LivingSocial was founded in 2007 as Hungry Machine by Tim O’Shaughnessy, Eddie Frederick, Aaron Batalion and Val Aleksenko. The company originally created Facebook applications.
In 2008, the company received $5 million in funding from Steve Case and Grotech Ventures.
In 2009, the company acquired BuyYourFriendADrink.com and launched their daily deal service.
In 2010, the company received an additional $5 million from Steve Case and Grotech. An additional $25 million was raised two months later. Amazon.com invested $175 million in LivingSocial in December of 2010.
The company has made several acquisitions during its growth including Urban Escapes, Jump On It, LetsBonus, GoNabit and DealKeren.
Today, LivingSocial is one of the largest daily deal websites online. They are Groupon’s largest competitor.
LivingSocial
LivingSocial was founded in 2007 as Hungry Machine by Tim O’Shaughnessy, Eddie Frederick, Aaron Batalion and Val Aleksenko. The company originally created Facebook applications.
In 2008, the company received $5 million in funding from Steve Case and Grotech Ventures.
In 2009, the company acquired BuyYourFriendADrink.com and launched their daily deal service.
History
In 2010, the company received an additional $5 million from Steve Case and Grotech. An additional $25 million was raised two months later. Amazon.com invested $175 million in LivingSocial in December of 2010.
The company has made several acquisitions during its growth including Urban Escapes, Jump On It, LetsBonus, GoNabit and DealKeren.
Today, LivingSocial is one of the largest daily deal websites online. They are Groupon’s largest competitor.
I have never asked living social washington Dc to contact me and all efforts to have your Emails blocked have been fruitless. Trying to email you comes up as a dangerous site. I have blocked you but you have a way around it and I continue to get your unwanted offers. I have contacted the Australian office and they can do nothing. So please take my name off your list and stop sending me offers. I only deal with Living Social here in Australia.
Regards.
Andrew
Terrible customer service aka Groupon since this is the same company it used to be great you could talk to people live there was a phone number since they merged with LivingSocial now you can’t talk to anybody and you’re chatting with somebody probably in India I bought a Groupon and I try to use it a month later and the girl no longer takes it she’s no longer at the salon Groupon refused to give me my money back because it wasn’t within three days had I known that The girl was going to not be there anymore of course I would’ve canceled it within three days but I don’t have a crystal ball so I did not know that Groupon wouldn’t do anything for me except make me buy another coupon said I had only 24 hours to exchange it or I would completely lose my money so I was forced to buy something and what I bought was just a terrible situation – but one for a facial it was the worst facial of my life the girl didn’t give me my full 50 minutes she spent more time washing the bowls and playing around in the sink then what she was supposed to do to make me have a relaxing facial she didn’t want to be there it was quite obvious I had to email Groupon and all they did said they’ll write it down the very least I should’ve gotten a credit towards something else
I had been purchasing through Groupon for years. The last 2 years, customer service has gotten so bad I will not try again.
I moved my searches to Living Social and to my delight found some of the same type of offers. I purchased a few deals. I contact the vendor to redeem and I am told they are not Living Social Vouches. They are Groupon.
What is going on? Bait and switch? Are they the same company to not loose your business. One provides such bad service you switch to the other, Either way they get your money.
They have deliberately cloaked their company/corporate email addresses with bogus 404 errors from their contact us page (trying to click on ‘about us’ or any other company link from livingsocial.com/customer_support)
As a bogus inducement to buy from them so they can earn their affiliate $, they post bogus ‘retail’ prices (i.e Costco membership at $215 – no one ever pays that amount or has ever paid that to join Costco – it’s always $60 for basic membership). Every other ‘retail price’ is likely bogus as well. This is one of many such misleading advertising practices. They are engaging in illegal ‘bait and switch’ and ‘misleading advertising’, both in violation of CA and Federal law B&P 17500, CC 1770(a)(9)(a)(10), 16 CFR Part 238, 15 USC 45.
I intend to file a complaint with the CA state attorney general and with the FTC.
I just had the worst experience with Living Social! I do not see myself ever using this company. I purchased a test drive experience for a co-worker (he was a high producer last month, so it was a fun reward). Much to my dismay, after purchasing the Living Social experience, he went to reserve a date/time with the company, and the only time is in December, which is a half year from now!!! Stupid to offer that so far in advance, and shame on me for not reading the fine print. I tried calling customer service (which sounds like an outsourced company in a foreign country that had little to no empathy or care in the world about my poor experience). After talking to them, they said they would look into a refund and get back to me in 7-12 hours,. Two days later, i still haven’t heard anything, so i called again, only to be immediately rejected. TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE.
