Restaurant.com Changes?

[dioxide45]

Over the past week I have received three e-mails about printing my unused certificates. The first e-mail listed the unused certificates. The list didn't exactly match my records that I meticulously update on the Restaurant.com website. One certificate that was listed as used by my records was on the e-mail as not used.

Today there was a update e-mail about the e-mails that were sent to remind people to print their unused certificates. I guess there have been lots of calls and e-mails to customer service.

One thing that was interesting in the e-mail was:

Q. How do I know which certificates I have already used?
A. Any certificates that appear in your account are available to be used.

Well with that, I went in to my account online and noticed that all the certificates that were marked as used are all cleaned out online and only unused certificates are shown. I wonder if Restaurant.com will now be updating the list of certificates when one is used.

 

[irish]

IMO it is a good thing that they have "cleaned up" the system. that was 1 of the problems i had with the site. my record keeping is NOT meticulous in that area and i didn"t remember what i printed,used and just let sit. so now when i go to the site i can determine what exactly i have left to use. sooooo glad they FINALLY did it!

 

[Timeshare Von]

I have never used their tracking system, mostly because I have too many g/c to keep up with there. I do print them immediately, and have them in a file folder so I just ignored their e-mails.

 

[MichaelColey]

What surprised me was this:

Q. I have certificates I purchased over a year ago, what can I do with these?
A. You can print and use them at the restaurant. If the restaurant is out of business or no longer on the program, email us at info [at] restaurant.com and we will exchange it with another certificate.

Apparently, they no longer expire, and that change is retroactive. I have a TON of Restaurant.com gift certificates I've bought over the years that expired. (UPDATE: I just looked - I have TWENTY that had expired or would have expired next month.)

 

[Kozman]

I find this as a welcomed change if it is true. I checked my account and all are marked as unused. However, they need to update (remove) the following statement on the certificate page.

Please note: This system is a self-management tool—in other words, a means for you to keep track of and record your purchases. For privacy reasons, Restaurant.com will not mark or indicate certificate usage, but has offered this system as simple way to keep track of your purchases.

 

[Ann-Marie]

I was surprised to receive the email about expired GC. I have 2, and have just held on to them, not knowing why! So I am going to try to use them in October when we go to HHI.

 

[rapmarks]

I never received any emails.

 

[Luanne]

I got an email and was surprised since I was sure I'd used all of the certificates I had. I went into my account and found I have one for a local restaurant that I must not have used yet and one for a place in San Diego that we decided not to go to.

 

[LAX Mom]

I also received a couple of emails in the past few days. I have 4 certificates I purchased last Nov, none have been used. However only one of those restaurants still participate. So do I call and ask them to switch them over to another restaurant or just a blank certificate?

 

[dioxide45]

I also received a couple of emails in the past few days. I have 4 certificates I purchased last Nov, none have been used. However only one of those restaurants still participate. So do I call and ask them to switch them over to another restaurant or just a blank certificate?

Just send them an e-mail with the cert numbers and ask them to be converted to Restaurant.com certificates. You can then decide later on what restaurant to convert them to.

 

[dioxide45]

What surprised me was this:

Apparently, they no longer expire, and that change is retroactive. I have a TON of Restaurant.com gift certificates I've bought over the years that expired. (UPDATE: I just looked - I have TWENTY that had expired or would have expired next month.)

I noticed this a while back. When you view the actual certificates now they indicate that they never expire. This change just happened within the last few months and appears retroactive.

 

[Luanne]

I also received a couple of emails in the past few days. I have 4 certificates I purchased last Nov, none have been used. However only one of those restaurants still participate. So do I call and ask them to switch them over to another restaurant or just a blank certificate?

I had this happen with a restaurant in my area. I contacted restaurant.com, gave them the certificate number and they put a $25.00 certificate back into my account.

 

[Karen G]

So do I call and ask them to switch them over to another restaurant or just a blank certificate?

I've emailed and called when I didn't see any credit in my account. It was promptly taken care of, so now I just call any time I have a problem. They are very nice to work with.

They will put a credit in your account that you can use to buy another certificate anywhere you want.

 

[dioxide45]

It will be interesting to see if this is a one time cleanup or an ongoing process of them removing certs from your account after use.

 

[LynnW]

I received another email today apologizing for sending the first one. They explained how to check your account to make sure the unused ones were still there. I have 2 which are still showing in my account.

Lynn

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

What surprised me was this:

Apparently, they no longer expire, and that change is retroactive. I have a TON of Restaurant.com gift certificates I've bought over the years that expired. (UPDATE: I just looked - I have TWENTY that had expired or would have expired next month.)

That's what I noted as well - there were a bunch of coupons that I was sure had expired - suddenly they're back and with no expiration date.

