LivingSocial

LivingSocial is similar to Groupon; they offer daily deals for restaurants, shopping, services, and travel. Living Social offers deals in North America, Europe, and Australia, and has specific sections for family-​related deals and travel getaways. LivingSocial (also like Groupon) sometimes offers discounted vouchers for big companies, such as Starbucks.
As with all vouchers, it is important to read all the terms and fine print before purchasing a voucher as it likely non-​refundable. Do your research on the business offering the voucher before purchasing. It is not advisable to purchase a voucher offered by a business with poor reviews on Unilocal,Google, or other sites, whether it is from LivingSocial, Groupon, or any company offering discount vouchers. As long as you do your research first, you are likely to have a satisfactory experience when redeeming your voucher.
Do your homework and you’ll find a great deal!

Bought some solar powered lights– then found them on amazon for even LESS than the deal. This is not a true deal sight. Mark up rip off.

I’m really surprised how living social has two stars! I am a merchant their treat you great! And also I have bought one deal for my sister and she wasn’t happy with the service and living social took care of me gave me Credit! All my experience I had with then has been great! As of Groupon. Its not good for merchants but with living social I would says do it their pretty good with how much % their take instead of Groupon thank you living social for such a great customer service you have and always taking care of your Merchant’s

I should’ve known. and I should’ve done more research, but I got tricked by the whole its 10 $ now and original price is 50 $.
I bought this FM Transmitter from livingsocial for $ 10. They gave me a code to use on the seller’s website for the discount. The seller does have that FM transmitter for $ 49.99 (link to product:
) — I feel that after the deal from livingsocial is off, they’ll change the price back to $ 10.
But here’s the thing, google the same product, that I bought, and turns out is costs less than 10 $. It’s not even worth 49.99 anywhere else except on that website. In other words, they are a huge scam and livingsocial is helping them perpetuate that scam.
I knew something was off, but I really wanted the FM transmitter and I thought I was getting a good deal so I bought it. should’ve trusted my instincts. After reading the rest of the reviews here, I’ll never use this thing again.
Also interesting thing to note: The users posting good reviews here sound fake… I wouldn’t trust them.

Purchased a package… went to the business, and found they do not exist! Business there said I was one of many over two weeks that came in looking for nonexistent business. Wrote LS, called and warned them, and the deal is still on their site selling… when they know it is a scam. Wow.
Premier Rejuvenation Med Spa does not exist…

Yay! Someone FINALLY threw Living Social up on Unilocal so. I can trash it! Whee! *Happy Face* since Unilocal decided it was too fancy for emoticons.
I was starting to think Unilocal was in business with Living Social and shielding it from reviews. Actually, I still kinda think they are.
Anywayz~
Yeah, this bizness sux.
Unlike Groupon once you give Living Social your money you are SOL. They do not give a fuuuuuuck if the business wont return repeated phone calls, doesnt honor terms of the voucher, or outright falsely advertised their business or services.
I avoided Living Social since I had experienced poor customer service before, but thought (INCORRECTLY, dun dun dun!) that Living Social was still a legit, trustworthy business.
NO.
I snapped up an über-​trendy and very affordable month of fitness classes voucher. However, when I called to schedule my first session 3 weeks before the expiration date, I was told I had to have come in for my first session 1 month BEFORE the expiration date. So, my unexpired voucher had ipso facto presto chango indeed expired.
WTF?
I have never heard something so asinine from a gym or a voucher site. Nowhere did it say in description or fine pri t on either Living Social or the gym website that you have to redeem it 30 days BEFORE the expiration date. Who failed out of highschool to not understand what «expiration» and «date» mean when combined?
I immediately contacted Living Social for my money back and was told, «that doesn’t fall under our refund policy».
WTF WTF?
I immediately x2 shot back along the lines of, «You’re a fucking moron. Look up expiration date and the standard generic wording of your vouchers, which is the same for every other voucher site and which I have NEVE’ R had this issue with. Also, fuck you again, I’m never using your site again, I can’t wait till Groupon buys you and turns your Chinatown office into storage space for over runs on Slapchops, women’s girdles, and whatever other fucking random ass items they are selling in a desperate attempt to be the (even) poor (er) man’s Amazon.»
But, you know, nicer than that. Because, I’m bougie, too.
The reply I got back was, «Herm.ehrmergerd…I think I found a dictionary… hurr…‘expiration’…hem…give me a minute…»
But, you know, SLIGHTLY more articulate because the recent college grads who get paid corporate minimum wage to work customer service have slightly larger vocabularies (but not large enough to already contain «expiration date» apparently)
I also asked to be removed from all future mailings and they keep on insulting my integrity and the integrity of my mailbox with spam.
So, I suffered more slings and arrows of indignity to visit the LS website and give these shucksters another hit — just so I could manually unsubscribe from emails.
AND I STILL GET THEM. ARRRGH.
So yeah, they suck and my fingers are tired now from ranting.
Avoid.

