By Allan Maurer
WASHINGTON, DC – LivingSocial offered a great deal this week, a $20 Amazon gift card for $10. People grabbed it too: more than 1.35 million of them. But the size of the deal apparently caused some technical difficulties for the rapidly expanding local deals firm.
The company, which recently received a $175 million investment from Amazon, seemed to experience a number of problems, from delays in getting out the deal emails to Snafus that led some members who spread news of the deal in hopes of getting theirs free to encounter a number of problems, according to comments on the company’s Facebook page.
Some people who shared the deal said they were charged more than once. Others said they received a message they tried to sign up for the deal more than once. Others said they got the email but did not find the discount code.
It’s Facebook account collected a good many complaints, some saying things such as “You really dropped the ball on this one.” Not a few making comments on LivingSocial’s Facebook page were irate. It will be interesting to see how they handle this. Reputation management online is a big deal because such things go viral on the Internet at the speed of light.
The company has serious competition in the local social deals space from Chicago-based Groupon and several other large players, not to mention a host of smaller ones. It’s one of the hottest spaces in Internet commerce right now.
Mashable has disclosed Google’s plans to create its own rival service, Google Offers. Google reportedly tried to buy Groupon for $6 billion, a deal the company declined. It then proceeded to raise $950 million more in venture backing.
I took the deal myself and while the email with the Amazon discount code did not show up until 2:30 a.m. Friday morning, I followed the procedure they outlined to claim it and had no difficulties myself.
We are contacting the company to see how they’re handling this and will update you upon receiving a response.
Email TJS editor Allan Maurer: Allan at TechJournal South dot com.
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Tags: Amazon discount deal, Amazon/LivingSocial deal, DC, facebook, LIvingSocial, reputation management
I paid for this deal but never got a confirmation email. I’ve gotten a bunch of spam for new offers instead.
I got this deal as well and they delivered (just received my code today).
I am not upset with LivingSocial but rather with the people who took advantage of “Limit 1″ purchase by using multiple email addresses. I feel badly for Amazon as well since they will probably take a loss. :(
My opinion and welcome to it. :P
I\’m also still waiting for my purchase to clear. They promised next business day, and I was OK waiting a little longer because of the enormous popularity of the deal. But now it\’s been 2 business days and nothing. I have gotten nothing but new offer emails from them. I\’m seriously disappointed as the business week is now over and hope I don\’t have to wait until Monday for this to get sorted out. I submitted a request to their customer service but received no response as of now. I don\’t think I\’ll be using Living Social for deals ever again.
never received the email about the amazon gift card
I got this deal, successfully obtained the code and everything. Even got mine free for referring 3 friends to the deal. HOWEVER, there was fraudulent activity on the credit card I used to pay THE VERY NEXT DAY so I think LivingSocial needs to check their “secure” server.