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Are travel deals the biggest headache in Group Buying?

We’ve seen the explosion of a lot of group buying sites and daily deal sites since 2011 and it has been estimated that total revenues are in excess of Php100 Million a year (and it is still growing). As such, it’s not a surprise that problems and issues tend to crop up more than their usual fair share.

Perhaps, these issues have risen because of the volume of transactions, the impulsive buying habits of consumers towards these deals (higher likelihood of buyer’s remorse?) and the clever wording of the so-called “fine print”.

I noticed though that a lot (or the biggest) of these headaches that group buying sites are experiencing come from travel deals.

Last year, we heard of the story with MetroDeal and their travel package that got screwed up leaving a lot of customers not being able to avail of the vacation package or get a refund for it. This got the attention of DTI and I also heard that a competitor reported them to Facebook which eventually led to the closure of their FB Fan Page and losing more than 500k fans (MetroDeal has since then created a new Fan Page).

Last month another deal site, CleverBuy got into some problems with their travel/vacation package. I am not familiar with the deal or how it went but this email newsletter from the company’s CEO might shed light:

[showhide type=”pressrelease”]

To our valued CleverBuyers;

We would like to express our sincerest apology regarding the problems that you have encountered with our recent deals specifically with our travel deals. Presently, we are experiencing chaos from these travel agencies when they declare that they can’t accommodate anymore our customers who purchased their deals from CleverBuy due to some unexpected circumstances; bad weather, full bookings for the month of April, May and June, abrupt increase of airfare and hotel accommodations and some other pertinent reasons which we failed to take into account at the onset.

Aside from being our business partners, CleverBuy is not directly connected with these travel agencies. But we assure our customers that we will assist our merchants and those who have been affected with the aforementioned circumstances. We are now in contact with our merchant and making our move on how we can help to iron out the problems.

Again, we apologize for the inconvenience these proceedings have caused you. We assure you that we will be more careful next time in choosing our partner merchants. We pledge not to run away from our responsibilities to our valued CleverBuyers, but we are asking for sobriety, understanding and more patience in this trying time.

It is never easy for us to receive complaints from our customers for the unsatisfactory services rendered by our partner merchants since we are just their marketing arm but nevertheless, we will take responsibility to be the bridge between our merchants and our customers.

It has always been our pleasure to serve you. Thus, we are looking forward to continue serving you in the future. If there are any other concerns that you would like to address, please feel free to call us at (02) 553-8197. We would be more than willing to accommodate them. Thank you very much and have a nice day.

CHRISTIAN BAYER
CEO
CleverBuy Inc.

[/showhide]

Oftentimes, the issue mostly stems from over-booking, fluctuating prizes of plane fares that are package along with the deal, and the fine print that usually requires customers to buy vouchers in pairs, upsells them, or include additional hidden charges.

These travel deals and the travel agencies that offer them could be the next target by the DTI. And, it might soon blow over that customer confidence towards online shopping will degrade instead of improve.

I haven’t really tried getting a vacation package from any of the deal sites before so I don’t have any first-hand experience. If you have any experience before, feel free to chime in at the comments.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

47 Responses

  1. Avatar for MN MN says:

    Has there been any recent news update on this cleverbuy issue?

  2. Avatar for Everard Everard says:

    If you are looking for travel deals and don’t want to pay any hidden charges. Avoid buying vouchers on-line, instead, do a direct transaction with the travel agency.
    You can visit http://footsteps.ph. They are currently on their open-beta but you can already see some few interesting tour packages.
    Foot Steps is an on-line market place like sulit.com.ph and ayosdito.ph, but only focuses on tour packages.
    Transaction is between the customer and the travel agency, so issues like hidden charges, over-booking, and fluctuating prices are being prevented.
    Cheers!

  3. Avatar for digitales digitales says:

    Hi there, just turned into aware of your blog through Google,
    and found that it is truly informative. I’m gonna watch out for brussels. I will be grateful in case you continue this in future. Lots of other people might be benefited out of your writing. Cheers!

  4. Avatar for Lianne Grace Soria Lianne Grace Soria says:

    This site is interesting. You can also Visit www.taraletssave.com and see the best deals in the Philippines.

  5. Avatar for Perks Barrel Perks Barrel says:

    Soon, we’re changing the group buying game.

    Imagine this, no need to deposit your money for purchases. Just click on the coupon,print, and its ready to use.

    For details and launch date, kindly visit our fb page https://www.facebook.com/PerksBarrel

  6. Avatar for Perks Barrel Perks Barrel says:

    Soon, we’re changingt the group buying game.

    Imagine this, no need to deposit your money for purchases. Just click on the coupon, then print, and its ready to use.

    FOr details and launch date, kindly visit our fb page https://www.facebook.com/PerksBarrel

  7. Avatar for listas barcelona listas barcelona says:

    obviously like your web-site however you need to test the spelling on several of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling problems and I in finding it very troublesome to tell the reality on the other hand I’ll surely come again again.

  8. Avatar for deals4 deals4 says:

    It is the Best Travel Place to visit.

  9. Avatar for Joshua Nathan Joshua Nathan says:

    in my experience I usually do is choose a Merchant / Resort which has a big capacity . also ahead of time before I purchase vouchers I will get the a commitment from the Resort on my preferred date .

  10. Avatar for Panama Panama says:

    Perhaps the fact that Living Social generates over $150 million from their travel packages is one reason. Another is the fact that travel is exciting, is popular and much like a restaurant table or hotel room, is a perishable item. If an airplane seat or resort stay is not sold for a given day, then that revenue is lost forever. Travel companies are, therefore, very motivated to sell that inventory and Daily Deal sites seem to be another viable option for them.

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