Worthless. Shady. Corrupt. BigBusiness: Bought a voucher and inclement weather changed our flight and the transportation service that the voucher was for would not accommodate the flight change. The merchant would not refund. Called livingsocial. They would not refund but offered deal bucks at a third of my costs. HORRIBLE customer service. The rep made illogical and idiotic arguments for why I should not receive a refund, «No one can predict the weather, so as a business we still need to be able to make money». I will never be using livingsocial again. Waste of money and time.

Seems very shady.
I purchased one of their deals for a magazine subscription and never received the magazine nor any confirmation from the magazine nor from the third party from which the deal was through.
LivingSocial took my money and never delivered the item and is refusing to refund me.

Its not Groupon. Once you buy a deal, you’re stuck.
I have contacted support about some of their deals and they only send you a reply once after a day or two and that’s it. Fire & Forget responses.
Their deals are not consistent. Im surprised they actually have scams in their deals. Doesnt anyone do their homework in this company?

LivingSocial is to Walmart as Groupon is to Costco …
It maximizes its own profits at the expense of minimum levels of customer service and fair dealing. It hides behind ridiculous policies, such as that all refunds must be requested within 7 days, even if the deal was not able to be redeemed due to no fault of the customer. For example, in many cases LivingSocial partners with dodgy businesses that ignore customers’ attempts to schedule for months etc.
I’ve purchased many LivingSocial deals over the years and used to enthusiastically recommend it far and wide. But it has become crystal clear that LivingSocial puts its own bottom line ahead of its customers. I’ve had several such experiences with LivingSocial over the past few years, but I’ll pick one to illustrate. I have recently had trouble with a deal (an electrician who couldn’t handle a very basic repair, despite two tries) and my experience seeking a refund from LivingSocial has been an eye-​opener. First, LivingSocial uses false advertising to sell this particular deal, saying that the business is «100% LivingSocial member approved» although that’s far from the case. When I asked them to correct this false advertising, they refused! Second, even though the merchant admits that it did not do the work, LivingSocial will only refund my $ if the business «authorizes» it by «unredeeming» the voucher. I told LivingSocial that the business called me with a bribe — if I would delete any negative reviews I posted about my experience, they would allow a refund.
Well, it’s been a huge waste of time, very frustrating and like the other reviewer, I’m also determined to expose LivingSocial’s unethical business tactics. It’s experiencing huge losses and it’s easy to understand why — it continues to partner with businesses even when they have had many complaints, it refuses to issue refunds even when all agree that services were not provided due to no fault of the customer, etc. Go to the BBB page for LivingSocial and read a few of the thousands of complaints — you’ll see the pattern.
LivingSocial issued me a $ 35 «customer service» deal bucks credit, which I’ve noticed they do when the merchant is really a zero. When I insisted I wanted the entire $ 99 as either deal bucks credit, they refused. They finally issued further deal bucks, but it was a random # … I want to be rid of LivingSocial ASAP and I don’t want deal bucks … unfortunately I also have some from their silly LivingSocial Plus program that is designed to get people to by deals at least every month. I’ve asked for a credit to my credit card and have filed a BBB complaint, disputed the charge on my credit card, posted a warning to my (huge) neighborhood listserv etc. Really, LivingSocial? I hope your unethical and short-​sighted business practices speed your demise — it’s just a matter of time.

We are Living Social… In a 90’s kind of world, I’m glad I got my girls! Yes this is technically the theme song to Living Single the TV Show, but hey it fits… sorta.
I love a deal! More than I like the item I purchased at times. So any place that saves me money for no good apparent reason is a friend of mine.
:WHAT I LIKE:
I love that they have deals, deals, deals. Various outdoor, parties, food, and theater arts events that I would normally have to pay full price for (or not go); I can get here for cheap. And they don’t charge those pesky service fees like some of the other discount sites that start with a G.
:WHAT I DON’T LIKE:
They don’t have have as many options. Yes there is a good deal of things to spend your money on, but not as much as some of the other sites.
All in all I love Living Social. And cant wait to use it again.

