Most of you are familiar with Groupons... Groupon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. I had a slightly negative experience Sunday using a Groupon which leads to this musing thread. The experience first. Then, the muse...
Bought a Groupon to go to the Dallas Home & Garden show at Jerry Jones' Cowboys stadium. Went to entrance, which is a long walk! They refused my Groupon, and told me that I had to walk back to the ticket counter to exchange my Groupon for a ticket. And, sure enough on the Groupon I had printed it said something about "redeem at Cowboys Stadium."
I went down to the ticket office, (maybe 200 yards), and exchanged them for tickets. I said to the ticket clerk, "I bet I'm not the first one who has come down here unhappy." She sighed, and verified many had the same experience, and were similarly surprised and upset.
I wasn't angry at that point, (until later), and asked her how to give feedback about process. I thought someone somewhere would want to know how to improve experience in the future. She called some man - a smug know it all who condescendingly dismissed me as someone who couldn't read the "redeem" clause, finishing by saying he had been running events like this for 40 years. That pi***d the h*ll out of me! I told him he hadn't learned much in 40 years!
But, that is a digression, even though my experience with "the man" illustrates and sets a foundation for my muse which now follows...
"The Man" was right in that he thought of a Groupon as a coupon, and so based on his 40 years of experience it was natural to redeem a coupon for "something." In his thinking and long experience, I should have expected to redeem my Groupon for a ticket, and so was an idiot.
On the other hand, I believe I was right because without thinking about it directly until now, the Groupon is not a classic coupon. It is a hybrid coupon of a different, internet-age nature. "The Man" was not right in his viewpoint because he was not aware of the nuanced nature of the Groupon coupon.
As an aside, what set up the misunderstanding by so many of us Sunday was the fact that many of us have bought Groupons to similar events, taken them to the door, had the Groupon scanned or checked, walked in and took our seats. This isn't a typical experience with a coupon. It is with a Groupon. And, doesn't this fact illustrate my "Groupon is a morphed coupon" muse?
