I am sure almost everyone has heard of Groupon. They offer one day deals offering a discount on local restaurants, pubs, salons and so on. They recently had a nationwide deal for Gap – with $50 Gap giftcard for $25. I love Gap and tend to shop there often, so I jumped on the deal right away.
Last week, I went to Gap and bought a jean and 2 tees and used my Groupon for that purchase. I noticed that they had split the $50 across all three items, the way they would do with coupons, but I didn’t think too much about it. When I went home and modeled them to Mike, I realized that the jeans fit too loose and did not look flattering. So I marched in to Gap and tried to return the jean, they told me that they would refund only the part I had paid with my credit card and not the Groupon amount. I hadn’t worn the other tees, and I asked if they could reactivate the groupon if I returned all three. To my horror, they said they couldn’t do that and that they would treat it as a Coupon.
I know that I should have probably researched this before buying the jean, but this is just bad business practice. The jean I bought is called the boyfriend jean and many reviewers on gap.com said that it runs loose. I don’t know why I thought it fine in the dressing room. Now I am stuck with $90 jean that fits horribly or be out of $25. This is a big lesson to me and I am going to go through the fine print very carefully before buying any Groupon deal! I don’t know if the fault lies with Gap or Groupon, but shame on whichever company is trying to cheat me off my money!
Her Every Penny 
Do you hate the style? Could you just exchange for a smaller size?
That really does suck. I wonder if those details would even be in the small print.
I had sent Mike to return them and the salesperson said that he would let me exchange the size. So I am going to go this week to try on a smaller size. It is called a boyfriend jean, so I think it is supposed to fit loose, but Mike feels that it is just hanging off me.
Yes, I am sure this would not have been in any fine print. I really don’t like to be forced into buying something that I am not 100% happy with. I felt that the jean was a little iffy, but decided to buy it anyway. Had I known I wasn’t going to get a refund, I would have not bought them.
Maybe this is a dumb question, but can you do a straight exchange rather than a return? If not, maybe you can recoup your losses by selling them on Ebay? If they’re brand new with tags you might be able to get a decent amount for them.
Yes, I am told that I could pick out another size. I had sent Mike to do the return, so I am planning to go next week and try a smaller size. Yes, ebay is a very good option, will try to check how much they are going for.
I have that same groupon but haven’t used it yet. Thanks for the warning! When I do use it I’ll be sure to make 100% sure I like my purchases!
Glad to help! Or if you are using the Groupon, make sure to use it one just one item that you definitely like so that you can return the others
I had the Groupon and used it with no problems…but also didn’t try to return any of my purchases either. Sorry you had a hard time! 😦