Restaurant.com

You go to a restaurant and order and then get told the certificates are not any good there. Or show up to an abandon building. Terrible. No response from them on this issue. Likely going out of business soon.

I have $500 worth of "Certificates" that are actually only buy one-get one coupons, if the restaurants will even take them. Most restaurants are fly-by-night or hole-in-the -wall operations anyway. No refunds. I'm just out 500 bucks!

Hard to understand how this operation remains in business & has not been forced to close.
They do not list a phone # for obvious reasons, since it helps shield them from angry customers. All email contacts receive a totally USELESS canned response. You can send 10 different inquiries & received the same, exact canned reply. Stay away!

We were totally not aware that you can only use one Certificate per visit.
Nothing wrong with having that rule but it should be "crystal" clear when you purchase multiple certificates for the same restaurant.

Restaurant.com's issues go beyond just merchant and consumer. They also treat their employees with little to no respect. It's no surprise that transcends into how they treat merchants/customers. What was once a great idea is now "old news." So many better ways to save without the customer service hassle and/or strings attached.

Received 3 Promotional codes when purchased new product at Sam's Club. Entered in my 2 gift cards/Codes and it tells me the codes have already been redeemed. Zero balance! I entered them several times but a red error box appears that tells you the cards were already used.
Emailed customer help, and they sent an automated message on how to enter in the gift card. This place should be out.

If you see an offer for any specials listed in conjunction with a restaurant.com certificate ignore it! I mean that! You can never redeem the special and no one at restaurant.com will ever answer your email. It has happened to me two times. Never again!

I got a $100 voucher card. It appears to be useless. Hardly any restaurant's near me and the ones available are bar and grill types. Anyway, their website will not accept my code #. Either a poorly executed attempt at a start up business or a scam designed to steal peoples money. I'm thinking the latter.

My family doesn't fly often, so the cheapest way to keep our frequent flyer miles from expiring is buying restaurant.com cards using miles every 18 months or so. Other than serving that purpose, the certificates are a joke. It takes so much work and planning to use one I've tried it only once in five years. And even then the restaurant did not honor the certificate saying they do not participate in the program any more. Guess what? That same restaurant is still listed on the website 2 years later. At least my cards served a purpose even if I never use them, but I do feel sorry for those who got duped into paying hard-earned cash for theirs.

I bought certificates for places we enjoy in our neighborhood. Unfortunately some places no longer take coupons (even though California law prohibits) the choices to exchange close to us are places we'd never go to. One place has rats! They need to be sure the restaurant they're selling is not a health hazard. Maybe they should check Yelp reviews for restaurants. $200+- of my money down the tubes.

I received two $50.00 gift cards from a windshield replacement service in the Tampa, Fl. Area, in October 2014. I have not found a restaurant worth going out to eat at that accepts Restaurant.com as of this date. Don't waste your time or money on Restaurant.com.

This is a great concept in theory, but after all the fine print, lack of customer service, slow website, and horrible app... it just isn't worth it. Nothing works correctly, can't even log in using the user name and password, can only use Facebook.

I'll never fall for any of their deals again. Got a $50 restaurant.com gift card for signing up with an electric company. Sounded like nice deal. Not! Turns out had to redeem for 2 $25 vouchers that could only be used one per month and after reading all fine print turned out you had to spend $50 to use one voucher. Restaurant was ok, but not somewhere we have been in the 25 years we have lived here and we won't go back due to the stupid voucher!

"... Please try again later." I've been trying to exchange my certificates (out-of-business restaurants) since October 14 (5 weeks), and this is the response I've received every time. No response to my emails. I'm glad all I lost were the almost-useless airline miles I swapped for these completely useless certificates. Don't waste real money on this scam... And here's an update: As of 4/12/16, they still "could not exchange at this time..." You're all shocked, right?

This site is poorly maintained. A large number of restaurants listed are out of business or dont take them anymore. Impossible to contact Restaurant.com people due to their message system not working. It's like Russian roulette when you buy a certificate from them.

