The Daily Deal site phenomena has exploded! I’m talking about the sites like Groupon, Eversave (my favorite), Living Social, Totsy, Mamapedia, Philly Deal Yo………..I could go on and and on, there are thousands of them. These deals can be a fantastic opportunity to enjoy restaurants, shops and other venues at a great price. But some are not as great as they seem.

Recently I purchased two that I thought were good deals and later on turned out to be not so great. I already explained how the Vistaprint offer was not so hot. The other that I found to be not that great was the Bath & Body Works deal.

The BBW deal was spend $10, get $20 gift certificate to Bath & Body Works. I’m pretty sure it was Groupon. Admittedly, I purchased it without scrutinizing it carefully, I had only checked the expiration date prior to purchasing. First, it was only good for online purchases, not in store. Second, I came to find out, when trying to order, that the deal itself was considered a shopping code, and it could not be combined with any other discount codes. So while I got half off, it was half off of full retail price. And the $20 could not be applied towards shipping, I was going to have to pay for shipping, no matter what.

I wanted some bubble bath, preferably in lavender. Found some for $16.50. Added it to my cart. To use up the rest of the certificate, I found a candle for $3.50. A candle that I didn’t want nor need since I have tons of free Glade ones and other really cheap Yankee ones. But my total was now $20. Had to pay $6 in s&h.  Add in the $10 that I originally paid for the certificate, and I paid $16 for an item that cost $16.50. Wow! What savings! Ha ha.

It’s easy to get swept up in the hype, and that is exactly what these daily deal sites are counting on–that you’ll pick up on the urgency of only being able to access this offer for one day. What I had planned to do, was to cash in on the 6 for $20 deals that they often do on their anti-bacterial stuff. Only I’d be getting 6 for $10, since that is what I had paid. Like I said, couldn’t stack deals.

I recently posted and quickly rescinded a Mamapedia deal I received. Spend $25, get $50 towards any purchase of Little Tikes stuff. With spring coming, I thought this would be a good way to get the kids some outside toys for Easter. Well, upon reading the fine print, you’d spend $25, get $50. But the $50 was towards any $100 purchase. So you were really only saving $25 off a $100 purchase and it wouldn’t include S&H.

If you see a daily deal that you think is a good offer, here are some tips that I’m using, to make sure it is smart spending:

1. See how long you have to purchase it, and if there is in fact a maximum number of deals being sold. Evaluate the true urgency of this offer. If you can, wait it out and see what others are posting about purchasing it.

2. READ THE FINE PRINT and if you have doubts, ask. One trend I’m seeing is that the daily deal sites are contracting out to third parties. I recently purchased one of the gift card offers, and it was contracted out to Digital Doorstep. My experience was fine, but I understand that with the movie/Starbucks offer, not everyone’s experience was “fine” as it was not disclosed in the fine print.

3. If you are purchasing a code to use on another site, go visit that other site and do a test transaction to see if you’ll be able to stack codes. (Just don’t finish and pay for it, kwim?) Some sites DO NOT allow more than one code, so chances are you will have to pay for shipping, you may not be able to buy an item on sale and so on. Is this daily deal strong enough to stand on it’s own? Or were you counting on stacking it with other offers?

4. Go to the Facebook page of both companies (the daily deal site and whatever it is you’re purchasing). Several of them have had things blow up on them, on their walls. If there are lots of complaints, think again about purchasing!

5. Depending on how much money you’re spending, consider looking them up on the Better Business Bureau. There is one daily deal site that literally has THOUSANDS of complaints logged at BBB.

6. If it’s newer company you’ve never heard of, ask around. It takes virtually no capital to start a daily deal site, so they are popping up everywhere. Then, some get overwhelmed and can’t fulfill the orders.

As Mr. Brady said, “Caveat emptor!”

Edited 1/8/12: I am updating this post with new tips (at bottom of post) because I have seen lots of shoppers get burned recently on some of the daily deal sites. This was originally published in March of 2011.