Sara thought that a LivingSocial deal for two hours of handyman service seemed like a good deal, and bought it. That was in June. Since then, she’s been trying to actually use the handyman hours that she purchased. The company sold so many vouchers that they were booked up until sometime after the apocalypse. She turned to LivingSocial for help or for a refund, and got neither. UPDATE: She has received a refund after extensively pestering LivingSocial.

I was wondering if you could provide me with some input on my problem.  Back in June, I bought a voucher on Living Social for 2 hours of handyman service from a local company because I had some things around my house I needed repaired.  From the date I got the voucher until about a month ago, I have tried in vain to make an appointment with the company.  I tried calling several times.  The company’s phone always goes straight to voice mail basically saying that due to overwhelming demand from the LS promotion, please leave a message and they will call back when they can.  I have left approximately 4-5 phone messages and received no response, and I have sent about 8 emails. 

After getting no response for months and being unable to use the voucher because the company refuses to contact me to make an appointment, I finally contacted Living Social via their website email system to request either a refund or their assistance in scheduling an appointment with the company.  No response.  I sent two more emails and likewise got no response.  After waiting a week since my last effort, I tried calling their toll free number several times.  It refuses to connect me to an operator because it claims that they have a high call volume, tells me to contact them via email on the website, and then hangs up on me. 

As a last resort, I emailed the CEO of Living Social on Facebook yesterday and have again received no response.  What exactly am I supposed to do when I have no human person working for that company or the handyman company that will make actual contact with me? I was wondering if you could provide me with some input on my problem.

For LivingSocial, refunds are unavailable after seven days, and they consider the merchant to be the issuer of the certificate, not them. They might make an exception for a case like this where the merchant just won’t pick up the phone, but that presumes that Sara can get through to them in the first place.

If the handyman service offers licensed services like plumbing or electrical repairs, she could try complaining to the licensing board for those professions in her area. The state attorney general’s office might be interested in this situation as well.

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