Your Expired Groupon Is Still Worth What You Paid at the Same Business
Just the Tip:
On a Groupon voucher for a restaurant, spa, or other local business, only the extra value the deal added can expire, never the amount you paid. Take the expired voucher back to that business and spend what you paid there. If it refuses or has closed, report it to Groupon through your account.
Groupon’s Terms of Sale split a voucher into two values, the amount paid and the promotional value, the extra the deal adds. The terms say the amount paid “will never expire.”
Say you paid $40 for a voucher good for $80 of massages at a local spa. After its date, it’s still worth the $40 you paid there, however long ago the date passed, and the terms make the spa responsible for letting you redeem it for that much.
A few Groupon purchases have nothing left after their date. Tickets and admission vouchers lose all value once the event has passed, and Getaways travel bookings lose theirs once the check-in date passes. A voucher you’ve booked for a set time through Groupon counts as used once the deadline to cancel or reschedule passes, so a missed appointment leaves nothing. Coupons on Groupon have no cash value at all.
Redeem the expired voucher the way its instructions say, and ask the business to apply what you paid to your bill. If the staff refuse, ask for a manager and show them the line in Groupon’s terms that makes the business honor the amount paid.
When the business still won’t honor it, or has closed, sign in to your Groupon account, open My Groupons, find the order, and click See Details, then Manage Voucher. Groupon says it will work to resolve the problem from there.
Its refund policy, though, allows refunds on local deals only for 3 calendar days after purchase, unless the deal page says otherwise, so a refund on an expired voucher isn’t promised. The refunds Groupon does give generally come as Groupon Bucks, its store credit.
To get the full value next time, buy a voucher only for a visit you’ll make within a few weeks, and the day you buy it, set a phone reminder for a week before its date.
Before you buy another voucher, read our full Groupon review.
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