Check out those daily deal coupons before you buy

Those daily deal sites may not be all they claim. Make sure you check them out.

Complaints are piling up at the Better Business Bureau of the Mid-South among those who didn’t. Said one consumer:

“I purchased a Groupon for a two hour house cleaning session and cannot get anyone to call me back to schedule. I have tried phone and email. I have talked to several people who all say we will be in touch to schedule an appointment, but no one ever calls.”

Another person cited her experience with a Groupon for this same company: “The lady that showed up used some of my cleaning products instead of her own. Horrible customer service.”

We’ve received eighteen complaints from consumers who purchased services from this company on different daily deal sites. The most common complaint concerned scheduling — difficulty reaching the company to schedule the service, long waits to have the service performed, and multiple missed appointments with no notice.

A mother bought a daily deal to use for her daughter’s senior photos. The photographer missed several scheduled shoots after her daughter had taken off work, had her hair done, and gotten dressed up. After he finally took the pictures, the mother couldn’t reach him to get them.

A daily deal site may be trustworthy, but don’t assume that its merchants are. Even if the merchants are well-intentioned, they may be overwhelmed with the response to their offer and unable to deliver the product or service in a timely manner, if at all.

People have been tripped up by the fine print on a daily deal. A lady who bought a discount coupon for a 90day pass at a fitness club thought it would be good for that time period as long as she started using it before the expiration date on the coupon. In fact, it wasn’t good past the expiration date, so she didn’t get her full 90 days.

Businesses have also been victimized by daily deal sites. The BBB in St. Louis issued an alert about a local daily deal site that took money from consumers but never paid the businesses their share. The owners of a spa said the daily deal site sold 60 coupons for facials totaling more than $ 2,000, but paid them nothing. They absorbed the cost of some facials, but ultimately couldn’t afford to honor all of the coupons, leaving many consumers unhappy.

The BBB offers the following advice for consumers thinking about taking advantage of an offer on a daily deal site:

Check out the site with the BBB and other sources.

Check out the merchant offering the daily deal with the BBB.

Read the fine print to understand any limitations on the offer.

Check with the merchant to be sure they can accommodate a higher volume of business. Ask if they have enough product or available appointments.

Be prepared for a delay in getting an appointment.

Know the refund policies of the daily deal site and the merchant. Some sites may make the consumer whole if the merchant fails to deliver.

Pay with a credit card to have some recourse if the deal goes bad. Randy Hutchinson is president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of the Mid-South.