Ottawa coupon website under investigation
Your City Deals, which failed to deliver discount gas cards, owes former employee, vendor
CBC News
Posted: Nov 19, 2012 6:52 PM ET
Last Updated: Nov 20, 2012 12:56 PM ET
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An Ottawa coupon website that failed to deliver discount gas cards to customers also owes money to a former employee and a local vendor, CBC News has learned.
Your City Deals was unable to fulfill the nearly 10,000 Petro Canada gas cards it sold for just less than half the price. As a result, PayPal refused to release funds to those who bought the cards because the merchant was "unable to demonstrate that they [were] able to meet their customer commitments."
The company is also under investigation by the Better Business Bureau, which told CBC Ottawa's Judy Trinh 10 complaints against Your City Deals have been filed.
Sandra Tisiot said she ran a deal in August 2012 to sell her organizational book on the coupon site, but she never received the money they owed her. The management also never returned her calls, she said.
"They owe me $160. It's not a lot of money, but you can't go around doing business like that," she said. "There's a certain level of quality and integrity and character that's not there."
Former employee owed $1,400
Chris Peacock said he has had a similar experience, except he worked for Your City Deals in September and October of this year.
Phil Dzidah, who took over Your City Deals in October, says everyone will get their money back. (CBC)Peacock said he has not been paid for 65 hours of work as a broker amounting to about $1,400 of missing pay, which has caused him to worry about paying rent.
"I looked at my kids everyday. This job could have placed my children in a shelter," Peacock said. "I'm glad we had people in our lives who helped us out."
Phil Dzidah, co-owner of Your City Deals, said Tisiot and Peacock worked with the old owners before he took over the company. But Peacock argued he did work with Dzidah beginning in October.
Dzidah added he plans to pay everyone who is owed money. The owner also said he might change the company's name because of the damaged reputation.
PayPal has said it refunded all the customers who used its service, but customers have had to contact their credit card companies if they used personal credit cards to purchase the gas cards.
Your City Deals recently advertised that it received a $50-million investment from "secure equity line financing" and "convertible debentures."
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