Well, for the past unknown years, I've been buying shirts and all via testing, but in recent years, online purchasing has been taking over for most of my buying behaviour, two sites that I frequent for purchases are
&
Lowyat.net has been around for a very long time and it primarily gave me quite a few good catches, most of the '
TRADERS' there are very good and professional, well, there will always be bad seed in and out, but that is something you just have be count on your luck if you don't research properly.
GROUPON/GROUPSMORE on the other hand has only been around not too long ago, well, in Malaysia at least. There are other group-deal websites such as
MILKADEAL etc, but for some reason, I chose
GROUPON, simply because they give me a more professional feel. And most of my purchases turn out good, but as per usual, not all participants are great. Among the few bitter memories, lets share the four that had more impact on me:
1) A
spaghetti deal in Puchong at
VINTAGE WINE BAR AND RESTAURANT, which did not serve the Mexican Spaghetti that we wanted. They are also so stuck up when we tried booking a table in less then the min advance booking days, it needs 3 days, but we call just 2 days before, we weren't allowed and was turned off quite rudely, fine its my mistake, I was just asking, and I did mentioned it the moment you picked the phone. Turns out when we finally got our proper bookings, they were practically empty, and yet they don't let us book previously....
2) A
grooming class in
EMAGE GROOMING BOUTIQUE, which turns out taught me practically nothing! I felt like I was there for an advertising session, something like, we have this service, it will cost you RMxxxx, you can sign-up for that. This is one of our success story, he took our ultimate package, it cost you RMxxxx, you can sign-up for that. What I did received until now are the spam sms!! So to sum it up, I paid RM60 for a 3hour RM299 package of self-promoting stuff.
3) A
photoshoot in
BADDOGZ STUDIO, this made us even more pissed off! We were planing to do it before my sis's wedding so we can use the photo during her wedding night, but no, before the deal was closed, tried calling and just wanted to know if we can book during certain period of time, called for a dozen of times, no answer, fine, we gambled, bought and tried calling again, why it don't surprise me at all, they are not picking again!!!! In the end, tried sms, after a few sms was sent, and few hours in between, then only was there a reply!! In that case,
BADDOGZ STUDIO, please clearly state
SMS ONLY! NO CALL!! Anyways, my sis's wedding was in Oct, and we tried calling and calling, just to be the earlier ones so we can get a nice time, turns out, weekends were fully booked till December or something!! WTF!! If only you picked our phones earlier!! And for some reason, I am wondering are those booking even groupsmore users or just their own personal ones?!
4) A
flower deal from
D'BLUM FLORIST, made me felt like it was a good catch after sometime, but turns out, I received an email stating that there were problems and
GROUPON had no choice but to cancel it, and where is my refund?? Anyways, apart from the anger from me, I somehow appreciate it also that
GROUPON took the effort of informing us and kicking the florist out due to poor service, that bad exp won't be anywhere worse then sending a flower and having trouble in the middle right.
Enough with the negative, now lets go to some good stuffs. I've got a few memorable, but telling them would be like repeating my story, so I chose only 3.
1) A
haircare deal in
YUN NAM, the best deal ever I had in
GROUPON, it was priced at RM10, and I used my RM5 token (for refferal), so I got an expensive hair care for only RM5!!
2) A
birthday cake deal in
Q JELLY BAKERY, unlike the
VINTAGE WINE BAR in
Puchong, they was very willing to help me by getting ready my cake earlier, of course they are not doing that for every single walk-in, they knew I was from
GROUPON, and they checked their queue, to see if they are able to get it done earlier. I was really proud of becoming a
GROUPON USER! In the end, due to their friendliness and professionalism (patiently getting catering to my wants and budget), I decided to upgrade and pay on the spot for the extra.
3) A
massage deal in
VILLA MANJA, they were so good, that I felt my bones making sound, and I love that. I always like to press my knuckles and make those sounds, and trust me, my Thailand friend, did that to my back, I was in heaven for 10seconds after!! Though they are not those bones type, I think only Thai has that, not so sure, but nevertheless, having the lava stone was a very good experience. And the owner, well, she says she is only like the manager there, was really friendly and knowledgeable, taught us a few stuffs and made us return there a few more times after that.
Enough with the fast reviews, lets talk about some of the things that you must know before purchasing. The above purchases are basically F&B as well as Services. So there is pretty much nothing you can do but check on reviews etc. But if you were to buy clothing stuffs, you must have the following to assist you so to not make the wrong purchase.
Ok, yet again, I've crapped too much and lets just leave it w/o a proper ending. Bye. Hehe
