Restaurant.com
reviews and complaints

I had a $25 gift certificate that I needed to exchange because the restaurant was no longer a part of Restaurant.com. I exchanged for two [2] $10 certificates and should have had a remaining $5 to use for another "deal". I have emailed at least 7 times and while getting a response to each email, the issue has not been resolved. They tell me I have a $5 credit in "My Account" but I do not. The latest return email asked me to email "[protected]@restaurant.com" and let whomever know how the email respondent was doing. That did not work either; therefore, this complaint. It's not the amount I have been short changed on; it's the principle.

Customers came in with Restaurant.com's certificates in hand to redeem them for $10.00 and $15.00 face value off their bills. We have no idea where Restaurant.com is selling the certificates for our 4 Texas locations. When the owner called Restaurant.com. The said there is no written contract or agreement between Don Carlos and Restaurant.com. The agreement was done over the phone. When pressed again who was the contact person that sold the agreement to Don Carlos. Restaurant.com said they used an "Outside source" that brought in the agreement and they could not provide the name of the person or company that brought them Don Carlos. That sounded extremely fishy and did not pass the smell test. Asked them again if they used any inside personnel to verify the validity of the agreement that was brought in by "Outside source". They said they verified by phone, again no name of person on either end of the telephone conversation. Don Carlos has demanded Restaurant.com to cease selling the invalis certificates to the unsuspecting consumers for their own gain. Consumers need to be alerted of this unprofessional and unethical business to deceive consumer for their money and create animosity between the unsuspected business and consumers. Both the business and consumers are the victims of the unethical practice of Restaurant.com. Don Carlos Mexican Restaurants will bring this matter to Better Business Bureau's attention.

Do not buy certificates from this company. Some of the certificates i purchased went through without a problem. Others were rejected by the restaurant as not valid. When you try and get this resolved with restaurant.Com all you get is canned email responses. I have been scammed!

12/02/2015 I received a restaurant.com $50 gift certificate from a local store for making a purchase there. I registered myself on restaurant.com's web site including the code on the back of my gift certificate. I was able to view the participating restaurants on restaurant.com's site but when I went to redeem my card they said it did not exist. I contacted restaurant.com's customer via thru e-mail, which is the only way to contact them, and received a robo e-mail reply telling me how to properly redeem the gift certificate. After trying several more times and receiving the same e-mail back I threw the $50 dollar gift certificate away. It's just a scam.

I purchased 3 local restaurant certificates, for "Sake house Japanese cuisine restaurant", from "Restaurant.com". Today i went there and tried to use it but rejected by the restaurant owner. Then I called the restaurant.com costumer service and talked to the supervisor Ms. Anna. She said she can't do nothing beside exchange this certificate to another. I am afraid to buy/exchange more this type "certificate" which only cheat you to have more expensive meals.

restaurant.com issued gift certificates without my knowledge. I called them and they said they would take care of it. They did not. People come in and use there certificates to get free food. I try not to turn these people away as that is bad business. Restaurant.com is a morally bankrupt business. The only people benefitting are the people who take the money. I am sure when people are told that we do not take the coupons they feel bad. Either way people feeling bad is a no win for everyone. Restaurant.com's business model does not work.

This all started on Oct 1st 2014 when I moved to a new home 80 miles away from my old stomping grounds. At this point in time I logged into my restaurant.com account and attempted to exchange the certificates for restaurants in my old neighborhood with ones in the new area I am living in. After several failed attempts to exchange certificates following the procedures outlined on restuarant.com's help section I chalked it up to the website having a glitch. A week later I came back to try again, still no luck, two weeks later, three weeks later still no luck. So November rolls around I try a couple more times off and on and still nothing. So I utilize the help contact on the restaurant.com website, explain my situation in detail on 11.24.2014, highlighting the fact that I had followed the instructions on how to exchange a certificate multiple times and that it was not working. Shortly after I sent the help request I was sent a reply by somebody named Ashley Lanham, the reply was nothing but a carbon copy of the instructions posted on the website on how to exchange certificates. The very same instructions I had followed and had informed the company that I had followed them in an attempt to exchange. I responded to Ashley Lanham on 11.24.2014 explaining all this again and never received anything further. On 11.25.2014 I sent another email to restaurant.com stating everything that had already happened and that the exchange function was not working, I took the time to highlight the fact that I had already tried this multiple times and that it still was not working and even attached the previous emails. They responded on 11.25.2014 with nothing other than the instructions posted on their site for exchanging certificates. So I logged onto the BBB and found their phone number and contacted them by phone on 11.25.2014 and spoke to a person who called himself Raul. I explained to Raul that I wanted a refund and I was tired of the games his company was playing, I informed him that I needed to speak to a supervisor. Raul told me that his supervisor was not in and that they had a no refund policy, but I should feel free to utilize the website to exchange the certificates. I then told Raul that I did not believe that a business would be in operation with no supervisor, and that I wanted to speak to a supervisor, the boss or the owner of the company as I was certain that he was not the end all be all of company decisions. I was placed on hold. Raul came back on and stated his boss was in a meeting, I then asked Raul why he had told me that there was no supervisor there and then immediately changed it to my boss is in a meeting. He responded with " you never asked for a supervisor, you just told me you wanted to talk to my boss or the owner." Good job Raul, you fail at customer service by the way. Raul also refused to provide me with a direct link to a supervisor, said he did not have a phone number, and there was no way for me to speak with them. Raul would also not provide a name of a supervisor. Put on hold again. Raul then informed me that he had talked to his boss and they were waiting to hear from me. I then asked him to transfer me, he said no and that I should email them at [protected]@resaurant.com. He said again they were waiting for me to contact them, I said ok transfer me then to their phone. At this point in time Raul was kind enough to transfer me to an extension with a pre recorded message stating that restaurant.com was closed and to call back during normal business hours. Strange since I called them during there normal business hours.

