When it comes to deals, there’s no question that Groupon is far and away the leader of the deals brigade, despite Living Social’s recent surge in funding. When you’re the leader, people expect certain things. Even though Groupon is only the coupon provider, the company is taking heat from dissatisfied Japanese customers after a traditional New Year meal (or osechi) deal from Bird Cafe went bad. Bird Cafe delivered 500 of the meals late and others were described as being in terrible condition. Groupon CEO Andrew Mason is apologizing to Japanese customers after their osechi meal Groupon turned out to be a disaster for all involved.
“We created Groupon to help enrich people’s lives by bringing new exciting experiences to them, so when we do the opposite, as we have in this case, it really hurts,” said Groupon CEO and founder Andrew Mason. “Basically because the popularity of Groupon Japan has grown so quickly it took us off guard. We weren’t expecting to run into this problem so quickly.”
Groupon is a new arrival to the Japanese market. Mason said that the company is still training Japanese staff in proper Groupon procedures and capacity management. Groupon purchased Japanese company Qpod in August.
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