On 12/11/2014 I purchased a voucher for 2 in a king room for $187.00 to The Inn at Vineyards Crossing, Hume, VA. We have been unable to go because of medical problems. I contact Social Living as was told that we had 5 yrs. to use the voucher. Dec. 2016 I made plans to go the in Inn but was informed that we had used the voucher. WE HAVE NOT! I have spent much time on the phone trying to get this straight. I was told that I had to contact the Inn. I did and finally set up Feb. 17-19, 2017 to go and celebrate our 44th anniversary. The general manage was going to honor our voucher and I would pay an additional $175.00. While on vacation during the Christmas holiday, I received an email from the Inn which informed us that our reservation was cancelled. I began calling the Inn and after many calls, was informed that the phone had been disconnected. I called a winery near the Inn and was told that she would get in touch with the Inn. I did finally receive a phone call from the general manager and she tried to help me. The Inn had been closed the end of Dec. The manager asked me to contact Living Social and get them to call her and talk with her. I called Living Social and was assured that Living Social would contact the Inn and she would call me back. I received no call back from Living Social. I would like to get back the $187.00. I need help. Up to this point, Living Social has NOT help me or done what they said would be done. Please look into this matter and give me some support and help. I am very frustrated about this.
Barbara Wenk
vatechlady at gmail.com
Living social is a scam. The provider I paid for wasn’t even there. I am only being offered a Living social credit verses a credit card credit. Karen, Jamie (who is never available) and Tasha are all representatives at Living Social that lack any social skills, are arrogant, and need serious training in customer service. I will never do business with Living Social again and will make sure to let social media know what a scam operation you are running.
I’m beginning to think it’s a scam to since they will only give you your money back within three days and then after you buy it it’s not excepted because it’s either a new owner or the person no longer works there or they say that they told Groupon that they no longer wanted to be a part of it but Groupon didn’t let the customer know
It’s definitely looking like it’s turned into a scam it’s so sad because the deal certainly are made out to sound amazing
I am writing to let you know I am very disappointed in Living Social supporting deals from Embellish accessories and gifts that are more like a scam and not deals. The dress I purchased for $19.99 plus $3.99 shipping, listed as half price, was worse quality than something at the dollar store, and not even worthy of taking for free. I am in the process of attempting to return it and not sure if I will be able to yet, since their website states no refunds except for products at full price, and does Living Social offer deals at full price? I will be out for shipping both ways, but I am more concerned about not being victimized of a scam, and you as a company should not be offering ‘deals’ of lousy quality with no refunds. I will never buy another goods offer from Living Social again, due to this experience, and if I am not permitted to return this dress, I will not be making any more purchases period from your company. BTW, when I requested an email address for LS, they gave me doXXXXentation @livingsocial.come which did not work and said to reference 20578430
have been trying to call your company for 2 days. do you have nobody answering? need to cancel what I bought and have no way of doing this until I speak to a live person. please email or call me at 847 494 XXXXX asap. Rodi Glass
I purchased a voucher for a NYC restaurant on February 29, 2012. I attempted to redeem the voucher (100061125200) yesterday but learned that the restaurant (Sprig) was ‘permanently closed’. When I called Living Social to request a refund I was told a refund would not be issued because I had not requested it prior to the end of the promotional period. It clearly states on the voucher that the “PAID VALUE ($45) EXPIRES 02/28/2017”. It also states that refunds must be requested within five days. “After that, we do not provide refunds except that we will provide a refund if you are unable to redeem a voucher because the merchant has gone out of business.” I believe Living Social may have changed their refund policy on November 21, 2013. However, I believe the company is required to honor the agreement made at the time of purchase.
At 9:45am I purchased 4 tickets for $57,00, Moscow Ballet, Nutcracker. Minutes later I went back to the Living Social website to check where to reserve seats. When I open the site has a ad telling me I can buy tickets to the same ballet for $48 and gives me 5 minutes to purchase. After purchasing 4 more tickets, I call customer service to check on assigned seats and cancel the more expensive tickets. I explained to Jay, the representative the issue, and told him I bought new tickets for $48, so I would like to cancel the more expensive ones, that I paid $57 for it. Mistakenly, as Jay just check to final total of the purchases, he canceled the $48,00 tickets. When I explained to him he had made a mistake ,and have to correct it. He refuse to assume his mistake, said there was no supervisor available to talk to me and nor another representative. Jay hung up. I called back trying to fix the problem and after being held by Lauren for 43min. She hung up also.
