Restaurant.com

Worse business I have ever dealt with! Purchased $150+ in vouchers several years ago. I used a few at a
Local restaurant until they quit taking them. The problem with the remaining $100+ that I had can not be used anywhere! In the area where I live, they are VERY FEW choices! EVERY single time I have tried to use one, the establishment tells me they don't accept them anymore. I have called Restaurant.com numerous times to advise them of this and that they should update their web with accurate information! I asked for a refund since this is a normal occurrence with this company but they denied it saying, hold
On to them, we are always adding new restaurants! Well, just this past summer a new restaurant opened in our area, Grill and Garden Cafe in Niles, Ohio. In October, I received an email from Restaurant.com advising of this new establishment. I placed an order and went in to pick
It up. I was greeted with, oh we don't know anything about this voucher ($25 worth of food for $10) and would not accept the voucher! I called Restaurant.com and they advised that this company wasin fact added by their store manager in June 2020! I am still to this day getting emails that this business is still in Restaurant.com's specials! I called the business again recently to inquire again and was told the same, they did not approve for their business to be added! They mentioned, maybe the owners would know someone about it. I said, your a manager and you don't! Needless to say, neither owner ever called me back and I will not visit the place again. I am so done with all the back and forth, lies and garbage that Restaurant.com has caused and will write off my remaining balance. Please save yourself from going through what I did! Complete rip-off!

They offer "gift cards" to restaurant that don't except them. And when you reach out for an exchange they disappear.

Follow up to review by Cass R. (on specials@ restaurant.com offering the Hotelandresortcard.com discounted e-gift certificates ($40.00 for $400.00 worth of e-gifts)

Hey wish I had read your review before I bought. It gets worse for me... I stupidly booked a hotel room thru them & they immediately charged my cc. I read & looked at the fine print on the page of my confirmation and it said it could be cancelled within 72 hours. I cancelled and after a few days my credit came thru on the cc BUT minus $25.00. Contacted HotelandResortCard & they referred me to their terms which said may charge a $25.00 fee. You would have thought that it would have been spelled out on the booking page wouldn't you. I too have requested a refund from specials@ restaurant.com but haven't heard back. So it looks like I may be out of $65.00! BTW, I was suppose to receive a $30 credit on booking by their standards but only received a discount of $18.72! HRAC indicated that the hotel charged the fee, I called & they looked@ my cancellation and said they did not charge a fee~ Totally bummed...

UPDATE: Since posting this morning regarding my experiences. I have had responses from someone at HotelandResortCard and another email from their supervisor indicating that they would be refunding the $25.00 fee in 4-6 weeks.

I wanted to update this site to let all know that they were willing to listen to problems/complaints and deserve a kutos in doing so. I appreciate their efforts in making me a satisified customer.

Here's the thing, the customers complaining about restaurants not taking the certificates, that's not restaurant.com's problem, that's the restaurants. They obviously signed up for the program, aren't following the guidlines, and did not read the contract. At my restaurant, I accept certificates, no problem and have happy customers and have seen a lot of business come through my door. Secondly, I'm sure I'll get a lot of **** for this but the bigger issue for a lot of other friends/owners in the area I know on this program who have no been as successful on this program as I have as been the customers. Read the guidlines. There is a minimum, spend the minimum and spend above the minimum. We aren't you're food slaves, we want you to have an enjoyable experience, yes, but spending $35.17 is crap.
The point is to eventually come back without the coupon. We don't want to just give away free food. We are running a buisness here. If there's certain days the certificate can't be used, don't come in on those days. If it states there's gratuity added, be ready to pay gratuity. The rules state one coupon per month at our restaurant so don't come every week. Bottom line, read the rules. The rules are stated before you buy our coupons.

