by Dan L. » Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:51 pm
Hello all fellow bargain hunters. Let me start by saying that I am not negative on Restaurants.com, I simply want to share my experiences with those of you who are new to them. My wife and I have used this website for a few years now. The first year I discovered it I had the same reaction as many of you. I purchased them like crazy and used them as stocking stuffers. Nothing wrong with that, just keep a couple of my experiences in mind.
1. I was informed by one local chef/owner initially that he would not accept my certificate because while he had agreed to his restaurant's inclusion on restaurant.com at first, he had asked them to remove his place several times and was forced to get lawyers involved. After communicating his troubles to me he then agreed to accept the certificate from me. I was very appreciative and have continued to eat at his establishment if not for the food, for his graciousness. To further complicate matters I had given a certificate to this same restaurant as a gift and had to inform the recipient of this issue and explain that they would have to contact restaurant.com for a replacement.
2. It has also been my experience that many of the restaurants who have chosen to participate in restaurant.com are not in the best shape and have a tendency to go out of business. (Robert, I have also found this to be true with establishments in the Entertainment Book) In this situation, restaurant.com freely offered to replace my certificate with another restaurant of my choice from which they were currently offering certificates.
In both of these situations I, the customer, was taken care of in what I felt was an acceptable manner. A call to an establishment prior to your visit may prevent any unexpected turn of events when planning on using your certificate.
