Restaurant.com vs. Groupon

They're refunding the purchases.

Whatever you think about Groupon, they mean what they say about customer satisfaction. I discovered a discrepancy on the price of a spa package (what the site quoted for the services and what I found out they cost when I went to the spa were different.) Thought they might give me a credit for the amount (about $50). Instead they sent a really nice apology and credited the whole Groupon, even though I'd already used it. No questions asked.

spinynorman99 wrote:They're refunding the purchases.

Yes, I received the email and was pretty impressed that Groupon was giving me my $20 back. I had written the money off, frankly.

I have been using Restaurant.Com for several years, and never been disappointed. If a restaurant you have a coupon for closes, you get an email, and your credit card gets a credit for original purchase price.

But I joined with all the others, and started using Groupon. My experience with them has not been as good. Purchased a Groupon for $185.00 last year, but before we had a chance to use it, the company closed. Did not know this until we called to make an appointment. No word from Groupon.

We emailed Groupon on the 25th of July, requesting a refund. As of today, all we have are emails from Groupon telling us how well they have communicated with us, and that there were "technical glitches" in giving us the refund.


Do what you will, but I will not spend anything more than I can afford to lose, with Groupon, in the future, if at all.

I've had the exact opposite experience. Groupon for a spa, place went out of business before I used it and I had a refund from Groupon in two days, although they said it would take up to ten. Restaurant. com sold a Paramount Room cert, and Paramount Room never asked them too. They won't accept the Restaurant.com cert, they had to put a sign on the window. I have actually seen a few signs on the windows of places that say they do not accept Resturant.com certs. Seems they run a little un scrupulously to me. allegedly....Is it alleged when it actually happens to you? anyway....

@nicinchic On behalf of Restaurant.com, we apologize for this experience at the restaurant. And, we'd like to help! We will offer an exchange for the unused gift certificate. We take this issue very seriously, and we will follow-up with the restaurant immediately. Also, we you see the signs that state the restaurant doesn't accept, we'd like to know about it so we can address with the restaurant.

You can contact us directly at social@restaurant.com. Please include your Restaurant.com account email address and we will follow-up directly to that account with the credit. Again, we apologize. Thanks, Tania German, Restaurant.com Marketing Manager.

That's very unusual for Groupon. When Va Penseiro closed they credited people promptly, without waiting for anyone to ask.

Well, there you go. Seems that both company's care about the customers, and hopefully the establishment. I would urge you to try Groupon again, I didn't even need to do anything other than send my name and email address. I'll take Restaurant.com up on their offer, the next time this happens to me, and my cert hasn't expired.

Restaurant.com changed it so their coupons no longer expire, I believe. Even the old ones. Just an FYI.

My experience with Restaurant.com has been excellent. I have had restaurants go out of business and they will promptly send an email with a link to "rebuy" a cert at another restaurant. The best part of that vs getting a refund is if you bought it with a coupon code, you still get the $25 gift card for the original discounted price even if the discount is no longer available.

[quote="jimmya"]I have been using Restaurant.Com for several years, and never been disappointed. If a restaurant you have a coupon for closes, you get an email, and your credit card gets a credit for original purchase price.

But I joined with all the others, and started using Groupon. My experience with them has not been as good. Purchased a Groupon for $185.00 last year/quote]

what was a 185 dollar coupon for? Airlines or some other high ticket item like something from some Oak St. Boutique?

I'm gonna guess it was for BriteSmile teeth whitening.

You got it, we were hoping for gleaming teeth. And, we still do not have the refund, we asked for in July.

I've yet to have a problem with Groupon or LivingSocial

I have been using Restaurant.com for years and I've had great experiences with the company. As lk mentioned above, they now let you use certificates that have expired. They even e-mailed me a list of expired certificates I had purchased in the past that I could now reprint and use.
Also, if a restaurant is no longer is business, you can exchange their certificate for another. I've always received great customer service from Restaurant.com.