I can write 3 pages of conversations here, but what is unbelievable, is that Living social does not have a department that you can complain on their customer service. Yes, I want the most of my money to invest my kids education, that’s why I am purchasing from Living Social. But I also want to be respected, seeing people assuming their mistakes. Even if is to say, sorry, mam I made a mistake, I can not give you this seats back. But I will give you the $40 difference back to your deal bucks. I was just pushed around hopeless. First by Jay and then 45min by Lauren. What a shame!
I couldn’t agree more with Susan !
I don’t know what has happened to LivingSocial… It was SO GOOD and now it is SO POOR!
I have used LivingSocial since September 2011 ! Here in the States AND in Ireland AND the UK ! I have spent thousands of dollars through LivingSocial… but I see no purpose to continue to use them. They have become such a poor product with NO CUSTOMER SERVICE !
AS NOW… LivingSocial’s service and products are going through the floor boards!
THIS MORNING 7/29:
I just tried to call…I was placed on wait for 55+minutes for a call I placed at 9:01AM !
Why is there a 55+ minute wait in the morning starting at 9:01 AM ?????
What is the PROBLEM with LivingSocial ! Why are you killing a good product?
Then when LivingSocial’s call rep did answer.. she Immediately said her name so I could not clearly hear it but said it again when I asked her name… and then she said she could not hear me… AFTER acknowledging she could hear me by saying her name again when I asked… THEN SHE HUNG UP… I called back… waited ANOTHER 50+ minutes and AGAIN… This time “Stephanie” answered… BUT THEN SHE TOO said her name but then hung up!
So…
I called corporate. You get a recording and you are told to call the same # that is for refunds (the one I just spent more than an hour total waiting on line… THERE IS NO Customer Relations or Service number… you can only leave a message…I did but I doubt there will be any call back.
A couple of weeks ago I was able to get a Senior Customer Relations Rep by the name of “Elizabeth”… but it seems she as not able to address any of the problems… she suggested that I write to: DoXXXXentation at LivingSocial.com
I did on July 14th BUT I have NOT RECEIVED a Response.
I guess LivingsSocial is trying o go out of business. I had better use my dealbucks before I get left holding the bag!
BTW… Restaurants Plus is a non-deal hassle… Bring Back the REAL DEALS for individual restaurants in the DC area!
AND STOP shilling for GoldStar… Your Theater deals are no different than what in on the GoldStar site AND you can’t use your LivingSocial promo… like the 20% for BDAY… PLUS you have to pay the GoldStar handling fee.
SO WHAT DOES LIVINGSOCIAL OFFER??? NOTHING!
I am extremely disappointed in your ability to steal from the consumer!!! I was viewing your recent offer for a trip to Ireland for $749 and by mistake I hit the button and purchased a voucher. Unfortunately, my credit card info was prepopulated and therefore, my AMEX was charged. I did not give you permission to charge me for this particular voucher and have since deleted my prepopulated credit card number, have contacted AMEX to dispute the charge, and will now reach out to the Attorney General’s office if I do not receive my credit of $749 in the next five business days. I understand your refund policy is 30 days, however, I thought AMEX would be able to get you to credit the charge. I have called your bogus number and was on hold for 1HR and hung up. It is literally impossible to get a hold of you and I’m not sure this is going to work either. Check your records, I have not booked a flight for the date of travel: 11/1-12/2016. PLEASE ISSUE MY REFUND NOW – ASAP!
Dear LivingSocial,
I was a HUGE LivingSocial (LS) voucher purchaser but your program has changed and made it extremely non-user friendly. First, there is no way to contact you except by phone. I’m an email person because I like to have a record of my questions and the answers I receive. Also, during your call hoursl I am at work or driving. Second, you no longer offer restaurant deals. You have the Restaurants Plus (RP) program but I’ve read all the FAQs and it doesn’t really explain anywhere how it works. I’m thinking you register your credit card then when you use that card at the restaurant you earn cashback? Do I need to tell them I want a LS RP deal? I’ve asked my friends and they don’t know either. Also, the discounts are now only around 20% and I don’t tend to eat out unless I have a coupon or voucher where I’m earning 50% off. Because of these issues, and you can check my account, I have basically stopped buying LS deals. I even have a Deal Bucks credit on my account but I can’t find anything to buy with it. I don’t even check out the website anymore. I’ve gone back to buying deals from your competitor with the initial G, which I had originally stopped because LS always had better and more interesting deals – not so anymore. This is really disappointing. I hope you go back to having restaurant deals and making it easier and more convenient by having more ways for your customers to contact you. If so, I’ll be back! Bye for now.
July 7, 2016 – Living Social Voucher #1000268832586
I would like to express my dissatisfaction with this voucher that I purchased.
