$25 in food for $5. 3 days only

[wheil]

use code 45962 to get 50% off gift certificates for resturants in your area. This is for 3 days only. Most certificates are only $10 for $25. Now its half off.

http://www.restaurant.com

[kayak99]

Is this an effort at spam?

The restaurants listed, in my area at least, are Mom & Pop type and the 50% coupons have a fee. Your promo number cuts that fee in half to $1.50 for a 50% off coupon, but a fee is still a fee.

[digitalfreaknyc]

Let me tell you something...for NYC this is a GREAT deal.

[kayak99]

Let me tell you something...for NYC this is a GREAT deal.

That's great, glad it works well for you. I was wondering if this was real or something else cuz none of mine worked out to be much of anything. :)

[wheil]

It was a great deal for me in Williamsport Pa. I got a $25 certificate for $5 at a resturant I eat at all the time. It depends on where you live.

[Y2K Falcon]

I refuse to participate, as this is the company that "took over" that one place that had the GC auctions back in the day (don't remember the name, but someone here probably does). I "won" a bunch of them, then lo and behold after the takeover, all my certificates which weren't to expire for several more months were invalid. Several places had signs stating that they no longer accept them, but once you're there, it's hard to just walk away and look like an ass. Probably used 2 of the, well, many I got. I cried as I ceremoniously created a bonfire with the remaining certs.

Asshats.

[kvrdave]

Several places had signs stating that they no longer accept them, but once you're there, it's hard to just walk away and look like an ass.

I've met you, and it didn't look hard at all. :)

[Y2K Falcon]

I've met you, and it didn't look hard at all. :)
If I had a nickel for every ex-girlfriend that has said that. :grunt:

[raytrade]

I refuse to participate, as this is the company that "took over" that one place that had the GC auctions back in the day (don't remember the name, but someone here probably does). I "won" a bunch of them, then lo and behold after the takeover, all my certificates which weren't to expire for several more months were invalid. Several places had signs stating that they no longer accept them, but once you're there, it's hard to just walk away and look like an ass. Probably used 2 of the, well, many I got. I cried as I ceremoniously created a bonfire with the remaining certs.

Asshats.

****MAJOR CONSUMER WARNING!!!****

Wow, if this is that same company, I would never participate in this. The same deal happened to me in their old incarnation. I spent hundreds of dollars on GCs from them that had a face value of thousands of dollars, only to find that a large number of stores/restaurants refused to accept them. Apparently they were issued without permission from the restaurant. My understanding is that the salespeople for this company would approach the restaurant and offer to advertise for them by putting up info about the restaurant on their site and instead of having to pay, the restaurant would agree to accept some GCs issued by this company. Well, turns out that this company would either keep issuing GCs after the restaurant tried repeatedly to cancel the deal, or else would issue many more dollars worth of GCs than they were entitled to; ie: the restaurant was expecting $500 in GCs a month and they would have $4000 worth of customer redemptions each month. So YMMV. In the beginning, all restaurants in the program took the GCs, then realizing what a bad deal it was, would have problems canceling. Either they would have to screw the consumer or take a huge loss. The biggest problem was many people back then would finish their expensive meal, present the GC, then learn they were no good and have to pay for the meal. The company went into bankruptcy so everyone was screwed. There was a big stink about this on all the message boards back then. There were even reports that this company was issuing GCs for restaurants that had said no to their sales reps and never gave permission for any GCs at all.

The worst part is, all this took a few months to transpire. Since it was such a good deal and the GCs were good for a couple of years, many people got tons of GCs from this company within a short span of time, then found out months later when they tried to redeem the GCs that they were no good. Even cautious consumers who would try this out with a small number of GCs in the beginning would have no problem at the early restaurants, then when they felt confident and got a large number of GCs later, then they got screwed. When the early reports started appearing on message boards that some places were refusing to accept the GCs, the more cocky consumers posted they had called the restaurant beforehand to make sure they were taking these GCs. The problem is, weeks later, after the restaurant realized the scam this company was running, they would no longer be accepting the GCs when the customer brought them in. So even calling beforehand didn't help. The restaurant simply hadn't been swamped with GCs beyond their agreed amount yet.

