Restaurant.comReviews 866

This is not a scam guys. Okay look, this is what you have to do to get an even BETTER deal. Go to ebay and look for $100 gift cards for restaurant.com and buy from someone you trust. I spent $3 on the $100 gift card (on ebay) and it worked. Then i choose whatever restaurant i wanted to eat at and if i bought a $25 certificate, with the minimum purchase having to be around $37, i would've only spent $12 on that $37 meal! But you really SHOULD get the gift card :) If you guys dont understand how it works, have never used it, or confused you should not leave a review..

Utter crap. You HAVE to spend over the amount of the gift certificate you want.

Example, I want a $50 gift certificate. Guess what? I have to spend $75 on their site! Want a $25 gift card? You have to spend $37.50! So, basically, you have to buy two of the gift card you want, in order to actually get them. What a great scam.

AND! (I just found this out.) In addition to having to pay the "required" amount on the website, when you get your "gift certificate" is has the SAME requirements! So, on your two $50 gift certificates that you just forked over $100 for, you HAVE to spend $75 at the place in order to use it! Are you freaking kidding me!?

DO NOT PURCHASE SPECIAL DEALS! I have been a member of restaurant.com since 2007. We purchased 2 broadway tickets from a "deal" which came with a $50 restaurant.com e-gift card. We paid $116 for each deal. When we received the tickets, the face value read $99. The e-gift cards cannot be used for any special deals(i. E $4 for a $25 certificate). A $50 gift card can only buy a certificate for $50! If I purchased a $50 deal as I usually do, I could pay as little as $8. That would make the value of the deal, if I purchased my ticket directly from the theater, $107. I got cheated out of $9 per ticket deal. This is no discount.

restaurant.com is NOT A SCAM. I have been purchasing coupons and using these coupons for over 2 years. I do not work for the company or even know of anyone who works for them. After reading most the of comments here, I believe people need to read the "terms" of the coupon, just like any other store/restaurant coupon. Their coupons DO NOT EXPIRE. If a restaurant goes out of business or stops honoring the coupon, you can ALWAYS EXCHANGE THEM for a new restaurant. I use these coupons when I am entertaining family, company, or just want to take the whole family to a specific restaurant. It's a great way to try a new restaurant or keep going back to those you like. With many restaurants, you can only use the coupons, once every 30 days... get with the system people... it's a great deal and I know many people who have continually purchased them and use them.

This website is little more than a scam. A few things to keep in mind:

1. The "gift certificate" is basically a percentage coupon. You can buy $15 from a restaurant for $6, but then you'll have to spend $22.00. This is the deal I tried to buy. Which isn't a bad deal, but some of the restaurants require you spend quite a LOT to even get to use the certificate, which makes it more a discount, not an actual certificate.

2. Restaurant.com does NOT pay the restaurant any money for what they buy. All of this money is going in their pocket. Yes, the restaurant agrees to it... but you're gypping a restaurant out of money in a way. Which is why pretty crappy restaurants tend to be on the list of choices.

My personal experience: I purchased a gift certificate and was planning to use it this weekend. I paid for it, Paypal immediately let me know that not only was my transaction confirmed, but the payment had already been withdrawn by Restaurant.com, and was not even pending.

I checked my email for my certificate, excited. Nothing. I went on the website, seeing if it was under my account. Nothing. By then, I'm getting worried/confused. Why did Restaurant.com take my money and not send me anything?

I waited for a bit, thinking maybe it took some time. I searched around the internet and their website to see if there was anything saying that you had to wait 48 hours to use the certificate (which is the case with Livingsocial, for example.) NOTHING.

I emailed them, no response. I called them, and of course, the office is closed and says "please check our FAQ" which is useless. Meanwhile, they have my money and I have no certificate. I ended up going to the restaurant anyway without the certificate. It wasn't that awesome, guess that's to be expected.

I opened a Paypal dispute, and I see today that my money was refunded. However, ZERO apology or explanation from Restaurant.com, even though I sent two emails asking for help/guidance. I'm sorry, but if you take a customer's money and then don't offer anything in return, or it's a site glitch or whatever, you RESPOND and say how sorry you are! I have worked in customer service and if we ever did something like this, you bet we would be working hard on apologizing for that BS!

