So theres a groupon here it’s $275 for 1 year of unlimited IPL on any body part, only thing is you can only go every 5 weeks which isn’t bad. I know IPL sucks, but that’s potentially 10 leg sessions for $275 which is so cheap, I mean $27.50 a session. I already have a package at another clinic using Apogee elite Alex on my legs for $160 each session for 6 sessions (which I pay as I do them not all up front etc), thoughts?
Does it say for how long each appointment is for? I should check that as you may only be able to have 1 hour every 5 weeks
I bought 6 ipl session for $199 (groupon) and only did one so far. I am returning next week for 2nd session, but only because I already paid for it. Frankly, I wish I never bought that groupon - it is true you get what you pay for.
On the other hand if I could get unlimited IPL sessions for photofacials, I would absolutely buy it - but that is a total different deal :).
Let me give a small break down on those deals.
First of all they need to lower their every day price.
Then they need to pay their technicians, so if you assume about $20 an hour which is say good enough for 1 large body part.
Then take into account that the deal site takes 50% of the money.
So from $275 they have left $137.5 and then need to pay for lets say 10 sessions worth of technician hours so that’s $200 (cost to them right there)
So without taking into account MANY other expenses that the clinic has they are already at $62.5 loss per client.
You should also take into account other expenses like other employees, equipment, leasing, insurance, taxes etc… The figure is probably at $100-$150 loss per customer to them.
Some of those deals are so appealing that i see 400-500 people who bought them, so if you take 400 people at $100 loss that’s $40,000 loss right there and of course with 400 people the clinic will be full for the next year without making any money, wonder how long they will stay in business? Or maybe they will transfer the cost to the customer and save money by doing less of a treatment, but then what’s the whole point in doing the deal in the first place?
Do you know which IPL machine they’re using?
I’m not too sure, I didn’t go for it. There’s lots of clinics on Groupon and what not that have deals for Soprano XL, $49 for 3 areas any size, so can do 3 legs sessions for $49. Bought 2 of them now from 2 diff clinics. I figure even if Soprano XL isn’t that amazing, $100 for 6 full legs is pretty cheap…
There was a deal for a place in Queens in NY the other day for $99 for any 6 treatments on a small area. I looked it up and they had GentleLASE and GentleYAG. I was suprised.
Awesome waiting for that to come up here lol, NO one in Toronto has GentleLASE everyone has Soprano XL. That’s how I found my current place that has Apogee elite MPX they had a group buy deal thing so was surprised about that but 99% of these things are IPL and Soprano XL.
I think with groupon they’re mostly counting on you buying additional services or sending other customers their way…so it might be good for them in the end.
It’s def that, but that makes more sense on the 4 treatments or 6, unlimited for a year is being restricting!
Gawker did an interesting article on Groupon recently. Many business lose money on it. They have to discount by 50% or so and then pay 50% of that to Groupon. That’s not a lot of money. However, many people don’t redeem at all, so that helps.
Check this out: http://uk.gawker.com/5785317/the-groupon-backlash-is-on
After having my adventure with IPL groupon I came to a conclusion that nobody decent is going to work at the place which does IPL hair removal.
If a person is any good they will work at the place that has real laser because a) that place will be in higher demand - hence more potential for commission, b) they understand that IPL is not the best choice for hair removal.
That being said, a person working at the company with a good laser is not guaranteed to be any good, but the odds are better here.
P.S. Not all business lose money on Groupon - you just have to do it right. My husband and I ran Groupon offer for our business and we did not lose any money - it was for loss leader (we never make any money on that service anyway) and enough people used our other services after having pleasant Groupon experience with us, so that we actually made money on the offer and got new (repeat!) customers.
I don’t entirely agree with that, it just depends on the place. Some of my best results came from IPL. I did 4 sessions on my stomach followed by 2 with Apogee alex. I literally have no hair on my stomach at all, my happy trail is virtually gone, and my last session was over a year ago. I only switched because of all the bad reviews of IPL but I used to get it done at a reputable cosmetic surgeon here in Toronto.
I don’t doubt your results. I guess I have a tendency to generalize. I should have said “in general”, but of course there are exceptions to the rule.
I don’t know if your #1 always applies. Most consumers aren’t on these forums and have no idea what machine they’re being treated with or care 
Gawker followed up with a business owner experience, which had some positive ones like yours in addition to the bad ones: http://uk.gawker.com/5787645/groupon-the-business-owner-experience
It’s so true though. It’s interesting when you go to most of these group buy sites and you’ll see “140 people have bought the deal” or something, even 50, and then you look, and NO one has posted any questions, or maybe 1 person will write a question asking something random. Then you look and the deal says nothing about laser type, and even their website doesn’t mention it at all. So many people just buy because of the deal but don’t know anything further beyond that or don’t care.