LIVINGSOCIAL SCAM: I spent $ 350 on two deals. received NO EMAIL REMINDERS. and when I logged in, as I do regularly, nothing popped up saying: TIME TO USE YOUR VOUCHERS.
I realize now, they want you to waste the vouchers. I called and they said for one of the vouchers, they don’t owe me any reminders. Meanwhile, it’s still valid for another week, and the vendor won’t let me use it.
For the other, they claim they did send a reminder. But I don’t ever delete email (it goes in the trash, but is never truly deleted.) While there are tons of email from LIVING SOCIAL and they are WHITELISTED in MY EMAIL, and there many reminders from months ago and years ago on past purchases, they didn’t send one for the second voucher.
JUST LET IT EXPIRE.
WASTE. They are a scam.

Customer service is lacking when it comes to LivingSocial. I had an issue with a merchant that stopped doing shows for which I had a voucher for. I contacted LivingSocial to get a credit for the amount I paid (prior to the voucher expiring) and was given the runaround. I emailed them and explained in detail what the problem was. The rep emailed me back with verbatim policy from the website. The problem with that was it didn’t apply to my situation. I replied with quoted refund FAQ’s from LivingSocial. My response from him was no refund and you can you it at the merchant. If the merchant no longer does business then it would be impossible to redeem the voucher. I had to call customer service and spoke to a gentleman who contacted the merchant to verify they no longer held shows. Within 20 minutes I received a refund.
Overall, the deals offered in my area aren’t worth the customer services issues. I’d rather go with other competing deal sites or visit the business directly (even paying full price before giving money to LivingSocial).

First there was Groupon, then Living Social and more «me too «sites that I can count. My Deal purchases are pretty much limited to restaurants and merchandise, so I have no perspective on the Hotels and Vacation packages. Overall, I’ve been happy with what I’ve purchased, although I’m a lot more selective as some of those promotions tend to go past their expiration dates. Plus the notion of spending money to save money probably isn’t as important of not forking over my hard earned dollars to begin with.

I purchased a livingsocial deal to get my carpet cleaned but they didn’t cover DC so I was given deal bucks in return. I used those deal bucks to purchase another carpet cleaning deal and the woman who came was incredibly unprofessional. She was having trouble finding parking so I got permission for her to park in the alley behind my building. She was unable to find the alley somehow (?? this is downtown DC, it’s a street!) and she was obviously frustrated and yelled at me and stormed off. Needless to say, she didn’t clean my carpets that I had already paid for. After multiple hours on hold over three separate phone calls, emails, and lack of response from living social, they refused to give me my money back and gave me more deal bucks. I’m not sure why I would want to try again since the have yet to provide a decent service.
Ultimately I paid livingsocial to have a crazy lady come to my house, verbally abuse me, and then waste more of my time on hold. I will NOT be using livingsocial ever again and would warn against using their vendors. It became clear to me that don’t have a vetting process on who they work with. I guess in the long run I should be happy this woman didn’t come in to my home but I’m still pretty upset I gave this unprofessional and disrespectful company money for nothing.

Sometimes Unilocal is interesting. Not long ago, I wrote a review of «Living Social» that said «Like Groupon… but three days late». Little did I know that Living Social has done something very cool and started an actual event venue with the same name. So, I wanted to make sure to add this in case anyone wants to actually review the site (
). Sounds kind of like a devious way to avoid Unilocal reviews. Hmmm…
The one thing I like about Living Social is that not as many vendors seem to have discovered it like they have Groupon. Thus, they tend not to get overwhelmed. They also seem to feature more deals, so perhaps this helps. For my thoughts on groupon, living social and sites like it, check out
OK Unilocal — I got it right this time. No need to take down my review.

Living Social is one of my two favorite group-​buying discount websites — I really like their «me + 3» bargain — if three of your friends buy the deal, you get it for free! Recently, I got a lot of discount coupons for Barlata — one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants. Last year, I got a deal for a women’s only bootcamp called «ProAction Athletics” — and I’m now finishing up my 3^rd month of taking regular classes there!
In the past year, I have bought deals for about 10 businesses — mostly businesses where I would have gone anyway, but a few new businesses that I wanted to try out. So far, I haven’t had any disappointments or difficulty in using my coupons.
I do wish that they would offer fewer „lifestyles of the rich and famous“ kinds of discounts for bizarre beauty treatments that involve needles and such — it seems like their target audience is more trophy wife/“ladies who lunch» — they aren’t the folks who need, coupons — it’s us regular folk who do, right?

