Concerns raised over legitimacy of Houston crab and beer festival Groupon

Many details for a popular crab and beer festival Groupon in Houston do not check out. See what raised concerns about the event's legitimacy in the following gallery. Many details for a popular crab and beer festival Groupon in Houston do not check out. See what raised concerns about the event's legitimacy in the following gallery. Photo: Groupon Photo: Groupon Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Concerns raised over legitimacy of Houston crab and beer festival Groupon 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

Concerns have been raised over the legitimacy of a Houston Groupon for tickets to an upcoming crab and beer festival downtown.

The Groupon is for a $79 ticket to a crab and beer festival Oct. 7 at 811 Caroline Street. At one point in the Groupon's life cycle, a $99 general admission ticket was offered (it is now sold out). In total, more than 30 tickets have been sold for the festival, which is organized by the California-based Expo Network headquartered in San Leandro.

Upon closer examination, many of the Groupon details listed above do not check out.

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For starters, 811 Caroline Street is a parking garage downtown. Cyrstal Molinar has been the property manager for the garage for more than three years and has never had such an event at the garage, nor would she ever, she told Chron.com. One of Molinar's employees reached out to Groupon Tuesday to question the festival and its claims.

A customer service representative confirmed Monday that Expo Network was headquartered in San Leandro and has been around for 10 months. San Leandro's business licensing office told Chron.com that it has no record for Expo Network, which claims it is also holding festivals this summer in Grayslake, Ill., Pleasanton, Calif., Jacksonville, Fla., Sacramento, Calif., and Los Angeles.

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Chron.com checked with the city to see if Expo Network had proper permits for the event and as of Aug. 9, the company has not applied for a noise permit or health permit. Expo Network could, however, apply for these permits as the event draws near, according to Houston city officials.

Expo Network turns up three customer complaints on RipoffReport claiming they were scammed by the company in California (read them here, here, and here).

"The day before the festival they changed the time to greatly reduce the value of the tickets. After I showed displeasure on their Facebook page stating that I felt I was scammed I was quickly blocked from the event," Dennis wrote on RipoffReport on May 18 from California.

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Last summer, another company scammed people out of thousands of dollars for a crab festival in Houston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. Tickets for these festivals were also sold on Groupon.

Repeated calls to Expo Network Tuesday were not answered. A request for comment has also been placed with Groupon.