Restaurant.com

I purchased gift certificates for various restaurants, one of which went out of business. At one restaurant, the manager said they had pulled out from associating with that business, so my gift certificate was useless. I received notification that another restaurant had gone out of business and that I could exchange my gift certificates for a gift card. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I try to "exchange," the site encounters a problem and advises me to try later. Later has not yet come.
Save your money and pass their offers up.

Here was the latest big deal from restaurant.com:
"72 Hour Special: $40 for a $1000 Hotel and Resort eGift Card Featuring Hilton Hotels World Wide"
Well, I followed the link that let's you check availability and discount price. I found a place I want to stay. The price was $159.00/night. If I buy the card for $40, then I can use it four times. This time, I could get $40 off the price with a 2-night stay. So I come out even on first use. Pay $40 extra to get $40 back. But, wait, I look up the rate on the Hilton web site, and that rate with AAA discount is only $143.00.

So, why would I bother paying restaurant.com?! I say, "Meh!" 2 stars. I would make it one star, but in theory I could save a bit more by using the card the second, third and fourth times. But when it comes right down to availability and REAL price, this trouble is hardly worth it.

I went to a restaurant where the food should have been no more than $10 or $15 had I paid cash. I brought the $25.00 gift card and I feel like the waitress inflated the prices of the food and drinks so that she could use the entire $25.00 card. They also placed a restriction that I could not order take out but that I needed to dine in. The restaurant.com ap is awkward to use and it kept freezing on us. I felt like it was a waste of time and effort, not a great value. In my opinion, just use cash or credit and save yourself the added frustration.

If I could give a -1 I would. I have been a member for a few years and due to travel, family obligations and other events have not been able to use certificates before they expire. I have so many times to exchange certificates and am so frustrated to constantly encounter "out of stock" notices. I have even logged on the day when a certificate has allegedly been restocked and none available... what kind of bate and switch company is this? This company sucks!

I believe at one time restaurant.com was a useful tool, but that is no longer the case. Hardly any restaurants seem to participate anymore, at least in northeastern Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. There are a handful of restaurants listed in Philly, in the far northeast.

The other consistent problem is going to a restaurant listed as participating on the site and AFTER REDEEMING only to find out the owner no longer accepts the vouchers.

I assume the company will fold soon, unless it is successful in very specific areas.

Let's say you purchase a $10 certificate for $5. Well, the minimum purchase required at the restaurant is $20. So overall, you are only saving $5 off of $20, and of course the certificate does not cover tax or gratuities -- not worth it unless you were going to order at this restaurant any way.

I bought a certificate for Mongolian BBQ. When I called the restaurant, they said they did not accept this. Restaurant.com did NOT give me a refund, only store credit.

The selection of restaurants available if you are not in a big city like New York, Chicago, DC, etc. is poor

The website is difficult to use and does not have great support.

Also, some restaurants will have their own rules for redeeming that certificate, that aren't explicitly stated on the certificate itself. Not usable towards delivery, take out, on alcohol, etc.

Thought this was a great idea but when I went to use it, I discovered you have to pay again for the discount. It's like paying an initial fee to join a discount club like Groupon for the privilege to buy coupons for the discount. Only Groupon is free to use.

I'm so unhappy I was tricked into buying three. I thought I'd give this to my adult kids to use as a gift. I ended up not telling them about it at all once I used it several times and found it only to be a pain. The bottom line is after paying for the certificate and then paying for a particular restaurant, you don't really save much at all.

Got a card as a gift and I just wanted to search the site for a restaurant I want to go to tonight. They don't provide a search function for a specific restaurant name, just by location. Yes you can sort by A-Z but we live in Milwaukee so that results in having to page through pages of restaurants. I am sure it is designed this way to drive you toward the restaurants that are participating but super time consuming and annoying to their customers!

This is not a scam guys. Okay look, this is what you have to do to get an even BETTER deal. Go to ebay and look for $100 gift cards for restaurant.com and buy from someone you trust. I spent $3 on the $100 gift card (on ebay) and it worked. Then i choose whatever restaurant i wanted to eat at and if i bought a $25 certificate, with the minimum purchase having to be around $37, i would've only spent $12 on that $37 meal! But you really SHOULD get the gift card :) If you guys dont understand how it works, have never used it, or confused you should not leave a review..

Bought a groupon for ultimate date night for 39.00.
For "2 movie tickets and a $100 restaurant.com egift card"... important word here is "a" 100 gift card... but you actually get 4/25.00 gift cards that you cannot use at the same time... AND the app is now telling me that i have none to redeem, and i actually have 100.00. The only thing that the customer service people say is "i am sorry for the inconvenience"... WHAT EVER!
This place is a joke...

I paid 30 dollars for a gift to my sister and her husband, thinking they were getting a great gift, they used the tickets, 12 dollars spent for each coupon, the price of the movie was 7.50 each ticket, total loss 10 dollars for me. Then they tried to use a restaurant coupon and was denied because the restaurant wanted them to spend 50 dollars first,, but the coupon stated 2 movie tickets and 100 dollar gift certificate for a meal. What a wonderful scam. I am going to forward this statement to the Teacher site that sent it to me, to make sure no more teachers get cheated or scammed like I did.
Thank you.
Roderick Lowe
Special Education Teacher

I bought certificates to several local restaurants and then found out that they were all fraudulent--the restaurants had not entered into agreements with restaurant.com. When I waited to speak to a Restaurant.com customer service rep, I heard an ad awhich stated that if you signed up five restaurants to the service, you would get $500. So most likely, a scam artist turned in five new contracts to restaurant.com and the company, without verifying with the restaurants that the contracts were legitimate, went ahead and advertised them nonetheless. What a horrible business. Save yourself some time and bother and stay away from it.