Overall I like restaurant.com it has done great things for my restaurant over the past 8months. I guess it can go both ways. Anytime ive had an issue they have always been able to work with me. Good luck to all of you

I received a $100 restaurant.com gift card as a gift (of course); what I am getting at is that I never personally paid for the gift card or a certificate through restaurant.com. When I saw all the restaurants that were listed on the website/app, I thought it would be neat to check out so many mom and pop restaurants as well as cafes. My first two restaurant experiences/uses of the gift card went by without incident. On my third try, the restaurant owner claimed his restaurant just ended up on the website, he did not recognize/honor the certificates, and he never came to any deals with restaurant.com. Moreover, he claimed that restaurant.com would not respond to his inquiries. I went to another restaurant after this without incident. Noting that several restaurants from the website/app no longer existed. At this point, I was thinking the website/app was not up to date and the owner's situation from the third try was a one off incident. I recently traveled to the Dallas/Fort Worth area, where I came across several restaurants that reiterated what the owner from my third try stated. In addition, they verified that, aside from receiving the forced/surprise advertisement on the restaurant.com website/app, they received no monetary benefit at all from restaurant.com. One restaurant owner went so far as to give me my $10.00 discount without using the certificate. After I experienced multiple incidents like this, I decided to leave $25 on the card and throw it in the trash. This idea is good (certificates for mom and pop restaurants). I appreciate the idea. However, after digging into what restaurant.com does, its business practices are so shady that I want nothing to do with it.

I just bought a gift certificate for a friend that is unemployed. I know he likes to go out to eat but being out of a job he has given this up for the time being. Anyway, I carefully read the "restrictions" for the restaurants. Some of them are absurd. For example, if you buy a $75 gift certifcate which you only pay $30 for... The person has to eat a minimum of $150 worth of food. I FINALLY found a restaurant that required $35 and an 18% gratuity which is REASONABLE. I bought the gift certificate and immediately the link was e-mailed to me. To my surprise, AFTER I purchased it and went to print it I got a DIFFERENT restrcition. It said "this restaurant requires that there be a minimum order of $150." I was SO UPSET! Why would I give a gift certificate for $75 and then the person redeeming the gift has to spend $150? So much for a "free night out on me." I wrote to restaurant.com of what has JUST happened. I would NOT have bought this gift certificate with that restriction. Be careful with this website. EVEN READING the small print BEFORE purchase, does not mean the small print won't change AFTER you buy it. I feel SCREWED... to give them some credit... I have yet to hear their response...

EVERY RESTAURANT ON THE SITE HAS A MINIMUM PURCHASE REQUIREMENT AT LEAST HALF THE VALUE OF THE GIFT CERTIFICATE ITSELF - FOR EACH CERTIFICATE (YOU FIND "THAT" OUT WHEN YOU GET TO THE RESTAURANT). These people should be called out on their bull because they are selling half off coupons! There is no deal. There are no discounts! You pay something like $10 for a $20 gift card at restaurant.com, but the restaurant has a $50 minimum purchase requirement. So you pay $10 + for $20 certificate but have to spend an extra $30 on food (not including tips or taxes) once you get to the restaurant you will actually find that you saved nothing more than pocket lint and pennies while restaurant.com gets away with your money! Money that you could have taken directly to the restaurant without the greedy little
Man in the middle. Furthermore, most of the restaurants that they advertise DON'T EVEN ACCEPT their gift certificates anyway - which screws you out of even more money. And oh... NO REFUNDS, but you are sure welcome to exchange your so-called certificate from the first place that didn't take it for a new one at the next place that will likely refuse it too. If you want coupons to dine out, join mailing lists, facebook fan pages, rewards clubs, etc... I'm sure the small businesses that these crooks claim to support will gladly send you occasional savings as a token of appreciation for your patronage. Also, buy a Sunday paper where you get a crapload of coupons PLUS the news for a buck and change. However... DO NOT GIVE restaurant.com ANY OF YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY!