Unfortunately, some of the coupons are for a place that was our favorite but closed down several months ago. And I was pretty sure that we had used all of the coupons I ever bought for that place. In fact, I know we went there with friends one time for the specific purpose of burning off the last coupons.

 

[Ann-Marie]

That's what I noted as well - there were a bunch of coupons that I was sure had expired - suddenly they're back and with no expiration date.

Unfortunately, some of the coupons are for a place that was our favorite but closed down several months ago. And I was pretty sure that we had used all of the coupons I ever bought for that place. In fact, I know we went there with friends one time for the specific purpose of burning off the last coupons.

Is it possible the restaurant never ran the coupon through Restaurant.com?

 

[Carolyn]

Is it possible the restaurant never ran the coupon through Restaurant.com?

Exactly. If the merchant calls them in I think that generates an email customer survery of the restaurant. Most of the time I don't get the survey.

 

[dioxide45]

Exactly. If the merchant calls them in I think that generates an email customer survery of the restaurant. Most of the time I don't get the survey.

We used certs at the House of Blues in Orlando twice over the past 8 months. The first time we received an e-mail survey, the second time we didn't.

When we got the first e-mail reminder to print our certificates, the one that we didn't get the survey for was listed as unused in the e-mail. Now looking online, both are gone. I had them both listed as used online.

I wonder how Restaurant.com determined which to remove from everyones account online? Was it based on our tracking, or theirs? Does anyone who did not do meticulous tracking have any in their account listed as Used?

 

[Karen G]

Was it based on our tracking, or theirs? Does anyone who did not do meticulous tracking have any in their account listed as Used?

It must have been based on both. I haven't done any tracking and only the ones I've gotten a survey about are gone.

I was able to print out one that I hadn't used but that had expired before they started the "no expiration date" feature. I had thrown that one away a couple of weeks ago because I thought it wasn't any good anymore. The new one I printed out says that it doesn't expire.

 

[Blues]

It will be interesting to see if this is a one time cleanup or an ongoing process of them removing certs from your account after use.

I also got the two emails.

Coincidentally, DW & I went to a restaurant last night and used one of our restaurant.com coupons that had languished in our account for a year. I even checked my account online to make sure the coupon was still shown as active. It was.

After dinner, we went home and I logged back onto restaurant.com to mark it as used, as I normally do. Much to my surprise, the coupon was already gone from the account listing.

So, based on a sample size of 1, it appears that they now remove used coupons for you.

-Bob

 

[dioxide45]

I see they have removed the ability to mark certs as used. Now all that exists is the following.

Remove this Certificate from My Account
(If you have already used this certificate at a restaurant or given it as a gift, click on the link above to remove it from your account)

Looks like they will now be using actual redemptions to track what is used and what is not. Clicking the link will remove it from your account I suppose.

 

[wauhob3]

I never marked mine but must have disappeared now. I atill have the two that were unused and about five more that I had used but were showing as unused. I just deleted the ones I had used. I like that they are tracking these now.

 

[dioxide45]

See these notes now on the Manage Your Certificates page:

NEW!
To improve your Restaurant.com experience, you no longer have to self-manage your gift certificate purchases. Any certificates that are displayed below are available to be used.

If you gave a gift certificate as a gift or if you have already used a gift certificate at the restaurant and would like to remove it from your account, click on the certificate number and click the "Remove this Certificate" link on the Gift Certificate Summary page.

If you have questions about Certificates you have purchased, but that are no longer displayed in your account, you can email us at help@restaurant.com.

This is a great enhancement. Take that Marriott....

 

[dioxide45]

See these notes now on the Manage Your Certificates page:



This is a great enhancement. Take that Marriott....

Now they have changed the working of their new text:

NEW!
To improve your Restaurant.com experience, you no longer have to self-manage your gift certificate purchases. Once you have dined at the restaurant, our service will remove that certificate from your account. Your list of available certificates will automatically be updated on a routine basis. If for some reason a certificate appears in your account that you have already used, you can manually remove that certificate from the list by clicking on the certificate number and then click the "Remove this Certificate" link on the Gift Certificate Summary page.

If you have given the certificate as a gift and would like it removed from your account so that you do not accidentally use the certificate, please click on the certificate number and then click on the "Remove this Certificate" link on the Gift Certificate Summary page.

If you have questions about Certificates you have purchased, but that are no longer displayed in your account, you can email us at help@restaurant.com.

Hopefully they will add this same functionality to their Restaurant.com Gift Certificates page.

We had a Restaurant.com dine last night. The certificate wasn't automatically removed from our account. We didn't get the usual survey either, so I am guessing the restaurant didn't call to validate it.