1/2 price beer and wine - living social (martins off license fairview)

redalan

Living social have a deal for Martin's Off License in Fairview. Buy €10 voucher for €20 worth of drink, up to €30 for €60.

For beer drinkers, they have a great selection of world beers.

Mods, my referral link attached, but please remove if it infringes on the rules.

http://livingsocial.com/deals/87409-20-to-spend-in-store-at-martin-s-off-licence?msdc_id=1482

jm2011

Just got this - great deal!

You can also get an additional €5 discount if you get an invite from a friend to join Living Social. If anyone needs an invite please PM your email to me

donnacha

linky to beer selection:

http://www.martinsofflicence.ie/shop/?cat=1225472625107

Basq

I'd like to remind people that affiliate links are not permitted on Bargain Alerts unless they've been screened, and then permitted, by one of the mods of the forum.

sweetie

great deal, valid to feb '12. offers on beer, 5 for 10 so one could get 30 nice beers for 30 euro.

kc66

Fúck... sold out while I was ordering. Seems like they would lose a fortune on this. Can't imagine theres a 100% mark-up on many alcoholic drinks in an off license to be allowing a half price sale. 653 sold and they have to give Living Social a cut.

daedal

UPDATE: I've been in contact with the owner and he is now honouring the deal.

The man is a gentleman and he has some nice/weird/exotic booze for sale. So id advise a visit if you haven't been.

Those of you unfortunate to get involved in this deal, it is not what it seems.

I went into the place today to pick out some nice beers and a bottle of whisky. Went to the counter and was told this offer was only valid for wine! :eek::eek::eek:

That cant be! I read the small print and it said nothing about being exclusive to wine sales. I even showed him the advert for the deal on my phone and it was clearly worded as an offer for any product instore. He replied "sorry my manager gave me instructions that it was for wine only". So i wasn't allowed to make my purchase as i had intended. And i dont even know where it'll go now. Oh what to do now?? false advertising?

Here are screenshots below of the deal i thought i was being sold.

What do you reckon boards?

Offer:



Small Print:

Prefect_1998

this better not be for just wine, i only bought it to get some decent german beer..

it did not say anywhere on the deal about wine only:mad:

odddavey

How are they going to make any money out of it? Regular margin on wine is 40%, beers less than 10%, spirits is low as well.

redalan

danielle_door wrote: »

this better not be for just wine, i only bought it to get some decent german beer..

it did not say anywhere on the deal about wine only:mad:

Was worried myself as I bought it for their selection of weiss beer. Rang the store and just got confirmation that is everything that is full price (which is fair enough). Happy days.

donnacha

Dropped in after work and used my €40 voucher on beers no problem - as redalan has confirmed you can't use the voucher against current beer deals which is a fair cop as this has to be a loss leader. They have won me as a customer as the selection of craft beers was excellent.

redalan

I'm just back with a crate of beer now. Great selection and I will definitely be back as they have a great range of 4 x 10E and 5 x 10E on world beers

viztopia

Just back from Martins off licence and they are not honouring this deal any longer. Was a waste of a journey and I now have to contact living social to claim money back. the manager was quite nice but he said they couldnt cope with the volume of orders and they were losing a fortune on them. not good publicity for the shop and I also think that some of these deals by living social are gimmicks and that a lot of the people selling through these sites make money by customers not actually buying anything with their vouchers.

odddavey

Thanks Viztopia, damn it should of used it sooner, it was too good a deal, did they not know it was going to be so succesful??

Superfin

How does one get their money back then? Still have a €20 voucher :mad:

odddavey

Found it
Ireland Customers:

Submit a ticket here
Or call us at 353-1-234-2557

http://help.livingsocial.com/contact.html

redalan

viztopia wrote: »

Just back from Martins off licence and they are not honouring this deal any longer. Was a waste of a journey and I now have to contact living social to claim money back. the manager was quite nice but he said they couldnt cope with the volume of orders and they were losing a fortune on them. not good publicity for the shop and I also think that some of these deals by living social are gimmicks and that a lot of the people selling through these sites make money by customers not actually buying anything with their vouchers.

