The Butchers “Organic and Naturally raised meats shop” has sold over 15,000 coupons in Toronto for approximately $175 each worth of meat at the cost of $55. It is over $2.6 million dollars worth of meat. If we take an average price of the most selling meats by The Butchers as $30 per kilogram (chicken, ground beef, etc…), we get about 90 tons of “organic and naturally raised” meat. For a really small shop! Everyone can speculate about these numbers and conclude that it is not possible to meet this huge demand without dramatic decrease in quality of meats and service.
The Butchers shop has been featured by Webpiggy, Dealgetters, DealFind, Dealticker, TeamSave, BuyTopia daily deals websites (did I miss anyone?). There were a lot of complaints on service, products and prices at The Butchers after the major offer on DealFind. It turns to be a scam at some discussion forums. They simply can not handle all the customers. They significantly reduced working hours, assortment, quality, etc. The only thing they should care about now is to service all customers with already purchased coupons because The Butchers has real problems with it (actually vice versa – many customers have problems with The Butchers). But! What do they do instead?
They are offering another deal on WebPiggy again:
$100 for $400 worth of organic and naturally raised meat from The Butchers, inclusive of a $50 credit to the opening of Marlin’s Fish Shop. Don’t miss The Butchers 10th Anniversary, Deal of the Century!
It is running through the weekend (April 8 – 10) and 1600 already bought the deal. I think they just need more cash to purchase more meat from some cheap place. I don’t see another explanation.
Well.. There were only speculations before in this post.
Now Trueler provides real proofs of how “Organic and Naturally raised” the meat from The Butchers is and what it actually worth.
Most of the products purchased with one of the coupons at The Butchers in the beginning of April 2011 were of bad quality. I have prepared and described facts about sausages bought at The Butchers. They definitely do not worth $10.99/pound (or $24.40/kg). Probably $1.99/pound is a fair price for them (I’m not sure what is the exact percentage of starch and carrageenan they have added to the sausages).
Let’s see what “Organic and Naturally raised” sausages from The Butchers represent.
After thawing of frosted sausages there were about 50ml of water in the plastic bag per 1 lb of meat. It is over 10%. Here is a picture:
The consistence of sausages were very suspicious to be claimed as “Organic and Naturally raised”:
It looks like a sponge which is a sure sign of starch presence in the meat. I used Iodine Test to show everyone that sausages from The Butchers contain a lot of starch. Iodine reacts with starch to produce purple black color or blue black color (depending on how much of starch is present in the product). I’ve written a letter “S” by Iodine on the cut of sausage and it turned purple black:
It means that there is a lot of starch in those sausages. Here is a comparison to understand the reaction. Potato contains starch and pear does not:
Iodine written “S” remained brown on a piece of pear. Iodine reacted with starch contained in potato and “Organic and Naturally raised” sausages from The Butchers.
Is the starch used by The Butchers organic and naturally raised? It could be. But it also could be a modified corn starch or even something less natural. I don’t know.
But sausages with significant amount of starch definitely do not worth $24/kg (or $10.99/lb)! It is like cheap prepacked sausages from the nearest supermarket.
Let’s try to cook them!
I have never seen good barbecue sausages exploding when cooking…
It is because of natural sausage casing which does not crack.
Sausages from The Butchers started to crack quite soon:
Then sausages exploded!
This definitely means that sausage casings are artificial and NOT natural.
Meantime Iodine almost evaporated from the pear without reaction, but left its footprint on the sausage made from starch:
After cooling sausages significantly shrinked:
Inflation of sausages in the oven, shrinking when cooled, excess water – all of these is a sure sign of carrageenan (E407 food additive) in the meat. It is used in the food industry to increase or even double the weight of meat. Carrageenan may cause allergic reactions for some people.
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Scented sausages with preservatives from The Butchers
(update as of April 11)
I left piece of UNCOOKED sausage out of the fridge at a room temperature for about two days.
It did not spoil at all! It has absolutely the same smell as it had two days ago. Natural meat should spoil in a warm place very quickly. However sausages from The Butchers kept their scent which is most likely artificial. Unfortunately I can’t post and share the smell here, but it is absolutely the same as two days ago. It definitely means that at least preservatives have been added to the meat being claimed by The Butchers as “Organic and Naturally raised”. It is a sure sign of artificial flavor added as well. Or has the meat been raised with antibiotics?
