REVIEW: Groupon.co.uk

What is Groupon?
Groupon is a deal of the day website with huge discounts on a range of products and services. Everyday a new deal comes along so you’re bound to find something you like if you check back.

When you do, just buy the deal and you can usually redeem it anytime over the next few months. So for example, if you found a good deal for a local restaurant where a meal usually costing £40 was being offered for £10, you would pay £10 there and then on Groupon, you’d receive an email voucher to print off, and then you’d just take it to the restaurant for your free meal (as you’ve already paid) whenever you want. 

 So what did I buy?
For me, I snapped up a deal which featured South West watches for £12 inc p&p, when their usual retail price is £33 p&p not included. 65% saving? Not bad. 

I bought two of the white version as I think that will go with more in my wardrobe

Groupon vs. sales & offers in shops/ on websites
So what exactly makes this so different to just taking advantage of a normal discount anyway? After all the internet is swimming with reduced items on sale, and similarly there is a lot of competition in my local area so there’s always some sort of deal on most restaurants and services.

 Firstly whilst my home town does offer deals (happy hours etc.), it’s nowhere near as cheap as the offers on Groupon. Also with Groupon there is a lot more leeway as most vouchers can be used at any time, rather than the typical awkward time slots that are usually available (who goes out for a meal to a restaurant at 3pm-5pm??)

Also and this is a sneaky reason, but if you see a lovely present for someone and you buy it on the internet, the chances are they’ll check out the website to see how much you spent. The great thing about Groupon is that the items are still full price on the sellers website (you just enter in a code at the checkout to make it free as you‘ve already paid for it through Groupon) unlike normal sales on shops and websites where the reduced price are there for everyone to see. That means you can use the money you saved to spend it on other things for that person making you look extra generous!

 Who would I recommend this for?
Anyone who is a bargain shopper! Also if you’re stuck in a rut and fancy a new place or activity but don’t want to spend too much in case you dislike it, Groupon is a great idea.

Who would I not recommend this for?
Anyone who wouldn’t remember to visit a website every day to check out the daily deals. With this being said, you can get a newsletter sent to your email with the deal of the day which I find a lot easier than manually visiting the website. Also, most vouchers can’t be used until the next day so if you were wanting something new for that night, Groupon is out. 

 Customer service
I was kindly given £20 credit to spend on the website, when all of a sudden it crashed and the money disappeared. Kate (the Groupon rep) was lovely, replied quickly and sent me another voucher no problem. Of course, she knew I was reviewing the service so I know a few quite rightly will be raising their eyebrows thinking ‘well of course she was bloody helpful!’. So when I had a problem with the actual South Lane website (not Groupon‘s fault) , I thought I would email the Groupon website for some advice rather than Kate to see what their customer service is like more generally.
 

Groupon have a system so that you can get an immediate acknowledgement that your request was received, with a warning it may take up to 7 days due to the vast amount of emails they get which I think is reasonable for such a big company. It took 3 days for a reply which I was happy about, and after that I received another email asking if my problem had been sorted out or whether I needed more assistance.

Overall opinion
So would I use this service again? Definitely! I find it really exciting to see what deals are on every day and think I could get quite addicted. The savings are great and I feel like there is a wide range to suit everyone with a bit of patience.