This is one big scam. These people who run this site are not honest. When you purchase their gift card you are purchasing a set of coupons to certain places, of your choice (so long as it's on their list) to eat. You must abide by the "restaurants terms", but you don't see the restaurants terms until after you purchase the gift certificate. You will see different amounts of gift certificates that the restaurant is offering. I purchased with a 100.00 gift card 1 certificate to a local restaurant. They offered 2 certificates- 1- 10.00, and 1-25.00. This particular restaurants minimum purchase requirement was 37.50. Okay, so I would buy 1-25.00, and 2-10.00 dollar certificates. After purchasing I see the terms. CAN *ONLY USE ONE CERTIFICATE PER PARTY, PER MONTH, PER RESTARURANT EVEN IF THE PARTY IS SEATED AT SEPARATE TABLES AND/OR RECEIVES MORE THAN ONE CHECK.* NOT VALID FOR TAXES, TIPS, MERCHANDISE OR PRIOR BALANCES.* CANNOT BE COMBINED WITH ANY OTHER PROMOTIONS, COUPONS, OR SPECIAL OFFERS.
I have not yet tried to use the certificate that I had to print out, so not sure even if the restaurant will even take the "COUPON". Know what you are getting into before you buy and always, always look at the reviews!

I'm so completely disgusted with the restaurant.com SCAM. I have $5 balance on a few certificates but your APP does not allow you to combine certificate numbers to redeem them. The restaurant choices are TERRIBLE and no where near the quality of those you use in your FALSE MARKETING SCAM. WHAT A DISGRACE!

Reading the reviews, it appears NO ONE is satisfied with your company but I figured I would ask if someone can explain why you have set up a system to SCAM people and whether you are taking any steps to correct it. Generally, GOOD COMPANIES respond to customers who have a valid complaint and take steps to correct it and improve, but perhaps you are happier continuing on with your SCAM to defraid your customers.

I have a total of $125 worth of certificates and my first experience attempting to use a certificate was a NIGHTMARE. The restaurant even complained about how AWFUL is has been working with you.

Wishing I could get a refund, as using your certificates is more headache than it's worth.

Sincerely,

A very dissatisfied customer

I had a horrible experience with RDC. I just told another poster privately what to do whe you get scammed, which is what their operation is. I am going to copy/paste my reply as I don't wanna start anew. Basically he said he was conned and could not get his money back. My response:

FYI, the sure do give refunds if you create a social media sh**storm. I did just that and they had refunded my money within a couples hours. Just before I started my media sh**tstorm I contacted my credit card company who refunded me right away, so I had a double refund until I called my CC company and told them that Restaurants.com DID, in fact, refund after I went nuts on twitter! Before that, I went round and round with their corporate office with no luck until I decided to start the twitter attack!

Most restaurants DO NOT even know that they are listed on their site as the agents are desperate for commissions so they ILLEGALLY sign the restaurant up. That is why there is so much confusion.

Another interesting read is the employee rating site. It features past employee reviews of this company and it is VERY telling to say the least. Just search for employee reviews and restaurant.com.

Companies despise bad social media more than anything else!. And for future ref, restaurants.com is a scam. Always remember, you get what you pay for.

Again, MOST of the positives that act like the other bad reviews are crazy ARE FROM RESTAURANTS.COM EMPLOYEES THEMSELVES!

MAKE SURE YOU READ THE SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS WITH EACH GIFT CERTIFICATE! & MAKE SURE TO CALCULATE WHAT YOUR SAVINGS WOULD BE!

This site is great as long as you make sure to read the conditions for each certificate, and if you're able to do the math on how much you're really saving.

Here's the gist of this site:
You're buying coupons to use when you dine at a particular restaurant. The caveat is that the coupon can't be used unless the special instructions are met.

Example:
$25 Gift Certificate (purchased@ restaurant.com for $2)
Special Instructions: Minimum purchase of $50.18% Gratuity added prior to discount.

That minimum $50 purchase DOES NOT include your certificate. You must spend that $50 in the restaurant out of pocket.

So, let's do the math:
$50 minimum + $25 certificate = $75 bill
18% gratuity on bill= $13.50
$13.50 gratuity + $50 minimum = $63.50 you spend at the restaurant USING the certificate.
Total savings of about 15% off a $75 bill (note: i didn't even include the $2 spent to buy the certificate)

So... in reality, you're really only saving about 10%-15% with these coupons.

Most of the restaurants have a high minimum purchase, and the more the certificate is, the higher the minimum purchase. Most of them also require at least an 18% gratuity charge.

But sometimes if you're lucky, you can find a restaurant that only requires a $20 minimum purchase to use the gift certificate. Those are usually the ones I go for.

But if you're lucky, you can sometimes find restaurants that have don't have very complicated instructions