Your Desired Resolution:
In my eyes there is nothing this company can do to make this right other that refund me 100%. I have no desire to deal with this company any more as they possess absolutely no customer service skills at all. They blindly relpy to help emails obviously not reading anything their customers are writing. Their customer support phone line operators, in my first hand experience are nothing more than liars and game players. To me this business is now nothing more than a way to scam people out of their hard earned money. Right now my opinion is that they are thieves, and they have stolen from me as they took money for a service they are now not willing to honor.

Restaurant.com is luring customers into purchasing "Certificates" to be used at restaurants for discounts on food purchases. The restaurants have no relationship with Restaurant.com, nor have the restaurants authorized anyone to offer such certificates.The customer is charged $2-4 dollars, which is not enough to break anyone, or for anyone to take the time to go to the authorities to report abuse or possible fraud. The restaurant is hurt because the Certificate usually requires a "free" item to be offered to the customer. There is no risk to Restaurant.com. The conduct is at best, unethical. Please do not support this kind of operation.

Over a year ago restaurant.com offered 18% gratuity of total bill after the discount was applied. As of 8 months ago they removed the 18% gratuity and replaced it with TIP YOUR SERVER ON FULL AMOUNT OF CHECK! We as servers count on that money! Since it's been removed more then 75% of people either leave anywhere from 18 to under 15% after the discount! This is unacceptable, Servers at that point pay out of pocket when tipping the runner, busser, and bartender. We all ask that you apply the gratuity back on the full amount. At least 15%? As for the people using these restaurant.com's you should be ashamed of yourselves! For the people that do tip correctly and they're are very few, we say thank you! Restaurant.com please adjust your terms and conditions!

I purchased $50 "gift cards" for a restaurant that were discounted. However, AFTER the purchase, it was then disclosed that the purchased needed to be for AT LEAST $100. I NEVER spend this much money in one trip to that place, which make the "gift cards" worth about as much as dirty toilet paper.

Purchased many Gift Certificates and E Cards over the years...never a problem
NOW THAT I HAVE over $1000.00 in credit...I go to redeem my credits and the list of available resaurants dwindles to NOTHING!
Along with much smaller denominations offered!
I gave my money in good faith...and have literally been unable to obtain the certificates that I want 75% of the time
So the money I spent sits...and sits...and sits..
USELESS
I'm disgusted...

I was duped into spending $30 on Restaurant.com (Specials) coupons. They told me I could purchase $100 worth of wine from OrderWineDirect.com.

The coupon was $15. The catch: You have to spend at least $200 to get the $100 savings. No big deal. I was OK with that. However, OrderWineDirect.com does NOT ship to the state of OHIO. They failed to tell me that before I spent $30 for 2 coupons. I’ve asked for a refund of my money back. They refuse to respond at all and have not refunded my money. I have $200 worth of OrderWineDirect.com coupons that I cannot use. Very frustrated.

I was duped into spending $30 on Restaurant.com (Specials) coupons. They told me I could purchase $100 worth of wine from OrderWineDirect.com.
The coupon was $15. The catch: You have to spend at least $200 to get the $100 savings. No big deal. I was OK with that. However, OrderWineDirect.com does NOT ship to the state of OHIO. They failed to tell me that before I spent $30 for 2 coupons. I’ve asked for a refund of my money back. They refuse to respond at all and have not refunded my money. I have $200 worth of OrderWineDirect.com coupons that I cannot use. Very frustrated.

There is no deal for the consumer here for the most part. Spent $10 for a $25 certificate. I had to spend at least $35 for the dinner... but of course due to the restaurant's menu prices I had to spend $45 ...then had to pay a high NY tax rate on that...and tip of 18% was automatically added to $45 bucks dinner for two (for practically no service)...and for cheap Mexican food.. Where is the deal ? Perhaps if you are spending 50 on steak and lobster it would have been worth it, but then again... for 2 dinner's I would have had to spend $100...so buyer BEWARE!

