Groupon for Ministry of Paintball Rip-off for 664 Belfast Residents

A total of 664 Groupon Belfast customers who bought a deal for Ministry of Paintball have been left disappointed this week after they discovered that the closest Ministry of Paintball UK site was in Glasgow.

For those of you not from the UK, that's a 108 mile journey, which involves taking your car on a ferry across the Irish Sea.

So why was Groupon allowed to sell this deal to customers without noting that the nearest Ministry of Paintball UK site to Belfast was in Glasgow?

Many people will just take this as a loss, because the voucher only cost £3. But thats 664 people at £3 each which is a total of £1992. I highly doubt any of the people who bought this voucher in Belfast will be able to use it, so just from a little deceptive advertising Groupon has earned itself a handy £2000.

Customers who bought this deal in Belfast were upset and asked Groupon why there were selling the deal in Belfast when the nearest paintball site involved a 108 mile journey and ferry crossing. One woman named Carolyn bought 8 vouchers for her son's birthday party.

Groupon's response again left a lot of be desired:

'Hi Carolyn, we're sorry for any difficulties you have encountered but in order to enable us to resolve such issues for you we would request you to email our customer service team so they can look into this for you.'

Our translation of Groupon's message:

'Please stop posting these complaints on our Facebook wall. Its bad for business. Instead, please contact us by email. Our waiting times to answer emails at the moment are more than 7 days, and we may not bother to respond at all. Sincerely, Groupon'

(Note: Seven days is the current time Groupon is quoting to receive an email back from their team.)

Groupon's customer service is extremely callous, and seem not to care about its customer base at all. How could Groupon even consider selling this deal in Belfast, knowing full well how far away the nearest site is? How do they expect customers to wait up to 7 days for a response from their customer service teams? Finally, how do Groupon expect to stay in business for the long haul when their customer service policies are ensuring they won't receive any return customers?

If you are in Belfast and have bought this Ministry of Paintball deal. Please contact Trading Standards at 08454 04 05 06. And the Advertising Standards Authority at http://www.asa.org.uk/. Include in your complaint that Groupon offered this deal in Belfast, but the nearest place to use the voucher is 108 miles away and includes a ferry crossing.

We would like to note that while there are Ministry of Paintball sites in the Republic of Ireland, the Terms and Conditions of this deal prevent use of these vouchers in the Republic of Ireland. Stating that the voucher can only be used in one of Ministry of Paintball's UK sites.