Update: City Deals has closed it's doors. Sorry, I have no further information.
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Earlier Post:
For those that missed it, over the last few days there has been word that City Deals is having some issues and has announced they are being acquired by another company.
Last night KUTV reported that some of City Deals merchants were not being paid and there have been reports that some of these merchants are choosing not to honor the certificates that you, in turn have purchased. City Deals reportedly states that as soon as the acquisition is complete all merchants will be paid. You can also hear more about this on the Rod Arquette show. As a result I will no longer be publishing City Deals offers until we have further clarification.
It's important to us to do our best to make sure that the deals you find here are items you can count on. Making sure that only legitimate deals are posted is very important to me. Your money is hard earned and that is never forgotten on this site.
My biggest concern, is that last nights news story gave merchants who had intended on honoring the certificates a reason not to, even those that have been paid.
In the meantime, if you have a City Deal that you've been saving you may want to break it out and use it, call ahead to make sure it will be accepted. Don't get rid of them until we find out more. I'm guessing each certificate will need to be dealt with at the merchant level.
Full disclosure, City Deals has been an advertiser on this site. Until last nights story we were unaware of any pending acquisition. They have not issued us a statement.
james dixon says
September 17, 2011 at 12:10 pmI just got stuck with a 66.07 bill from Ramada, I purchased a few months back, a $50 gift certificate to the Ramada hotel in draper. They will not honor the gift certificate. I presented the gift card to the night desk and they said that in the morning they would take off the difference once the manager was in. What a way to start your morning, especially when we didn’t need to spend 66.07 that we don’t have at the moment. I hope i calm down before Monday before I go to Jeff Stucki’s front door and crap on his morning in front of his family. posted on September 17th 2011.
c4u says
September 17, 2011 at 2:07 pmTry contacting City Deals. I have not been in contact with them since the change, but I’ve heard they are refunding some of the vouchers. It’s probably City Deal credit.
Heather says
September 8, 2011 at 11:02 amIn July, I went to use a City Deals certificate and the merchant told me that City Deals was not returning their numerous phone calls. They stated that while they would accept the gift certificate, they were concerned that this company was not a good one. They had not received any payment from them and lost money as a result. I should have used all of my certificates at that time but I didn’t. I have 12 gift certificates I will not be able to use now. No merchant will accept them because they have not been paid by City Deals. This makes sense to me–although I am out over $100 for it. I should have known these deals were too good to be true. What a flawed business model City Deals must have had. Even though it offered advertising to these merchants, how could it possibly have worked long term? I would not believe that City Deals will make good on anything.
Matt Gephardt says
September 2, 2011 at 10:08 pmCitydeals.com remained down Friday night. But according to Citydeals founder Jeff Stucki, the company is not out of business.
2News first began investigating a week ago after receiving calls from dozens merchants who said Citydeals was selling certificates to their businesses but then not paying them in return.
“I’ve been bugging [Citydeals] for about 6 months,” says Sub Zero Ice Cream owner Jerry Hancock.
“I was supposed to get my check on the 15th of August for July and I didn’t get it,” says Melissa Henderson who owns her own aesthetics company.
“They pretty much tell me they don’t have the money to pay me,” says Daniel Perry, owner of High Velocity Helicopters.
Some merchants, like Perry, say they simply cannot afford to do honor gift certificates sold by Citydeals.
“I’ve got to just turn [customers] away,” Perry says. “I can’t afford to put the fuel in and not get paid for it.”
That left hundreds of consumers, like Amy Yates, stranded with unusable gift certificates and no answers.
“I just don’t think that it’s good practice for people to just shut down and not explain anything at all,” Yates says.
On Tuesday, Citydeals told 2News that they were “being acquired by another company,” Dealsthatmatter.com.
2News was also told that “all existing merchant accounts will be paid in full.”
But that acquisition fell through.
The next day, Citydeals.com said simply, “Citydeals has enjoyed serving you for the past four years. We are closing our doors.”
But, not so fast. Friday, 2News got an email from Citydeals founder Jeff Stucki.
“Citydeals did NOT close its doors,” Stucki says.
Stucki says Dealsthatmatter.com had control of Citydeals.com. Stucki says is was Deals-that-Matter that posted the closure message. And it is Deals-that-Matter that unexpectedly fired Citydeal’s 19 employees.