1. They were suppose to arrive between 8-10 am.
2. I finally get a call @ 10:20 am and he said he would be here in 15 min.
3. He finally arrived 30 min later.
4. Takes my voucher and writes up some paperwork and then 15 min later tells me that it would be an additional $149.00 on top of the $49.00 that I already paid for the voucher.
5. He is claiming that because of heavily foot traffic that they need to do deep cleaning. I live alone and don’t wear shoes in my house. It’s a small 2bdrm house – less than 800 sq ft.
6. I told him just do the basic cleaning and I will sign off on the additional cleaning. Says he can’t do that. So he leaves.
7. This is a total scam to get people to pay $200 for unnecessary cleaning.
8. I clean my carpets every 3-6 months and like I stated I live alone and don’t wear shoes in the house.
9. So I waited 3 hrs for him to show up, they want to charge me an additional $149.00 for nothing and my carpets did not get cleaned.
10. I took this morning off so I could get them cleaned. I make $30 per hr so not only did they try to scam me but I lost money today by not working and you’re not giving me back a full refund and it’s a credit to my account.
11. Needless to say, I am not happy about my experience this morning.
12. Once I use up my credit, I will not be using Living Social for anything else or recommend them to anyone else.
13. I have in the past used your company for a lot of things but will be using other services that are out there.
Diane 858-864-XXXXX
Hello,
I contacted living social and am trying to run a massage special. I recieved this reply? I have run them before and have never heard of getting star ratings.. I have my own website, there are no stars on my website, just personal ratings of customers who felt obliged to compliment my service. Please let me speak with a manager so I can run my special asap.. here is the response i recieved:
Hello,
Thanks for reaching out to LivingSocial! I will be your contact on this promotion.
Before we will be able to set up a promotion, I will need you to gather some consumer feedback in the form of star rating online reviews. I wasn’t able to find them yet and we require a positive online presence before introducing you to our subscribers. You can get reviews on any third party website such as:
Yelp
Thumbtack
Google
Facebook
Please send me ONLY the links to those reviews once you have them, and we can schedule a time to finalize the details!! Thank you again for your interest in LivingSocial!
Best,
Genesis
Best,
amanda eaton
845-544-XXXXX
How can I contact LivingSocial by email??????
Below is the history which shows 2 purchases (1 on Oct 26th, the 2nd on Dec 11th as a gift).
My concern is the October 26th purchase:
1. The deal said 1 year subscription to the OC Register for $5.00…….it did not say Sundays only, or Thursday-Sunday. However, once selected you were
brought to a screen that said $5 for Sunday only and $10 for Thursday – Sunday. I did not think this was proper, as the initial verbiage did not put the #days/week
limit, although I then selected the $10 for Thursday – Sunday. They actually were delivering almost all days, however, since I purchased the 12/11 gift subscription (different delivery address), they have just stopped the delivery for every day except Sunday (I believe, we will see if I receive next Sunday’s paper). This is not correct for 2 reasons: #1. The initial “deal’ said 1 year subscription , but did not limit the # days #2. When having to select Sunday only or Thursday – Sunday I selected Thursday – Sunday for $10. My selection was not honored.
Help !!
Suzanne Richmond
11 Dec
$10
The Orange County Register
News, Sports, Entertainment, and Lifestyle: Full-Year Sunday Delivery Subscription to The Orange County Register
26 Oct 2016
$5
The Orange County Register
News, Sports, Entertainment, and Lifestyle: Full-Year Sunday Delivery Subscription to The Orange County Register
I have been trying to get a credit for vouchers that I purchased. The companies are either out of business or won’t return my call. I finally got someone to agree to refund my money however it was refunded to a card that had a 2013 expiration date and customer service is telling me I have to call all of my banks to find out where the money is because they have no way of knowing. There systems can’t track it. They are unable to reverse the credit and put it on a valid card. The customer service supervisor also told me she didn’t know the number to corporate. Living Social is an online company and they don’t have a phone number. She doesn’t talk to anyone the only communication she receives is via email. Funny I Google searched and found the number 202.695.7000. Tried to leave a message for the COO and CFO but their phones are not accepting messages. Really BAD customer service!!!!!!!!!!!!
I would really like someone to call me back and resolve my issue. I have worked in the payment industry long enough to know you can reverse a transaction. Come on……..
