Thursday, March 10, 2011
Group buy sites are definitely 'in" right now, I think people realize that they aren't a scam since people buy from them all the time and get awesome deals. Personally I really enjoy Groupon, Fabind and LivingSocial. A new group buy site has just started up, Deal 55.com. This new site focuses on brand name gift cards, offering 55% off the value of gift cards (hence the name). Gift cards will be available for retailers such as Best Buy, Shoppers Drug Mart, Winners, Pink by Victoria's Secret and many others. The best part is, the gift cards have no expiry date, so you can buy it for yourself or a friend and use it whenever you want.
The catch is that 10,000 people have to buy the deal for it to be available, makes sense since the retailer has to get enough return on the promotion to offer it in the first place, if it's a popular store I see it reaching 10,000 sales for sure. And $45 for a $100 gift card is a pretty sweet deal. Let me know your experience and opinions of this site, I am curious to what others have to say. I have not personally bought anything off this site before, and just learned about it recently.
Edit: Please check out comments about this website below, they are NOT favourable.
Edit: CBC News has contacted me about a story they are doing about Deal55, if you've had a negative experience with Deal55.com please leave me your contact information (you can fill out the "contact me" form at the top right) if you don't want to enter it publicly here. They would like to speak with those who had issues with the website. Please see other post.
I am wondering if this site is legit, the deals seem too good to be true. I am doing some research around to see if anyone has bought from them before, have you?
ReplyDeleteyea i heard the same that its a scam site... hmmm
ReplyDelete@Rob - I haven't ordered from them before, just heard about them the other day, but it's worth checking out. They will go down quickly if they are a scam.
ReplyDelete@c_mcarthur - where did you see talk that it was a scam? I am curious either way.
It is a scam:
ReplyDeletehttp://trueler.com/2011/03/10/deal55-com-legit-scam-beware-phishing/
@Trueler, I see that is your own site that you are linking to and in the first sentence you say "Trueler does not accuse deal55.com in scam, fraud, phishing or any other illegal actions yet."
ReplyDeleteSo.. you don't accuse them then? I wouldn't trust Smartcanucks to be a place for legitimate research! lol
Justine,
ReplyDeleteSentence you mentioned is a bit outdated, because we did not have enough evidence at the time of creation (I just modified it).
Deal55 is a scam. There is enough evidence now.
Regards,
Trueler
I’m glad to see some traction in many forums regarding our new controversial launch of Deal55.com. Harnessing the power of buying through the use of the internet community, we decided to offer something very exciting to this new web trend. Unbeatable discounts on name brand gift cards.
ReplyDeleteIndeed we have no formal relationship with the retailers and merely purchase cards as standard buyer would. We purchase these gift cards from all major retailers across the country. We purchase high volumes when buying cards for groups, much like the travel industry offers discounts on group travelling. This process is combined with other affiliate revenue sources along with our contribution of funding to fuel this approach. Consider this as our cost per acquisition. This is where we want to be and stand behind our methodology. The result is our ability to provide our deal55.com users with these fantastic savings on all their favourite retailers.
Inquiries: 1-877-912-7882
Fax: (416) 849-0581
Leagal action is in process agains truler for his accusations againd deal55. Obviously this new trend is affecting some group buying company and this is their way of doing business. We wonder since Truler know so much about scamming that truler must be number 1 scammer. We would like to thanks our thousands of customers who believe our webtrend and that will help us save lots of money to consumers.
Deal 55 is a scam. Don't buy.
ReplyDeleteSeems VERY VERY Fishy. I am going to skip on this one for sure (like so many other consumers).
ReplyDeleteIn response to comment left by deal55.com
ReplyDeleteThe comment they posted makes me even more suspicious and rather convinced this is a scam - various spelling and grammatical errors. Clearly not professionally written.
How can you harness the power of group buying and get group discounts "much like the travel industry" with "no formal relationship"? The REASON the travel industry can offer group discounts is precisely because they DO have a formal relationship with their suppliers.
ReplyDeleteCome on Deal 55, reply to that without quoting the same line in your website.
deal55.com - You're offering $60,000,000 in gift cards. As a new business, how can you afford that?
ReplyDelete100% complete scam
ReplyDeleteHow are they not shut down yet?
ReplyDeleteso what does a person do, if they already submitted a payment to these jokers?
ReplyDeleteSUCKS i am the one i alreay paid and foung ths was a fraud.
ReplyDeleteAll the anonymous comments on here, please contact deal55's customer service, I am in no way a rep for this company.
ReplyDeleteSo I bought a couple of these so called "deals" and I received no confirmation email, I waited a day and still nothing in my inbox or under my account in deal 55. Found a number in the paypal transaction and called it. The guy said there is no info of my sale and will call or email me back in 48 hrs. 2 days later I get an email saying there is a record of my sale but still nothing under my account so I emailed them back to cancel my purchase. Then they go to give me a partial refund, lost $4-5 per purchase. I email them to complain and they say sorry, we like feedback and will look into posting something on our website about charges...
