Great American Cookie Co

I bought a GROUPON back in February of 2012 and I called to see if I could ORDER a cake for May 12th as my son's birthday is that day. The Groupon expired on the 9th. BEFORE I bought this I called the Shelbyville Rd store and the girl that answered said yes, I could order it before and just present my Groupon before the expiration to pay for it. I said that was great and I wen and bought one. Fast forward to today, which is the day that the Groupon expires...I called to order a cake for Saturday, the 12th. The girl on the phone said that I can as long as it isn't a Groupon. I said, well it is a Groupon and it doesn't expire until today. She said that on it it said 24 hour advance notice required. I said, No, it says 24 hour advance reservation required. She said that the last day to order a cake was yesterday. I then reminded her that the Groupon didn't expire until today. She said her Manager was out but that is what she had been told. I explained again that I am giving her OVER 24 hours advance notice but I wwanted to pay for it today with the Groupon. She said she couldn't do that. I asked for someone else that I could talk to and she gave me the District Manager's number, Jay Pearlstein at 205-919-4049. I hung up with her and called this number and it went straight to voice mail. I left a message for him to call me back. I then called Groupon, as the girl suggested I do if I had any problems, so I did. The man with Groupon understood my complaint and called the store to try to resolve the problem and after 10 minutes on hold, he returned and said that they would not honor it. So, basically, eventhough my Groupon expires today, I have to call 24 hours in advance, yesterday, to order a cake for Saturday, to make a reservation to USE my Groupon???? That is what they were telling me. This is assinine. I have been in customer service most of my life. For them to not honor, my $15 Groupon Coupon has now lost you a customer for life. I have 2 boys, 6 & 7 and there are a lot of birthdays and special occasions coming up that I will look elsewhere to fulfill my cake needs. It would have been better for them to honor what I bought than leave a bad taste in a customer's mouth. I will be telling all of friends about this as well. So far, I have alerted Groupon, now the corporate office, disrict office, I will be posting on Facebook and word of mouth to my friends. Is $15 so important to a franchise that they tarnish their reputation not holding up to what they originally signed up for and changed what I bought? They need to read the fine print. My father is an attorney and I always do...that is why I called back in February, before I bought this!