Too Good To Be True? Groupon Users Crowdsource Suspect Offer

Groupon users in Denver found Tuesday’s deal for a 61% price cut on home delivery of local, organic fruit from a company called Specialty Organics to be more than a little suspicious.

“I’m into this sort of thing [organic produce], and one thing I know is that there is very little fruit grown in Colorado, and to offer it all over the state for delivery just didn’t make sense — none of these companies or farms do that,” explains Maria Fraietta, a teacher in Denver who was the first to question whether the company was up to something fishy on the deal’s discussion board. “All of them explain how they work, approximately what you’ll get, and how it will be delivered. This one didn’t.”

Fraietta’s concerns, and those of others who left more than 100 comments on the board for the Denver deal, raise a valid question. As the ever-growing hoard of daily deals sites expands to every corner on the map, might some of the sites’ offers be too good to be true?

It’s a question that Groupon has taken to heart — building up a factchecking department with guidelines that require checkers to verify reviews and reviewer identity. The site is currently searching for a Factchecking Manager.

-------------------------

User Skepticism

-------------------------

In the meantime, users are picking up the slack. Fraietta’s investigations soon inspired others to look into Specialty Organics and visit its skeletal website.

“Kyle S.,” who spoke for the company throughout the discussion on Denver Groupon, mentioned in his first message another company, The Delectable Plate, that he said Specialty Organics acquired in February.

Groupon users immediately turned up the awful reviews that The Delectable Plate had accumulated on Yelp across several cities. Reviewers had complained of moldy deliveries, missing orders and undelivered refunds.

“It surely does seem that Specialty Organics used to be The Delectable Plate as one reviewer states,” commented Stacy C. on the discussion board. “Most reviews mention they got into this through vouchers bought off the internet, and most mention a ‘Kyle’ based out of Denver.”

The Delectable Plate ran a $79 daily deal with at least one deal site before going out of business, reportedly when a local organic partner farm didn’t package goods properly. In a statement explaining the closing, the site offered its deal customers $79 gift certificates at Specialty Organics, “a corporation with a similar concept to us, but on a much larger scale.”

What caught commenters’ attention about the Groupon deals that ran on Tuesday in Denver, DC, and Boston were the lack of specifics — no farmers were named in either the deal description or website, delivery was offered throughout the state of Colorado (“We do have multiple locations around the state to make this possible,” Kyle S. said on the discussion board) and nobody named what the promised fruit boxes would contain. The voicemail of a customer service number (a Google voice account for Kyle Pommer, the company’s director of marketing) indicated that it was “experiencing higher call volume than usual.”

-------------------------

A Closer Look At Specialty Organics

-------------------------

Pommer told Mashable that Specialty Organics is a 4-person company working with produce couriers in 15 markets. The company has no physical base, but rather partners with a company called The FruitGuys, which acts as its “farmer liaison” in various areas. He said this company’s policies prevented him from revealing the farms that it worked with.

But the Fruitguys COO, Erik Muller, said the company did not work with Specialty Organics — and that it didn’t have that kind of relationship with any third-party seller. When asked why this was, Pommer responded that he had been misinformed and that “the deal has not been set in stone.”

This isn’t the first time that daily deal site users have alerted each other to something that seemed fishy. In February, users called a deal for flower and gift merchant FTD.com a scam after saying it raised prices to compensate for the Groupon discount. Groupon and FTD said that the site merely refused to combine Groupon’s offer with other discounts.

-------------------------

Groupon’s Response

-------------------------

Groupon calls the situation with Specialty Organics an absence of good communication skills rather than a scam. “Businesses go through a minimum of 8 layers of quality control, sometimes up to 13,” explains Groupon spokesperson Julie Mossler. “We make sure that the prices listed are accurate, they have good reviews, and most importantly that they’re a reputable business who will treat our customers excellently.”

Mossler noted that most of the negative online reviews cited were for The Delectable Plate, which was under different ownership than Specialty Organics. Pommer says that he and his partner bought the business and changed the name; the previous owners are no longer involved. Yet the deal disappeared from Groupon’s site for a period on Tuesday, only to reemerge as “sold out.”

Specialty Organics has recently run deals in LivingSocial’s Denver market and with KGB Deals. A spokesperson from LivingSocial said that it has gotten “virtually no complaints” about Specialty Organics — though there’s no word on whether subscribers have received their first monthly shipment yet.

Deal buyers may ultimately be satisfied at Groupon, too. But if a deal like this ever turns out to be a scam, Mossler points out members who purchased it will automatically relieve a refund as per the Groupon Promise.

More About: Crowdsorcing, groupon, Possible Scam, Specialty Organics

For more Business & Marketing coverage:
* Follow Mashable Business & Marketing on Twitter
* Become a Fan on Facebook
* Subscribe to the Business & Marketing channel
* Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPadGroupon users in Denver found Tuesday’s deal for a 61% price cut on home delivery of local, organic fruit from a company called Specialty Organics to be more than a little suspicious.