Bummer. I was lucky I used mine straight away. Even so, I really rate the place and will be back as it has a fine selection of weiss beers.

martyoo

Just back from Martins off licence and they are not honouring this deal any longer. Was a waste of a journey and I now have to contact living social to claim money back. the manager was quite nice but he said they couldnt cope with the volume of orders and they were losing a fortune on them. not good publicity for the shop and I also think that some of these deals by living social are gimmicks and that a lot of the people selling through these sites make money by customers not actually buying anything with their vouchers.

How can he not honor it?

chopser

odddavey wrote: »

Found it
Ireland Customers:

Submit a ticket here
Or call us at 353-1-234-2557

http://help.livingsocial.com/contact.html[/QUOT

Am I being petty or does the fact that you have to tick from the uk in the geography box to send your complaint quite bothersome.

odddavey

The wife purchased the voucher, so she's dealing with it but good luck with it. Are they allowed to pull the deal, me thinks they have to honour it. Will have to have a look at the small print. A trip to the citizens advice centre might be an option?

viztopia

the man in the shop gave me the following number;

01-2342557.

I am thinking that they should honour it, tough **** if you sold too many you should have restricted the number for sale but I dont know if we have any options here!

jm2011

viztopia wrote: »

I also think that some of these deals by living social are gimmicks and that a lot of the people selling through these sites make money by customers not actually buying anything with their vouchers.

That is so annoying that they won't honour the voucher anymore! I should have used mine at the weekend


I'm getting really tired of retailers advertising these deals but not thinking them through properly. I already have a few vouchers that have expired because it was almost impossible to book an appointment/hotel break/etc outside 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday....And now this deal is not being honoured anymore and it will no doubt take ages to get a refund of me hard earned cash.....:(

Prefect_1998

i had 60 to spend in store,:mad:

does it matter how much the voucher is worth...

this is very very annoying

quacky

That reflects really badly on Living Social. It's pretty irresponsible of them to not help Martins design a deal that they can honor and will give them repeat business. It was obvious that this deal was going to cost them a fortune, which is why it was so popular.

I bought one straight away and got it for free cos 3 friends bought it too, and a few of them got it for free too!

Hadn't used it yet though, boo.

adamski8

Jesus, I missed out on the voucher but I'll never buy my beer there if thats how they treat their customers.
I'll be taking living social off my email list too!

martyoo

That reflects really badly on Living Social. It's pretty irresponsible of them to not help Martins design a deal that they can honor and will give them repeat business.

I think it reflects really badly on Martin's off-licence! I mean what did he think was going to happen when we was selling alcohol for half price?

He could have restricted the number of vouchers or used a shorter purchasing period. He put the expiry date at Feb2012!

thelazygun

Is buying the voucher with a credit card not a legally binding contract?

If you go on ebay and agree to buy a product using your card-you must pay up(unless the seller agrees otherwise)

I cannot see how living social/Martins can sell this voucher with agreed terms and conditions, then change their mind. I might be wrong though.

jm2011

Totally agree that it reflects very badly on Martin's Off Licence. First they say that you can only buy wine with the voucher. Then they change their mind and extend it to all drink.....Then they cancel all unused vouchers cos it's costing them too much. Tis a joke now at this stage!


This is my local off-licence so I'd normally shop there. Going to head down after work to see if they will still accept voucher against wine. If not, well then Tesco is two minutes down the road so I'll be shoppin there from now on!

Johnny_Fontane

its a shame, because its a fantastic shop. He has some great stuff in there. He obviously went in over his head and made a mistake.

You all get your money back, so stop your f**king moaning.

adamski8

Johnny_Fontane wrote: »

its a shame, because its a fantastic shop. He has some great stuff in there. He obviously went in over his head and made a mistake.

You all get your money back, so stop your f**king moaning.

eh you serious?
People wasted their time buying the voucher and having the hassle of now getting their money back, they were disappointed also about not getting a great deal they thought they were going to get, plus it seems a lot of people actually traveled to the shop before they found out too, wasting a more of their time!
Whether its a fantastic shop or not is irrelevant!