This is just one example of bad quality products from The Butchers. For other products and services I have not prepared a visual demonstration, but can add the following:
- Beef had almost the worst quality I have ever tried. It was sinewy and hard (cooked well as usual)
- Poor choice in the store on weekend at around noon
- No receipt provided!
It looks like a million dollars scam with current unfair support from WebPiggy who manipulates with comments on their discussion board by removing valuable truthful posts from the customers in order to conceal information about The Butchers and promote the scam.
Too many unnatural things are happening at The Butchers, don’t you think so?
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The “Last and Final” deal from The Butchers?!!
(April 12, 2011)
Unbelievable! Now on Buytopia with the “Final Deal“:
$99 for $400 Worth of Organically and Naturally Raised Meats from The Butchers – LAST DEAL FROM THE BUTCHERS
Is it really final? I hope this scam will end soon… Will anyone buy this deal from Buytopia.ca after all things happened with previous deals from The Butchers on other daily deal websites?
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Update: We have a report from one of the customers:
Where do The Butchers “Organic meats†come from?
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One more “Last Deal” at DealTicker
(April 15)
“The Butchers” deal on DealTicker with the same $99 for $400 deal. One more last deal?! Let me guess… Next one will be on…
$99 for $400 worth of Organic and Naturally Raised Meats and More from The Butchers (includes a $50 credit to use at soon to be launched Marlon’s Fish store) ($400 Value)
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Attention!
The Butchers website states that the deal on DealTicker is NOT valid!
However DealTicker still states the opposite and encouraging to buy more and more coupons:
What the heck is going on?! Just another promotion?
Here is the answer from DealTicker who sent an e-mail to subscribers very late:
…
It has come to our attention that The Butchers are turning away customers and refusing to honour vouchers purchased through our site.
This action has been taken unilaterally by The Butchers without consultation with or prior warning to DealTicker.
As a result of this conduct, we are obliged to discontinue this deal. We are currently in consultations with our legal team and are considering all legal remedies available against The Butchers.
…
We sincerely regret any inconvenience the actions of The Butchers may have caused.
…
DealTicker was knowingly running the not valid deal for almost entire day looking for profit. Moreover, they solely blame The Butchers for this. This is the worst thing the daily deals company could do. They wanted to sell thousands of deals in five days making tens or hundreds thousand dollar profit regardless of all the negative experience about redeeming earlier coupons shared in the Internet by coupons holders. Unfortunately DealTicker let their users down.
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The article in The Globe and Mail
You may find the original article here:
Ninety-nine bucks for $400 worth of organic meat. Seriously?
written by Tim Kiladze for Saturday’s Globe and Mail.
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Several interesting things in the writing caught my attention and I’d like to comment on them:
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1. Looks like The Butchers is very short on cash now, so they asked daily deal companies for a quicker payment plan.
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2. Marlon Pather and The Butchers are going to run more deals (maybe later).
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3. The author and editors of The Globe and Mail are not aware that Chemistry is indeed science. Here is a definition from Wikipedia for those who still in doubts: “Chemistry is the science of matter and the changes it undergoes”.
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They also claimed:
Then there’s the marketing potential. “What people don’t realize is every customer that’s come into my store, they write their e-mail address,†Mr. Pather says
Has anyone been requested to write e-mail address in store?
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Siesta at The Butchers every weekday!
The company made it almost absolutely impossible to redeem the coupons for people. The Butchers is closed now from 11:30am until 1pm during weekdays and does not accept vouchers on weekends.
For most of the customers lunch time is the only possible time to visit the store during a working day.
This is one more very serious change to the voucher conditions by The Butchers. “Keeping our standards”…
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What’s next with The Butchers? Re-branding!
