Buyer beware!

The abundance of daily deal sites has left us with a variety of amazing deals on everything from oil changes to dental exams.  Generally, I’ve gotten a lot of great stuff/good values through daily deal sites.  I’ve gotten so used to the daily deal craze that sometimes it’s hard to remember that sometimes a deal is too good to be true.

For example, awhile back my husband purchased a daily deal for glasses.  The deal was $50 for an eye exam + $250 to spend on glasses.  We should have looked further into this deal first, however, because the cheapest frames in the store + lenses was over $500!  Ok, so I don’t remember the exact price but it was outrageously expensive.  We walked away simply using the eye exam and decided to cut our losses at that point.

This story, about a daily deal massage that wasn’t what she was hoping for is another hilarious reminder to do a mini-background check on all companies you are not familiar with before purchasing a daily deal.

I’ll spare you the gory details—the stank of cigarettes and onions on the fingers massaging my cheekbones, the cell phone that rang obnoxiously 10 minutes into the massage, the masseuse telling me that she assumed I was a man when she saw my name on the reservation list. I’ll just say that sometime around the moment when she was holding my hand against her body so she could creepily stroke my fingers while my palm cupped her heaving tit, I decided maybe there’s a limit to what I’m willing to endure in pursuit of relaxation. – Mo Perry, Twin Cites METRO

Sometimes checking reviews, especially those posted on a deal site, isn’t even enough as I’ve seen obviously fake reviews posted on Yelp right before a daily deal was offered.  Those reviews were posted so that the company could brag that they had a 5 star Yelp rating.  You know you’re in for a bad experience when a company is willing to fake good reviews.  The moral of these stories is definitely buyer beware!