Wow 80% Off [Restaurant.com]/Merged

[icydog]

Restaurant.Com One Day Sale 80% Off

Restaurant.com is having a ONE DAY SALE
Enter Discount Code: FIRST

Select Restaurants--Go to the Checkout page and enter code FIRST and then hit "APPLY" It will cost you $2 for each $25 certificate!!

 

[icydog]

The site is unbelievably slow. I gave up and will try later. Everyone must have jumped on this promotion when they sent the emails out.

It's the first time they have given 80% off and everyone must want gift certificates today.

 

[Ann-Marie]

I can't get on. I figuted by the time I get into the site, all the offers will be gone.

 

[Timeshare Von]

Restaurant.com . . . today (Friday 8/8/08). Use code "First" .

First ever 80% off sale. If you don't have places to book for right now, do as we do. I buy $100 gift certificates to have dining certs issued later, as I need them (especially those that are only available on the first of the month).

 

[CATBinCO]

Yvonne, great tip. I just bought some certificates, two for a particular restaurant, and then went back and bought a generic Restaurant.com certificate to be used at another restaurant (it said "OUT OF STOCK" on the website). The generic one should be ok to use at any of the restaurants listed on the website, right? What a fantastic deal this is. How are they making any money? A $50 gift certificate to one of the top Greek restaurants in my town only cost me $4 and I can print it on my own computer. I hope this isn't too good to be true....plus I bought from the Marriott Rewards Mall website so I'm getting MR points too

 

[ace2000]

CAT,

It *might* be too good to be true! If you look closely at those certificates they state something to the effect of 'this $25 gift certificate must be used on a total purchase of $50'. So in other words, it's a 'buy 1 get 1 free' type of coupon that you're paying a small price for.

Some of the certificates go even better and say this $25 cerficate must used on a total purchase of $35. So, if you buy one of those coupons, that example turns out to be even better than a 'buy 1 get 1 free' structure.

Still a good deal, just not as good as what you made it sound!

Thanks Yvonne for letting us know... I took your idea and purchased a handful of the gift certificates for later use!

Scott

 

[CATBinCO]

Scott, exactly what I noticed.....the ones I bought were indeed good only for purchases of $35 and up, which is fine. My dinner tab comes to $35, I get $25 off, still a fantastic deal. Paying $2 for something worth $20 is a no-brainer for me. Thanks for posting this tip - great!

 

[Timeshare Von]

You're welcome.

I'm a HUGE fan of Restaurant.com! OK so I have to spend $35 to use the $25 G/C. That means I'm in for $12+tip for a $35 meal. Even at the regular price of $10, that means $20+tip for a $35 meal.

Some of our favorite places here in Milwaukee participate but have limited availability (first day of the month, only) . . . but any G/C discount at some of those fine dining places is a bonus!

At the expensive places getting to $35 is tough . . . but at many of them, it requires ordering an appetizer or dessert. Yum Yum.

By the way, the site crashed on my order this morning . . . took over four hours to get my e-mail confirmation and electronic copies of the certificates to print . . . so be prepared and don't get frustrated. When you get to the purchase screen that says do not resubmit your order if you aren't taken forward in 60 seconds, trust them. They will cycle through and catch up eventually. My order hourglassed for a good 20minutes before I navigated away from that page and just hoped my order went through.

Have a nice weekend!

 

[Timeshare Von]

Yvonne, great tip. I just bought some certificates, two for a particular restaurant, and then went back and bought a generic Restaurant.com certificate to be used at another restaurant (it said "OUT OF STOCK" on the website). The generic one should be ok to use at any of the restaurants listed on the website, right? What a fantastic deal this is. How are they making any money? A $50 gift certificate to one of the top Greek restaurants in my town only cost me $4 and I can print it on my own computer. I hope this isn't too good to be true....plus I bought from the Marriott Rewards Mall website so I'm getting MR points too

Yes the generic G/C can be redeemed later (on the first of the month) for the restaurant(s) you want that are in limited supply. As I just posted, some of our favs here are that way so when there is a great deal like this, we'll invest and buy $150 or $200 of the generic ones to redeem later when we can get those primo restaurants.

Don't worry about it being "too good to be true" . . . I've been using them for years . . . to stretch our dining and vacationing money. In fact the ones I bought today are for my New Orleans trip that I've been whining about regarding my TS accommodations. I picked up for five nights' dinners next summer!!! The way my math works, $175+tip dining for $60+tip. How can that go wrong?

Lastly, while this has been discussed here before, I'll mention it again . . .

If you buy a dining certificate and end up not being able to use it, they (Restaurant.com) will issue you a credit for the dollar value of the G/C to replace the unused one. They will also stand behind any merchant who subsequently does not accept them due to closure, change of ownership, etc. I have found their customer service to be outstanding. So based on my personal experiences, I would say "buy without worries".

 

[UWSurfer]

Thank you Von!!!

I bought enough Restaurant.com GC's that I got an e-mail with a thank you gift...an additional $50 GC! I used that one to pickup a couple of $25 GC's with some local places. It looks like there are pleanty of places in Orlando where we hopefully will use quite a bit of these next spring.

I did a search for Maui and unfortunately they don't have any participants there. Still, what a great bargin!

 

[Timeshare Von]

Received e-mail this morning that this offer has been extended through the weekend! If you didn't get in yesterday due to their "overwhelming response" fret not

 

[ownsmany]

I bought a couple hundred of them for less than $40.

I only got a $10 gift card for it. How much did you have to spend to get a $50 one?

I'n not sure if I'm buying the right ones. I want the ones that don't expire - hopefully ever. I didnt' choose the restaurants yet - as I know those do expire.