Marlin’s Fish Shop, Marlons Butchery, Marlon’s Meat
Even if The Butchers goes under there is a good plan. But maybe it is the plan itself… who knows…
Jacob,
I think Gary posted a response from The Butchers when he was trying to place an order. Gary is not “The Butcher” if you are referring to that comment :)
Thanks,
Trueler
@The Butcher:
Awesome you found the site. How about telling us who your CURRENT organic supplier(s) are so we can verify. There seems to be some info that this site have found that makes it questionable. Would love to be see some clarification.
Specifically the origin of your meat.
lol
Hi,
Sorry for the delayed response, we have been extremely busy. Unfortunately email orders for delivery and pick up are booked until June 23rd, therefore we are no longer taking orders until after this date. If you are able to come into the store to select your desired items this can be done at any time. We are open Tuesday to Friday 8am to 8pm to voucher customers. Please resubmit this order after this date, and an email will be sent to you to confirm when your order will be ready.
I am very sorry for the inconvenience.
The Butchers
Hi Questor,
The Butchers deal has been featured about 10 times on 6 daily deal websites. Sure, they could have agreements prior to the results from DealFind were known. But Marlon had a long time experience and he perfectly knew how many orders the store can handle without quality loss. Restrictions must be set, let’s say 50 vouchers per deal totaling to 500. This is quite reasonable number. But The Butchers, caring only about their profit, intentionally did not set any restrictions and sold over 20,000 coupons. This happened not by accident.
Webpiggy continued with the offer because they care only about their own profit, not about customers, not about businesses. Every group buying site must do a research of the business right before featuring the deal. They got a lot of complaints. So, they knew the situation about The Butchers, but decided to make more money and let their customers down.
I tell you truth. The reason why Webpiggy addressed your issue by making a refund is definitely not acting in the interest of their clientele or demonstrating integrity as you think. Webpiggy is acting solely in the interest of their own, because they are afraid. Many voucher holders are ready to file disputes with their credit card companies if daily deal websites do not refund them for The Butchers deals. This is the reason. It is obvious that the company which wants to stay in business does not want it to happen.
Your experience is getting a refund from Webpiggy for scam deal. Thanks for sharing it. The reason why you got it is described in the above paragraph.
Thanks for information about Field Gate. I knew that, and completely agree with your related paragraph. But don’t forget that The Butchers have to sell the meat with approximately 85% discount (actual coupon discount + a fee for being featured on group buying sites). Did The Butchers have over 90% margin for the meats before all the deals? Does Field Gate sell meat to The Butchers for cents per pound? Organic chicken for 69 cents per pound… Organic sirloin steak for $1.59/pound… Organic Pork Loin Chop for $1.19/pound… etc… Taking into account operational costs, prices should be even less.
Webpiggy were removing negative comments from their discussion board when the deal was running. DealFind closed comments right after deal was over. Buytopia removed entire forum. This is how they care about their clients and show integrity…
I do not exactly understand what you mean by “the next step” in your question. If you need some information, please clarify.
Thanks,
Trueler
Trueler,
That is possible, could these deals have been in place prior to the results from Dealfind were known? Or are these offers set up on the spur of the moment and can be arranged within days? Why did Webpiggy continue with the offer if they were aware of the situation? I do not profess to know what Webpiggy’s knowledge was prior to the offer and I cannot speak for their blog moderation either. I am not denying any factual information provided by yourself or others here on this blog.
But when I can contact a company and tell them my concerns and they address them as well as accommodate my choice of recourse within days then I would call that acting in the interest of your clientele and demonstrating integrity. This is my experience with Webpiggy presented to you all as it occurred. It does not invalidate any others’ unbiased observations or experiences.
FYI – Field Gate is a large co-op of Canadian organic produces with a significant clientele. I believe (notice I am not saying it is fact) based upon what I know of the company that they are capable of producing very large quantities of organic meats, obviously The Butcher is completely incapable of doing the same as has been well attested to by the vast majority of coupon holders. I imagine their facilities and manpower will not permit such large accommodations.
So what is the next step Trueler?
Have a look at this post to see why The Butcher’s and other deals like it are so screwed up:
http://oppugno.com/blog/2011/05/12/the-butchers-and-the-broken-groupon-model/
The Butchers has done a lot to build consumer confidence before they set a “North America World Record” on DealFind. They did their best by providing good quality and service. After over 11 thousand deals were sold on DealFind they have changed… you know the story… that’s why it is called a scam.
