Del Taco review: Coupon code after completing survey is not usable!!!

As if the subject (Coupon Code after completing survey is NOT USABLE!) wasn't clear enough...

Every Del Taco receipt I've ever seen offered some kind of discount once a survey had been completed. I did complete the survey and did received an email that contained some sort of "code" in the form of 13 letters and numbers — not a QR code! Having seen this sort of thing before, I assumed all I had to do was recite this code or allow a Del Taco employee to read it in order to apply the discount of $1.00 off a $3.00 or more purchase. I further assumed that once this code had been used that it would no longer function too.

And so, I decided to use this coupon a few days later, before the offer had expired, only to find a Del Taco employee who WOULD NOT HONOR IT! The reason given was that it was not in the form of a QR standard and that she had nowhere to type it in. This employee would also not get a manager to assist with this problem and tried to explain that was there was no manager! Okay, it was after 8PM and that might be true. And so, since it was only for a dollar off, I decided to not press the issue, paid my bill and then left with my food.

Nevertheless, this whole coupon thing just irritates me. I give my time to fill out the survey (and now this complaint) with the promise of obtaining $1.00 off and I don't even get that! And now that Del Taco has my email address to spam me with, it seems almost as though I've been robbed! Is Del Taco now so desperate that it has to resort to illegal behavior to achieve some sort of profit goal?! OR WHAT?!