BuyWithMe Review

Review summary

Good points

Bad points

Our verdict

BuyWithMe doesn’t really compete with Groupon in terms of the number of deals or variety, but it does offer some good money-saving opportunities in an easy-to-use package.

Full review

BuyWithMe is a popular group buying website attempting to steal Groupon’s crown. The company first found deals in Boston and now offers deals in almost 60 cities in the United States and Canada. BuyWithMe attracted funding in the form of angel investors and continues to build its customer base.

BuyWithMe guarantees its businesses a minimum number of buyers for every deal so if the minimum number isn’t reached, you won’t get the deal.

Signup

You don’t need to signup to see the deals on the BuyWithMe website, but if you want the daily deals newsletter you need to register with an email address and your zip code. Or you can signup with Facebook. Signing up with Facebook tailors your deals more closely to your needs, based on your Facebook profile.

Variety

BuyWithMe prides itself on offering good quality, interesting deals from both local and national businesses. There is also a section called Destinations which features vacations, hotels and trips in the US and abroad.

The spread of deals is pretty broad. One glance at the deal page for Atlanta showed money off dental whitening, Thai food, canvas prints and gourmet coffee. There are many national deals offered, and money off goods purchased from websites, which helps make up for the fewer cities this group buying website covers. However, the chance of finding truly local, independent businesses on BuyWithMe is lower than on Groupon or LivingSocial – BuyWithMe has more chains.

Information

If you don’t want to explore the site, you can sign up for the daily deal email newsletter. All the deals are live for seven days, so you have time to make up your mind.

The deals are all set out in a very straightforward way, with the price, the value and the discount in big numbers. There’s also a count-down clock showing how much time you have left. Because the deals last for seven days, you can set a reminder that triggers an email on the morning the deal expires – great for people who want some time to make a decision. The fine print is clear and set out in bulleted points, which makes it easy to know what you are buying and the restrictions in place. Each deal has the location linked on Google maps.

The All Deals tab brings up a map showing all the live deals in your city. You can view them on the map or in list form, and sort through them in sections like Spas, Travel, Fitness etc.

BuyWithMe is on Facebook and Twitter and there is also a mobile app. The app is for the iPhone or Android and you can see the new deals, buy deals, redeem vouchers and use the map feature to see which deals are near to you.

Purchases

Buy your deals with a credit card. When you click the Buy Now link you are sent an email saying you are committed to the deal but your card is not charged until the minimum number of buyers is met. When you successfully buy a deal you are sent an email with a link to the voucher to print off. Or, you can go to your Accounts section on the website to see the list of your current and redeemed vouchers.

If you want to buy a voucher as a gift you have two options. Print out the voucher and give it to the recipient, or send the PDF voucher file by email. Or you can have the email sent direct to the recipient.

Cancellation

BuyWithMe doesn’t really have an open returns policy and as far as the deal is concerned, all sales are final. If you have a problem with the service after you have purchased a deal, BuyWithMe suggests you take it up with the business itself. However, you can contact customer service by email or phone and if you have received a voucher as a gift and want to change it you can get credit towards another purchase. Vouchers last as long as indicated in each individual deal.

Incentive & rewards

Like LivingSocial, if you can get three of your friends to also sign up to the deal then you get yours for free. When you invite a friend, you get $10 credit when your friend makes their first purchase.

Ease of use

BuyWithMe is very easy to use. The website is simple, clear and straightforward and making a purchase is not complicated. Because there are fewer deals in total on this site, compared to its direct competitors, it is even easier to navigate the content.

The Accounts section makes it easy to manage your vouchers. You can keep track of the vouchers you have and haven’t used and print out the ones you need to.

Help & support

There is a list of FAQs but no forum. If you have an issue or a question you can contact BuyWithMe via the Contact Us form where you give details about the problem. BuyWithMe claims to answer queries within one business day. You can also contact the company by phone.

Overall

BuyWithMe doesn’t have the range of deals as Groupon or LivingSocial but the website does offer good quality deals and a wide window of buying opportunity.

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Overall
Signup
Variety
Information
Purchases
Cancellation
Incentive & rewards
Ease of use
Help & support