OpenTable

I've had 2 experiences with OT that have both been disasters. First I was given a gift card for the Boston area. No one accepted OT gift cards. Never got to use the $150.

Their customer service is as bad as their program. There is no option to speak with someone. They only accept questions through the Internet. The answers are clearly generated by artificial intelligence as the response did not address my question but provided information on the rewards system.

By the number of complaints submitted by individuals regarding Opentable, it appears the company operates with misleading terminology/requirements on their website that consumers may not be aware of. The following email dialogue with Opentable is what transpired between us.

Sent: 2/7/2019 9:26 PM
To: *******@opentable.com
Subject: VIP Status
Looking at some of the reviewers, I noticed the special designation for VIP status and looked up what it meant. According to the definition, 12 honored reservations in a year designates you as a VIP. I had at least 12 honored reservations that were completed in 2018 but never saw the VIP designation associated with my account. Even with the designation, you may have to explain if there is any benefit to having the designation as I try to schedule reservations on Open Table when I can.

On Friday, February 8,2019, 11:30 AM,
*******@opentable.com <*******@opentable.com> wrote:
Hi,
We apologize for the confusion. Unfortunately, you're required to honor at least 1 reservation every month for 12 months straight to be granted V. I. P. Status. We thank your for your continued support of OpenTable over the years. Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance and happy dining!
Cheers,
Michael OpenTable Support

Sent: 2/8/2019 9:24 PM
To: *******@opentable.com
Subject: Re: VIP Status
Thank you for the explanation. The following was copied and pasted from your website for VIP status. The explanation you provided stating that one is required to honor at least one reservation every month for twelve consecutive months did not appear in the explanation for VIP status on your website. Was it encrypted or require special glasses to view the requirement you provided? Perhaps you may want to have your webmaster review the explanation on your website and consider including the specific requirement of one reservation each month for 12 consecutive months to avoid any confusion your explanation has evoked unless the requirements are secret and subject to the individual responding to questions posed by Open Table customers. The other part of my email was an inquiry regarding what benefits VIP status affords you. That went unanswered.

From: *******@opentable.com <*******@opentable.com>
Sent: Friday, February 8,2019, 11:57:28 PM CST
Subject: RE: VIP Status
Hi,
Thank you for bring this to our attention. I will pass this information along to the proper channels to get the wording changed. The VIP status is granted automatically when 1 reservation is honored every month for 12 consecutive months. The VIP status on your account is just a tag to let the restaurants know you book and honor reservations often. Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance and happy dining!
Cheers,
AshleyOpenTable Support

Like other reviewers here that gave low ratings because of their holiday experience, meeting for dinner for New Year's Eve was a big deal and the fact that it didn't go down put a major damper on things. Luckily, it wasn't our only event as we were moving on to dancing at a club afterwards. I reserved a table for ten on December 9th at 7pm with no problem. On December 30th, I get an email confirmation confirming my reservation at *4pm*. What? So, I message the place saying that my reservation was for 7pm. They message me an hour or so later saying that they close early on New Year's eve. I wished I was notified earlier, not the night before! So, I reserve (again through OpenTable) with a similar type of restaurant just down the street from them. The reservation goes through successfully. I call and leave a message telling them my situation and that I would call them the next day (December 31st) to confirm. They call me in the afternoon to tell me that they are, in fact, also closed early and cannot keep the reservation. So, I don't know who's fault it is that New Year's Eve hours are not in effect on OpenTable, but I had two reservations that went through via OpenTable that could not actually be fulfilled due to their NYE hours.
For anyone who is curious, I then made a phone call that afternoon to another restaurant reserving there. When my large party showed up that evening, they said that the oven was broken and they couldn't take us. We ended up at a restaurant that gouged us with forcing a price fix menu (they kept saying we could just do individual orders but never let us see an actual menu), and were super slow, we needed to get to the club and asked to have the dessert wrapped up instead of served- they never gave it to us.
Obviously OpenTable had nothing to do with the latter half of the night, but they did have to do with the first half that lead us to the second half. I'm leaving two stars instead of one because we have had successful reservations in the past (for just two/three people on a regular night), but I've definitely learned that perhaps I should always call for reservations.

I used Opentable to make a reservation at a local restaurant. So far so good. When we arrived, we were informed that they were completely filled and that they could only seat us in the bar. Why was this not noted when I made the reservation? While waiting to see the table, the hostess left us standing at the podium until we finally gave up and left.

When I returned home, I received an email from Opentable that I had been naughty and not showed up for the reservation. When I wrote back that we had in fact shown up and the why we left, they wrote back that they would make sure that the restaurant had accurate records.

REALLY? That's what is important to you? The restaurant's records? Both the restaurant AND Opentable need to review their customer service protocols.

A couple of years ago I was given an Open Table gift card by my sister, who didn't realize she had ordered it in US dollars (I'm in Canada) and that it could only be used in the US. When I finally booked a trip to New York I got in touch with Open Table and asked them to send the card to me at my hotel. Guess what? It didn't arrive. I have since spent about 3 hours on the phone with their lousy customer service trying to get them to cough it up. The customer service reps never seem to know what's going on and not one of them has taken the initiative to make amends for their screw ups. NEVER EVER get a gift card from these dingbats!

I was treating my son for lunch because he had seen an ad for steak and lobster for $59 per person at Morton's Steak House on Post Oak. We had lunch there 10/23/2018. We had a 1:15 p.m. reservation; we did not have our order taken until ater 2:00 after which took until 3:20 to be served and finished. The waiter we had may as well not been there. When he was in attendance he was slow but most of the time he was not around. I had to ask another waiter to take our order. Then came the entree' - the steak was very good; the lobster was blackened on the underside and I could not eat a lot of it. I did mention this and someone who I believe was the Manager, told me he would deduct the lobster from our bill. That was nice, however, the $223 bill I was handed seemed a little high since the steak/lobster dishes we ordered should have been $118 plus our drinks and dessert. Then I discovered they charged a la carte for the steak and lobster. The decor is very elegant and nice but not enough for me to ever step into Morton's again! I will stick to going to Tony's for sure!

I went last night with my husband and then I went for lunch today and I think they have changed cooks. Today the Pasta Pesto was horrible the noodles were over cooked (they were stuck together in clunks), it was too salty. Last night we had the Salmon and it was bitter and sweet and tangy to much of the different sauces, the asparagus was overcooked it was superb when I first went, bring the chef back. I will start maybe going to the one in Pembroke Pines from now on sad because this one is close to my job for lunch

Food and service were great. This review gets a 1 star due to the fact that valet broke our tail light and will not replace. We have emailed, called, left voicemails and contacted them on social media. The tail light is over $400 that was broken by their mandatory valet parking. Corporate has done nothing and does not seem to care at all. This was a family night with a tab over $3k. Will not be spending another dime at any of Landry's restaurants.

I used the app to schedule a reservation at the Olive Garden in Puyallup, Wa for myself and a few friends. The employees had never even heard of Opentable. After sometime the manager was able to get the issue straightened out but then they couldn't honor it because they were so busy. I had wait in line like the rest. If I have to call and verbally confirm a reservation then I may as well just not use the app and schedule it over the phone.