A Dartmouth businesswoman is speaking out about her experience with an online coupon site that offers special deals.

Tammy McDougall-Walker signed onto TeamBuy to promote her business, Play Café, but she says it’s costing her more than expected, both financially and in terms of her reputation.

“We thought it would be a really good way to promote our business,” says McDougall-Walker.

But she says it has been a battle to get paid by the popular online discount site.

“It took us four months to finally get a reply back from them that they were not able to pay their vendors. They had all of their assets frozen.”

The company that owns TeamBuy filed for bankruptcy protection in August.

“This company has filed the NOI, Notice of Intention,” says bankruptcy advisor Mark Rosen. “It is advising creditors it will be filing a proposal to them to restructure its debt payments.”

According to a release from the trustee overseeing the proceedings, “once a proposal is finalized each creditor will get an opportunity to vote on whether or not to accept that proposal.”

That means business owners like McDougall-Walker could still get paid, but in the meantime, she says it is a financial hit and a customer relations nightmare.

“It’s been difficult, very difficult to look at a customer in the eye and tell them you can't honour that TeamBuy and it doesn't reflect well on us.”

Customers like Jennifer Willis would have been out $60 if McDougall-Walker had not honoured her coupon.

“It’s really sad Tammy, as the business owner, has to accommodate me and TeamBuy is not willing to do anything at this point,” says Willis.

A number of Maritime businesses have been affected by TeamBuy’s financial troubles. It has yet to be determined how many customers could be holding onto coupons they may not be able to cash in.

TeamBuy will have until the end of the month to offer a proposal to its creditors, or they could seek an extension for more time to come up with a plan to deal with their financial troubles.

Calls to TeamBuy were not returned.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Marie Adsett