Restaurant.com Questions & Answers

If you purchased with a Credit Card, call your CC customer service (number on the back of your cc) and ask to do a BACKCHARGE. They will ask you for the merchant name, and reason. Explain that they ripped you off, with worthless certificates. The merchant with get a large backcharge fee, plus you will get a credit. I do this all the time with shady merchants.

That's why you have to call a listed restaurant before buying a certificate. Buyer beware.

Most certificates have fine print stating that only one/month can be used.

I too cannot contact restaurant.com This is really frustrating

It you spend less than 100 dollars the restaraunt will give you cash back - which you could use towards the tip.

No, their coupons are worthless.

No restaurants directly accept the gift card at the restaurant.

Short answer, no. This company has not changed its tactics... I get the impression that many visitors to this site don't fully understand how this whole "scheme" works. First, you buy or receive a gift card from restaurant.com. Typical price is $20 for $125 "worth" of gift cards. Then you go to the restaurant.com website and "purchase" restaurant certificates (or whatever they call them) from "participating" restaurants. So, typically a $25 restaurant.com gift card (which cost $4) will purchase a $25 restaurant certificate, with the typical restriction that you must purchase $50 worth of food (liquor may or may not be excluded). So, you are really getting $50 worth of food for $29 out of pocket. And all of the above assumes the restaurant you want to eat at, is even one of the restaurants on their list. And further, even if the restaurant is on their list, MANY commenters have reported that when they have shown up at the intended restaurant, the staff knows nothing about these "certificates" and claims they have never heard of restaurant.com. There is something very wrong with restaurant.com. Pay attention to the fact that the majority of reviews are 1 star. Should probably be 0 stars. BUYER BEWARE, BIG TIME! Tip for consumers: Be sure there is a restaurant you like on their list and contact them ahead of time to ensure that they will actually accept restaurant.com certificates. I cannot suggest more strongly, do this before buying anything from this company! And whatever you do, don't buy their giftcards to give as gifts. The gift recipient will hate you for putting them through so much grief, and you will look cheap. You are better off paying full price for a specific company's gift card, NOT from this company. Update: Buy giftcards at a discount from raise.com, retailmenot.com, giftcardgranny.com or giftcards.com.

It's quite simple. They can't rely on repeat business because they screw over anyone who gets hooked into doing business with them. So they must branch out, looping in legitimate businesses to give them a whiff of legitimacy. Pet products are likely just another market segment in which they can deploy their misleadingly vague sales pitch and fine print to separate a new group of fools from their money. Note that for the businesses, restaurant.com offers a legitimate function, enabling them to outsource the shady new business generation. There is a sucker born every minute. If you are willingly led astray, and tend to fall for sales pitches or enticements that seem to promise that you can lose 40 pounds for $100, or that you'll get a guaranteed tax refund sight unseen, then these "gift cards" will be right up your alley.

You'll never get an answer from restaurant.com. They don't monitor this website and don't care about their customers' satisfaction. This website is not owned or run by restaurant.com.