Restaurant.comReviews 866

This is NO DEAL at all!

First, I got a $25 gift card to redeem at the site. So I logged in and by the next day, they lost my account info. The CS support team is clueless. Eventually, they emailed me later that week and fixed everything.

Second, there are NO restaurants here that I'm remotely interested in. I thought they'd have popular restaurants. I've never heard of the majority of these places.

Third, they are constantly out of stock. I've been waiting for a certificate on a restaurant just down the street since December last year. They just got them in yesterday and today their out of stock again!

So finally I cashed in the $25 certificate for two $10 and a $5 certificate at a sushi restaurant (that was all that was available). In the fine print is states that I have to spend $20 for each $10 I spend and $10 for each $5 I spend. So now I have to spend $50 to receive $25 off. And to top it off, I can't use the three certificates together (didn't I receive a $25 certificate to begin with... to spend all at one time?). I can't even use them in the same month. How nuts is this?

restaurant.com - total ripoff!

Here was the latest big deal from restaurant.com:
"72 Hour Special: $40 for a $1000 Hotel and Resort eGift Card Featuring Hilton Hotels World Wide"
Well, I followed the link that let's you check availability and discount price. I found a place I want to stay. The price was $159.00/night. If I buy the card for $40, then I can use it four times. This time, I could get $40 off the price with a 2-night stay. So I come out even on first use. Pay $40 extra to get $40 back. But, wait, I look up the rate on the Hilton web site, and that rate with AAA discount is only $143.00.

So, why would I bother paying restaurant.com?! I say, "Meh!" 2 stars. I would make it one star, but in theory I could save a bit more by using the card the second, third and fourth times. But when it comes right down to availability and REAL price, this trouble is hardly worth it.

When Restaurant.com started they had a good inventory of restaurants. Now, it appears that their inventory has shrunk to, marginal at best, restaurants. What is worse, they do not email nor notify users when restaurants drop the service.

Went to a restaurant in the SF Bay area last night, coupon was declined. Owner took my coupon and called it in to Restaurant.com to remind them that they no longer used the service. Pretty embarrassing.

I want to get my money back for my existing coupons but you can only transfer the coupons to other mediocre restaurants.

Their website has no contact phone numbers.

I bought two $25 certificates from them initially and just to found out later that the restaurant wouldn't except them. Now restaurant.com wouldn't refund my money any more!

Purchased coupon then the restaurant closed a few weeks later they wouldn't give the money back or use it towards another one. They ignored repeated emails for assistance. They kept the money! Losers!

It works as advertised - prices are great but you need to check the restricts; certificates require minimum bill which usually excludes booze, some are good only on weekdays, etc. Web page is not very usuer friendly, instructions could be much better, etc. Specials E-mailed at least weekly, I once paid 1.40 for a $25 coupon (free steak dinner for my wife!), and some $5 coupons for $. 40. I have used about 16 certificates during the past. 18 months in 3 different states with only one problem (restaurant closed, however it was easy to exchange the certificate for another one in the same area) I have 5 more in my smart phone just waiting for me!,,

Went to Coopers Hawk to an Astra Zeneca meeting on 3/18/2015. From the minute we walked in the door the two waitress were very rude. They acted like it was a burden to have to serve us and also told us that we couldn't order our steaks cooked any way but medium. The never filled our wine glasses the way they were suppose to and never brought us any boxes for carry out. This is bad business and I would certainly think with manners such as this and the poor customer that they will not get our business again.

Now I see the other reviews with one star and see that I am not the only one. The printout shows the $25 and the name of the restaurant and I even called in advance at restaurant.com before taking my friend to the restuarant to make sure that indeed it is still on record and valid, doing my added due diligence and restaurant.com confirmed the certificate was indeed still good, as it has not expiration date and that the certificate validation number was still active. I go to the restaurant and they say they cannot accept the certificate because in their system it shows the at the certificate was "never issued" from restaurant.com. The restaurant ended up honoring the certificate afterall, but this was an embarrassment and reflects many others here also relaying a similar scam type of experience.

This company called my restaurant and spoke to a server, asking for address verification. We get these calls a lot for people trying to find us, so she didn't think much of it. Within days, a coupon was up on their website and people were presenting them, as they had PAID for them, expecting to be able to redeem them. When I called to request that they take it down, they said she had authorized it. Then they went on a five minute spiel about how I "didn't understand the value" they provided and it was clear to me what had most likely happened with her. Their sales pitch is one that makes it impossible to say no unless you just hang up. Zero stars. Zero trust. Will do zero business with these people. Ever.

We got our "gift certificates" from making a purchase of at least $75 at Motherhood Maternity. We searched the store to find items we really didn't need to hit that amount because receiving $50 in gift cards to restaurants sounded logical. The choices of restaurants are lame and there is only about 1 or 2 options local otherwise you have to drive over an hour to find one of the restaurants listed. We used our first one at a bar/restaurant that does not serve good food at all. It was a joke - only served pizza and appetizers. We had to spend at least $50 to get the $25 off. So we bought two pizzas to take home and a bunch of appetizers. NOT worth the money at all and this whole service is a rip off. Wish I could give less than a star.

I have used many of the coupons and they were all accepted with no problems and I got exactly what I expected. They are a GREAT deal but you have to understand the restrictions for each coupon and decide if it works for you. I am not interested in going to the vast majority of their restaurants but there are a few we like and a very small number that we like a lot. For those we love the savings are big and it works great. I have never used the "specials", a lot of which are combo theater / dinner deals, because they don't work the same way as the regular coupons. They are much more restricted in where you go and what you get and other reviews confirm they apparently misleading and disappointing.

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!

Paid for certificates for two restaurants several years back. One restaurant went out of business and other I was no longer interested in since you could only use one certif per month and that required a significant purchase on top of the certif value (I failed to read the really small print). I received notice from R.c that I could transfer the value of these certif for another which I did.
I selected a new restaurant, received my certif. and went to the restaurant (my $15.00 certif was to be good for a $30.00 dinner). They only took off the original $15.00 from the bill, this was the $15.00 I had spent for the certif in the beginning!! Where is the savings or discount R.c advertises?? I argued with the restaurant without success. They already charged my card the full amount for the dinner less the $15.00 (which already came out of my pocket)! I contacted R.c to explain and they explained away the entire issue stating I was treated correctly by the restaurant. WHERE IS THE SPECIAL DEAL IN THIS?
I used another certif. for another restaurant but made the mistake of going on the weekend. Again (my fault) I didn't spot the detail on the certif saying the deal was for weekdays. To late. We already ate the dinner and since the weekend rate required an additional spending if $10.00 had no choice but to order additional food in order to benefit from the certif. The end result was that I spent more than planned and at a restaurant Iwould not normally chose (due to the limited selections of restaurants available). Can't seem to win with Resturant.com. There is generally a catch and these "deals" are not really deals.
No more Resturant.com for me.