Groupons, the good, the bad and the ugly

[Hawkwood]

The dive shop with which I work only charges $25 for Discover Scuba classes. That's full price--no discount. I know several shops that do them for free. The thinking is that enough DSD students will go on to take OW and purchase equipment to make it all worth while.

Yeah, our's are $40 for a DSD.

 

[bigaboy]

Funny you mention free DSD classes. I asked the shop owner about that and he told me of a shop that did that and had a hard time filling the classes and when he did he had a terrible turnout. People want perceived value. Half off is a bargain. Free is not worth anything. Put your old TV on the street for free and it sits there. Put a $10 sign and it's gone in no time. I personally would not have signed up for a free course. I am 54 years old and always wanted to dive but never got around to it. I perceived a value in the half off Groupon, and jumped at the chance. Should have done it 20 years ago. It also helps that my LDS is top notch and the instructors were very professional and helpful. If they had worked for a churn shop I probably would not have gone on.

 

[nimoh]

free classes provide no commitment for students to actually show up. If they pay $10 for the class, they lose the $10 if they don't show up.

 

[boulderjohn]

Funny you mention free DSD classes. I asked the shop owner about that and he told me of a shop that did that and had a hard time filling the classes and when he did he had a terrible turnout. People want perceived value. Half off is a bargain. Free is not worth anything. Put your old TV on the street for free and it sits there. Put a $10 sign and it's gone in no time. I personally would not have signed up for a free course. I am 54 years old and always wanted to dive but never got around to it. I perceived a value in the half off Groupon, and jumped at the chance. Should have done it 20 years ago. It also helps that my LDS is top notch and the instructors were very professional and helpful. If they had worked for a churn shop I probably would not have gone on.

I understand and agree. There has been a lot of research to support this. Ask people about the quality of a product or an experience, and their estimation of its quality increases with the price they paid or the difficulty of the experience.

 

[scubadiver888]

Funny you mention free DSD classes. I asked the shop owner about that and he told me of a shop that did that and had a hard time filling the classes and when he did he had a terrible turnout. People want perceived value. Half off is a bargain. Free is not worth anything. Put your old TV on the street for free and it sits there. Put a $10 sign and it's gone in no time. I personally would not have signed up for a free course. I am 54 years old and always wanted to dive but never got around to it. I perceived a value in the half off Groupon, and jumped at the chance. Should have done it 20 years ago. It also helps that my LDS is top notch and the instructors were very professional and helpful. If they had worked for a churn shop I probably would not have gone on.

Interesting observation. I worked for a shop which gave DSD for free. The turn out was never great. Most our DSD students came from Boy Scouts or Sea Cadets. Another shop charges $60 ($30 after Groupon discount) and they have hundreds booked every year.

free classes provide no commitment for students to actually show up. If they pay $10 for the class, they lose the $10 if they don't show up.

This sort of makes sense. However we have had people pay for the course and not show up. I guess $30 doesn't mean as much to them.

 

[mfox007]

Hey All,

I am actually going through this process as we speak. My wife purchased OW PADI Cert courses for myself and her brother through Groupon. It was $150 for one person or $250 for two. When I went to the dive shop to sign up, they had informed me that about (150) people had bought this Groupon from them. So the soonest class I could sign up for was over two months out.

The interesting thing was, he made me an offer to move my class up. He stated that if I was willing to pay the difference from the Groupon price to the full price (Full price was $389 per person), then he would put me in any class I wanted. They did tell me they try not to have more than six people per class. When I look at their calender of classes, the classes for the Groupon dates and the classes for the non-groupon students are the same.

I'll keep eveyone posted on my experience.

-Mike

 

[nimoh]

This sort of makes sense. However we have had people pay for the course and not show up. I guess $30 doesn't mean as much to them.

I'm not a shop owner, but if I were, I would not consider this to be a problem

I have actually heard that this is not uncommon with groupon classes, people buy it online and never even meet anyone at the dive shop. There was also a thread a while back where a store was overselling classes assuming that a certain percentage of students wouldn't show up, in this case, it is a problem if they show up.

---------- Post Merged at 03:14 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 03:08 PM ----------

Hey All,

I am actually going through this process as we speak. My wife purchased OW PADI Cert courses for myself and her brother through Groupon. It was $150 for one person or $250 for two. When I went to the dive shop to sign up, they had informed me that about (150) people had bought this Groupon from them. So the soonest class I could sign up for was over two months out.

The interesting thing was, he made me an offer to move my class up. He stated that if I was willing to pay the difference from the Groupon price to the full price (Full price was $389 per person), then he would put me in any class I wanted. They did tell me they try not to have more than six people per class. When I look at their calender of classes, the classes for the Groupon dates and the classes for the non-groupon students are the same.

I'll keep eveyone posted on my experience.

-Mike

I am guessing they reserve say 3 discount spots, and 3 regular spots to try and mitigate their losses on the discount spots. A little shady, but not as bad as some of the groupon certification stories I have heard of. If I were you, I would probably stick it out for the two months, and in that do some searches on scubaboard for "groupon" to get an idea of what to look out for in your class, to ensure you get a quality education.

 

[Selchie in LB]

Put your old TV on the street for free and it sits there. Put a $10 sign and it's gone in no time.

Not in my neighborhood!

I don't know how shops can make money with GroupOn. Too much effort for very little return.

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

 

[nimoh]

Not in my neighborhood!

I don't know how shops can make money with GroupOn. Too much effort for very little return.

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

it seems some try to decrease the effort to match up with the return.

 

[boulderjohn]

it seems some try to decrease the effort to match up with the return.

Which is really, really stupid if you are using Groupon for the purpose of gaining new long term customers.