A New York-based Web start-up specializing in restaurant discounts and reservations is expanding into Chicago, hoping to give restaurateurs and diners an alternative to daily deal sites such as Groupon. http://chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010 ... oupon.html

I have used restaurant.com for years...hard to beat their 70-80% off deals even with their restrictions and added gratuities. I've had a couple of bad experiences...took my parents to a restaurant to show them how to use the certificate...and then the restaurant (Roundheads in DG) would not honor them. restaurant.com did issue me a credit, but I was still ticked off.

2 things that always bugged me about restaurant.com...the certificates expire in a year and it was hard to track what you used and what was available in your account. MAJOR UPDATE - the certs no longer expire in a year...they do NOT expire! Really good news. MAJOR UPDATE - restaurant.com now removes used certs from your "list". MAJOR PROPS to restaurant.com!

I have used Groupon a couple of times...not as much savings but some different place. No problems so far.

I've had excellent experiences with Groupon. One restaurant that I held a Groupon for went under (Izumi Sushi). When I found out and sent them an email on it, I got a refund a day later. No problems.

Does anyone have contact info for Groupon? I just bought one for a subscription to Time Out, and need to redeem it - but the site has been down for several days. I can't access the Chicago or main page at all. Googling turned up a Twitter account that did not yield any info whatsoever. What's going on?

Have you tried http://www.groupon.com/chicago/? That seems to be working just fine.

I, too, have had no issues with Groupon. They emailed me when one of my Groupons was for a store that went out of business and credited me back. Tonight, I'm using a VillageVines coupon for 30% off at Brown Trout.

stevez wrote:Have you tried http://www.groupon.com/chicago/? That seems to be working just fine.

I got a 404 error there Is it just me?

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:

stevez wrote:Have you tried http://www.groupon.com/chicago/? That seems to be working just fine.

I got a 404 error there Is it just me?

sitting at a terminal at a car wash and it worked for me

Hi- They just mentioned on channel 2 news, that 60 Minutes is doing a segment on Groupon. I assume it is going to air this Sunday, but I am not sure. Hope this helps, Nancy

Hi- There is an article in the Daily Beast about how Living Social and Groupon are hitting hard times. Apparently most businesses lose money when they take a Living Social or Groupon coupon, which does not surprise me, because the business has to pay Living Social and Groupon money to run the deal, and most of the coupons are for 50% off to start with. The business are also saying that most of the people that purchase these coupons are strictly looking for a bargain, and are not likely to return. I know that I used to purchase the Entertainment book, and the majority of the restaurants I used coupons for, I never revisited.

The type of business that is going to come out ahead, is somebody that is offering a service, such as a massage, where there is not a lot of overhead, or somebody selling tickets to an unsold concert, where there are already a set expenses that they have to recover, no matter how many seats get filled.

Here is the link to the article.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... oomed.html

Hope this helps, Nancy

Once Groupon hit it big, you could tell that it would be a very hard business to be successful in (even ignoring the concerns of some of the participating business owners).

There are now million "daily deal" sites competing for attention and in the end few will survive. Even pre-IPO the outlook was not so rosy for Groupon (at least to anyone who bothered to pay attention to their financials). Now that they're public, the problems are only magnified.

As noted in the article, the coupon-based business model is unsustainable in reality. Also, both LivingSocial and Groupon are finding that the courts are siding with consumers in the various class-action suits that have been filed against both vendors.

Funny - I recall restaurant publicist Ellen Malloy (founder of RIA) saying this from the start, and she got caught a lot of crap about it. Looks like she was right on the money.

Question: Restaurant.com regularly gives codes for major discounts; how does one find out what the "code" is?

DutchMuse wrote:Question: Restaurant.com regularly gives codes for major discounts; how does one find out what the "code" is?

Google "restaurant.com coupon code" and you'll find a lot of sites with coupons. Many codes will be outdated or won't work.

DutchMuse wrote:Question: Restaurant.com regularly gives codes for major discounts; how does one find out what the "code" is?

Good source - http://www.retailmenot.com/view/restaurant.com