An online coupon service is giving out discount coupons without the permission of the venues they are discounting, a local restaurant owner is alleging.
Customers can purchase the coupons from Mobile Spinach, but unlike Groupon, restaurants are not approached about the deal until a coupon quota is met, Saad Jallad, the owner of Crepeaway, said.
“The website put us on there without talking to us,” Jallad said.
The first time the store had heard of the deal, Jallad said, was when several would-be customers tried to use coupons from the site last week. After turning them down, he contacted Mobile Spinach headquarters and had his store removed from the website.
He explained the site’s “false advertising” damaged the store’s relationships with customers.
“It upsets customers and they don’t purchase anything,” Jallad said.
Jallad said Mobile Spinach advertised deals on the social-networking site Foursquare, which may have given the site “some sort of credibility.”
Local restaurants like Panda Cafe and Domino's Pizza, which are also listed on Mobile Spinach, said they were not approached by the website for permission to be listed.
Co-founder of the California-based company, Antonio Vitti, maintained that all deals are “valid and legitimate,” and the company is “always ready to refund the deal” when the amount of coupons set by Mobile Spinach are not sold.
He said there has been some confusion because customers don’t always realize the deals can only be redeemed through online purchases. Customers attempted to use the Crepeaway coupons before the quota was reached, which is why Crepeaway did not know about the deal, Vitti said.
“We are trying to work hard that people are aware on how to do deals,” Vitti said. “People don’t read directions.”
Emily, thanks for taking the time to speak with me. I just wanted to clarify a few things in your article. Our deals do not require a minimum quota of purchases before they are valid. They are ready to buy and redeem right away. And for some of our deals, they are only valid by redeeming our voucher on our online menu ordering partner for pick up or delivery before going to the merchant. We point this out in a couple of places with step by step instructions before any consumer buys a deal from us. It is a new way of doing redemptions and we are trying to offer the consumer the convenience of delivery or pickup so they don’t have to wait in line…but they have to order ahead online and get their discount on our online ordering platform. But again, if anyone ever has a problem we always are happy to refund their purchase in full. FYI, we only had 4 total purchases for the Crepeaway deal, but we still worked with the merchant to resolve the issue. Thanks, Antonio – MobileSpinach
MobileSpinach sounds like a sham guess that’s why they call it spinach everyone’s least favorite vegetable
Spinach is a metaphor for all the money they collect from students.
You just hurt your cause even more Antonio, such an arrogant response. Will not be using your product anytime soon
Antonio –
Your product sounds like a sham, it’s similar to a pyramid scheme. And while the merchant may not have filed a complaint, you’ve damaged their customer relationship and they should take legal action, and hope they do.