Field gate organics can’t provide so much of organic food to The Butchers. Just take a look at their prices in supermarkets… it can be just a very small portion…
Webpiggy demonstrated outrageous willful negligence to the customers during their last deal with The Butchers. They knew what was going on with The Butchers. Webpiggy were intentionally removing all the valuable comments about quality and service on their discussion board. They misinformed people who were not aware about The Butchers behavior. Is this called integrity? Webpiggy has blacken the reputation of group buying industry by their unacceptable behavior.
Update,
I have been greatly distressed reading this blog and the discussion at redflagdeals. I would seem to be one of many people who have been duped by this “scam”. A friend of mine ended up contacting Webpiggy directly and corresponded with Harlod Moore. He went so far as to find out who is actually supplying the Butcher at this moment and it turns out that Field Gate – a very large naturally raised and organic producer / processor as well as Markham Quality Meats – a source of certified organic chick, Halal and non-organic lamb are. It was easy enough to confirm with Field Gate that the Butcher is a regular customer receiving weekly deliveries, they are also listed on Field Gate’s website as a place to purchase their products, and the company my wife works for actually sells product to Markham Quality Meats (their business is scale systems) and easily confirmed that they also service the Butcher with certified organic chicken. Now I am not saying that these are the only suppliers that the Butcher is getting product from but from my inquiry it would seem that The Butcher may simply be overwhelmed by biting off more than they can chew. On the other hand should they be selling such a garbage sausage loaded with fillers? So I guess the bottom line is The Butcher has not done much to build consumer confidence but from my inquiries and the assistance of webpiggy this is what I can confirm.
Webpiggy has gone out of their way to answer our questions and was even willing to refund me for the vouchers purchased. What I can say for sure is that Webpiggy has demonstrated an integrity that is becoming rare in the business world.
My order arrived at 7 p.m. or should I say a joke of an order – not sure why i even put an order in for what arrived. I thought by ordering 2 weeks in advance, my order would be filled in the morning with what I asked for and delivered during the day. Well, the order came with note stating they were out of Tbones, rib eyes, veal chops, cornish hen etc – I did get ground beef, chicken breasts and chili which I never ordered. Really worth staying home for all dat!!!! What a scam.
Dude, I have been in several times for my orders and they even call me now that it is ready and when I go in to pick it up, OOPS SORRY WE HAVE NOTHING.
Well, I placed an on line order a few weeks ago, got a phone confirmation for delivery. Today was to be the day – it is now 5 p.m. – sat at home all day – no delivery – can’t get through to the order line or store. I am so angry!!!
The Competition Bureau is the place you should direct your complaints. They will put a legal team to enforce any advertisements that The Butchers have made. They also have the power to fine violators of the Competition Act; and they frequently exercise this power, as they should.
http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca
Don’t know if you guys still follow this thread but this is a good one. I go in this morning, line up of about 8 people at 10am. And they tell us all, once we get in and order, that there is a $25 cap on all orders. The Sh#t hits the fan and people start going bonkers. Some woman came from oakville, another has a birthday party tonight. One guy tries to buy a steak and it is $30 and they give him a hard time about it and finally give in. What a joke. They say one coupon limit when you buy the deal, and then when you get in to pull this crap? One girl said it was because they were so busy because of Easter they were running out of meat. The selection there was low but not non existent as usual.
This guy Marlon makes up these ‘rules’ as he goes a long and violates his coupon stipulations. What a jerk and I feel sorry for the people that go in today.
Marlon Madoff – the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
My Son has learned the great art of the Ponz. He has literally pump, pump, pumped this business up to a level that is unsustainable. And you stupid poor grazing sheep are too stupid to notice he has been dump, dump, dumping along the way.
Soon he will be gone, with your money and your meat. And oh, whatever will you do?
Oh shill pumper – what will you do to the poor hippy who spent 20% of his weekly earning on Marlon’s scheme?
Oh shill pumper – you are a weak verison of Madoff. You are not as smart as Marlon and that is why you work for him.