I am extremely disappointed in Living Social. After two days of trying to contact customer service I have hit a dead end and unfortunately it looks like several hundred dollars will be wasted. My husband purchased a living social voucher for soaring Adventures of America a hot air balloon ride company. That company is bankrupt and LivingSocial will not honor a refund or credit of any kind. I keep getting the stock answer of its past the expiration date which is absolute nonsense because there was no way to use this voucher at all. The merchants listed under soaring Adventures for a year now have been telling me they do not get paid by Soaring Adventures so they will not honor the soaring Adventures but Living Social should honor their commitment to the customer . You have my money! What a shame that this company has such poor customer service. Please respond to either myself or my husband who purchased this voucher at mrg2105 at yahoo.com or I will be contacting the Better Business Bureau
I just wrote an entire problem and got disconnected…It is a complaint against 1st choice..You accepted this company and they are not bonded or licensed in the state of florida…They supposed cleaned mold from my home with substandard chemicals and the mold is back..I have a 2 year warranty and they will not answer my calls..
Your assistant Amy tried to reach them, but was unsuccessful…This company scamed between 200-300 people…I spoke with the serviceman who did the job…He quit 30 days after he was hired and found out what a scam artist this guy is…He said he would testify against him..
This mold is detrimental and my husband is in the hospital…I need lung surgery…
I hope you will take immediate action in this situation..
Please contact me on my email or ask Amy for my phone number..
Barbara Rhyne
my case refund should be done by 15/09/2014 (today) but i call up they delay to refund me till 03/10/2014. i’m not happy with its. i have give up 21days to proceed my refund…. how come still cannot arrange my refund???? please ask malaysia office to refund to my account by today(15/09/2014).
tq.
I’m so upset right now bought a LivingSocial deal for the amount of 159 dollars to get some service in a Spa. After trying multiple time to get an appointment I finally could got a hold of them and realize that my voucher has expired and that I could only use that amount on services with that company, right after that the company treat me very disrespectful and told me that I can’t “try” to get my money back…true enough, I try to get my money back calling the costumer service number and they refused to do that, the only thing that I wanted was my money in my LivingSocial account so I could still keep buying other voucher but they complete refuse to do so.
Complete disappointed and getting ready to cancel my LivingSocial account,
Paola Sucno
I received a defective product. I couldn’t find any info on your website about how to return it, so I sent it back with a note to your fulfillment center. I haven’t heard anything back from you and don’t see any way to contact you other than this comment. Please reach out to me with details about how to remedy this situation. Thank you.
I do hope that TIM O’ Shaughnessy, C.E.O., reads this COMPLAINT before he departs LivingSocial..
As a Gift, a friend of mine purchased a deal on LS. She followed the, somewhat tortuous, instructions and printed off ‘A GIFT FOR YOU’ She gave me the printed,numbered, dated and Redemption Coded verified physical doXXXXent This voucher clearly shows me as the beneficiary. It permits me access to the list of Participating firms to the offer. To complete the deal I had to make an appointment with a law firm! Simple, or so I naively thought, being unfamiliar with the obscurantism of the Living Social ‘organisation’ and what bluntly, in my opinion, you the CEO should know about the coalface of your operation and the obstructive, time-easting tactics employed by the corporation and some of its its associates. If I was cynical I might conclude that your staff/associates are trained to filter out any attempt at putting the customer at the centre.
Imagine my surprise, when on contacting a local law firm, listed on the LS’ promotional literature I was told that they had no dealings whatsoever with LS!!! No problem I thought, I’ll seek clarification from LS’ associate promoter of the scheme Now the problems really begin to kick in.
The only way I managed to get in touch with the LS associate was by text message. I was somewhat taken aback to receive a TEXT reply to my enquiry about the ‘status’ of a listed Legal Firm saying , and I paraphrase, words to the effect ‘ yeah, we had a few of these … we even find sometimes that one partner in a firm has no knowledge that another partner has ‘signed-up’ with LS!!!!!! This associate was to come back to me. He never did!!!! Now, I’m beginning to worry.
Yesterday, Thurs January 16th 2014 c15:00 GMT I telephoned your Dublin, Ireland contact number. The call defaulted through to Arizona. I spoke with a mannerly gentleman who kept repeating the mantra that the purchaser would have to contact LS and/or I, the beneficial owner would have to go through a join-up process. There was ‘nothing he could do for me’, He did however, supply me with your London address and suggested that I contact Email that office!!!!!
I outlined the now escalating complaint to your London Office. TheEmail reply from Bryan, Customer Service, London is as unhelpful as it is peremptory. It clearly indicates to me that my complaint was not read properly.
