how do the restaurant.com GCs work?

[collegejunkie]

there seems to be a lot of talk about getting all these gift cards worth a good amount of money for a significantly lower price via this website.

how does that work? if you order them online, how do you use them? do they actually come out crediting you for the amount you bought? for example, if i pay say $10 for a $25 GC, will i actually be getting $25?

i'd love to hear some experiences with this, as i'd really love to save some moolah.

 

[dixonsontour]

Yes we used one at House of blues in october.

If you look for a restaurant.com discount code you pay $2 for a $25 certificate.

The HOB one had a $35 min order value. An 18% tip was also automatically added when you used the certificate.

I had elwood chicken sandwich, DH had a philly cheesesteak and DD a childs pizza and 3 cokes. Including tip cost us just over $20 plus certificate.

The server was happy to accept it, no hassles to use at all.

 

[bunkkinsmom]

I've used several Restaurant.com certificates. However, I think they should rename them "coupons". IMHO, a gift certificate means cash. Whereas with these it is a purchase with a discount. In other words, $25 off of a $50 purchase, or something like that. A gift certificate would be $25 whether you spent $50 or not.

I use these for personal use quite a bit, but because of the nature of the discount I wouldn't give them as a gift.

And sadly, the House of Blues certificate is not valid for the Sunday Gospel Brunch

Hope this helps!

 

[windi622]

I love the Restaurant.com certificates. I agree with the PP, I wouldn't give them as a gift, as they're more like a coupon or discount.

You simply purchase the certificate for whatever price (I normally only buy them when I can get the $25 for $2), then you print out the certificate. Each restaurant may have different restrictions (for example: $25 off $50 or more, $25 off two entrees, etc.). You bring it with you (I always tell the server at the beginning of the meal because they may have to call in the certificate for verification). Then the amount of the certificate will come right off of your total bill. Most of them have a mandatory gratuity. But this doesn't seem to be much of an issue because it's usually something reasonable like18%. I purchased one for Garden Grove, and am very excited to be using it in February. There are 4 of us dining, and it will basically be like one of us free. How can you beat that?!?

Good luck...and happy saving!

 

[angierae]

You can, however, buy actual restaurant.com gift cards that can then be used to purchase the coupons. Just in case there's some confusion. I bought $100 gift cards to give as gifts but then the recipients can go onto Restaurant.com and buy coupons for whatever restaurants they want.

 

[collegejunkie]

i ended up getting the $50 GC for $4. after adding the tip and whatnot, i'd say we really saved more in the realm of $20. still nice to have savings. the bill was $67 and change after the $50 deduction, but then we had to add $22 for tip, which i guess is around where we would have normally tipped anyway, but it just makes it seem a little bit more meh. the savings were still nice, though i don't know if i'd go for the $50 again over, say, the $25.