The worst Groupon Dealership Service Offer ever....

[XDCX]

The worst Groupon Dealership Service Offer ever....

I recently signed up with Groupon so I could rack-up some Frequent Flyer miles and keep my UAL account from expiring. I was searching for deals in Phoenix and the above offer caught my attention.

Could the people at Groupon have picked a worse picture to promote an oil change service? The funnel's dirty and the oil container looks like it was imported from some Third World Country where it had been sitting on the shelf for 20 years.

Also, suggesting that $85 is the normal price for an oil change, tire rotate and car wash isn't going over too well with the people providing comments.

[XDCX]

Maybe I can't call it the "Worst Groupon Dealership Offer ever.." if there were 180 customers who shelled out $35 for the deal.

Hell, I just checked and Showcase Honda sold two more deals since I started this thread. Here's a link to their Groupon offer - it expires at midnight tonght - click here

[SHACOS]

The best part about it is that there is an extra charge for 0W20 and synthetics. Probably brings it back to $85.

[XDCX]

Well I just checked Showcase Honda's Groupon offer and they ended up selling 208 Oil Change/Rotate/Car Wash plans. That's a lot more than I would have thought since the offer doesn't seem to provide much of a discount to the customer.

It make me wonder how many they would have sold if they had a decent picture that showed the professionalism most dealers offer.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by SHACOS

The best part about it is that there is an extra charge for 0W20 and synthetics. Probably brings it back to $85.

Yeah, I noticed that too.

In one of the comments a Groupon customer asked how much the surcharge was for synthetic oil and he/she never received an answer.

Concerning 0W20, I didn't even know that viscosity was available for production vehicles. Unless the car's operating in Barrow, AK I can't imagine why someone would want an oil that's so thin?

[XDCX]

I'm somewhat intrigued on the whole Groupon selling concept so I decided to search the Internet and learn more about Groupon's fee structure.

I was surprised to learn that Groupon typically takes a 50% commission from the merchant's discounted price. In the case of Showcase Honda, the dealer will likely only receive $17.50 for each package sold. (A good Service Manager will just charge the shortage to the Parts Department.... ) As an added restriction, Groupon doesn't fully fund the merchant for 60 days - there's an initial payment made the week of the deal, an additional payment at day 30 and a final payment at day 60.

It appears if you're not careful it would be pretty easy for a merchant to lose money on a Groupon deal and be cash-flow negative for 60 days.

On the plus side, a recent study indicates that about 21% of the customers never redeem their voucher - that's pure profit for the merchant.

Here's a source that talks about Groupon's fees - click here

Here's a source detailing the results of a recent Groupon study - click here

[XDCX]

OK, I can't help myself but I really find the whole Groupon concept interesting. That said, I promise this will be the last post I add to this thread with Groupon statistics.

• Groupon has become so popular that in Metro Markets they reject seven deals for every one they accept. That's why they get deals with such deep discounts - it's the only way to make it onto Groupon.
• Groupon has the demographics most companies would kill for - 68% of their customers are between 18-34 and 18% are between 35-44 - that's 86% of their customers who are in the prime advertising demographic.
• One number that's simply amazing is that 77% of their users are female.

On the downside, however:

• Only 35% of the customers ever spend beyond the original Groupon offer so there's limited up-sell opportunities.
• Only 20% of the Groupon customers ever return to the business and pay retail - most will only return if there's a deep discount deal.