Now, Mr. O’Shaughnessy, it takes a lot for me to go from mildly irritated to positively annoyed. I fully understand that your staff and associates are no doubt under pressure and I can assure you that this is not a vexatious complaint. In the absence of an adequate and timely reply to this ‘open’ COMPLAINT communication I shall have no option but to bring a FORMAL COMPLAINT to the Advertising Standards Authority and in due course to seek redress though the ‘Small Claims Courts’ here in the Republic of Ireland.
Sincerely,
Paul Barnwell.
CC File/legal
Living Social is a Joke….
Recently my wife purchased a Birthday gift through Living Social for me, January 19th 2014.
I received an email from Living Social ” Roddy You have a gift”
I click on the gift it opens the link and you are than routed to Planet Super Saver…
Planet Super Saver is vendor of Living Social and Planet super Saver requires you to fill out all of your personal info so that they may spam you.
1 week goes by and I did not receive my card for my gift so I call Living Social… Living Social states they can not help me and I need to call their vendor… Living Social does look up my gift and acknowledges that it was purchased.
I call Planet Spam and I am told they will mail it out priority. I also ask why am I being spammed??? Obviously their customer service rep has no idea, but say she will mail my gift priority… I also ask to speak with their marketing team, she gives me the woman’s voicemail and I leave a message and of course no call back.
One week later no gift and I call Living Social… Living Social states they can not help me because gift was purchased under wife’s name, but last week they were able to help me and pull account and they emailed me today to ask if problem was resolved???
I called Planer Spam and I am put into voice mail, LOL!
Here is the problem beyond me, these idiots are already nickel and diming the companies who use their service and now they are giving them a black eye by not delivering.
Living Social I would love to come in and speak with Marketing and “senior” Customer service associates on “Real Customer service Priority” Being a company that got its break from Facebook you should know Social Media will topple you!
It seems to me your Marketing Team is mainly Tech Geeks with no Social skills and your customer service reps are trained by people with no social skills hence the crappy experience I keep reading.
—
We have been trying to run an ad with Living Social since October. It would be nice if someone would work with us.
Jennifer
Cascadia Wellness Clinic, Bellevue, WA
425-250-3095
Yes i would like to make a complaint, about 2 living social deals that my friend and i purchased on line, the vouchers was Cofresi Palm and Beach Spa 5 day stay 9th to 14th February only to find its almost impossible to get there from where we are…..I rang living social about 3 days ago to see if we could get refunded the vouchers are still in date they expire 30th April 2014 the representative said that all he could do was give me $100 MY FIREND AND I SPENT $1,200 on this deal and we can’t use the vouchers, i guess Living Social policy is to take the money and run, i can see by a lot of people comments that you like to take peoples money but when it comes to mistakes or bad luck you run and hide in the nearest corner i know a lot of people that use Living Social i will make sure i tell them all about the bad experience we have gone through trying to retrieve at least half of our money back.I would be very interested to see if i even get a reply back to this complaint.
Carolyn Muir…..
I bought a $25 voucher from Living Social to use at Naan Sushi Restaurant. The website confused me and I thought I could use it in Plano, but the voucher only stated the Cedar Springs location in Dallas. I live very far away from the Dallas location, but I found a convenient time when I was near there to use it last week. I discovered that the restaurant was closed and out of business.
The voucher talks about getting a refund if the merchant has gone out of business while you hold a valid voucher. I called Living Social on 12-23-13 to request a refund to the credit card that I used to buy the voucher. The rep talked about doing it, but then he decided to refuse. I cannot compel them to do anything. Everyone should beware of buying any vouchers from Living Social. It is my opinion that they will act like shysters if you have any problem, and I am so glad that I am out only $25 to find this out. I wanted to add my complaint to the many others that I just read. Consumers should avoid purchasing any product from Living Social.
I bought a voucher to Tribeca Bistro in Colleyville, Texas. I let the voucher value (Three-course Meal for Two) expire, but I went to this restaurant and spent $200 expecting that I would receive the paid $49 Living Social voucher amount as stated on the voucher. They would not honor the paid amount which again, the voucher states would be the case. When I contacted Living Social and received several “we are working on it emails,” they contacted Tribeca who then agreed to honor it the “next” time I came in. Why would I want to give patronage to and spend even more at an establishment which did not honor what they committed to? I expected a refund to my Living Social account or from the restaurant, both of whom have refused.
Could someone please give me the contact info for the Boston area sales rep?
Good Luck!!
On July 23, I purchased a voucher for a 2 night stay to the Whale Walk Inn on the Cape. Everytime we have tried to book that voucher the room is conveniently booked however they have many rooms available at an upgrade of an additional $132 – $164. We have tried to book this 8 or 9 times now with the exact same response. They also only have a 14 day cancellation policy which is difficult for us due to a family members illness. However we keep trying to book up to 6 days out with the same response of no availability.
