restaurant gift certificates cheap, hot IMHO, but ymmv

[DrPizza]

Foreword: I realize this is walking the line for the forums rules... I am not posting an auction link though, and it's not my auction. Please... I really don't need to be flamed, but merely wanted to point out what I perceive as an incredible deal.

If I'm wrong, let the mods just lock it and kill it.

On ebay, there's a company auctioning gift certificates to restaurants.
Do a search for restaurant gift certificate

Recently, $25 gift certificates have been going for as low as $1
Almost all have gone for less than half their face value... most for $5 ish

This would be like buying $25 gift certificates, legitimately, for Office Depot or some such place for $5 each. That's why I thought it belonged in this forum. (these gift certificates are non-stackable and don't apply to other discounts )
Since no one in my area visits anandtech regularly (that I know of), this will remain a hot deal for me
until of course, someone copies and pastes it to FW

that said, let the praise and flame wars begin. Apologies again if this isn't a "hot deal"... but I think it is.

 

[-Omen-]

The problem is that it still refers to auctions on ebay.
It's bound to ruffle some feathers...

 

[MontyBurns]

Let the mods be the mods.

On to this deal: There's an in-deptch discussion about this on F*tWallet. I got burned pretty bad by the predecessor to this company... sold a lot of gift certs that the restaurants refused to honor. (My credit card company gave me all my money back, however.)

That said: The reviews on FW are very favorable. Lots of people have done this and rave about it.

 

[rs]

It's restaurant.com. You can buy the gift certificates from their website for 50% of face value all the time, so it's only a hot deal on eb*y if it's much lower than that. (Plus, the auctions add a $1 "handling fee" even though you print your own certificate from a link). There are some limits and exclusions to the gift certificates, so it's not just a flat $25 off the bill. Read the details. Still a pretty good deal, though. Worth visiting their website if you're planning on eating out, as you can buy the certificate, print it instantly, get in your car and use it.

 

[a2k]

I've done this a ton and had really good results - $25 gift certificates for ~$3 - $5. Never had a restaurant blink when I handed the ceritificate to them. In Chicago, they have some pretty good restaurants (I've gone to Watusi, Kiki's Bistro, Le Peep, Otra Mas, and even 'oh so hot' Fortunato).

 

[a2k]

Link for the lazy

 

[Kwad Guy]

It's restaurant.com, as someone else noted. They are the successor to CitySpree.com. I cannot suggest strongly enough that you avoid anyone and anything even remotely associated with CitySpree.com (and that includes Restaurant.com, which purchased their remains). They sold coupons for places that hadn't agreed to honor them in the first place. They sold coupons as they were going into bankruptcy. They were complete scum, and stuck me for a fair bit of money when the coupons they sold me turned out to be worthless AND embarrassing ("What? no, we NEVER agreed to take these coupons...").

I surely hope Restaurant.com goes out of business soon, and takes down all their backers with it.

Oh, and as the company got more desperate and more hideous, the prices their auctions achieved went down to the levels people are reporting now for Restaurant.com. Another red flag as far as I'm concerned.

Scum.

Kwad

 

[iwearnosox]

Funny that you have to preface it with all that rhetoric to ward off the flamers. Forget about them, just post. If it's not proper or the mod is having a bad hair day they'll trash it. It's just a post amongst thousands.

 

[dafatha00]

hot deal. never knew about this

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: Kwad Guy
It's restaurant.com, as someone else noted. They are the successor to CitySpree.com. I cannot suggest strongly enough that you avoid anyone and anything even remotely associated with CitySpree.com (and that includes Restaurant.com, which purchased their remains). They sold coupons for places that hadn't agreed to honor them in the first place. They sold coupons as they were going into bankruptcy. They were complete scum, and stuck me for a fair bit of money when the coupons they sold me turned out to be worthless AND embarrassing ("What? no, we NEVER agreed to take these coupons...").

I surely hope Restaurant.com goes out of business soon, and takes down all their backers with it.

Oh, and as the company got more desperate and more hideous, the prices their auctions achieved went down to the levels people are reporting now for Restaurant.com. Another red flag as far as I'm concerned.

Scum.

Kwad

I completely agree. In the beginning (as with ALL dot.com failures) CitySpree.com was AWESOME, I routinely won $25 GC's for $5 and ate good for CHEAP ... but eventually they went belly up and I was left with about a dozen worthless pieces of paper. Fortunately I was able to dispute the charges with my cc and get all my money back.

 

[MontyBurns]

Hey, I bashed CitySpree first, so don't get me wrong, but:

Restaurant.com is not what CitySpree "became." The two companies both existed at the same time, and Restaurant.com ended up buying the evil CitySpree out. There's an in-depth discussion at FW about this deal, and lots and lots of people seem to have had great experiences using the Restaurant.com certificates. Also, the eBay feedback rating is very high, with almost all positive review.

As if that weren't enough: The Restaurant.com eBay auction got a little blurb in this month's Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel magazine.

I'm by no means guaranteeing that this isn't the same scam CitySpree was. But it is perhaps worth a visit, even if you got burned by CitySpree (as I did). They seem to be getting positive reviews. Just don't go nuts and invest $200 in gift certificates until you make sure they're legit.

 

[a2k]

Never heard of CitySpree until just now (and from the sound of things, I'm glad that's the case). I have bought from Restaurant.com regularly for about a year and I've never had a problem. I used a restaurant.com about 4 weeks ago and had no problem.

All that said, it does look like they are changing their format. I've always bought gift certificates through ebay, but now they are pushing them through their website at a flat 50% off. Not as hot as the old days, but if you're already going to one, might as well save some money.