Rocking your cranky britches because you can never get your mitts on the coveted deal du jour? You’re not alone.
Way back in September, The Age reported that, to date this year, Consumer Affairs Victoria had received 160 complaints about group buying sites – a significant increase on the 22 similar complaints received the previous year.
“The most common complaints include non-supply or delay in supply of goods or services, difficulties obtaining refunds and difficulty in booking services and redeeming vouchers,” a spokesperson for Consumer Affairs Victoria told The Age.
The newspaper cited one unhappy customer, Holly Dinh, who shelled out $116 for four tickets to attend a wellness retreat, only to be served potato chips and lamingtons while she queued for foot spa in a plastic tub. Mmmm, lamingtons…
Anyhoo. The point is, she was well cheesed. And p’haps she wouldn’t have been had she secured her deal through services booking site Unbooked.
Unbooked founders Sarah Taylor and Jeff Dusting believe both vendors and customers are primed for a slicker fix in the supply VS demand quandary.
“Coupon complaints arise on both the vendor and customer side and there is little question that both sides feel the time is right for a more equitable and sustainable solution,” Taylor says.
“Whilst deals and offers have swept the nation and captured many fans, there is growing dissatisfaction from consumers who can spend days on the phone trying to reach vendors to book their appointments.”
But don’t go mistaking Unbooked for a daily deals site. When asked what advice they’d give such sites looking to enter the segment, they firmly clarified their place in the market.
“We are not in the Daily Deals space so I am not sure why we would be giving advice.”
[Hey, we’re not too proud to admit when we have our arses handed to us…]
“But if my best friend wanted to do a deals site I would ask her, with 323 deal sites already underway in Australia, what do you see as the significant business opportunity and how will you execute?”
So just what is Unbooked? Ask us! We know [now]. It’s the great white hope for 100,000s of merchants and customers who use daily deals and coupon offers. More specifically, it’s a Pay-As-You-Go SAAS solution that works alongside the coupon provider or the individual merchants existing business process and systems.
Here’s how it works. If you’re a merchant, just register with Unbooked and it will manage the influx of customers drawn to your biz through your discounted deal, leaving you free to do whatever it is you do best. For customers, Unbooked will help you secure your preferred dates and times with registered service providers, sans the muss and fuss you may have experienced elsewhere.
One happy merchant customer, Fiona Edelstein of Flavours of Yoga, bigged-up the Unbooked experience.
“I tried one of those coupon deals in order to introduce some new people to my Yoga studio. I was told I would probably get 200 new people….I thought that would translate into 100. Imagine my panic when 335 people all signed up for a month of unlimited yoga.”
“Unbooked took over the bookings by giving me a link that I could send to the new students so that they could make their own bookings…freeing me up to teach.”
“The system works, allowing me to still look professional and deal with each person’s needs.”