Over 80% of the reviews are one star... 90% of those would be ZERO if we could vote that way. AOL decided to make these clowns part of their monthly package. I made a purchase and have hated myself for ever getting sucked into a "bargain". Imagine if I had gone on my date without enough money to cover the bill when they refused my certificate. Restaurant.com could care less... they got the money.

Purchased a certificate to a restaurant in Los Angeles Star of India the owner told me they were not accepting those certificates due to new ownership. We stayed and ate at the restaurant all the same spending 30 dollars more than anticipated.
4 weeks later restaurant.com is still selling the certificates despite my complaint and report to them when I emailed them today they replied that they understand, my frustration but a different department handles my complaint and that there would be no further updates or responsibility to my inquiry REALLY! Yet you are continue to defraud customers!

Technical difficulties made it difficult to even get started. Then customer service only got worse. I have requested a refund from Living social. Beware, do not purchase big time scam and horrible customer service.

Three times now I have tried and entered the number from living social, three times the credit showed up but then disappeared when I would try to check out the shopping cart. I am sorely disappointed in the website functionality and the poor representation for customer service. Clearly you did not read nor respond to the concerns that I expressed. I will be requesting a refund from Living social and leaving reviews every where I can find so that others may be warned about your garbage business practices.
Thank you,
Kelly

So you see all these bad reviews of Restaurant.com. I took advantage of a great deal.
100 - $50 cards for $500 from Citi Easy Deals. That $4500 of free food
Just avoid these assumptions:
1) It's not off any restaurant. Get a Visa Gift Card if you want that. Enjoy your fees.
2) It's not a free meal. It's up to half off the total bill. You can use the remainder elsewhere.
3) It's one use per restaurant per month. Not getting 1/2 price sushi every weekend. Goto a different restaurant tomorrow.
4) You have to log into the app to find the card to redeem. Yes it shows your name. Got to log in anyway. That bugs me! Lose one Star.
5) Let the server tap the screen to redeem.
You will hit one of these the first time through. After that it's discount city.
Got my food budget in line through some hard times.

I wish there was a zero star option or even negative stars. This place is nothing but a scam. The gift certificate I purchased was totally worthless. The restaurant did not accept it and said they knew nothing about restaurant.com.

How can they stay in business ripping off people for so long?
I wish I had seen these reviews before my purchase.

I have to agree with the majority of the posts here, and I also feel bad about the restaurant owner who voiced his views. I recently got one of these certificates, and before downloading, read everything, TWICE, but got something totally different when printed. I have no problem what so ever with paying a higher gratuity, that is if the coupon really is what it says. But when I am asked to spend 25, for 50, but now need to spend 100, it is blatantly a bad scam in my opinion. I wish I had seen this site before I did this, but learned a lesson the hard way, and am now smart enough not to be fooled again.

Although the coupons seemed to work, I experienced issues with restaurants going out of business, new ownership refusing them, and the 30-day redemption limitation. I bought over $100 and probably didn't save that much by the time I finally gave up dealing with all of the associated hassle. Seems only local restaurants and franchised chain locations take them, and for good reason. My guess is that corporate lawyers advised against this (more-or-less) scam. Even the places that accepted them did so reluctantly.

I have purchased numerous certificates from this website. Many of them have quite a bit of fine print i. E. not good on weekends, minimum orders required, %gratuity included, etc. Nothing totally ridiculous, you just need to read every word. However, the last few times I've tried to use one, the restaurant declined it. They said that restaurant.com offered these certificates without their permission. I find that hard to believe, but that doesn't help when you are already at the restaurant, ready to order. They will offer an exchange certificate, but if your is close to expiring. You are out of luck. There are other easier, less risky ways out there to save on eating out, so I'll quit with restaurant.com If you use them, read all the fine print and use long before the expiration date. I don't think in the long run it saves much money due to requirements to use the certificates.