If you’re like me, you get a lot of deal -of-the-day emails. And if you’re also like me, you delete most of them immediately due their complete lack of relevance to your lifestyle. Burger joints that are 40 miles away, equestrian classes, etc . It’s just part of what’s sparked a series of Groupon “pros/cons ” articles from the RSR partners since early 2011.

But a lot of the “con ” has been on the fulfillment side. For example, I bought one for a restaurant one time – a place that’s usually empty – which simply couldn’t handle the mad dash of new clientele it brought in. And when we did the math on what those new customers were paying for/experiencing, it was clearly a loss leader. Nikki’s had similar experiences. Paula too. In fact, I’d sort of sworn Groupon off entirely. When you’re paying for a service, more often than not, it’s just not worth being the “coupon bracelet ” people among the full-price patrons.

But recently I received a Groupon offer that caught my interest; a full auto detail for 1/3 the usual cost. I live in New England, and since the ground is covered in leaves, I figured I should probably try to get the summer sand out of my car before the snow flies. And my thinking on this went as follows:

This is not a restaurant, an excursion – it’s not even an experience. It’s a car wash. There is literally nothing about this that could make such a service any different than if I paid full price, right? So I bought it.

When I read the fine print, it told me I need to make an appointment. No biggie – I’d call them up. And like a smart Groupon buyer (or so I thought), I even waited a few weeks to make this call. I knew I had months to take advantage of the deal, and I’d let any rush they got from their Groupon experience die down.

But here’s the thing: apparently I made a fatal mistake. Because when no one answered, and I was asked to leave a message, I mentioned a dirty word: the “G ” word. The result was that no one ever called me back. I tried a couple different days during business hours, but alas, the damage was done: I had been marked with a scarlet letter.

In retrospect, if I knew then what I know now, I would have just let it go. Because when I finally did get someone on the phone, it wasn’t the receptionist: it was the owner. And with brutal honesty, here’s what he had to share. The waiting list for a Groupon-bought appointment was backed up well into next year. Not because that many people had purchased them, but, because of the loss the company took on each Groupon deal, they could only schedule one per week. And that if I’d like to pay full price, he could have me in the following day. He even went on to offer me a brand-designed deal – which wasn’t even that much more than the Groupon deal itself (but at least it was his deal and didn’t require third party payment) – where he could get me in within a day or two.

And this is the story of my last Groupon. I could have yelled, squawked, done whatever people do in these situations. But I realized the value of the story – for me at least – was worth the price of admission. I got to see behind the curtain. I have no idea if the owner tells most people what he told me; he seemed frustrated enough in his own business to want to get it off his chest. But when a total stranger basically admits that – for his specific small business – the value of third party deal-of-the-day services is to serve as a marketing tool to lure in new customers, and then frustrate those customers to the point where he can extort full-paid services from them, well… that was all I needed to hear.