Lil Vinny's Closing End of Dec.2011

[opinionatedchef]

If any of you have coupons (there are some out there that expire in Feb.) you might want to use them now or ask the coupon co. for a refund.

[AaronInBoston]

I will not go to a closing restaurant with a groupon. I can only imagine what type of food and service I will receive....I will wait for the restaurant to close and then request a refund from groupon. I will then have 2 credits from groupon (one for Mi Da Mi AKA Kayuga in Arlington) and Lil Vinnys, both of which are closed/closing. Hopefully groupon runs a worthwhile restaurant soon, they have not had one in a while.

[Bob Dobalina]

I think businesses are beginning to understand that the Groupon model is basically a sham that benefits in this order: Groupon first, customer and business tied for third.
Why the customer also third? Sort of the same reason why you often do not get the best product during Restaurant Week.

[threedogs]

I've had terrific experiences with Groupon - they've given me many, many credits for coupons I didn't use - even one that expired (which I had forgotten about).

[Parsnipity]

Can you get a refund or is it a credit to be used toward the purchase of another groupon?
To keep this on topic, I used a groupon at Chez Henri recently and had a good experience and as far as I can tell they're nowhere near going out of business.

[9lives]

Going out of biz?

They've been talking about taking the company public at a market value of $15-20 billion...down from $30b earlier in the year.

They did the transaction at $12Billion last month.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&am...

[Parsnipity]

To clarify: Chez Henri is nowhere near going out of business, in reference to earlier posts talking about groupons only popping up for restaurants which are in trouble.

[threedogs]

You don't have to wait until it closes to get the credit from Groupon - just call them up & explain. I never had a problem.

Once, I made the mistake of going for a buffet (I know, I know - should have known better). While the food was pretty awful, what got me is that the establishment lied about the cost - it was a daily deal, and the actual cost was only a few cents more than what the Groupon cost was (not the larger savings claimed). I don't like being lied to!

Not Groupon's fault - but I called & let them know. I didn't expect a full refund - which is what I was given immediately along with an email apology from Groupon. (I didn't bother calling the restaurant as it was obvious that no one cared when I was there).

[treb]

I see that a lot with groupon and like sites. Buyer Beware!

[Bob Dobalina]

So that would be the second time for them with Groupon shenanigans?
They offered one in the past, and then went on vacation the week before the Groupon expired.

[treb]

The last time I went to Vinny's at Night, for one of their bogo deals, it was less than memorable. They also did a groupon recently.

[Bob Dobalina]

Ah, geez...the death knell of the Groupon...hopefully, the closing of L'il Vinny's will help them out.

[bear]

I agree that Groupon can signal that a restaurant is in trouble, but was surprised to see Menton offer a $500 two-person tasting deal on Buywithme.

[Bob Dobalina]

Is Menton still packed most nights?

[bear]

I don't know since it's a bit out of my league budget-wise, but Opentable shows several time slots available tonight. It seems like people were reporting that they couldn't get tables on short notice before.

[Gabatta]

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/820846

[Allstonian]

Specifically:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/820846#7020517
and http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/8208...