Teambuy Timothy deal - If you bought it on first day please read here.

[YLSF]

See the final edit below (Edit 4). Basic summary - Teambuy was going to send out updates to customers today informing them of the mistake and giving them the option to cancel/get refund. I still haven't received this email from them telling me that it isn't valid for K-cups. Did anyone who bought it on the first day (August 28th) get such an e-mail? Please post here or PM ME.

EDIT: I posted this thread up the other day because I thought it was a good deal. Originally Teambuy said it could be used towards K-Cups on their website, I should have taken a screen print of the deal (maybe what I need to do from now on). However, Teambuy has now changed the terms and conditions when they extended the deal. I tried posting a comment on their website and the comment/question got deleted. The "voucher" also doesn't say it can be used for K-Cups. This along with the crappy travel deals have be wondering about Teambuy. I have been a huge fan of Teambuy from the start (with their customer appreciation party, etc) but until this issue gets cleared up I will be hesitant. I e-mailed them just now asking for an answer..

EDIT 2 : I was able to find a google cache of the page. I uploaded it here:

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/63653200?access_key=key-tjv997c46f9t0n5p9h0
Original post below:


I am surprised there are only 161 sales of this voucher as of now. There are a couple of more hours left but on Teambuy you can pay $10 to get 4 vouchers worth $5 each to be used at the Timothy's location at YD Square. Valid until September 2012. An you can combine more than one voucher at the same time. Also valid for K-Cups.

EDIT 3 : I received a very unsatisfactory response from Team Buy customer service. I have since sent an e-mail to one of the guys that was around at Teambuy from the start and copied it to the CEO and I will update this post if they respond. For now though, the customer service rep confirmed that they conditions were changed after the fact. I hope the csr was misinformed. Regardless, Teambuy should notify customers.

Edit 4 : The CEO responded back to me. He said an e-mail is going out to all people who bought the initial voucher from day one giving people the option to refund and informing them of the mistake. I haven't received the e-mail yet so if anyone does get it please post a copy here. This is what should have been done initially and the person I was communicating with at Teambuy said they should have communicated it quicker to customers. I have had good experience with Teambuy in the past so if they do indeed send out the notification today and give people a chance for refund I will not hold it against them. I just don't want to see a pattern of this in the future. The thing is, personally I can care less about the k-cup because I don't even have a Keurig machine. For me this was all a mater of principle and protecting customers (boy, does that sound cheezy?). (on a side note I recently got a Bunn Mycafe and I think it is better than Keurig as a system :) )

Edit 5: Just a note that I never received the e-mail when it was sent out (on September 2) but the CEO did send me a copy of the notice sent out to customers after I told him that I hadn't received it. So, it appears that they have notified their customers of the mistake. I will leave this thread as is as a warning in case people bought the voucher and didn't get the notice.

[YLSF]

This deal is still on the site and has been extended... but, it looks like they removed the "valid for k-cups" part. I don't know if they are keeping the original condition for the first set of vouchers or what.

[JayC913]

It looks like Timothy's posted on the Q&A "No, the four $5 credits can use for all the drinks and food only, not towards to any of the merchandise or raw materials in the store." in response to someone's question about using it on coffee beans. Doesn't looks like Teambuy changed anything, I guess Timothy's changed their conditions and Teambuy had to comply.

[YLSF]

Teambuy for the whole first day has the website set up with the "you can buy k-cups" text on it. They changed that now on the current listing and are saying you can't buy anything but food/drink. So, as a customer if I bought the first deal, I am going to go in trying to buy the K-Cup only to find out that I won't be allowed to. Teambuy didn't send out an e-mail and say "sorry, we made a mistake" or anything to that effect. Teambuy should be responsible to have Timothy or any vendor check and approve of the promo text before posting any deal.

I haven't received a response from Teambuy. I don't like deal sites that are just changing conditions as they wish (Teambuy is ultimately responsible for what is posted. If Timothy's didn't say "sure, people can use these for k-cups" why did Teambuy post it? And if Timothy is now changing their mind there should be a distinction that the first day vouchers should still be allowed to buy K-Cups.

That is my only point. I will follow up if I get a response from Teambuy.

[sillysimms]

This seems to be happening way too often with group buys. If someone bought before the terms were changed, they have to be given what they agreed to (be able to buy k-cups). If not, I'd be sure to ask for a full refund and making note of another group deal when the terms are changed after some have purchased.

Great that you have the screen shot of the cached page. I also don't think much of them for deleting your comment (but that too seems to happen way too often on group buy sites as well).

[QBert]

Thanks YLSF for pointing this out. It seems pretty rotten of them to change the terms without notification - they should make sure that terms and conditions are all printed on the voucher itself to avoid these types of disputes. The worse part is that the first one says that you can explicitly - hope the store does the right thing and that they honour it for those who want it (and purchased it in the 1st round).

BTW, has anyone been to this location before? Are the prices jacked up compared to other Timothy's?

[myapple]

Teambuy is pretty shady. I posted a negative review of one of their deals in their Q&A section and they removed my comment within 5 mins.

It is pretty obvious their #1 priority is to sell more vouchers...and anything negative about their deals will not be tolerated. The great firewall of teambuy strikes again!

[YLSF]

I updated the first post with additional info.

[ghu]

I didn't find this post until today!

Just wanted to add that if you still have credit with Timothy's, the price of their food/drinks is higher if you pay using the voucher.

For example, today I wanted to purchase a green tea latte. Their display price for a large is $4.45 + $0.58 (tax) = $5.03.

When I asked the girl how much it would cost, she said it would cost $5.53 including tax. That's 10% surcharge, which IMO, is unfair and poor practice of the company. Once I finish using my voucher, I will likely never shop there again.

[YLSF]

ghu: Did you point out the price difference? Wonder if she made a mistake or did she actually enter it into the register? Maybe she confused it with another drink?
Hope you pointed it out to her because otherwise that is a new low.