Oh... and this happened to me plus other posters had the same thing happen: we would get GCs for restaurants we had never heard of that sounded good, only to go to the address and learn that the restaurant had gone out of business months ago! The company didn't care or update their records and just keep selling the GCs. Since this "advertising" deal did not involve the restaurant having to pay money themselves, this company made its money from selling the GCs so they would never know if a restaurant still existed. They would just keep the non-existant restaurant's info up on their site and as payment keep selling the GCs to consumers!

Also, I and many others got screwed cause we couldn't even file a dispute with our credit cards since much of this happened past the 60-days-after-the-sale that credit cards give you to dispute transactions. So don't even feel like that would protect you if this happens again with these guys.

[gbub]

I think this legit these days. Edited to add that code is legit (although today is the last day). I got the same one in an email.

I do remember back when everything else happened. I bought one GC to a local restaurant and had no problem with it. Then I started reading about all the problems people were having with using them so I stayed away for a while.

I did get another one when they switched over to their new system (which was you could only use 1 per month or something) and had no problem again with it. I mainly wanted to try out some local restaurants, but over time the few that were offered just dwindled away to just 9 or 10 across the state.

The reason I think this is legit now is because the restaurants that are still on there have been on there a couple years. I check back every now and again when I get an email to see what's new in my area. So far, though, nothing.

I guess your best bet is to call the restaurant before even buying the GC and ask if they accept them.

[jw2299]

Raytrade and Y2K Falcon,

The old website was called cityspree.com, and I ate all over the city for hella cheap because of them. I even found one of my favorite restaraunts because of a gc I got from them. But, as Y2KFalcon, pointed out, it was all a scam. I was lucky enough to get to use all the gc's I bought, but a couple of my friends weren't. And one friend talked to the owner of a restaruant who had cityspree gc's and he said he'd never heard of them. No one from that site contacted them, and he didn't see a penny from the sales of those gc's.

EDIT: After perusing this site, it looks much more legit. Note the number of exclusions on each gc (valid only with a $35.00 purchase, Not valid on alcohol, no weekends, etc.) I may give it a go.

[jgottlieb]

It tells me the code is expired (2/8/05).

[scarredgod]

i bought 4 of these GCs during the half-off sale, which seems to be pretty frequently. for $1.50 i got a GC good for 50% off my food bill. i used 2 so far and no problems. saving about 20 bucks at each place.

[Y2K Falcon]

The old website was called cityspree.com...
ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

They're at the top of "the list", above Digital Neighbors (where's my Amazon GC?), stamps.com (where are my envelopes???), and pointclick (though I didn't have anything outstanding with them when they went belly-up).

They probably are on the level now. But some of my locals have some pretty steep restrictions (dinner only, $50 min to use $25 GC, 18% tip added, no alcohol, only valid Mon-Thurs)

What can I say. I hold a grudge. ;)

Disclaimer: Though if they had a really great deal at a place I really liked, I'd sell half my soul for a GC. :) But for now, I'll stick with the "entertainment book" with the BO-GO deals there.

[djmont]

I've used Restaurant.com gift certs on many occasions and never had any problems with them.

[Colleen]

I've used Restaurant.com gift certs on many occasions and never had any problems with them.


Me too! I've found some neat restaurants this way.

[heavywear]

Missed out on the coupon but tried it anyways. Still a good deal for places I eat at already. Thanks for the link

[hewhokills]

a new coupon code for 50% off
good until 2-28

96152

enjoy

[raytrade]

Yeah well glad its working out for some of you. Personally, I don't like that they can just f-over a bunch of people for thousands of dollars then just reorganize under a different name and have it all be good. That's bull, and that's exactly what they did. Maybe after they get enough of your money, they'll just cancel all remaining certificates and come back as "eating.com" and have no obligation for the no-good restaurant.com certificates.

[heavywear]

used the first two and just bought 2 more for other places, thanks again. No hassles and the restaurant said they get 2-3 vouchers a day