ReplyDeleteWhat I think...
WATCH OUT! Deals that are not tipped (and their website is poorly maintained so you don't know if you really bought the deal and if it's really tipped).. you do not get a full refund. This is where they make their money! The deals that are tipped... let me know if they actually send the gift cards
And I'm still trying to get my full refund
I purchased 3 cards, I will wait to see if I them otherwise I will contact paypal for a refund. Has anyone received cards?
ReplyDeleteI signed up for an account and purchased my 1st two deals. I still haven't received the coupon, despite being notified it was in the mail. Now when I log in, I go to buy something and it says my account is restricted. I am posting here because despite numerous messages to Customer Service via the Contact Us link, I have had no answer. Seems like they just want you to buy once, and then never again. Meanwhile they have my money from the first two transactions. Very disappointed with the lack of communication.
ReplyDeleteI purchased the Lululemon card. I received it and used it without a problem today! Anyone else with a positive experience?
ReplyDeletethis is a HUGE scam.
ReplyDeletehow can they have a merchant agreement with credit card companies if they are a scam. If they are a fraud should be able to reverse charges with credit card.
ReplyDeleteHey guys... in case you miss the other threads, CBC wants to hear your opinions about Deal55, please leave me some sort of contact information of ours here and I will forward it to the CBC person. As always comments are appreciated and welcomed here!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.canadiandailydeals.com/2011/04/deal55-unhappy-with-their-website-let.html
Hi I bought 2 cards, Shoppers and Winners in Vancouver. (I guess it doesn't matter what city). I noticed I got charged for the 2 cards on my credit card but haven't received the cards yet. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.
ReplyDeleteHey Steph, I am very interested to know whether you have received the gift cards yet? I was looking to purchase, but will hold off as I am reading this forum.
ReplyDeleteI purchased a card at the end of March and received an email yesterday informing me that my deal "had tipped" on April 25 and that I should receive my card in the next 10 days....Chantal
ReplyDeleteHi there,
ReplyDeleteDespite everything I read, I purchased Walmart offer 100$ for 45$ as I'm being optimistic that its a decent website that just use affiliate marketing
However, I emailed Winners as deal55.com sold their gift cards before almost a month and will wait a feedback from them if they really know about this website or not!
So by then, we will have a better enclosure about the website if its a fake or a real one! cross figures !
there is nothing decent about making a pretend purchase. You hope that they are honest people and tip your deal....lol. What about all the people that pay and deal doesn't tip and they lose there money so that you could get your card. If you call the brands they are dealing with your cards are purchased at full price...you think that there affiliate marketing is paying the difference. You can go ahead and google to see what deal55 is worth. People receiving the cards and using them are doing so with other peoples money!
ReplyDeleteI'm the victim too, I bought Best buy Gife card from deal55%.com on 22 March, but until now I receive nothing, even I email them for many time to ask for the shipping statues, no respond no answer!!!I used PayPal to make a transation, Now I just want to get my money back,deal 55%.com is a SCAM!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteit's gambling...if your deal tips then you get the card, if your deal expires then your the one paying for the cards of deals that did tip...so its also stealing!
ReplyDeleteI purchased a Winners gift card two months ago. The charge went through on my card but I have not received the gift card as yet. For the past month I've been emailing deal 55 to inquire about my gift card with no response!
ReplyDeleteBelieve me when I say, I will not be purchasing anything else from deal 55 and will alert everyone I know to do the same!
people on trueler have posted emails direct from deal55 admin...they are claiming that gift cards can not be sent because retailer no longer wants to participate in deal...strange since they claimed that none of the retailers are participants, they are able to offer gift cards at discount because of affiliate advertising...WOW. Everyone watch out they will take your money and shut down site.
ReplyDeletehome depot and shoppers gc will not be shipped they are instead offering virtual funds plus extra $10...HA, seriously watch out!
ReplyDeleteupdate...none of the tipped deals will be sent out. Anyone that had purchased tipped deals received the same email regarding the refund option.
ReplyDeletei got email stating that cards could not be shipped out meanwhile my mother purchased the same walmart deal and got her card...so fair to say its a pyramid scheme. Some will pay and receive, while others just pay, I've notified my credit card company and sent all my info. as well as my mothers to anti-fraud Canada. I suggest you do the same.
ReplyDeletewebsite is down...hopefully for good!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I took screen-savers of all my info from their website, including the money they owed me for cards never received and also kept all of the emails they sent saying cards were in the mail (NOT). My credit card's fraud department is investigating.
ReplyDeletei received the best buy gift card 3 weeks after they said i would get it. Purchashed the walmart one and now contacted credit card as they said i would get a refund. When you phone their toll free number you only get an answering machine and if you send them an email you get the same one back but no other response from the company
ReplyDeletelooks like they have something bruing already...deal55buzz.com
ReplyDeleteit has been 2 months today and i havent recieved my 2 gift cards. i have emailed them and nothing.
ReplyDeletecontact your credit card company they will refund you...deal55 is done!
ReplyDelete