'Groupon voucher didn't work – and it refuses to refund £116 for the customer service call'

A meal for two ended in embarrassment and a £116 phone bill

I bought a restaurant voucher from Groupon for a two-course meal for two, costing £18.

When I tried to redeem it, our waitress told us the code was invalid. Despite several attempts, it wouldn’t work. She said this had happened before and gave me a telephone number for Groupon.

The customer service agent kept me waiting on the phone for ages but still couldn’t resolve it. It was all very embarrassing and I had to pay the bill of £41.

I complained at a later date to Groupon, which sent me a £50 voucher, so after the £41 restaurant bill the gesture was only £9.

Later, when I opened my mobile phone bill for that month, there was a charge for my 27-minute call to Groupon of £116.13. It refuse to pay for my call, even though it was Groupon’s error on my voucher that made me call in the first place.

Can you make it see sense for me please?

RS, surrey

The telephone number you called was a third-party premium rate line that is not associated with Groupon.

After I got in touch and highlighted your case, it said it was taking legal steps to have the number disconnected.

Groupon, which offers a local rate customer service number, has sent you a further £30 voucher but declined to pay your phone bill.

A spokesman said: “We are extremely sorry that Mrs S experienced an issue redeeming her voucher; this should not have happened. We would like to apologise for the inconvenience this caused and have now sent goodwill gestures totalling £80.

“If customers do need to reach us, we advise them to contact us through the official live chat, email or telephone details found on the Groupon website.”

You are regretful that you didn’t look up the number and disappointed, as a loyal Groupon customer, that it refused to pay your bill.