Deals: Healthworks, Lyndell's in cambridge

[thespian.livejournal.com]

Healthworks in Porter is extremely popular with many Davis women, but almost every time the discussion of health clubs comes up, about a third of the women in any group note they can't afford it, including me. So:

today's Buy With Me is 29 visits to Healthworks for $29. The visits are good from now until October. Since that's *all* they say on the site, I'm going to assume it runs until the last day of September.

and for Lyndell's addicts, willing to travel today's Coupme is $5 for $10 for the former Carberry's location in Central.

(disclaimer: I get a referral off buywithme, which is new, and I get credit at coupme if you tell them thespian at sleepingcat.com sent you. But feel free not to.)

Comments

[ron_newman]

How many of these Grouponish services are there in greater Boston? So far I know about Groupon, BuyWithMe, LivingSocial, and now Coupme (new to me). Are there others?

Coupme is confused if it thinks that the Prospect St. location is "the Historic Lyndell's Bakery".

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Restaurant.com, too.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

One of the things to watch out for on restaurant.com (I've never checked any of the other sites) is the fine print for each restaurant: $25 gift cert for $10 is only good on purchases of $50 or more, gratuity is included automatically at %18 on original bill, yadda yadda.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

i tend not to think of restaurant.com as the same sort of thing, since they aren't a 'daily coupon site'.

they are pretty restrictive, and you just sort of buy some stuff *towards* a purchase. And then it gets really...you can spend $2 for $10 towards the purchase, but you have to buy $35 of food and you have to do it before 3pm. On Wednesdays. And sit at one of the three tables we accept Restaurant.com vouchers from. But we won't tell you which ones they are. And we'll change it a couple times a night, so don't even think about posting them on Yelp.

It's a shame; I used to be really devoted to them, but then the restrictions got too complicated for me to bother with.

(hotpoint was telling me on Saturday that apparently Groupon started as a Woot imitator, with the vouchers from local businesses offered when they didn't have an item to shill)

As to Ron's question, there used to be a site called Qponus (http://qponus.com/). They disappeared for a while with no offers for a month or so, but they're now offering something today from Life Without Laundry. LWL is a good place; when they offered a groupon, I contacted them about servicing Somerville since they were serving the Cambridge side of Porter but not us, and they opened it up while the offer was out.

There was something called Adealio, but they are...oh, how shall I say this....probably they possess deceptive business practices. They said in May they would launch in Boston when they had 2000 people signed up in the area. Within 2 days of that announcement, they somehow seemed to have 700 sign ups (that seems low for this area, since I saw it on at least 5 different LJs, two of which were b0st0n and here). Right now, they have 937 signups. I don't trust them. (No link, no love)

edited to add a link for Qponus.

[teresaelsey.livejournal.com]

I love Healthworks so much. Had a great time with their Groupon.

Sadly, this time they've put crazy restrictions on when you can use this coupon at the Porter Square location: For Cambridge, voucher cannot be redeemed Monday-Friday from 5:30-9am, 4-8pm and Saturday 7:30-11am; for other locations, all times are valid.

[bangie24.livejournal.com]

BuyWithMe includes more details on the deal right on their site. Just click the 'details' tab below the picture.

• Limit of 1 voucher per person, and buy as many as you’d like for gifts.
• Valid for new visitors only.
• Voucher valid at five Healthworks locations: Back Bay, Brookline, Cambridge, Chestnut Hill, and Salem.
• For Cambridge, voucher cannot be redeemed Monday-Friday from 5:30-9am, 4-8pm and Saturday 7:30-11am; for other locations, all times are valid.
• Cannot be combined with other offers or promotions.
• Voucher not valid until the day after purchase.
• Voucher expires 10/02/2010 (all visits must be used by this date).

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Good to know--thanks! I posted a groupon to FB recently and a friend responded saying he liked Restaurant.com, and that they were having an 80% off sale (if you were on their mailing list, you would be mailed the password), so you could buy a voucher worth $25 for $2; if you still have to spend $50 to use it, even at 80% off, it's not as good a deal as most groupons since you would be spending $27 for $50 worth of food--that adds up to less than 50% off, whereas the groupons are often 50% off or more. When I went to the site, I didn't care much for the offers, but I thought I would mention it since a friend recommended them. Good to have more input, though.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

My biggest issue is that while restaurant.com and the participating restaurants disclose this, it's in fine print, and there's no warning on the front page - "hey, you're not getting as good a deal as you think."

Then again, TANSTAAFL.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

I don't think of those as 'crazy restrictions'; those are the 'peak hours' - they offer a basic and advanced memberships, and those restrictions line up with the hours you can go in on a basic membership. It isn't an issue for me, and when the girls at the front desk know they're not packed, they've been very good about letting a friend of mine with the basic membership go in for a class.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

new visitors, btw, means 'people who don't already have a membership'. I have used several 'new visitors only' offers there, and others whom I know have had memberships in the past have used them as well. They just don't want current members buying one, putting their account on hold, then using this for a month.

(by all means check with the person at the counter! I am not an employee, this is just an anecdote on my usage of the offers!)

[teresaelsey.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. How about "difficult to use if you have a 9-5 job"?

I love this place so much that I'm trying to figure out how to make it work anyway.

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

Looks like they are offering the student membership restrictions, which I had in grad school. You get discounted membership but can't go during peak hours. It worked out well for me because, like a lot of students, I kept odd hours. For people who go to the gym right after work, though, definitely a pain.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Too bad they don't have a swimming pool...

[thespian.livejournal.com]

true. but they *do* have the whirlpool that you don't need to wear a bathing suit in.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Well, the Y has a pool and it's only ~$30/month without a groupon.

[freedmam.livejournal.com]

Also Eversave.com

[tamalinn.livejournal.com]

qponus, too.

[ron_newman]

Which Y?

[thespian.livejournal.com]

depends. I have a $40 groupon for Elephant Walk in my folder of coupon-site vouchers that has no restrictions at all. It really depends what your preferences are. I prefer a lot more flexibility.

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

so does bally's and it's only 19.99 a month

[thespian.livejournal.com]

I just found a new one about 3 minutes ago, called Eversave. http://www.eversave.com/boston