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You seem like a smart fellow, so you tell me. Have a read of section 4 here - what does the very small fineprint say?

http://www.groupon.com/pages/merchant-terms-of-service-1



"and will arrange for payment of for any Now Aggregate Net Amounts due in such form and on such a schedule as will be communicated at the time the DR is established."

Also, the waffle guy could have easily searched Google to learn what this means for him. But we already know that he wasn't nearly conscientious enough to do that.

If something is truly important to a person, they'll study it. For business people, this means studying business contracts before they agree to them. For scientists, this means paying attention to their experiments, keeping their eyes on their instruments, and keeping up with theoretical advances.

To be successful at anything, you have to sweat the details.


I have no motivation to read that wall of text, but if I had a business that was considering a Groupon deal I most certainly would.


That's my point. It doesn't say how they are going to get paid. While it certainly is an example of caveat emptor (or should that be caveat vendItor? The lines blur...), misleading someone via omission is in my opinion just as bad as not telling the truth, if you have an impression via the sales process that payment would be prompt.

Before you object, consider the reaction of the waffle shop owner if he had been told that it would take 3 months to pay for his services, but he still had to outlay capital to provide that service. Does it seem likely he would have gone ahead with the Groupon campaign? One cannot say with absolutely certainty, but I think it likely he would not have proceeded!




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