I’ve now tried to resolve this for 1 week with Living Social, talked to 4 different customer service reps and am in the exact same place as last week – they have my money and we are not able to take that trip unless we want to pay more or book 1 month out. If there was 14 day cancellation policy – I would NEVER had bought this deal. Something like that should be noted as it is a way longer time frame than most merchants. This is something Living Social should have noted in the fine print – I always make sure to read that. I would never had thought to call about the cancellation time frame. To date – Living Social has done nothing to help me resolve this and $384 is alot of money for them to dismiss.
I’ve purchased two vouchers for a day of paintball at Action Games Paintball. I’ve been trying to reach them at 781-942-9222 for HALF A MONTH to redeem the vouchers.
I’ve left a million messages, but they would not return the calls! And september 1st the voucher will expire! Is your merchant doing it on purpose to collect the money without providing service?The merchant is untrustworthy. Terrible company!
I’ve contacted your customer support, but they are just giving a standard copy-paste runarounds. Please issue a refund!
I bought 2 vouchers from LS Malaysia for BBQ chicken outlet at One Utama Kuala Lumpur. I don’t know how and what happened, the vouchers was for Johor. It was only brought to my attention when I went to the KL outlet for my meal. I immediately email to LS for a refund or credit.
I had to call 3 times as the expiry date was approaching and on the third, I was told the case was under investigation. I told them my vouchers were not expired yet and it was a technical glitch that caused the mistake. I was told the person in charge of refund will reply my email soon. That day, I received their email telling me that their refund policy is only for cases when the merchant is out of business. Despite my appealing and reasoning, they insist on implementing strictly on their one policy which by the way was not stared on their vouchers or their website.
I had been a regular customer and because of a mere RM20, they rather lose a customer. LS really sucks at customer service and contravening the stated refund policy on their vouchers and website!!
Dear Mr Tim O’Shaughnessy & Mr Val Aleksenko,
I have Living Social Malaysia is under your control also as I have order some goods via your living social Malaysia in 20 June 2013 & 05 July 2013. Unfortunately, until today, I have yet to receive the goods that I’m ordered.
Before Hari Raya Aidilfitri (bout 05 August 2013), I did call and Living Social Malaysia had promised that after Hari Raya Aidilfitri, I should received both products that I’m ordered.
Today (20 August 2013), Only after I spoken to Ms Shin YIn from Living Social Malaysia, I come to know that Living Social Malaysia have yet to order the products due to some Living Social’s internal problems, which I had clear all payment required.
According to Ms Shin Yin, I need to wait for another minimum one to two weeks and maybe longer time needed in order for Living Social Malaysia to start order the goods which is totally unacceptable by me.
Due to uncertain answer from the staff, I have request to talk to the Manager in charge and the reply is under company policy, Manager will not entertain any of the call from customers. I do not know what policy is this?
Further, I request a call back from Living Social upon confirm or have a indicative date that I can receive my goods, the answer given is due to company policy, Living Social is not allow to call any customer. What policy is that?
Hereby, I would like to have a more certain date that I can receive my goods that I had paid for.
Please reply.
I just got off the phone with livingsocial CS – once they have your money they are not interested in resolving any issues, concerns or problems. I purchased a voucher from a local pilates studio for myself and my daughter. We decided to take the class for the cost of $5 as an introductory session after I purchased the vouchures. My daughter takes 15+ hours of ballet a week and found this class to be extremely difficult and feared injury since the pace was so fast. I too took the class and felt the same. I contacted livingsocial CS to ask for a refund and they told me that the “fine print” said it was and intense workout so therefore I could not get a refund. I instead can “gift it” to someone. So now I’m out $100 and I asked that my membership with livingsocial be canceled.
Livingsocial is just out to make money and has no interest in true Customer Service. When I asked for the Corporate phone number I was told they didn’t have it and that I would have to write a letter ??!!! What are we still in the 70″s? This immediately told me that they have no accountability as a compnay. I then googled livingsocial coroporate office and got the phone number and the CEO, COO and CFO names. The phone number goes to a generic voicemail box (the person at ext. ### is not available) – again no accountability.
Please contact me at 760-443-XXXXX
LivingSocial Help Request #10624805
I see that my issue is not all that unique. I’ve been in contact with Customer Service/Help Desk for several weeks. Still unresolved. Sent DM via Twitter, and another promise to look into this and followup, several days later I made a call into the corporate office resulted in another promise of “follow-up/contact”. Extremely frustrating.
