By MarieFrance
I bought 4 vouchers for Oggi restaurant here in Montreal - 1 for myself and 3 as gifts, late last year.
I myself managed to redeem mine, but when the others tried calling to make reservations, there was never any answer and the voicemail was full. I went there in person and they are shut down.
I emailed TeamBuy to get a refund, but all they could do, they said, was credit me in my TeamBuy account (which does not help me since I do not buy from them regularly and I now have to give 75$ back to the 3 people I bought for).
I called customer service thinking it would be best to talk live - but was told they could not do anything else except put a credit in my account!!!
How disappointing. I cannot believe they won’t refund the customers who bought a voucher for a merchant who shut down - that is ludicrous. I will use up my vouchers (because I have to) - but I will NEVER buy from them again.
Carlotta says...
You have to remember that Team Buy did not get to keep the money that you paid for the vouchers. They would have gotten a small percentage of each sale and the remainder would have gone to the restaurant. So it’s not as if Team Buy is ripping you off.
I realize it’s unfair that the restaurant closed and you are out the money, but it’s the restaurant that should be re-imbursing you. I’m surprised that team buy even offered a credit note.
Review says...
If it were a responsible Group Buy site they would of credited back to card. Groupon would of immediately. Thats like saying buy this Team Buy and the next day the business goes under and your just out the money? That is not how Group buys run!!!!
Aliengoo says...
Team Buy’s website: “What happens if the business that featured a deal closes down?We will do our very best to ensure this never happens. In the case that it does, you will receive either the deal you purchased or your money back, 100% guaranteed! ” Marie France is correct, Team Buy should offer a refund via the way you paid.Even their website confirms one will be given.However,a credit is a “type” of refund.Carlotta is incorrect, many of the team buying providers take a 50% cut of the deal offered,eg. $50 for $100 = $25 to the provider.Thus many vendors aren’t too thrilled when they offer the deal because they see their margin eroded.Upside is the team buying company giving that business exposure they would otherwise not have in many cases though an opt in eblast.
lola stars says...
I buy the most of my vouchers from WagJag and have a few issues with merchants. Wagjag has the best customer service I have dealt with so far, and they have reimbursed me for any deals that weren’t honoured. Choose carefully the company you buy deals from!
banjanti says...
Teambuy customer service is joke! Restaurant will not honour my reservation and the only thing they can do is offer me a store credit instead of a full refund? I Will not use teambuy again and I advise against it!
I’ve used both Groupon and Dealfind and they have no problem with refunding the money.
Teambuy policy of a week refund is also ridiculous, it’s 30 days in eg dealfind!
Avoid them as a plague!
banjanti says...
Carlotta - do you work for them or you are just unbelievably stupid?
I have a deal with a reseller agent, not with the restaurant! Taking this risk is part of their business! And I’m sure they are insured for those events anyway.
Brian MacKenzie says...
Very generous of team buy when you consider OGGI’s was already paid for the vouchers. If you purchased with a Gold credit card you credit card company should refund your money since the services were never delivered. You must make you claim within 30 day of the receit of you credit card bill to be certain to get a refund. I would gladly give you $50 for you $75 credit. Stop whinning…….
Aliengoo says...
Update to Team Buy, I had to ask for a refund for a meal that was switched.I bought one deal,and the merchant claimed they didn’t have the key item in the deal when I showed up,after making a reservation telling them I am using the deal.Appetizer served,the merchant informs me,thus am I going to just leave a $50+ deal? Team Buy said I received,and used my deal,no refund. I only joined Team Buy because a friend used a deal for food,and I was there to benefit from it going very well. Definitely stick with the group buying providers such as: Groupon,Living Social,Wag Jag because they appear to understand the deal is an agreement that needs to be met. Living Social had one restaurant back out of a deal,and they REFUNDED every one of the deals bought.On the back end,I am sure Living Social dealt with the merchant,professionalism.
Jo says...
