Viva Tastings

I bought a LivingSocial voucher for this place as a gift. It was for a cooking class for two people + a gift certificate to their store in St. Lawrence Market. The classes offered sounded really good based on the website, so it was very disappointing that they made it extremely difficult for me to book a class… Eventually, I gave up and got my voucher refunded. It was especially too bad since the voucher was originally a gift for someone and I had to explain to them what happened!
— I called the owner, Karen, to register for a cooking class. She abruptly told me to just look at the website and email her and hung up before I could explain I had *already* looked at the website, picked my class, and was ready to sign up!
— I emailed her.
— She took 3 days to write back and by then the class we wanted was full. (Keep in mind, I emailed her 1 month before the voucher expired to avoid the rush of people using their vouchers). She said she was adding more classes and would contact me in the next few days.
— She later said she is adding classes in July and I could still use my voucher, even though it would be past the expiry date. She will let me know in the coming week.
— Almost 3 months pass and I have emailed her 3 times. NO REPLY.
— Finally, I say I will just cut my losses ask LivingSocial for a refund. That gets her to write me back. She explains the school was «closed for summer» (then why did she previously say she was adding classes in July?), no apology for the lack of communication. She says I can come for a class on Sept. 17. Doesn’t give me any choice and that day conflicts with my work schedule. I write back asking if I can join the Sept. 23 class. NO REPLY, so I assume there’s no room.
— On Sept. 22 I get an email «confirming» we are registered for the Sept. 23 class (really helpful to give customers notice less than 24 hours before a class starts!!).
The whole process of trying to get into a class was incredibly frustrating and for that reason alone, I wouldn’t even want to deal with this cooking school again even if the classes are great! It’s just not worth the hassle and based on my communications with Karen, they do not value their potential customers (or they don’t value voucher customers, in which case, why participate in those types of deals?!?).