Adding even further to my dissatisfaction was to to receive the following:
Hey Ralph!
Just a friendly reminder that your LivingSocial Deal to Auto Pro Detailing for A Lasting Luster for Your Vehicle is expiring on August 14th, 2013. You may have already redeemed this deal, but if not, hurry up and cash in on your savings!
Already used this deal? Let us know by visiting My Vouchers and marking it as used.
To view and print your deals, visit the My Vouchers tab on our website anytime, or follow this link: My Vouchers.
Thanks for LivingSocial!
— The LivingSocial Team
I’d think that the system would be able to identify that the customer had an outstanding issue with the merchant and such a message would be suppressed/modified to indicate as such.
I bought a sale item voucher from this site. The vendor refused to honor the voucher. Vendor stated they did not get money from LivingSocial. Living Social refused to issue a refund. I had to sue this low life company. They are full of scam and they will take your money without any service. They don’t even have their office address or email address on their website. What are they afraid of, who are they hiding from. All genuine reputable companies have their street address on their websites. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS COMPANY WHATSOEVER. You will be very sorry in the end if you do buy anything from them.
Ron
,Did you win your lawsuit because I am about ready to sue myself?
Wow….from these comments I see I am not the only screwed over by Living Social. Currently my money is being held hostage by Living Social while they “verify” that the company they offered a voucher with truly didn’t show up to deliver their service, which apparently takes a few weeks. Might I suggest that Living Social spend a few weeks “verifying” the credibility of the companies they represent prior to making offers to the public. Might I also suggest that Living Social Customer Service actually return calls/emails to their customers. I put in an initial complaint via the website…..zero response. I finally hunted down on the internet a phone number and called. Never heard back. I emailed that rep. Never heard back. Called back and got a snippy customer service rep who assured me that it was IMPOSSIBLE for her to contact the Merchant Services Dept for an update. Amazing that we can send men into space and nifty little technologies called cell phones in our world, yet Living Social has no telephones to connect departments. Meanwhile, my $50 is being held by Living Social and Miss Tidy’s Cleaning Company while neither company responds to their emails or calls! If this is how Living Social works…..Groupon is my company of choice!
I wrote you two weeks ago about one of your deals would not be able to deliver the product
as required. PLEASE issue you credit ASAP.
ITS time for action by you guys.
REF. 10805293 (you sent this to me)
Thanks.
Hi,3/7/13 I already bought 6pcs voucher from is Dinner Buffett at Taman Sari Hotel Istana,amount is RM 294.00 the transaction is already make it on than night..But 5/7/13 I receveid email for Living Social say than my transaction is capured,how come like this.Now the Living Social Malaysia is already cancel all my 6pcs voucher..
Pls check forr me,thank a lot
On May 13, 2013 I phoned your office and spoke to a customer service rep. I expressed deep concern with the fact that I had been trying to redeem my Living Social vouchers for The Body Shop (while in the store on 5/7/13 and 5/11/13. On 5/7/13 the store clerk informed me that I may be having problems with the site due to recent privacy invasion and that I may need to reset my password. I did that and returned to the store on 5/11/13. At that time, I was able to retrieve my account info. but my vouchers were not visible on my phone. I therefore returned home and called and spoke to a customer service rep. who walked me thru the steps to reset my account which in turn allowed me to view my
vouchers over the phone. on 5/12/13, the day that these vouchers expired, I was unable to return to the store. I then called Living Social to see if there was anything that could be done to assist me. I was told that nothing could be done and that I was sent an email on 4/26/13 informing me of the need to reset my password. I stated that I had been out of town and had not viewed my personal email account. In short, what I learned is that Living social was less than willing to accept any responsibility for the inconvenience this shutdown and resetting of passwords caused its customers. Not to mention the fact that the customer service rep. was rude, put me on hold 4 times before allowing me to speak to a supervisor, and kept me on hold for 45 minutes before allowing me to speak to one. In the end, I was told that it was my fault for net checking my email and for not going on line instead of using the app. I was also told that there is no corporate address and that I could express my concerns thru their help line and that they would forward the information. Excuse me, but do any of these people care about good customer service? I had purchased $30.00 in vouchers that were to be redeemed for $60.00 worth of products and all living social was willing to offers was$ 5.00 in voucher bucks in return for all of the inconvenience I experienced. All I can say is , if that is what living social considers good customer service… I’ll choose to take my business elsewhere. Living Social should consider taking notes from their competitors. The customer service is great and they are more than willing to credit your account when you are not satisfied. I repeat… It was not my fault that this corporation experienced a security breech I made 2 attempts to redeem these vouchers before they expired!