As i write this from the fed. Take my advice. Ask for a refund and leave. There’s no party here at the meat store.
The only party is in Marlon’s meat makers market account.
RealPerson: I wish you thought to have a camcorder or smartphone in video mode record all this. That would have made for some viral YouTube material for this blog and others!
Go back to Dealfind and demand a refund. Refunds are offered for 30 days, but you can make the argument that you can’t get your orders filled (no reponse to phone/email), terms that you bought the deal under have changed (can’t use on weekends or lunch time, now can’t use more than 1 voucher at a time), and there is no meat in the store when you go in (unless they are filming). The Butchers gets 50% of income generated by the deals – clearly the deals were all posted to get working capital to finish the fish store. Can’t see how existing customers are still happy with the supply & service …
WOW, we all bought the coupon this great we can save money at a time like this. Its very misleading. We were really excited while waiting for our steaks. when we finally got in, the staff WAS RUDE. They have NO CUSTOMER SERVICE. They make their rules up as they go. When I questioned this, like anyone else would. I WAS TOLD THAT THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO NOT SERVE ME. WHAT, I drove for almost 45mins to get here than you tell me I am only ALLOWED TO use 50bucks from my coupon. Im sorry but you should put all these restrictions on your deal posts. Oh thats right if you told the truth NO ONE WILL GIVE YOU MONEY. For all you people that have nice things to say must either work for them or be related. I am a very easy going person, takes allot to tick me off. BUT THIS IS UNREAL HOW THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT. THEY HAVE OUR MONEY SO WHAT DO THEY CARE. THIS IS NOT OVER, I will fight, they can not do this to us.
They don’t even answer their phones any more. I have had four orders now places and when I got there to pick them up they had no record of them and nothing ready.
What’s the point really of offering to take orders if you cant and don’t fill them?
This place is FAIL
Keep at them, Trueler. Nobody talks about them on Chowhound anymore (other than Yongeman the shill) since everybody knows the moderators are in on the scam and will delete any negative posts about Butchers/Marlon.
When Marlon pulls the trigger and closes down “The Butchers” only to reopen under another name and refuse to honor the deals, how many deal sites are going to be suing him? I guess he’ll be spending more money on lawyers than on new fish stores….
What’s next with The Butchers? Re-branding!
Marlin’s Fish Shop, Marlons Butchery, Marlon’s Meat
Trueler
I’ve been going to The Butchers for years and am so disappointed in the quality and supply of product in the store since these deals came about. I purchased 3 of the deals based on my positive previous experience.
BUT NOW!!!!!!!
1) There is rarely any product other than chicken breasts
2) The store is now closed during lunchtime
3) Can’t redeem vouchers on weekends
4) Never anything in the coolers
5) Questionable sources of meat
It sucks because now I’m stuck using my vouchers to purchase overpriced questionably sourced chicken breasts because meat other than chicken breasts doesn’t seem to be available during times when vouchers can be redeemed.
Only buy the deals if you want to purchase questionably sourced overpriced chicken breasts.
Uugh!
C P
What I was saying Truler was that if DealTicker proves or can prove that they had a signed contract that would show that the Butchers are lying about their meaet being organic since the butchers say they had not agreement in place to begin withe for the DealTicker. I never said that DealTicker knew that the meat was not organic.
Hey Undisclosed,
How could it be that DealTicker knowingly featured fraud on their website? Could you explain this to us please?
Thanks,
Trueler
The Butchers are in for a big surprise. Bad move on their part to not honor the last deal they signed a contract for with DealTicker. Might cost them “everything”
There is also a rumor that DealTicker is thinking of posting the signed contract just to confirm that everything The Butchers say is false, including the ‘fact’ that their meats are organic. The Buthcers are a fraud.
@Steve,
Is your real name Marlin or Marlon? And do you post on Chowhound under the name Yongeman?
@SteveGlumenfeld
What is it with scammers always trying to obfuscate an issue based on facts. What is it with ‘must be competitors’ excuse? or basing your personal experience with eating around the world which makes you an ‘expert’ or some sort.