LivingSocial is like Groupon and Half Off Depot in that you have to pay up front to get your discount (e.g. spend $ 10 for a $ 25 gift certificate). To date, I’ve purchased six LivingSocial deals. The deals worked without a hitch and saved me money. How can I give these guys anything less than five stars?
Examples include:
1. $ 10 for $ 25 worth of food at Aqua Bistro in Buckhead
2. $ 10 for a $ 20
gift card
3. $ 15 for $ 30 worth of food at Bangkok Thyme
4. $ 9 for two movie tickets from
(twice)
5. $ 60 for a two-​hour novice supervised climb for two at Atlanta Rocks! Indoor Rock Climbing Gym
$ 10 for a $ 20 Amazon gift card was a no-​brainer. Free money.
$ 9 for two movie tickets from Fandango also a no-​brainer. Ticket prices at my neighborhood theater (Atlantic Station) range anywhere from $ 11 (regular movie, non-​matinée) to $ 17.50 (IMAX 3D). The great thing about the Fandango deal was it also covered Fandango’s $ 1.25 per ticket convenience surcharge.
The restaurant deals worked fine. I made sure to let the servers know I had LivingSocial deals to use before I placed my orders. These deals helped me discover that Aqua Bistro is a so-​so restaurant and Bangkok Thyme is a very good Thai restaurant.
The $ 60 rock climbing deal was great because the two-​hour supervised climb is regularly $ 132. I saved over 50%.
A nice thing I noticed about LivingSocial is they will send you an email reminder if one of your previously purchased unused deals is about to expire. I forgot I purchased Fandango tickets and they would have gone unused if it were not for LivingSocial notifying me.

«$ 5 for $ 10 Donation to Red Cross Relief Efforts»
That was yesterday’s LivingSocial deal, and it was extended and is still in effect for about another 24 hours. More info follows:
«Due to Friday’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent after shocks, Japan is suffering from what its prime minister is calling the „worst crisis since WWII.“ The country’s northern coast has been totally devastated, leaving the land and the people in ruins. Just like you, we here at LivingSocial want to lend a hand, so we are going to match your donations. For each $ 5 donation through this offer, we will also donate $ 5 to the American Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund. Our thoughts go out to everyone affected by this tragedy, and hope that by merging our efforts with yours and working directly with the American Red Cross, we can help with immediate aid and long-​term recovery plans in Japan.»
— — –
People – Unilocalers and non-​Yelpers – come to me often for advice on LivingSocial, Groupon, the Entertainment coupon book, and
since I utilize all these discount opportunities regularly, and when they ask me about LivingSocial I usually explain that it’s similar to well-​known Groupon but that LivingSocial tends to offer more getaway/​escape packaged mini-​vacation sort of deals.
I love LivingSocial and advise you to always thoroughly read the deal fine print as the details aren’t always so apparent. For example, verbiage such as «Tax and gratuity not included» is self-​explanatory for a restaurant deal but not so obvious for a hotel deal. Before purchasing a hotel deal bear in mind that per-​night taxes typically associated with hotel stays (e.g., occupancy tax, environmental tax, tourism tax) can certainly add up.
My biggest piece of LivingSocial advice? If you’re considering purchasing a deal that involves making an appointment – a hotel stay or salon deal, for example – call the featured business directly and actually make your appointment prior to purchasing the LivingSocial deal. You’d be surprised how many LivingSocial vouchers are sold and thus how businesses quickly become booked months out.

From their website:
«Today’s deal hasn’t hit the minimum number of users to activate. What does that mean?
Our deals are «brewing» until a minimum number of people purchase the deal. Once that minimum is hit, the deal is «live!» and everyone who purchases the deal can look forward to receiving our coupon with the discount in their e-​mail within 1 business day. In some rare instances, a merchant will accept the purchases even when a minimum has not been hit. Bottom line: look in your inbox within one business day of the deal running to see if you got it! «
This is a competitor of GroupOn. I prefer GroupOn, but I receive daily emails from both. They tend to have more spas than any other type of business– but for example today’s deal is:
«Sink your teeth into today’s frosted deal: $ 25 for a $ 50 gift card good at Red Velvet Cupcakery. At $ 3.25 a piece, that’s 15 cupcakes for 50% off! This couture cupcakery is a favorite among DC’s sweet-​toothed set (including LivingSocial employees), with its 12 sumptous flavors.»
Check out my review for Groupon-​Washington: