So, in case you didn’t know this, Groupon CANNOT replace a product even if it was the wrong one shipped to you. Sound insane? You aren’t alone. Should you be shipped, say, a refurbished product rather than a new one you have exactly 2 choices:
- Get a refund and re-purchase likely at a higher price and HOPE you get what you were supposed to.
- Deal with it.
Seem shitty? Yeah me too. Let me lay the groundwork here:
On November 28th 2016 I purchased an (advertised as new) Philips Hue starter kit. The package shipped the next day and arrived on December 3rd 2016. Opening the package it was immediately clear it was a refurbished set:

Alright, I’m sure customer support can help. I emailed asking for either a replacement with a new product, or a partial refund. Instead I’m offered a refund to “purchase a new one” at a most likely higher price:

I was, probably more than I should have been, rather grumpy and responded with this:

So I get this encouraging reply, maybe I’m finally getting somewhere!

Great, so I was very let down and still don’t have a satisfactory resolution to this issue. So I replied with a rather succinct resolution request (again probably a little grumpy):

To which we come back to square one:

As posted above this has nothing to do which what I believe. The boxes are CLEARLY labeled a refurbished and the hub came in a generic ziploc bag. So here we are. Nearly 2 weeks later and I still have no resolution other than refund and buy again, at a higher price and with the hope that I am shipped a new set this time. How crappy of a resolution is that? And should it really take 2 weeks? If Groupon wants to actually wanted to keep customers this is not the way to do it. I understand they operate on a tight margin but this is NOT the way to handle a problem that THEY CAUSED.
So, if some Groupon person actually reads this, I would really like a satisfactory resolution to this problem.
EDIT 20161215: Initiated a chargeback last night with CapitalOne. They were super easy to work with and had the dispute filed within a few minutes. All I want is the damn thing replaced with a new product. Groupon has left me no other choice, so I’ll let them sort it out with the credit card company. Enjoy assholes.