Keith186

Very poorly thought out deal.
Should have sold €20 vouchers only for €10 and limited it to 300 or so.

Living social have a responsibility to see that retailers honour deals too, I wonder do they still take their cut for each oh the 654 deals sold or just the ones that were used?

Otherwise not a had offo, they've a nice selection of beers but some of the premium ones are still €2.89 which is dear enough.

alcomoholic

beer is beer my man, once it gets me off and is nice and cheap i'll be happy enough!

Ghandee

alcomoholic wrote: »

beer is beer my man, once it gets me off and is nice and cheap i'll be happy enough!

You have too much blood in your alcohol system my friend!

Compak

This is business 101.

So many cock ups about the living social and citydeal offers, so many businesses having no clue what they are doing, can't meet demand and even to go as far as Martins and pull the offer.

When I hear them, I can only wonder, not why we are in recession but how we ever had a period out of one.

Government need to introduce back to primary school classes for business, Supply versus Demand and how a clever thing called a customer limit is oh so useful.

Im sorry I can't get over such ineptitude. Nearly bought this offer, glad I didn't now. Will never shop at that off licence though I love my foreign beers.

Compak

Keith186 wrote: »

Living social have a responsibility to see that retailers honour deals too, I wonder do they still take their cut for each oh the 654 deals sold or just the ones that were used?

living social will now have to refund you, so cant take a cut of all the deals. I imagine they will penalise Martins and blacklist them. That's what I would do as it does look bad for livingscoial also.

In fairness to living social, they can only take Martins at face value. There was a cap on voucher number as they sold out. A cap that livingsocial felt was reasonable and if it was 654 that seems reasonable logistically to me. I rarely see caps on citydeal and considering the merchant waiting list, Id imagine they prioritise those without caps to increase profit.

Who knows what Martins was thinking. Obviously if they gave a 654 cap then they have to have accounted for 654 vouchers. I can only think they were hoping a large % would never be used and tried to pull a complete con.

donnacha

Only took 5 mins on the phone to get confirmation that the voucher I was gifting my Dad will be refunded (that part will take 3-5 working days before it hits my credit card). No doubt the phone lines will get busier later once word spreads.

califano

Why cant living social automatically credit all unused vouchers back to peoples credit card by default when an offer isnt honoured. Does this mean for such deals that are pulled that people who dont actively ring up to get credited back then living social retain that money?.
If not where does unused credit go to?. If thats the case why should living social care about businesses pulling a deal being a shot to nothing for the profit they will make by people not calling up to get credited back?. Far from Martains getting blacklisted shouldnt they not be the golden boys in living socials eyes?.

W123-80's

Drove across from Inchicore last night to avail of this deal. I had the €40 voucher.

I was so excited by the range of beers in the place that I happily went over the €40 voucher limit figuring I was still saving €20.

Had the counter stocked with all sorts of Irish/English & European beers & ales. It was going to cost me approx €25 with my €40 voucher.

Was told they are no longer honouring the voucher. Fair enough I figure and wander out of the shop having bought nothing.!

Disgusted.

Just rang living social about a refund. No problem. It will take 3-5 days to process.

WaterWolf

I'm not too happy about this either. I also had the €40 voucher. I travel past this off license quite a lot but didn't know it was there until this offer. I really like trying out new beers so I would probably have started going in there regularly if they had honoured the deal. Now I will never go in there.

Anyway, at least boards has saved me a journey, though probably not the hassle and cost of a phone call to get my money back.

Saruman

I was pissed because I did not buy the deal in time. Now I am glad I didn't.

sweetie

Just spoke to them there and having being annoyed I feel a bit sorry for them. Both the owners and livingsocial miscalculated the exposure of the offer and the fact that people would buy so many for themselves and recommend to friends on facebook. I think LS have to take most of the blame for this.