It took me 6 months to get a refund back from Team buy last year….I called every week for 6 months, until I got my refund back. I called to complain about a business that wasn’t closed, but was impossible to get a hold of, the machines were down and the service wasn’t available. Team buy stated that they had had a bunch of people complain about the same company, however, to get a refund was like pulling teeth. They kept commenting that the refund had been issued but it was not….I ended up getting it after seriously 24 calls to team buy….they couriered it to me. They were probably sick of my Monday morning calls.
heather says...
I purchased 2 teambuy’s for Bookcloseouts.ca in April….I “think” I was sent the codes for purchase but I cannot find them in my emails….I sent them a few emails asking for the codes and all the date purchase info but no replies…guess I’m going to have to start calling…..ugh
Zhu says...
TeamBuy just plain sucks. They don’t reply to emails (been several weeks for me).
See if you can dispute the charge with your credit card and get a chargeback. After all, you never received the goods or the service.
I know I will never buy from TeamBuy again, they have the worst customer service ever.
Me says...
I had two very different experiences with teambuy. The first was a few years back when they first got started. I bought a coupon for a restaurant that closed down. I let them know within 2 months of buying the coupon and they refunded my money back to me. The second time I purchased a coupon for a laser treatment worth almost $90, but I informed them about the business closing down the day before the coupon expired, so they said they could only give me a credit as they transaction was over a year old. I prob wouldn’t have been able to use the coupon anyway (I no longer reside in Toronto and had given the coupon to a friend) so I was okay with the credit. It wasn’t ideal but I use teambuy occasionally so it wasnt a big deal.
Just thought I would share my experience.
Nisha says...
TeamBuy is horrible to deal with!! I purchased a laser hair removal voucher for $199. I had 12 months to use the voucher. 6 months after I purchased the voucher, I called the merchant to start booking an appointment but was unable to get in touch with them. I contacted TeamBuy and they said they were aware that there was a problem with the merchant but would only give me a refund in TeamBuy dollars. This means that TeamBuy is aware that they are dealing with a defective merchant but will not give me a refund. They did not even contact me to let me know that the voucher I bought was invalid. I’m trying to go through the Betterbusinessbureau to sort through this. Otherwise I’m out $199 because I’m pretty sure I will never buy from TeamBuy again!!
Alison says...
The same thing happened to me with Teambuy and I will never buy from them again. I purchased a voucher for Sushi-Li in MTL. When I went to use it, the storefront was completely taken down, and the address did not exist. Customer service refused to issue me a refund. How can one trust that any of the merchants are legitimate on this site if they do not honor their vouchers?
Kubra says...
I will also not be purchasing anything from Teambuy anymore. I had bought vouchers for a Toronto Harbour cruise and everytime I tried to book (could only do it online), it was sold out. And now my vouchers have expired! They tell me that I can use the face value for another purchase from Toronto Harbour cruises but all their regular prices are so high that that I would not pay normal price to go on this cruise. Now I am stuck the vouchers expired - $70 gone!
Sad in Surrey says...
I bought a great deal to tour a brewery. The brewery decided to renege on the tours and offer me only half the deal.. ie the t shirts, coasters and beer glasses. Really I had planned a visit for six of the family to do the tour, what am I going to do with 72 coasters. Team buy is offering to put the money back into my Team Buy account, but have not responded to my suggestion of refunding my money completely because the brewery they partnered with is not holding up their end of the deal. However I have not yet given up.
I have had no problems with Groupon or Wagjag or Team Deal.
Irina says...
I had two issues with TeamBuy.
First, I bought a $30 restaurant voucher. The restaurant closed down before the voucher expired. Teambuy credited me with $30 back. At that point I was actually happy they even gave me a credit and it didn’t take me long to solve that problem.
