Jasmere {Guest Post}

I love a good bargain, and really, who doesn’t? Especially in today’s economy, many of us are looking for ways to save money.

There are several websites offering “deal-a-day discounts” on restaurants, products, entertainment and more. Recently, I learned about Jasmere.com and had the opportunity to use a credit of $20 from the company to purchase one of their daily deals.

Most of the daily deal sites offer you a set price for your purchase. For example, you pay $20 for $40 worth of food to a local restaurant, which gives you a 50% savings.Jasmere.com works a little differently. They offer merchandise from national websites beginning at 50% off the face value. As more people buy a particular deal, the price continues to lower so you save even more. Like other daily deal websites, such as Groupon, you get $10 for each friend you refer that makes a purchase.

I purchased a daily deal for a website called My Lucky Wish which personalizes items, like stationery, cups, plates, etc. The deal was $14 and when I tried paying for it with the $20 credit in my Jasmere account, it would only let me use $13.86 of my credit, and it charged the remaining balance to my credit card, an annoying $0.14.

When I e-mailed the Jasmere staff to ask about it, they told me that most people don’t pay for their purchase entirely with Jasmere dollars and that it was a little “glitch” they were working out.

I find it really hard to believe that people wouldn’t pay for an entire purchase with referral dollars. After all, many of the deals are less than $20. If you’ve referred two friends who bought a deal from the site, you could easily pay for a purchase using only your referral dollars.

Jasmere is also different than several of the daily deal sites in how it “delivers” the vouchers you bought to you. With all the other sites I’ve used (Plum District, Eversave, Groupon, etc.) the voucher is in your account. You then print the voucher off to cash in at local establishments or use the redemption codes on them for online sites.

With Jasmere, the voucher was e-mailed to me directly from the merchant, which took several days. Not to mention there’s no way to retrieve it from your Jasmere account – the only thing displayed in your account is your order history. Thankfully, I didn’t delete or “lose” the e-mail I received from the merchant with your voucher information, otherwise I would have had a hard time recovering it.

From the time I placed my order with My Lucky Wish to when I actually received it, more than five weeks passed. I had to contact the merchant several times to ask about the status. I was told it normally takes 10-14 business days, so I’m not sure why my order took twice as long as promised.

Overall, I think Jasmere has some really great offers. I’ve seen deals for high end chocolate, clothing, beauty products, jewelry and more. I think they can improve the voucher delivery and keep a copy for you to retrieve later in your account. One thing I do like about Jasmere.com is that they keep track of your referrals because other deal sites don’t.

If you like to save money, it’s worth checking Jasmere out. Despite some of the frustrations I’ve had with my experience, most of it was due to the merchant, (which is no fault of Jasmere’s) I will try Jasmere again.

What “deal-a-day” shopping services do you use? Have you ever used Jasmere? What are your thoughts

This post was written by Jamie K. Jamie K. is a first-time mom currently living in south Texas with her husband, an Air Force officer, and her 15-month-old son. She’s a professional communicator who works full-time and constantly struggles to balance work and personal responsibilities – and her addiction to chocolate. She’s making an effort to be more “green” by trying cloth diapering, buying organic food when possible and using natural cleaners – and she tries to do it while saving money and getting great bargains.