How Far Would You Go To Get Your Money Back? | brokeGIRLrich
So I’m aware that one of the things I have to be thankful for is that even when I’m feeling a money pinch, I’m not destitute.
$100 is not going to make or break me.
BUT I’m definitely committed to doing a lot of things because of the principle of it. For instance, a McDonald’s cashier angered me about 10 years ago and I swore I wouldn’t go back there. I caved once, when I was rather intoxicated and just didn’t question where the cheeseburger handed to me came from. But other than that, I’ve pretty much written off McDonald’s.
So I’ve had a problem with a Groupon and I’m trying to decide what to do about it.
I bought a $29 Groupon for $200 worth of digital conversion of old home movies from PeggyBank. I bought this Groupon in August of 2014. At the end of August, I packed up a box of old 8 mm home videos, paid $25 for shipping (on top of the Groupon) and sent them off to be turned into a dvd.
The plan was for this to be my mother’s Christmas gift. Her 2014 Christmas gift.
That I planned ahead and sent out in August.
After mailing out the package, I got an email from PeggyBank that it had been received, got a confirmation number and a notice that their Groupon had been so popular they now had a huge backlog and it would be about 3 months before I got my dvd.
No problem, I had planned ahead and that still gave me about a 3 week buffer before Christmas.
The end of November came and went. I emailed PeggyBank for an update and got a form reply about the backlog. I tried their 1-800-number and got a computer reply about the backlog.
This continued weekly until a few days before Christmas when I caved, got my mom a different Christmas gift and adjusted to the idea of this becoming her birthday present in April instead of a Christmas present.
And so I continued to contact PeggyBank every few weeks to no avail. After a few months though, PeggyBank contacted me, and other folks, I’m sure, to inform us that they had sold the company to a different company that does the same thing and would honor their Groupons, just the backlog was massive and it would take a few months to process all of the films.
I felt a little better since that explained a lot. The new company gave me an estimated eta of 6 months for the films and I thought – well, ok, Christmas 2015.
Then in September, I finally got a package back from them. To be honest, I was pretty excited to watch the videos of my mom and aunt when they were little girls with my departed grandparents, both of whom I’d been quite close to.
When I opened it, there were all my irreplaceable family films, and a note saying they were unable to process the original Groupon orders and a coupon for $29 to use off an order with their company.
Now, I understand I can’t be all that irritated with PeggyBank as they no longer exist, but I’m more than a little miffed to be out $25 in shipping and this now useless $29 Groupon – because I don’t want to sped $400 to convert all that 8 mm film – oh, right, I’m sorry, $371 with their $29 off coupon. There is a world of difference there between that original offer and what they’re offering now.
Mostly, I want my $29 back and my $25 in shipping – because you kept my family videos for more than a year! And they did NOTHING with them. I mean, seriously, WTF?
OMG! That is a horrible experience. Groupon – you should be able to get your $29 back. But as for the $25 in shipping, it’s basically like a bankrupt company – nothing can be done. You aren’t getting that back. 🙁
Carrie @ Season It Already recently posted…7 Gifts I Gave in 2014: Ideas for Your 2015 Gift-Giving
Groupon apparently has a policy to not refund expired Groupon’s. At least that’s what their form letter they keep sending me keeps telling me. So it’s all probably a wash.
Love the “Better off Dead” reference. Such a funny movie. I haven’t used groupon often, Anyway to follow up with them? The fact that you had to wait that long and be without the movies, you think that would have offered something else. I try to peruse it further, but not sure I’d be confident in this companies ability to get the job done. Have you checked out Costco? The do the same thing, as much cheaper prices.
Brian recently posted…Implement These 5 Tools to Cut Business Costs
I had no idea Costco does it too. Thanks!
Okay, that’s a big PITA.
My husband is on a mission to not pay a $4.75 hospital bill because we paid it in full, and then insurance changed their rates six months after the visit, and paid $4.75 than the predicted amount. If it were me, I would just suck it up, but he’s all about justice.
Digital conversion would be a great gift though… huge bummer.
