Restaurant.comReviews 866

Didn't know you had to be a lawyer to use this site. While it will CLEARLY displays the mimimal amount of Purchase from the restaurant, it DOESN'T CLEARLY inform you that you can only use a segment of a certificate. For THAT you have to thoroughly read & understand the lengthy terms and conditions. Imagine my surprise, disappointment & dismay when, after ordering food for my family - I was only able to use $10 of a $50 certificate. Not only was it embarrassing - the money spent could have been used at the supermarket & I would have prepared the meal myself!

Having had several experiences with restaurant.com, I can tell you that it's coupons are essentially nothing you can't find in a newspaper coupon. The fact that this is not clear is your first clue as to what's wrong...

The reason you see them promoted by other companies (e.g., Verizon and other companies) is that they can sponge up points from their points programs at near-zero cost to them. They - including Verizon - are well aware of this, but could not care less.

I agree with those who say this company - and even those who simply link their "rewards" programs to it - are unethical. If they were above-board and documented what their "customers" need to know from their perspective, they would not exist.

Capitalism ought to have a conscience (and I say this as a devout capitalist who despises crooks). Avoid.

Wrote this email to restaurunt.com and it went unanswered of course:
Hi,

So I recently got a 100$ restaurant.com gift card. I was excited when i received it thinking I can use it for places I have never tried before, I was unpleasantly surprised. Your website, is NOT customer friendly or intuitive. It does not blatantly say on the website, and in each restaurant - when the coupon is valid for example I would have to call every restaurant to find out if they accept the cards on the weekends, or holidays etc. Next the reviews aren't easy on the eye or easy to navigate through - why not just put the yelp reviews attached, would go to yelp for each restaurant because it is a trusting source of reviews. And not to mention most of the reviews are bad there are a handful of restaurants that had good ratings from reputable sites like zagat or yelp. Finally, the fact that the minimum purchase in many events HIGHLY exceeds the gift card amount, it makes the site nearly pointless. When you think your getting a gift card your actually getting a coupon, so i should of expected to spend anywhere from 20-100$. After hours on your site trying to find a restaurant with good reviews, it was available to purchase a 10$ gift cared with the minimum purchase being 100$, makes sense. This 100$ may just go to waste.

Some suggestions:

Make the instructions of the purchase, CLEAR, the days it can be used, and if alcohol can be purchased/
Have some quality restaurants involved. If you are passionate that you have a good company, good restaurants should want to get involved.
Make the website more intuitive
Make it clear you can't use 2 gift cards at 1 time in most places, so for example if the minimum purchase is 100$ and there is only 50$ gift cards, DON'T buy two.

Stop making people find out the hard way.

Kind Regards,

Natalie

Don't use restaurant.com. Great prices for certificates but so many of the places listed are no longer in business. Restaurant.com says you have to "exchange" them for other choices on their site. However, the choices are very limited. Use your money for other discount sites like. Better selection for places that you have heard of and are in business. Disappointing.

First AND last time this company will ever see my money. There are no refunds at ALL even if you JUST placed an order and need to correct or cancel something. Like I said to the customer service attendant "I hope your company is perfect and NEVER makes any mistakes" because genuine mistakes happen but this company is 100% inflexible to work with you and/or repair anything. I am definitely NOT perfect and I deal with customers on a daily basis that stick with me due to the fact that I am understanding of their mistakes and even lateness, after all I am dealing with people and not ROBOTS that never make any mistakes.
Not to mention the pathetic options restaurant.com offer us on top of displaying restaurants that are not even taking their specific certificates anymore. If that happen so often and no truly good restaurant sticks around for too long that should raise a red flag about how terrible this company is at doing business. Good restaurants not wanting to stick around = no good customers wanting to stick around!
Will be sticking with only Groupon deals cause that never caused me any headaches before and I place orders with them at least twice a month!
Hasta NEVER AGAIN Restaurant.com!

I've purchased certificates from Restaurant.com for several years. First in San Francisco and now on Central Oregon Coast. I've never been ripped off and I don't think it's a scam.

In my experience, the pros are: Often REALLY great savings (particularly if coupled with a special incentive through a site like RetailMeNot, Ebates, etc.), opportunity tor try places I might not know about/otherwise wouldn't try (and some of them have made me converts to full-price dining) and if I didn't redeem the certificate in the time period, I can apply it to something else so don't lose money (most recent example is a certificate I purchased at the Pork Store in SF several years ago, never used, but was able to apply the price I paid a couple weeks ago to some places in Oregon).

The cons, again in my experience, are: Really need to read the fine print to make sure it will work for you (i. E., minimum spend, food only vs. food/alcohol, lunch vs. dinner vs any time, time period in which multiple certificates can be applied...), limited choices of restaurants in your living/touring area and - like many "discounts" - the waitstaff may treat you like second-class citizens when you pull out the certificate (even before you order) so you feel like an idiot.

Overall, though, I continue to buy on occasion.