But Deals-that-Matter tells 2News, those statements by Stucki are simply are not true.
Either way, Stucki writes that Citydeals has “sought and obtained other funding to pay all amounts due to our merchants and to help to insure that every coupon issued from our company is honored in full.”
2News spoke to a couple merchants tonight who say, this is not the first time they have been told by Citydeals that their check is in the mail. However, everyone seems hopeful that Citydeals will land on its feet and get everyone paid that needs to be paid.
City deals says they are re-hiring their terminated employees.
Jeff Stucki’s full statement to 2News:
“As Citydeals’ founder, I am extremely happy to finally be free to talk about the status of Citydeals and our plans to go forward. There has been much inaccurate information in the press that due to nondisclosure restrictions with a former acquiring party, we were unable tospeak up and address. Now we are free to go forward. We have no desire to malign any other party, however, Citydeals did NOT close its doors. Our website was redirected and our site and Facebook page was being controlled this week by the acquiring organization, who without warning on Monday also laid off our 19 employees. It was that organization that posted the message we had closed and has been sending emails and messages from our server to our merchants and customer database through this week. The acquiring party has since rescinded their agreement, leaving us now free to move forward (which has always been our intent).
“We are in the process of reclaiming our website and control of our customer database and have sought and obtained other funding to pay all amounts due to our merchants and to help to ensure that every coupon issued from our company is honored in full. Going forward we will be as active and vocal as ever in pioneering steps to ensure that any consumer who purchases a coupon from us can come back to us and request a refund in the event the merchant company doesn’t honor the coupon we’ve sold–a practice we strongly hope that other similar companies will be adopting as well.
“Again, we have not closed our doors.
“We are happy to renew our efforts with our re-hired employees and our reinvigorated company to ensure the principles of quality our company was founded on in 2006 will be upheld from here on. We thank everyone in the community for their thoughts and support and who havereiterated their desire to work with us in moving forward through the challenges we’ve been addressing this week.”
Fred says
September 6, 2011 at 8:48 pmI have had City Deal vouchers not honored for over a month from Cybergate in Provo. The owner told me that he has never gotten paid any money. I contacted City Deals and told them I wanted a refund on two vouchers. City Deals told me to return the vouchers to them. I did as I was told and the next email I got was that now I had a credit on my City Deals account. They told me that I needed to use it before August 31st. I redeemed them as a credit before the 31st and City Deals told me my vouchers were in the mail. I have never received the new vouchers. So I have hundreds of dollars worth of vouchers and credits never received. Dissappointed in City Deals and the Merchant.
c4u says
September 6, 2011 at 9:38 pmI’m sorry Fred! You are not alone. I’m sure it doesn’t help but, City Deals owes me a great amount of money too. We all just have to wait and see what happens next.
bunged says
August 31, 2011 at 1:10 pmNo, Deals That Matter is NOT acquiring City Deals–It’s a rumor. Just confirmed with the company.
c4u says
August 31, 2011 at 1:37 pmYou are correct about that. Deals That Matter has confirmed with me they have not acquired City Deals.
Ann Dee says
August 31, 2011 at 11:22 amUh oh. I gave my coupon phobic relatives some of the deals I purchased. I really hope they don’t have any problems redeeming them. And I have several hundred dollars in purchases of the laser hair removal vouchers. SURE hope I can either use them or get a refund. We’ll see. Must keep a positive attitude. This is life, eh????
Mindy says
August 31, 2011 at 11:07 amI also have many $100’s in unredeemed city deals….and some store credit too. I am VERY frustrated!
Mary says
August 31, 2011 at 11:00 amDeals that Matter bought City Deals.
Kate says
August 31, 2011 at 10:01 amI just went to the website and it’s closed, the phone number listed on the bottom is also disconnected. I have had some credit on my account and I have some certificates that I paid for but have not used yet. It’s frustrating and upsetting. Did anyone have a better luck getting a hold of them? Thanks.
crystal says
August 31, 2011 at 9:49 amI went to an appt last night from a city deals. I found out that this merchant is one of the people that City Deals has not paid. It was embarrassing! I felt guilty to be redeeming something that the merchant hadn’t been paid on. I always seem to get a weird look when I redeem my City Deals and now know it’s because people aren’t getting paid! I also am extremely frustrated because I have $100’s of dollars in City Deals vouchers to use that I have PAID for