Your husband sounds like me haha. I’m in a battle with Comcast right now. After figuring out my monthly bill, they’re charging me not one, but two reactivation fees. When nothing was ever deactivated. Not paying either of them.
This is not helpful, but it seems like you should have been able to ship them media mail. $25 for shipping in the first place is a scam. I hope you get it all back because that’s a nightmare. Have you tried Twitter? I’ve found that public forum to be a place a lot of companies are willing to up their service because your convo is so public and trackable.
Femme Frugality recently posted…Quirky Gifts: Holiday Shopping Guide
I did recently post a link to this article on Twitter and tag both digital conversion companies AND Groupon and haven’t gotten any response. :O/
Yikes! Complain formally (I mean, you’ve been nice and not mentioned the name of the company.) or contact a consumer-oriented journalist. Seriously, it took over a year for you to get this non-resolution. This is one of those times to raise heck.
Emily @ JohnJaneDoe recently posted…Humor and The Uncomfortable Truths of Discworld
I would write two complaints. One to groupon and one to the 3rd company. Kindly explain yourself and what you want. Then if you don’t hear back post the letters to all of their social media pages. Do so every day until someone responds in a way that you desire. Typically when I take to Twitter my matters are handled swiftly.
It’s true, I’ve had a few issues with big companies resolved really quickly after mentioning it on Twitter. They’re usually really on top of it.
That would make me so mad! I would probably try one time to get the $29 back from the company and/or Groupon. After that, it might be easier to just move on and never go back. 🙁
Cat@BudgetBlonde recently posted…The One Habit that Got Me to Finally Sit Down and Write My Book
Yeah, I emailed Groupon explaining what happened and they just told me their policy is not to refund expired Groupon’s. Also, the entire reply definitely read like they hadn’t read what I’d sent them at all. Which fueled my anger a little more.
Mel @ brokeGIRLrich recently posted…How Far Would You Go to Get Your Money Back?
I’m frustrated just reading that! Huge pain in the butt, for sure.
At this point I would definitely want my $29 back just for the principle of it. I think they’d probably drag their feet on that too, but at least you gave it a shot. Thankfully your videos weren’t damaged and made their way back to you!
Melissa @ Sunburnt Saver recently posted…How to Make Money During the Holidays
That’s true. I’d be raising heck like it was my job if any of those companies lost or kept the films.
That is awful!!! This is why I have a tough time with Groupon companies because many of them are start ups and use Groupon to get marketing but you never know how long they are going to last. I can’t believe they kept your stuff for THAT long and did nothing!! As a side note, Better Off Dead is one of my all-time favorite movies. I keep hoping it will come on Netflix.
Shannon @ Financially Blonde recently posted…Finding Motivation for Success
Yeah, I actually spent some time reading Yelp reviews today and Googling “PeggyBank” only to find hundreds of stories like mine AND I was shocked to learn that Groupon continued to offer their coupon for like a year after all the madness started. When I bought in back in mid2014, the company had excellent ratings, but they quickly started to drop, even after all of that, Groupon kept their coupon up for a year and a half, until PeggyBank went out of business.
It’s unbelievable that you had to go through all that and end up without your digital memories, without your gift, and without your $54! Whenever there’s more than one company involved, I think things tend to fall through the cracks and unfortunately it’s the consumer who gets screwed. Hopefully you can find a reliable company to complete the job.
Gary @ Super Saving Tips recently posted…How to Save Money Hosting a Fantastic Holiday Party!
I’m honestly a little surprised at the total lack of responses from Groupon. I’d always thought they were a pretty great company, but my opinion is changing.
I’d consider myself lucky that I got the photos back.
RAnn recently posted…Loyal3 Lunch
I definitely do!
That is really bad! What if something had happened to your precious family videos during that time because Peggybank had obviously bitten off more than they could chew with that Groupon offer? Terrible! Definitely go to great lengths to get something done about this!
I do think that there are numorous retailers that make a deal with Groupon where they don’t actually make any profit themselves. Instead of getting more customers to grow their business, they seem to drown in orders they can’t fulfil and eventually go bust!
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