Saruman

My tweeting did not help I reckon.

cruthes

i had a bought €40 voucher and was disappointed to find out that all vouchers where cancelled. i dont know what ur all giving out about though as they explained theyre reasons as in selling too many but i would blame livingsocial for not advising proberly, small business can be vunreable against the power of multinational companies such as livingsocial and i dont think they should have allowed martins to get into this mess. i got my refund with no hassels so no loss and i will deffo being going back as they have a fantastic selection of world beers and great bargains on wine and very knowledgeable and friendly staff

jm2011

Spoke to one of the lads who works there (not a manager) and he told me the deal was meant to be capped at 150 vouchers but someone "forgot to ring Living Social to tell them that there was a cap on the number of vouchers that could be sold". He said they honoured the first 150 vouchers and then pulled the deal on Tuesday after that was reached......

Compak

jm2011 wrote: »

Spoke to one of the lads who works there (not a manager) and he told me the deal was meant to be capped at 150 vouchers but someone "forgot to ring Living Social to tell them that there was a cap on the number of vouchers that could be sold". He said they honoured the first 150 vouchers and then pulled the deal on Tuesday after that was reached......

Now I 100% blame Martins.

Very Possible Living social would put them to back of list with 150 cap so they said nothing till it was live and then they forgot or were unable to change after.

I mean considering the deal was capped as it 'sold out' the cap set would have to have been done with the off licence knowledge

IF this was the case they would deserve any and all bad publicity

Hank_Jones

Compak wrote: »

Now I 100% blame Martins.

Very Possible Living social would put them to back of list with 150 cap so they said nothing till it was live and then they forgot or were unable to change after.

I mean considering the deal was capped as it 'sold out' the cap set would have to have been done with the off licence knowledge

IF this was the case they would deserve any and all bad publicity

Any publicity is good publicity, or so they say.

Would think a large number of people wouldn't have heard of the off licence before this deal.

Saruman

Hank_Jones wrote: »

Any publicity is good publicity, or so they say.

Would think a large number of people wouldn't have heard of the off licence before this deal.

I certainly hadn't, it was not one of the specialist offies I was aware of, probably because I almost never have a reason to head in that direction any more.

maxer68

Compak wrote: »

Now I 100% blame Martins.

Very Possible Living social would put them to back of list with 150 cap so they said nothing till it was live and then they forgot or were unable to change after.

I mean considering the deal was capped as it 'sold out' the cap set would have to have been done with the off licence knowledge

IF this was the case they would deserve any and all bad publicity

Living Social are primarily to blame.
This how these vouchers work (I've participated and it worked brilliantly for one of my businesses)

Its a form of advertising / marketing and should be seen as such by the business.

The operator (living social) should ensure that every aspect of the deal is checked out and should have in writing the number of vouchers that can be sold. - If its infinite, then a figure of 10,000 should be stated.

The operator should also check that the business is able to cope with the extra demand as most vouchers are claimed within 7 days of being sent out. And the number of unclaimed vouchers after 60 days is minimal at less than 2% - so this really does not come into the calculation.

If there's any doubt about the business being able to cope or that the offer sounds too goood to be true, then it has to be checked again.


Considering margins on beers & wines are rarely over 30% and spirits being less than 15%, an off license could only gain from a promotion like this if it was a small value voucher that was valid for a very short period of time and only bought by people within their catchment area.

Living Social try to sell to business on the "localness" of the offer, but in reality anybody in the country can buy any offer they have. - And this is where this offer went wrong.

sweetie

did everyone get refunded automatically? Vocuher is gone from my iphone app.

jm2011

sweetie wrote: »

did everyone get refunded automatically? Vocuher is gone from my iphone app.

No you have to get in contact with Living Social (via website or give them a call)....there's a link to contact details on page 2 of this thread (i think). I applied for refund via website and didnt need voucher code or anything, just login name and I gave the name of the deal too... In fairness to Living Social, I got my refund in 3 working days

gymnipities

sweetie wrote: »

did everyone get refunded automatically? Vocuher is gone from my iphone app.

I got refunded automatically. Thought it was bad form of Living Social not to let me know it had been cancelled though. If it wasn't for this forum I would never have known and would've travelled out to Fairview with my voucher. Presumably Living Social feel they can just cancel any offer at any time without even informing the people who have purchased it.