Objectively speaking this is a disaster waiting to happen and the scammer (The Butcher) have just net over $1,000,000 on questionable non organic meat which probably don’t even pass health inspection.
@steve glumenfeld:
The quality of all meats including beef, chicken, sausages, turkey, etc. was amazing and the taste was more than great at The Butchers before the offer on DealFind. I absolutely agree with this! Variety of produce and service were very good as well.
Then thousands of people rushed into the store with all the coupons, and The Butchers had to decrease quality of products and services significantly trying to meet demand. Unfortunately, it was a huge mistake to introduce the product through daily deal sites in the way we all have seen…
Regards,
Trueler
You people are all losers. Your are listening to a person who has nothing better to do with his time , and is probably a jealous competitor . i have ordered from there for years and have lived all over the world and the butchers meat is second to none. Keep up the good work guys, and was probably a mistake introducing your product on the internet and letting people know our “neighbourhoods little secret”
Regards
Steve
Update on what kind of meat “The Butchers” gets from “Acadian Beef”:
http://trueler.com/2011/04/15/where-the-butchers-organic-meats-come-from/#update4
Thanks,
Trueler
Well I just called that Max Meats place about my ham and they told me they do NOT sell any organic products. So it seems the butcher does not sell only organic meats.
I was told ‘everything under the counter’ is organic’ This ham was under there…. but buyer beware I suppose.
For those people who think that The Butchers does not claim that they sell only organic products:
http://trueler.com/2011/04/15/where-the-butchers-organic-meats-come-from/#update3
Someone has been trying to post the links to Trueler on Chowhound today but the moderators keep deleting them. What are you trying to hide? Or has Marlon the Madoff paid you off too?
Hey Gary,
Nitrates and Nitrites are different things. If there are just a little bit of Sodium Nitrite, it may be OK to call it “Certified Organic”. I will try to double check it later.
Thanks!
It does not say ‘Nitrates’ anywhere but it says Sodium Nitrates. When I was there they told me everything under the counter is organic. The ham was there, but you never know. I was trying to call them to find out but of course no answer and the name of the Max Meat place that it comes from is hard to track down. It does not say organic anywhere on packaging. Maybe the store is selling regular meat now as well like the brisket.
@Gary:
I see Sodium Nitrite on the photo you provided. Are there nitrates also??
Sodium Nitrite is used as a preservative. It depends how much of it is used. If you don’t feel that ham is too salty, it should be OK. But if it is too salty, it means that there is a lot of Sodium Nitrite, and it is not too good for your health. I did not check, but maybe Canadian “Certified Organic” allows some amount of Sodium Nitrite.
If there are Nitrates – it is different…
Thanks,
Trueler
@Gary Apparently there are certified labels for organic foods. However I think this businesses that offer ‘Organic’ plays on the consumer’s preference to quality meat and a way for them to double and even triple their profits without doing much if anything at all.
Which reminds me, Trueler, why not use you investigative magic on this ham I bought there today. I wonder if it really is organic. Would organic food have nitrates in it?
http://img859.imageshack.us/i/img2277o.jpg/
So I went in to get my order today that was supposed to be ready. It has been a month and they have cancelled it twice and rescheduled to today. Needless to say they never even had a record of the order or anything I wanted anyway and said sorry too bad, place another order.
What is the point of taking orders if they don’t even bother to fill them or notify you at all? The girl that emailed me back said “your order will be ready April 17”
I bought a ham there from some ‘max meats ‘ in downsview It had nitrates in it and I doubt its even organic. Is there a way to tell?
Important update about Acadian Beef Farm:
http://trueler.com/2011/04/15/where-the-butchers-organic-meats-come-from/#update2
@MikeJefe: DealTicker is technically correct. The Butchers must abide the contract, as well as DealTicker.
But in my opinion it would be much more ethical to their own customers to cease the deal immediately in the morning until clearing up the situation with The Butchers. But they continued to encourage people to spend their time on buying coupons knowing that there are huge problems with The Butchers. This is what I meant as “the worst thing” from DealTicker.
Thanks,
Trueler
I also don’t think DealTicker did anything wrong. If both they and The Butchers have a contract then both sides have to honour what was agreed to. It would be just as wrong for DT to unilaterally cancel the deal and not sell coupons as agreed to, as it is for The Butchers to unilaterally renege and not honour the coupons.
