need to pay more for the same flowers when using the Groupon, does it still make it a good deal?  We don’t think so. 

**Update – After we posted this, FTD changed the prices on their pages to make the price of the FTD In Love With Long Stem Roses Bouquet the same for Groupon and non-Groupon customers.  Luckily we took screenshots!  Here is the previous price for non-Groupon customers, and for Groupon customers. 

What to do?

If you purchased this Groupon and have now decided that it isn’t as good of a deal as you thought, you can cancel your purchase by emailing Groupon support at support@groupon.com. 

What are your thoughts on this situation?  Do you feel that Groupon and FTD were being deceptive with this offer?  Please leave a comment and let us know!

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Comments

15 Comments on Groupon FTD Offer: Buyer Beware

  1. saudishot on Fri, 11th Feb 2011 11:01 AM

    2. FTD is clearly being deceptive. Not having full disclosure is the definition of deception. Groupon is probably clear of any wrongdoing. It’s not their responsibility to police partners’ websites for misleading products or descriptions. If Groupon is offering a refund then you can’t ask for much more from their end of this.

  2. Milwaukee Consumer on Fri, 11th Feb 2011 11:12 AM

    3. Good point, saudishot, but do you think Groupon is completely in the clear? It is obvious from all of the comments on the Groupon site that customers were unhappy with the offer and the non-disclosure of the fees. Groupon reps regularly respond to comments, but that thread contained no such responses.

    At the very least, Groupon could have updated the offer to more clearly communicate the fees.

  3. saudishot on Fri, 11th Feb 2011 12:16 PM

    4. That’s true, but sometimes actions speak louder than words. A person is smart but people, as a group, are generally quick to judge and to join in with the group. Groupon offered everyone a refund and, as far as I am concerned, fixed what they could from their end. If they would have changed the offer or tried to explain things, I think most people would be accusing them of deception and misleading. I don’t know for a fact that Groupon was free of wrongdoing but I’m pretty sure that had they made changes to the offer people would jump on them for it…right or wrong. My opinion.

  4. nikten on Fri, 11th Feb 2011 5:30 PM

    5. I would think that Groupon would clearly state that it can only be used on regularly priced items and it excludes sale prices. That being said I don’t believe either sites were being deceptive. Many “deals” with coupons turn out to be cheaper without coupons. FTD should also state clearly that there is a charge for delivery. That is nothing to do with Groupon and many sites have delivery charges and rake in the money for the special holidays by jacking the price up.

  5. Skirnir Hamilton on Fri, 11th Feb 2011 7:03 PM

    6. I at least wonder if you can call them on the phone and get the normal prices and still use the groupon coupon. IE I use a website that gives me a gift certificate at ftd, but in order to use it, I have to go through a particular way to their website. When I noticed something on the regular ftd cheaper than the way I was going in, I called them, and they gave me the regular website price and allowed me to use the coupon.

    I will say the FTD Groupon problems does not surprise me, as I had seen it earlier with the FTD coupon that I had received.

  6. Mike on Fri, 11th Feb 2011 7:24 PM

    7. This really burns me!!! Groupon sent me an email this afternoon and said that FTD would honor the sale prices for Groupons. Thanks, but I already placed my order for V-Day delivery so that offer does me no good.

    What Groupon/FTD really needs to do is to waive that stupid $20 fee that I foolishly paid. Never again will I order from FTD, and I will really reconsider buying a Groupon in the future.

    MAKE THINGS RIGHT GROUPON!!!

  7. Fed Up on Sat, 12th Feb 2011 9:03 AM

    8. This is so disappointing that on one of their biggest sale days of the year, FTD (& Groupo)n would feel the need to be deceptive & rip people off. WHY? Is the love of money so strong that having ethics in business is no longer necessary?

    I thought thry were offering a great deal and was tempted to use it, fortunately, life got in the way and I forgot!

    Another reason, to read the fine print and remember that something which looks too good to be true, probably is.

  8. Milwaukee Consumer on Sat, 12th Feb 2011 12:44 PM

    9. Great discussion everyone!

    As @Mike mentioned, Groupon announced yesterday that FTD would honor sale prices for Groupon customers as well. This is great to hear, but unfortunately they are still charging the $20 service fee.

  9. Walter Sturgeon on Sat, 12th Feb 2011 5:12 PM

    10. I purchased 2 of these deals and had numerous issues with the FTD website. I contacted FTD and they stated I couldn’t use the certificates until 24 hours after they were purchased. This of course made the shipping/service fees more expensive since I lost a day of ordering time. I felt that I did not recieve clear details of this offer. Both the shipping and service fees were quite high. I contacted GroupOn Customer Service with my complaints and they quickly refunded my money. I am satisfied with GroupOn’s response to the issue.

  10. Fed Up on Sun, 13th Feb 2011 7:56 PM

    11. Just curious, what were the shipping/service fees?

  11. Milwaukee Consumer on Sun, 13th Feb 2011 9:05 PM

    12. @Fed Up – The service fee was $20!

  12. Fed Up on Sun, 13th Feb 2011 11:37 PM

    13. Thanks $ Milwaukee Consumer!

  13. Diane on Tue, 14th Jun 2011 8:09 PM

    14. This was the worst and most deceptive Groupon purchase I have made. I wish I had read this before I used my first or second Groupon that I bought. FIrst, the website would not accept my order and required me to call Customer Service. After 50 minutes on the phone with CS, I then find out the same order was $5 more because I had called CS instead of ordering online. What a bait and switch! I had to argue about that- after talking to the manager and another 15 minutes phone time, they agreed to waive that. The fun did not stop there. Despite ordering 5 days before the so called delivery date, the order did not arrive on my mother’s 70th birthday, nor the next or the next. I was not able to call until 4 days later and then they were too busy to take my call due to Mother’s Day orders! Despite a promise of a call back, two days later I still had not heard a thing. I called back and this time was able to speak to a manager. They offered an upgrade (value $10) and a 30% discount. I just got my bill and they never gave me the discount. My mother finally gets the flowers a week late and basically the best they can do is add a few more flowers for their incompetence.

    I didn’t realize I could cancel the Groupon so when I went to use my second one, it started the same way. I enter all of my information, the website says there is an error in processing my credit card and that I need to call them. I wasn’t going to go through that again so I ended up finding the cheapest flowers they had so the order came up to less than $40. I will gladly give up the $3 just to avoid the inevitable hassle that would have come with calling them. I don’t even expect the flowers to be delivered without intervention on my part.

    This company is a joke and I will tell everyone I know to avoid them. And I haven’t even touched on the higher price they charged to those who use a Groupon. Shame on Groupon for not setting strict parameters with merchants so they dont’ rip us off like this.

  14. Andrew on Wed, 9th May 2012 9:17 PM

    15. They’re at it again! This time it’s on Mother’s Day 2012. Same $20 service fee not disclosed anywhere. Why does Groupon continue to deal with FTD? I have asked for a refund.

  15. Milwaukee Consumer on Thu, 10th May 2012 3:08 PM

    16. Ugh…sorry to hear you’re having problems too, Andrew. To Groupon’s credit, they are always very good when it comes to issuing refunds. It is too bad it had to come to that though.

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