I bought the most recent ones in $100 denominations. Is that the way to go?
I hate when I have to go back in and reenter each cert number when buying a lot of rest at once.

 

[pranas]

It stil worked this afternoon. Some selections were sold out but I was still able to buy two.

 

[CATBinCO]

You can just buy the generic Restaurant.com certificates as opposed to specific ones, at least that is what I believe TimeshareVon said. On the first of the month, log in and you should be able to change it to the restaurant-specific one. I guess the restaurants give them only a certain number to sell, and when they're sold out, you have to wait until the next batch is available, on the first. At least this is what I am getting from all this - Yvonne, am I right??

 

[Timeshare Von]

Yep - that's correct. Some of our favs here in Milwaukee (and Williamsburg too) are only available on the first of the month so we redeem our g/cs for the actual dining certs when more are available.

I think that only the really popular restaurants limit the inventory that is sold through restaurant.com.

During their last 60 or 70% sale, we bought 10 for use later in the year. With this sale, I went ahead to buy for the New Orleans trip in June 09 because I know we'll use those other 10 for local Milwaukee restaurants

 

[CATBinCO]

I just did the same thing, bought a bunch to use for June 2009's two week vacation in Phoenix/Sedona. I still can't figure out how Restaurant.com is making any money by discounting things 80% (and their prices are already discounted).

 

[ownsmany]

I just did the same thing, bought a bunch to use for June 2009's two week vacation in Phoenix/Sedona. I still can't figure out how Restaurant.com is making any money by discounting things 80% (and their prices are already discounted).

I think anything they sell them for is pure profit. (no cost to rest.com)

 

[rapmarks]

first time buyer

I purchased 5 25 certificates, but they are not to specific restaurants. I am not sure how this thing works, did I do something wrong?

 

[Timeshare Von]

You only did something wrong if you thought or intended to buy for five specific restaurants. Not to worry, however. You can convert the generic "no named" certs into dining certs for the five places you want at a later date & time. You'll need to "shop" for where you want and then pick the restaurants of interest. They'll be a place where you can apply the credit to the dining cert you want. It's pretty simple, even a caveman can do it

 

[CATBinCO]

Try doing what TimeshareVon says on the first of the month when the new batch of certificates are loaded in the system. Remember you only have one year to use the restaurant specific ones. I'm not sure about the generic ones - are those still one year from purchase date or one year from the day I actually convert them to the restaurant-specific one?

 

[Lizyyz]

This would have been perfect for our trip to Las Vegas next month, except I don't live in the U.S. so not able to participate. Thanks for posting anyway. I'll inform my relatives in the U.S. in case they want to take advantage.

 

[icydog]

This would have been perfect for our trip to Las Vegas next month, except I don't live in the U.S. so not able to participate. Thanks for posting anyway. I'll inform my relatives in the U.S. in case they want to take advantage.

You'd better hurry sale ends today.

 

[icydog]

Try doing what TimeshareVon says on the first of the month when the new batch of certificates are loaded in the system. Remember you only have one year to use the restaurant specific ones. I'm not sure about the generic ones - are those still one year from purchase date or one year from the day I actually convert them to the restaurant-specific one?

What generic certificates are you talking about. Do you mean Mega Certificates?? I don't think they are discounted.

 

[icydog]

Yvonne, great tip. I just bought some certificates, two for a particular restaurant, and then went back and bought a generic Restaurant.com certificate to be used at another restaurant (it said "OUT OF STOCK" on the website). The generic one should be ok to use at any of the restaurants listed on the website, right? What a fantastic deal this is. How are they making any money? A $50 gift certificate to one of the top Greek restaurants in my town only cost me $4 and I can print it on my own computer. I hope this isn't too good to be true....plus I bought from the Marriott Rewards Mall website so I'm getting MR points too

Can someone please tell me what you mean by generic certificates?

 

[UWSurfer]

I bought a couple hundred of them for less than $40.

I only got a $10 gift card for it. How much did you have to spend to get a $50 one?

I'n not sure if I'm buying the right ones. I want the ones that don't expire - hopefully ever. I didnt' choose the restaurants yet - as I know those do expire.

I bought the most recent ones in $100 denominations. Is that the way to go?
I hate when I have to go back in and reenter each cert number when buying a lot of rest at once.

Hehehehe...

Well I sort of screwed up. The site was sooooo, slooooooooow on Thursday that I had an order sit unconfirmed on my computer for over 2 hours. I clicked submit again and wound up placing two orders...each for $500 worth of generic's. The e-mail confirmations came to me later in the day. So I bought $1000 worth, paid $200 and got an extra $50 sent to me free.

The good news is in California, these don't expire...so I have time to use them up. Other good news is there are a lot of places here in LA and also in Orlando which take them. Our next big family trip is in Orlando so we'll have several opportunities to burn through it.

Someone asked what are Generic certificates...and it IS a bit confusing. From what I've learned, Restaurant.com is a site where you purchase gift certificates to restaurants at a discount. The "generic" certificates are gift certificates which you use with the site (restaurant.com) to purchase restaurant certs where you want to eat at later. So I bought gift certificates to the site at a huge discount, which I can later use on the site to purchase gift certificates at restaurants we're interested in.

Lastly, tonight we used our first cert at an Italian restaurant I've noticed all my life and never set foot in. We have a $25 certificate with the only requirement is we order at least $35 of food and have at least two people in our party. The bill with tax came to $42,, minus the certificate, came to $17 and change. We tipped $8 making the charge for the two of us $25 for a very nice meal. Worked out to almost exactly 50% off out the door. This came from the freebie cert. Had we used one we paid for, then our actual cost would have been $30 out of pocket.

I'm going to like this program.