Moral of the story: buggy site that is not much better than a scam.

I have purchased numerous certificates from this website. Many of them have quite a bit of fine print i. E. not good on weekends, minimum orders required, %gratuity included, etc. Nothing totally ridiculous, you just need to read every word. However, the last few times I've tried to use one, the restaurant declined it. They said that restaurant.com offered these certificates without their permission. I find that hard to believe, but that doesn't help when you are already at the restaurant, ready to order. They will offer an exchange certificate, but if your is close to expiring. You are out of luck. There are other easier, less risky ways out there to save on eating out, so I'll quit with restaurant.com If you use them, read all the fine print and use long before the expiration date. I don't think in the long run it saves much money due to requirements to use the certificates.

I have been purchasing restaurant.com certificates for over 2 years now so I thought I could submit a fair review. I would say I've used about 60 restaurant.com certificates over the years.

Every certificate has worked perfectly and all places honored everything that was promised. I only had one restaurant that went out of business before I got to use the certificate but Restaurant.com reimbursed me right away.

The certificates are available seconds after purchase and have all the details you need. The BEST part is they are good for a WHOLE year after purchase. And, before you hit the purchase button the fine print pops up and you have to agree to it before you buy. So that's good.

Whenever I travel I take the zip code and look for restaurants and purchase one for every day. You can save a ton of money on food by doing this.

One HUGE down side is if you are going to purchase a certificate WITH a "gift certificate", some restaurants are not available. Meaning, they have to be purchased using a credit card, not a gift certificate. That's a REAL bummer & a down side to this program. But it is what it is.

Lastly, I highly suggest that you take a look at the companies own website & menu BEFORE purchasing any certificate. Lets face it, some restaurants are struggling & this is a last ditch effort to get the word out & win some new customers. With that said, some of these places might be in a bad section of town, a little run down or might not be your type of place.

You can search by type of food & price. There's always a minimum you have to spend to use it but it still will save you either $10, $25, $50 or $100 on a meal. Check out your local restaurants by using your own zip. You can select within a mile, 5 or 10 miles. So you can increase your search to get more results.

Not all experiences have been good but I'd rather pay less money for ok food than full price. Don't get me wrong, we've had some of the best meals of our lives using restaurant.com certificates.

One BIG suggestion to Restaurant.com website designers: Please add a feature so we can SORT by voucher denominations. I only purchase $25 certificates & it takes extra time searching for these. In addition, don't include restaurants in the results that are OUT of stock. Seems silly to give me a list of potential restaurants and they are ALL OUT of certificates. Make these changes & you will get 5 stars!

I have been sold giftcertificates 3 times that the particular merchant that it was suppose to be used for won't except and once you tell Restaurant.com about it they still continue to sell them to scam others and also do not refund your money.
I also had bought several TJ's $25 giftcertificates that required you to make a minimum purchase of $35 and have been printing them and using them occasionally when I was in that area. I went to go print out one of my giftcertificates today that I had already bought and paid for and THEY CHANGED THE TERMS ON MY GIFTCERTIFICATE!
It now states that I have to purchase a minimum of $50 to use my giftcertificate. That is NOT what I agreed to when I bought these certificates. How can they change the terms like that?
If you have any giftcertificates I recommend you printing them all now before they change the terms on them.
Restaurant.com is a scam and should be sued to pay back everyone that they have scammed!

Very deceiving, If it is your first time. You will feel frustrated also. Gift certificate of $100.00 you will pay only $40.00 and you need to purchase a minimum of $100.00 So I went to the restaurant and purchase a minimum of $100.00, I was surprised with my bill of $56.00, the cashier told me that I'm not the only one complained about this. The website is not very clear with their promotion. What I paid from restaurant.com, $40.00 is only to avail for a discount from the restaurant which is 50%. Instead of saving money, I ended up spending more $100.00 for 3 people.;(

+ Many of their listed restaurants would not honor the coupons. Saying they never agreed to the terms listed on restaurants.com
+ Many of their listed restaurants were in fact, out of business
+ When I found a restaurant that would honor their coupon, it was overpriced
+ It was a pain to use with any restaurant as I had to wait for them to call and validate the coupon causing food to get cold.
+ It was a very bad experience and I would award them 0 stars if I could.

Lex Luther