A Groupon Valentine's Day Bait-and-Switch

From TechCrunch.

"I assume that “sale!” signs in retail businesses are usually just BS. The stores keep normal prices higher than they should be so they can offer customers a faux discount. Whether it’s always true or just often true doesn’t matter. People don’t really get all that excited about signs that say “HUGE SALE 50% OFF” or whatever. We’re desensitized to it.

Groupon has been different, though. They’ve had real discounts, verifiably way below normal retail costs. That’s why so many tens of millions of people look forward to their Groupon email every day, and why so many people sign up for skydiving lessons that they never knew they wanted."

...

"Groupon seems to do a very good job of returning money to unhappy customers in those situations. And by doing that they’ve kept their brand strong and synonymous with getting genuine good deals.

Not today though.

Groupon offered users throughout the U.S. a $20 off coupon for Valentines Day flowers from FTD. People who bought the coupon had to use a special URL to purchase the flowers. And then they were shown a regular price for the flowers of $50 before the $20 coupon.

Which is fine except that the regular FTD site shows a price of $40 for the same item, meaning Groupon users only really got $10 off, not $20.

This is all kinds of things. False advertising by FTD to start, since they’re showing a different retail price for Groupon users v. people coming to FTD without the Groupon link. And, say users, the coupon only works if you go through the Groupon link.

There are other complaints about the offer as well, like FTD pushing deliveries to February 15, and charging a service fee. Those things are annoying. But the different price point is what really worries me."

Retailers are no fools--they won't give the store away to just ANYBODY, and neither will marketers who invent those little coupons to give supposed "savings", only to find out the regular retail was probably cheaper. Groupon seems to have met retailing reality here, and the game may be over. Let's just file this one under STUPID SMART PHONE MARKETING TRICKS and move on.