I bought once from them and the restaurant wouldn't accept my cert. Even if they had done that, there are minimum spend requirements that don't make the $$ off equal out to anything other than a % off your meal. Add to that that there are tons of restrictions and zero customer service from restaurant.com itself and you've got a bad deal.

Stay away.

If you are familiar with the term "bait and switch" or would like a perfect example or education of it then buy a coupon from restaurant.com. I did!
Not at all as described-not even close.When I called for a refund within 10min after they charged( I paid through paypal) and was instantly offered a $100.00 coupon, it was like the rep had a script! I refused it by stating the last thing I wanted to do was continue doing business with a company whose first transaction was fraudulent!
Currently involved in a PayPal dispute after Restaurant.com responded with they do not refund fees!
Paypal has already decided I was dealt with fraudulently, however my money has yet to be refunded.
STAY AWAY!

Restaurant wouldn't accept because they said they were losing too much. No response from customer service. Wasted my money.

Currently Restaurant.com has a Class Action Lawsuit pending in the State of Florida (March 17, 2011) for signing up companies that don't even exist or are Out-Of-Business and listing them on their webpages for consumers to purchase their certificates. Merchants complained in several States because restaurant.com is selling more certificates then the merchant agreed to, Instead of having a 90-Day expiration on each certificate, Restaurant.com changed the expiration to "Never Expires" on certificates without the knowledge to merchants and if the merchants refused to accept the coupons they could be sued for $17, 000 by restaurant.com. Merchants would attempt to call or write to cancel contracts and instead Restaurant.com would state they never received their contract cancellation and would continue to sell certificates.

Currently in the State of Florida as of March 17, 2011 there is a Class Action Lawsuit filed against Restaurant.com Customers Who Allegedly Purchased Restaurant Coupons At Closed Restaurants in Florida File Class Action Lawsuit Complaint Against Restaurant.com.

A class action lawsuit complaint has been filed against Restaurant.com, Inc. (“Restaurant.com” or ”Defendant”) in the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in and for Miami-Dade County Florida (styled Cristy Cora v. Restaurant.com, Inc., Class Action Case No. 11-08065CA), alleging, among other things, that Restaurant.com sells restaurant coupons to internet customers for certain restaurants that are no longer in business, purportedly in violation of section 501.95, Fla. Stat., the CARD Act and the EFTA, 15 U.S.C. section 1693 et seq., according to the Restaurant.com coupon class action lawsuit complaint.

The Restaurant.com class action lawsuit complaint reportedly is brought on behalf of the following putative class of persons, unless otherwise excluded:

All of Defendant’s Florida customers who bought restaurant coupons at closed restaurants.

For more information on the Restaurant.com restaurant coupon class action lawsuit, read the Restaurant.com coupon class action lawsuit complaint: http://classactionlawsuitsinthenews.com/class-action-lawsuit-complaints/restaurant-com-class-action-lawsuit-complaint/comment-page-1/#comment-99496

Also note that several merchants in several U.S. States complained that Restaurant.com would sell more certificates then agreed in original contract, Restaurant.com would modify the agreement without knowledge to the merchant(s). Restaurant.com would sell certificates that would state a "Never Expire" expiration date on all certificates and force the merchant to accept them for 5 years after they cancel their account or be forced to re-imburse restaurant.com as much as $17, 000.00 for refusing to accept certificates at their restaurant. Restaurant.com is been known to avoid calling back merchants. I highly recommend that you file a class action lawsuit in your state against this company for damages.

One thing I learned is whenever you have a complaint you need to do a few things

1) File a complaint against the company thru the Better Business Bureau. Any complaints posted will be available here: http://www.bbb.org

2) File a complaint with your State Attorney General office, These guys investigate deceptive practices, Click here to find one in your State. http://workathomemoms.about.com/od/workathomescams/a/State-Attorney-General.htm

3) Consult an Attorney and file a lawsuit.

4) Contact the Media: Television, Cable, Newspapers, Radio - Get the word out about the bad practices of a company, Remember companies hate "Bad Press" and they'll do anything from being listed on the local news!

5) Protest - Get your friends involved and protest.

Just to let you know that the Better Business Bureau has 587 complaints against Restaurant.com (RDC) in 3 years from both consumers & merchants, This will help your case.

I bought the savings certificate from restaurant.com for Viiolas in Quincy. !$10 for a $25 certificate. The comments were all fantastic. When our party of 3 arrived we were told they did not have the veal, beef, or chicken listed on the menu. (hadn't been delivered that day). Turns out they are going out of business. We were told this after our arrival. The wonderful waitress accepted our certificate (Thank you), but shame on restaurant.com for not using due diligence in restaurant reviews. I wonder who on the staff of restaurrants.com actually verified all those comments of excellence.