(Image source: Bloomberg)

BY JIM FLINK

Is it time to jump off the Groupon bandwagon? This week, the online coupon dealer saw its stock price plummet. For some -- it’s not a surprise. Here’s Bloomberg.

“If you move aside from people’s excitement, the emotional response to a stock, You have to look at the fundamentals.  And much like Zynga as well, I think that Groupon is not experiencing the growth, there’s been a lot of negative customer feedback and I think that people need to be very pragmatic when they are looking at the fundamentals.”

Did he say, negative customer feedback? This week, the media ran wild with the story of British cupcake maker, Rachel Brown, who nearly had to shut-up shop after a Groupon-deal-gone-bad. Here’s the Daily Mail.

“Swamped by orders, Mrs Brown, who normally makes 100 cupcakes a month, found herself having to bake an astonishing 102,000. And disastrously, because her deal had been so generous and the demand so huge, she made a loss on every order – wiping out her profits for the entire year.”

So, is that story anecdotal?  Or telling of a larger Groupon issue? A recent survey of small businesses by iContact, gives Groupon rough reviews.

“70 percent of small businesses hate Groupon. The biggest haters? Financial services/investors, at nearly 80 percent. Considering the love consumers have for $10 mani/pedis, it may not surprise anyone that Groupon had less hate from professional services, like spas and salons (45 percent).”

Hate’s a pretty strong word. But the love lust has certainly worn off. Forbes issues an ominous two word warning -- beware Groupon.

“...perhaps it’s time to actually ask whether there is a real business there at the heart of it all... Those real customers are the businesses … If businesses decide they no longer want to offer Groupons then it doesn’t matter how large the email list is, there’s just not a business there.”

But to a market analyst on CNBC, it’s more like -- beware the bears. Cause Groupon’s got it going on.

HERMAN LEUNG: “Near-term, I think the numbers should be fine. Merchants, there's a lot of stories like the cup cake story that you talk about. But the reality is merchants actually do like going to Groupon because they get the most number of transactions. ... Data that we've seen is 70% of these merchants are actually repeating and actually using Groupon over and over again.”

As of Wednesday’s trading, Groupon was selling in the mid-17 dollar range -- per share.