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When the front desk representative came back he informed me they’re no longer accepting purchased Groupons for their business because “they’re just not making enough money off them.” Furthermore, they “really just use Groupon to advertise.”
Where do I begin with everything that’s wrong with this? I asked the representative “so your sales tactic is to lure people into your auto shop by offering them a deal on Groupon without having any real intention of actually honoring it?”
I received an irrelevant response and the the representative repeated what his manager instructed him to say behind closed doors.
Let me offer some small business advice. If you want to experiment with an online platform like Groupon to grow your business but it doesn’t workout because you priced the product wrong then fine, you write that off as a failed attempt to grow your business BUT you honor your contract with Groupon and the clients who already purchased the deal until they have all been claimed or expire.
This manager didn’t even have the guts to come and provide an explanation to my face. Instead he hid out of view and forced a kid working the front desk to do his so his dirty work because he probably knew this was a totally unacceptable and extremely poor business practice.
I am extremely sympathetic towards the real and current struggle COVID-19 is having on small businesses, but this bait and switch business tactic needs to be warned to every patron considering giving this auto shop business.