Groupon - do you use it?

I've seen a few of my competitors use it, only for servicing of boilers though. However each of the competitors in whatever part of the country seem to charge the same price of

Have been chatting to a Voucher Code company, just looking at joint promo things, but their model is even more bizarre.

They specialize in restaurants, but although its a similar set to Groupon, big discounts etc, the Voucher company keeps all the dosh, and the Restaurants make their money by upselling to the customers when they get there, and the hope that they will return.

The argument is that the voucher company is outlaying for all the advertising, and the restaurant wants to attract more bums on seats.

All seems a bit alien to me, but seems to be working. Can't quite see that model working with say plumbers or other businesses though?

Just read this in the Dail Mail cheap cupcakes

Holy cow!!!

"Swamped by orders, Mrs Brown, who normally makes 100 cupcakes a month, found herself having to bake an astonishing 102,000.

...she made a loss on every order

I wote a post about Groupon a few months ago about how bad it can be if not careful.

I can't post links so just Google - Groupon emperor's new clothes

You've got your magic 10 posts, so should be able to drop links now (plus no more adsense )

She must have known before the voucher went live that she would have made a loss. I see lots of offers on the site with savings of up to 70% so it must be a huge loss to lots of businesses that use it. The only benefit is if you get repeat business, but that's hardly likely the chances are it is the same people using the site are the same people trawling car boot sales every Sunday looking for a bargain...

I really don't see what it's all about.

I did sign up to it a few months ago but got bored of the same old 'spa sessions' and 'hair cuts' and 'weekend breaks' time after time.
1. I don't go to spas (except Leamington Spa where I live)
2. I already have a hairdresser.
3. TravelZoo does me fine!

Also, can't understand how new competitors like wowcher get the funding for massive TV advertising campaigns... who's lending all this money on dodgy business strategies / plans?

And another thing... as an AdSense publisher Groupon is unwelcomed - low cpc and not relevant to the content on our pages. So blocked their adverts from our pages. I went to an AdSense publishers event in Oxford in the summer - everyone there was complaining about Groupon and Google even went over how to exclude them in one of their help sessions.

Rant over .... sorry all