The Pitfalls of Group-Buying: The Curious Case of The Butchers on Yonge Street

23 Mar The Pitfalls of Group-Buying: The Curious Case of The Butchers on Yonge Street

Stressed From A Deal Gone Awry?

A recent deal from DealFind put up by The Butchers on Yonge Street in Toronto seems to have set the bar for how quickly things can go bad for a seemingly great daily deal offer. According to a Group Buying Data presentation of Yipit, a deal aggregator site, the Canadian company offered a 69% discount on all meat orders, which generated 11,000 orders and over $600,000 in revenue. As good as the deal sounds, it was quite clear that it didn’t go over too well with some customers.

Here’s a representative sample of what amounted to 8 full pages of consumer rage on YPG’s deal site, RedFlagDeals:

‘I don’t care what makes sense to you. What makes sense is that you are deceiving and misleading people. I was re-assured that the problem was resolved by DealFind so that is why I went in again. Don’t blame me for exercising my consumer rights. I have requested and received a full refund from Dealfind. There will be articles in the media about this thanks to me. These coupon sites are doing a disservice to people and praying on our desires to get good deals during these economic times’.

‘The Butchers are doing something dodgy and shady here. We might not have proof, but by offering so many deals on so many sites and by being deceptive on their prices and what people can use the coupon for translates to disgusting. They will hopefully learn their lesson. It might end up costing people their jobs though and that is sad’.

‘FYI you better check your emailed order cos they substituted strip loin for my ordered ribeye and DIDNT EVEN TELL ME!!!! plus ZERO marbling, which shouldn’t really be graded AA or higher which is what they are purportedly selling’.

There’s no real way to ascertain the veracity of these claims; however, justified or not, the public nature of such complaints means that lasting damage is done either way. Even as online deals represent a huge opportunity for small businesses to reach a wider customer base, poorly planned, executed, or received promotions such as these can cost an enterprise a lot of bad PR.