*** HOT!!! *** Get restaurant gift certificates at 75% off!!!

[MontyBurns]

Okay, I held off on posting this until I had sufficiently fattened myself up on this deal.

CitySpree.com sells gift certificates for restaurants (and also other places) in several major cities around the country. Their site has two components -- an auction, where you bid on gift certificates, and a sep. "haggle free" zone where you get certificates at a small discount without having to go through an auction.

Well, through tomorrow, the opening auction price on all their restaurant gift certificates is 25% or less. And, friends, here's where it gets good:

Hardly anyone uses this site, it seems, so you are pretty much guaranteed to get the gift certificates you bid on. What's more, EVERY HOUR the auctions reset with a new set of certificates (from the same merchants). So if a restaurant already has a bid, just wait until the next hour and you'll likely be able to get it for the lowest price!

Here's how to find the deals (their site can get confusing):

1. Go to www.cityspree.com
2. Click on the city you're interested in
3. Click on the red "auction" circle.
4. Click on "food & dining."
5. Go crazy!

Remember, there's no use bidding an auction up high. Most of the cities I checked out had only a couple or no bids at all. So if an item already has a bid, wait until the next hour and then place your bid.

They ship the gift certificates to you by U.S. mail, and some discussion I saw about this on F-wallet said they can take a few weeks. But the gift certificates are as good as cash. (They do have a disclaimer saying you can't use multiple certificates for one dinner at most places, and also that most places won't give you change.)

Report your findings.

 

[erikatcuse]

Linked

 

[avhokie]

FYI, most of the restaurants listed on that site no longer accept their gift certificates. I would call each restaurant I was interested in before buying anything from this company

 

[RossMAN]

repost, although this is a lot more informative of a thread.

I also wish people hadn't heard about this because it means more people will be bidding, hehe, call me greedy.

avhokie is right, make sure that the business will accept your cityspree.com GC. I went to a pizza place where the employees said they never heard of these, thankfully they called the owner who said yes go ahead and accept it like cash. Otherwise I would have been one pissed off customer.

Another time I won a $29 auction for a $50 Benihana GC. My roommates and I drove 40 minutes to Benihana and when we arrived thankfully the server saw my $50 GC and said oh sorry we don't accept those. I was like WTF? He said mine was the third GC he had seen that day. Thankfully when I called CitySpree.com customer service they said if I return it with my e-mail receipt and brief explanation that they will refund my money.

All other times my experiences with CitySpree.com auctions have all been good.

Here's a great FatWallet thread with over 50 posts, lots of good useful information in there.

 

[fragarific]

greedy!!!! j/k

 

[yoyo1]

I just used one this weekend and it was great. Only problem was that it took them a month to send it out to me after they billed my credit card. Haven't ordered another one yet because i dont want to have to plan my dinners out a month ahead.

 

[MontyBurns]

Yes, I knew about hte reports from FatWallet of people having difficulty using some of the GC's... sorry, didn't mean to leave that out.

However, statements like "most of the restaurants wont accept the gift certificates" don't really help. List all the restaurants that gave you trouble, and that helps, but assuming that it's all a big scam doesn't exactly help us out.

You'll notice the FW board is full of people who have used a ton of these gift certificates with no problem.

I'll definitely report back on my experience when I get mine.

 

[RossMAN]

List all the restaurants that gave you trouble, and that helps, but assuming that it's all a big scam doesn't exactly help us out.

This is an excellent suggestion, please list:
Business name
Location
City/State

 

[MontyBurns]

For anyone still interested: This deal ends tonight.

Also: The FWallet thread on this is filling with posts from people who have used these gift certificates successfully and repeatedly. For all you doomsayers.