But second time, I purchased a $199 coupon for 10 massages at Spa LE Tsar. I went there for a massage once and paid the taxed ($30). But then next time I went for a massage, the place was closed. They hadn’t even call me to cancel an appointment. I tried calling them, but nobody answered. It was on the weekend, so I thought: ok, I’ll wait till Monday. On Monday I get an email from the SPA saying that they went bankrupt. They said I could get a refund from TeamBuy, but no one would pay me back the taxes. Teambuy offered to credit me with $180 (since I had used one massage). I asked for a refund on my c/c because it’s the second time it happens to me. They said it would be absolutely impossible. Now I am stuck with $180 and lost my $30. And I didn’t even get an apology from them. It seems they don’t care what kind of companies they “recommend” and they don’t care if the customers are happy with the service.
I would NEVER recommend TeamBUy to anyone.
Lisa says...
Considering the voucher expired by the time you have emailed we do not have to process a refund at all. Whine as much as you want this is not going to change what your options are. The credit has been applied to your account.
DO NOT BUY FROM TEAMBUY!!! This is an email I got back from their customer service rep.
P.S. my voucher was not expired he misread the date, as confirmed when I called in to make a complaint about his response to me.
Lynn says...
buying a ticket is the worst experience I had. They will never refund you since you’ve already paid. And they even won’t respond to your email.
Never never buy anything from teambuy. They’re just cheating.
Christie says...
never again will I use Team Buy. The first deal I purchased ($300 years worth of hair removal) the company could not honor as their machine broke. Team Buy at first refused a refund eventually after yelling and calling to ask again and again I received it. Against my better judgement I used them again. The merchant went out of business. They at first refused a credit as they said it was a “temporary closure” - the place was cleaned out with a sign on the door saying they were no longer at that location and the phone was disconnected. I wanted a refund ($170) and they refused over and over. I will NEVER support TeamBuy again. Groupon, Living Social etc. will refund your form of payment immediately if a business shuts down.
K says...
I’ve had the same problems as everyone else. The merchant I purchased a deal from refused to honour it and Teambuy will only offer a refund in Teambucks. I don’t want those, I want my flipping money back. I tried to use my teambuy vouchers at a spa, showing it before my service and when the service was done the spa completely refused to let me use my two vouchers and charged me $70. I argued but paid in the end. When I contacted Teambuy about the merchant in question they never answered my emails, they lied to me over the phone, pretended to start a case file for me but actually deleted all of my information.
I will continue to call back until I get my refund, in the meantime, encourage everyone you know not to buy from teambuy!! What a scam.
Denise says...
Was I lucky compared to other people in this review - what a pitiful business this Teambuy.ca!
I purchased from 3 different stores and went though a lot of grief to get the items.
- the 1500 Thread Count Equivalent Sheet Set - took a month to be delivered from Toronto to Montreal. The sheet tears easily, made of cheap elastic and fabric - a king size that doesn’t fit a king size bed.
- Kokmax Toys Remote Control Rattlesnake - this toy is very noisy and doesn’t respond well to remote control on making turns. Delivery took a month what should have been a week or less from Markham, ON to Montreal.
- Handmade Wool Animal Hat - At first, I couldn’t redeem my coupon on their web site and when they got it fixed, they had me enter the coupon for both hats separately, so I had to pay twice for shipping to the same address. I argued but they refused to charge one shipping for both items.
And when I received the bill in my Email account, the value charged was 30 dollars more than what I had to pay, and I was worried for days until my credit card was billed correctly. Their web site is totally not designed to handle coupon deductions, neither is their customer service.
Through this whole ordeal, Teambuy.ca never answered any of my Emails. I had to figure things out with the merchant and when I asked my money back he told me to go after Teambuy. I got the crappy and not so crappy stuff in the end, but it was a very stressful experience.
I’m unsubscribed from Teambuy newsletters, but like the crooks that they are, my personal data has not been deleted from their web site like I requested.
2 stars for the kokmax rattlesnake
4 stars for the hats
0.5 star for the sheet set - would have given zero, but that one is already taken by teambuy
ABSOLUTE ZERO STAR FOR TEAMBUY!
Al says...
Denise - a question for you: were the animal hats of good quality as shown on the website? I received two horrible-quality glued-together hats that looked like they were made by a toddler. Were yours DELUX brand? I want to exchange mine but am scared I will just get the same garbage again. This is complete false advertizing.