Warning...Restaurant.com

[Nadjalu]

Hello everyone, thought I would let you know an issue creeping up on this website.

First let me say I LOVED restaurant.com and used it for a few of my local favorite places.

So I was disturbed to hear last night that a couple of places aren't participating anymore...the reason why.....

It seems that restaurant.com isn't policing the "coupons", there is no longer an expiration date and the local restaurants are seeing people abusing the system.
(making copies of the same gift cert, using more than 1 a month...etc)
So our local places are withdrawing from the program and putting up notices at the establishments that they no longer accept these certificates.

HOWEVER, restaurant.com is CONTINUEING to sell the gift certs to these places that no longer participate.

So the $25 certificates we bought last night are no good!!!

Be aware that if it is happening here it won't be long until others are withdrawing from this program, until something is changed.
Meanwhile restaurant.com made some money on us last night that we will never see again!!

 

[larryz]

From their website...

"What if?
Worried that the restaurant might not honor your certificate? Our restaurant partners want you to be happy. After all that’s the whole point, to bring in and keep a new customer. So rest assured, we back up what we say. You have an unconditional guarantee. If something isn’t right with your certificate, just contact customer service by phone or email and we’ll take care of it right away. We want you to come back over and over again."

So -- have you contacted them about the discrepancy? If you do, please repost and let us know if they fixed your issue.

 

[rkrose1]

Have you tried contacting customer service for a refund?

I contacted them when we moved to another city, and was able to cancel some certificates for a restaurant.com credit.

I contacted them again regarding a restaurant that we purchased multiple certificates for. The restaurant was TERRIBLE (bad service, really smoky, flies at the table, bad food). I notified customer service that I had no desire to use the remaining certificate, so they canceled it and gave me a credit.

Good luck.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

thanks for the post

 

[Pumbaa_]

if the restaurant is not validating hte coupon and honoring photocopies that is their issue. There is a phone number on the certificate to call to validate. It implies it can be used only once.

 

[Boardwalk Tigger]

Call the attorney generals office in Florida and your state if need be

 

[bumbershoot]

Restaurants constantly drop out of the program. And when they do, restaurants.com will help you out. You do NOT need to worry about this.

I had a certificate for some restaurant.com certificates (no money out of my pocket at all), and redeemed them...a month later got an email FROM restaurants.com letting me know that the restaurant had dropped out, and that my credits were in my account and to choose another place. I did so, and then the same thing happened.

Don't worry. Just contact them.

 

[bop28]

They have great customer service. Refunds are no problem.

 

[Nadjalu]

No we have not contacted them yet...being it is a holiday.

DH will be on it first thing Monday morning. Will let you know how it goes. THanks.

 

[ilovefh]

I can also tell you that from experience if you try call in to validate an already used certificate it won't let you. So it is the restaurant's responsibility to notify the customer that the certificate has already been used. If they are waiting until after the customer leaves to call it in then it is their own fault.

 

[camlace]

like many others have said... you will get your money back, just call customer service. I have had this happen numerous times over the years and not once have I had an issue getting a credit.

And for the record, this is not restaurant.com's fault, it is the restaurants not following proper procedure to process the GCs and customers abusing the system. If the restaurant calls to validate, they will not have any issues. I once accidentally had two print outs of the same GC and the restaurant very politely told me the GC was already used. No problem, I thought I may have done that. Now if the restaurant didn't validate while I was there and lost out on the money, well shame on them.

Why post a warning before you actually try and resolve the issue? Doesn't seem fair to the company IMO.

 

[Luv2Roam]

That is a chance you take. It can happen.
I have had restaurants go out of business, or post a sign they no longer accept restaurant.com certificates. (But have only seen this twice at local restaurants.)
I have not followed up with restaurant.com either time as it was not worth my time for a buck or two, and I had the certificates for awhile.

However I never returned to the one restaurant that stopped accepting them. (Which also went out of business later anyway.)

The restaurant should be calling and confirming the coupon during the meal.

 

[magiroux]

If the place is not honoring the coupons anymore I doubt it is because of Restaurant.com negligence or user fraud.

Patrons coping - sorry, I don't buy it. Your coupon is tied to a number and once that number is called in the coupon is null & void. In fact, I think that R.com now wipes the crt off your account automatically after use.

R.com notifies you immediately if a place has decided to opt out of a program after you purchase (which I think is BS on the restaurant's part) so if you did not get that notification it either ended up in your junk mail or the restaurant is negligent in not properly notifying restaurant.com. Either way, R.com is not the problem here and I doubt they would continue to sell after a restaurant says stop.

I once bought 3 coupons to a new eatery that popped up that I knew was a great place. A month later I got an email from R.com saying they no longer wanted to participate and was refunded. Overwhelming response I suppose, but since the restaurant can limit how many coupons they choose to sell that would not be R.com's fault either.

Going more than once a month - I never tried this but since PP says they were stopped from using one they printed twice it proves there is a system in place to prevent this. I like that they mange the coupons for you now because I used to get confused myself what I had used and what was still an open coupon

It's true that there is no longer an expiration date but how is that a deal-breaker for the restaurant??? Are they mad because they don't get something for nothing anymore?

Sounds more like the restaurant in question should be avoided, not Restaurant.com

 

[tkitty]

We had the note posted on the door of a restaurant while on vacation stateing that they were not honoring Rest.com certs. I was upset because we had our trip all planned out, didn't know the area, had little ones with us and we were so hungry! I talked to the person at the front and let her know how frustrating this was and she told us that they could do a 10% off of the bill which we ended up doing. It was really frustrating but Restaurant.com promptly gave us credit as soon as we informed them that we had a problem.