Butchers signed the deal, DT did their part and sold the coupons, Butchers changed their mind and said “we won’t honour them.” DT got screwed so why wouldn’t they get lawyers involved to go after the scammers. If this will hasten the downfall of the Butchers through legal means, then I say the ends justify the means.
The Toronto Star will never expose The Butchers as scammers because it would reflect negatively on their in-house group buy site, WagJag. The Globe and Mail doesn’t have a group buy business so they (mildly) went after them.
Update…order arrived at 1430 AND THEY FORGOT HALF…UN-BE-FREAKIN-LEAVABLE…AAAAARRRRGGGGGG!
Nice deal, HORRIBLE service.
Been waiting TWO weeks for a meat order, supposed to come yesterday (Friday) didn’t, supposed to come today…hasn’t. Went to the store in person twice, CLOSED DURING the normal BUSINESS hours. Phone goes to machine so you can’t talk to anyone. E-mail takes a week to get a response. Absolutely HORRID customer service.
Edit – I was able to get through on the phone @ ~1315 and was told the driver had left with my order at 1215-1230 (30min drive at the WORST of times), spoke with “Eric” and he said if the driver didn’t arrive by 1330 to call him back and he would call the drivers father (??). It’s 1330 and I’ll give ’em 15min…OKAY. I have called several times. @ least 6 busy signals, 8 ring-outs and 8 times to the machine. It’s 1345 and it would be laughable if it wasn’t so frustrating.
Could be worse guys: http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpps/news/offbeat/italian-butcher-arrested-for-selling-decade-old-meat-dpgonc-20110415-to_12775721#ixzz1Jha7YVXG
Yeah, close the store during lunch time and try to lay the blame on the city health department? Nice try guys, I don’t think your competitors close over lunch to remain in compliance of the health code! Shouldn’t cleanliness be a continuous operation? Maybe Toronto Health should put up a INSPECTION FAILED sign and shut you down for good….
Chowhound moderators, shame on you for supporting these jerks.
Thanks to all for feedback and information! I have added another small update to the post about significant changes to their coupon policy and an article in “The Globe and Mail”.
Thanks,
Trueler
They are now closing during lunch too…Geez, their business practices are getting worse and worse. They are going to make it as hard as possible for people to redeem their vouchers:
** Due to an influx of vouchers we have decided to close the store from 11:30am-1pm weekdays to clean and restock the store. After discussions with Toronto Health we have taken precautionary measures to ensure we continue to keep up our standards around cleanliness of the store.
After doing some research they first did the group buys in early January. Over 25,000+ vouchers have been sold.
Site Date # vouchers cost value
Kijiji Deal 01/12/11 457 $25 $50
Team Save ??? 712 $25 $50
DealGetters 18/01/11 2,049 $40 $100
WebPiggy1 19/01/11 271 $40 $100
Buytopia1 03/02/11 1,527 $39 $100
WebPiggy2 11/02/11 375 $50 $150
Team Save ??? 1,162 $50 $150
Dealfind 25/02/11 11,508 $55 $175
Dealticker 2/28/2011 160 $29 $85
Dealticker 2/28/2011 1,800 $55 $200
WebPiggy3 08/04/11 2,800 $100 $400
Buytioia2 12/04/11 2,969 $99 $400
Total # of vouchers 25790
This deal is very similar to an old fashion pyramid scheme.
The Butcher does the first deal and then follows on to the next deal sites to pay off the loss from the previous deal.
There is no way a legitimate business could sustain such a blow on their brand and service, and still continue to run on more deal sites. This scheme has allowed the business owner to easily generate over $600,000 dollars in less than 3 months. There must be over 6 million dollars in liabilities circulating as vouchers.
If he goes out of business, this will KILL the small deal sites that have already features him, since most of them would use the money they’ve generated to re-invest in their small business. There is no way they would be able to keep up with the refunds.
This is why this deal is a scam, not because the product or service was compromised, but because there is no real legitimate business that would continue to deliberately hurt their brand with this type of marketing.