Photo by alancleaver_2000/flickr

I admit it, I was really irritated when Blackboard Eats first made the announcement earlier this week that it was going to start charging $1 per passcode or $20 for an annual membership. That $1 amount is small/big enough to be annoying.

The one thing that made this deals service stand out from the bazillion Groupon-Living Social-Yelp-Zagat models out there is that it didn’t cost you a thing to partake of the deal. All you had to do was be a subscriber. No biggie. Click on the button to get the passcode and it would be emailed to you and stored.

Plus, they were able to offer discounts off your entire bill at foodie-fave restaurants like Petrossian, Mo-Chica and Valentino because they didn’t charge as they are editorial, not advertorial. The other services require you pay for the coupon. I’ve lost money on these in the past because I failed to use the coupon in time. Ferget that!

Of course, because it didn’t cost you anything to get the BBE code, chances of your using it weren’t that great; regardless of the email reminders telling you that the expiration date for your discount was nigh. You wouldn’t lose any money if you didn’t use it.

Turns out, this became a problem for those who would have used it if they could have grabbed hold of the limited number of passcodes. And yes, I’m guilty of being one of the many who let their passcodes expire. Sorry. Still have a couple in my queue that I’m debating using. *ducks*

So Blackboard Eats tried to think up a way to hold click-happy deal hunters accountable. Apparently the company thought about this for four months, testing and polling people. They considered charging the restaurants but realized it would be too difficult to keep track of everything. So they started capping specials as a way to encourage people to think before they clicked. Still didn’t work.

Kaelin Burns, operations manager of Blackboard Eats, said, “After weighing all of the options, we reasoned that one buck was a small price to pay for saving tons of money and a small price to lose if you don’t end up going (unlike the other upfront models).”

OK, I understand it a little better now but how do you feel about it? Good idea or bad idea?

BTW, I should say that BBE offered to comp my annual membership. I’m debating whether to accept it because it seems unfair. But at the same time, I want those codes, and I promise to use them from now on. I swear.

Seize the Deal

4 of 25: I attended Los Angeles Magazine‘s party for Rosa Mexicano in L.A. Live back in September and although the party was m’OK I was pretty excited when they gave us a free membership to their Circles consumer club. Excited not only because I didn’t have to pay the $48 membership fee to join but now I’d be privvy to exclusive Los Angeles Magazine events for discounted prices/free. In any case, I had always meant to do a roundup of L.A. sites that offer deals and such.

Blackboard Eats/LA: This newsletter/Web site offers dining deals off hot restaurants around town. This week’s special is 40% off lunch at Fraiche in Santa Monica. To get in on the deal you sign up for their newsletter and then you get discount codes emailed you to weekly. The catch is that there’s a time limit on the code: 24 hours to retrieve it and then 30 days from when you retrieve the code to actually use the discount. Easy peasy. It’s free to join. Twitter: @BlackboardEats.

Goldstar: If you haven’t yet heard of this Website that offers discounts off fun events around town then you really do need to get out more. They’re one of the first deal makers out there. Not ticket brokers but rather they work directly with their 3,200 venue partners to secure deep discounts to events like Cirque de Soleil’s Kooza and LA Opera’s Barber of Seville. There’s no membership fee and it’s free to sign up. The only extra cost is the nominal transaction fee per ticket purchase. Twitter: @GoldstarLA.

Groupon: This site offers awesome discounts daily off a wide range of stuff, from laser hair removal treatment to organic grocery delivery service to dinners at fancy restaurants. The way it works, however, is that you can only get the deal if enough people sign up for the deal, too. Thus, group + coupon = Groupon; although the site says they named their company after a town in Switzerland. So if you find a good deal, best to share with your friends. No cost to sign up for their daily deal alerts. Twitter: @GrouponLA.

Los Angeles Circles: Now unlike the above sites, this one costs $48 to join but its deals are more exclusive and most of them are actually free once you sign up! Since Los Angeles Magazine has such a huge readership that all these companies want to reach, the publication gets offered all sorts of promotional gifts and discounts. For instance, among the current deals are a couple of free VIP passes to LACMA or a buy-one-get-one-free wine tasting flight at Malibu Wines. If you want a membership but can’t bear to pay $48 for it, lucky for you that they’re currently running a holiday special where if you’re one of the first 100 people to sign up before Christmas you get a one-year membership for half-off. That’s $24. Would make a great Xmas gift. Twitter: @lacircles.

To track more deals around L.A., check out my Twitter list: LA Deals.