Groupon Now Sending Out Refunds For Reversed Godaddy Groupons

I have no problem admitting it.  I was one of the people that bought multiple Groupons for Godaddy.  I did it for two simple reasons.  One, it was a good deal.  Two, I own a business and issue coupons every week.  I know how they work.  It is very important to put rules and restrictions on a coupon so people don’t get a better deal than you want them to.  It allows the issuer to not allow certain things and not get sued.  If a coupon is a free pack of gum but puts no restrictions on it, then legally you can gather as many coupons as you can and there’s not much the issuer can do about it.  So yes, I fully realized there was a limit of one.  I also knew that if they didn’t want me to use more than one then they wouldn’t let me.  If someone tries to use two coupons at my stores, I merely remind them on the front that the can’t.  Sometimes I don’t care and let them use five.  I just don’t want some guy coming in with a briefcase of 100 and taking all my stock.

When I bought the second coupon at Groupon I fully expected to get an error message saying “no no no, one please!” but it didn’t.  After I received the second Groupon I went over to Godaddy and put it in fully expecting a “no, no, no one please!” but nope, it put it in to my account.  I couldn’t believe that they didn’t set it up for one so it I honestly thought that they welcomed more than one.  Did they want 20?  Pretty sure no.  So I merely put them in my account and waited. I didn’t want to spend something that was going to get taken away.  And they were.  Not a big deal except……Groupon wasn’t going to issue a refund.

For those that said “if it looks to good to be true it probably is” need to take a hard look at domain investing.  The money I make every……single…….day is too good to be true.  A week before the Groupon thing I sold a domain I paid $12 for $5500.  That’s too good to be true.  Am I not supposed to take advantage of that?  Half the profits I make would appear too good to be true to most people on the outside.  I’m pretty sure my wife thought I was selling drugs with the amount of cash I am making.  “You make that much from just the things you do at night at your desk?”  Yeah, again, it’s too good to be true.  So don’t give me that.  But let’s get back to how it ended.

I politely emailed Groupon and let them know that I understand the Groupons were reversed and if they would kindly refund my money that hadn’t been used.  No answer.  So I send another one.  No answer.  When I went to get a phone number to call I noticed my account had been closed.  When I called they simply said my account had been closed because of my breaking their TOS and they were looking into it.  Upset I hung up, called my credit card and had all the purchases charged back.  All except the ones they let me keep (yes they let me keep quite a few) and another one.   I didn’t charge back that one because I felt I owed them $25 for my causing the problem.  I should have some penalty but keeping all the money isn’t fair.  The credit card reversed the charges no question asked and said that they could be reversed if Groupon responded appropriately.  And they did.

Today I received refunds for everything.  Out of the blue.  None of my emails answered, no pre-notification of refunds coming.  They just came.  Was it a response to chargebacks? I don’t know, but they came.  So I called back the credit card and told them to reverse the chargebacks and pay Groupon.  I’m pretty sure they don’t get that very often because the service rep was a bit confused. She said “you want to reverse all the chargebacks?”  “All of them” I said.  She thanked me for being so honest and said that usually they had to notified by the chargeback company that they DID issue a refund and then reverse it.  My calling made it easier.

So if I’m such an “honest” guy why did I purchase so many in the first place? Again, because I could and I pushed it too far.  I wanted to take advantage of a good deal and if Godaddy didn’t mind then why should I ?  It actually ended up pretty good.  A pain in the ass caused merely by terrible communication, or lack thereof, from Groupon, but good.  Godaddy was great about it and actually let me keep several coupons.  I spent them like they wanted me to, on auctions. Auctions that they had no cost in so they essentially spent nothing to get the money.  That’s a Groupon that they need to do.  Auction Groupon that can only be applied to auctions.  It would drive up prices and be spent on zero cost items.  Also causing no Groupons holders to pay more.  They win all around.

So Groupon, I’m sorry.  I never meant to hurt you.  You’ve closed my account and we shall never work together again.  And Godaddy, I apologize.  All my money goes to you anyway for renewals and auctions.  I thought you were merely giving me a Christmas gift.