“I’m into this sort of thing [organic produce], and one thing I know is that there is very little fruit grown in Colorado, and to offer it all over the state for delivery just didn’t make sense — none of these companies or farms do that,” explains Maria Fraietta, a teacher in Denver who was the first to question whether the company was up to something fishy on the deal’s discussion board. “All of them explain how they work, approximately what you’ll get, and how it will be delivered. This one didn’t.”

Fraietta’s concerns, and those of others who left more than 100 comments on the board for the Denver deal, raise a valid question. As the ever-growing hoard of daily deals sites expands to every corner on the map, might some of the sites’ offers be too good to be true?

It’s a question that Groupon has taken to heart — building up a factchecking department with guidelines that require checkers to verify reviews and reviewer identity. The site is currently searching for a Factchecking Manager.

-------------------------

User Skepticism

-------------------------

In the meantime, users are picking up the slack. Fraietta’s investigations soon inspired others to look into Specialty Organics and visit its skeletal website.

“Kyle S.,” who spoke for the company throughout the discussion on Denver Groupon, mentioned in his first message another company, The Delectable Plate, that he said Specialty Organics acquired in February.

Groupon users immediately turned up the awful reviews that The Delectable Plate had accumulated on Yelp across several cities. Reviewers had complained of moldy deliveries, missing orders and undelivered refunds.

“It surely does seem that Specialty Organics used to be The Delectable Plate as one reviewer states,” commented Stacy C. on the discussion board. “Most reviews mention they got into this through vouchers bought off the internet, and most mention a ‘Kyle’ based out of Denver.”

The Delectable Plate ran a $79 daily deal with at least one deal site before going out of business, reportedly when a local organic partner farm didn’t package goods properly. In a statement explaining the closing, the site offered its deal customers $79 gift certificates at Specialty Organics, “a corporation with a similar concept to us, but on a much larger scale.”

What caught commenters’ attention about the Groupon deals that ran on Tuesday in Denver, DC, and Boston were the lack of specifics — no farmers were named in either the deal description or website, delivery was offered throughout the state of Colorado (“We do have multiple locations around the state to make this possible,” Kyle S. said on the discussion board) and nobody named what the promised fruit boxes would contain. The voicemail of a customer service number (a Google voice account for Kyle Pommer, the company’s director of marketing) indicated that it was “experiencing higher call volume than usual.”

-------------------------

A Closer Look At Specialty Organics

-------------------------

Pommer told Mashable that Specialty Organics is a 4-person company working with produce couriers in 15 markets. The company has no physical base, but rather partners with a company called The FruitGuys, which acts as its “farmer liaison” in various areas. He said this company’s policies prevented him from revealing the farms that it worked with.

But the Fruitguys COO, Erik Muller, said the company did not work with Specialty Organics — and that it didn’t have that kind of relationship with any third-party seller. When asked why this was, Pommer responded that he had been misinformed and that “the deal has not been set in stone.”

This isn’t the first time that daily deal site users have alerted each other to something that seemed fishy. In February, users called a deal for flower and gift merchant FTD.com a scam after saying it raised prices to compensate for the Groupon discount. Groupon and FTD said that the site merely refused to combine Groupon’s offer with other discounts.

-------------------------

Groupon’s Response

-------------------------

Groupon calls the situation with Specialty Organics an absence of good communication skills rather than a scam. “Businesses go through a minimum of 8 layers of quality control, sometimes up to 13,” explains Groupon spokesperson Julie Mossler. “We make sure that the prices listed are accurate, they have good reviews, and most importantly that they’re a reputable business who will treat our customers excellently.”

Mossler noted that most of the negative online reviews cited were for The Delectable Plate, which was under different ownership than Specialty Organics. Pommer says that he and his partner bought the business and changed the name; the previous owners are no longer involved. Yet the deal disappeared from Groupon’s site for a period on Tuesday, only to reemerge as “sold out.”

Specialty Organics has recently run deals in LivingSocial’s Denver market and with KGB Deals. A spokesperson from LivingSocial said that it has gotten “virtually no complaints” about Specialty Organics — though there’s no word on whether subscribers have received their first monthly shipment yet.

Deal buyers may ultimately be satisfied at Groupon, too. But if a deal like this ever turns out to be a scam, Mossler points out members who purchased it will automatically relieve a refund as per the Groupon Promise.

More About: Crowdsorcing, groupon, Possible Scam, Specialty Organics

For more Business & Marketing coverage:
* Follow Mashable Business & Marketing on Twitter
* Become a Fan on Facebook
* Subscribe to the Business & Marketing channel
* Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/XpC3h-p0N-g/

via my6sense