restaurant.com gift certificates make good gifts?
I was going to buy a certificate from restaurant.com for a christmas present, and i know they have alot of restrictions and you have to speed more than the certificates... so would they make a good present? Or will it look more like a i gave them a coupon? Do the certificates look professional at all? Or do they look cheap and dumb?
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
I agree with Noah. The certificates definitely don't look high-quality and professional.
While I think the idea of giving restaurant gift certificates is a good idea, spending $4 on a $25 gift certificate where the recipient has to spend $35-50 before they can redeem it comes across as a bit tacky.
It'd be a completely different gesture if you openly inform your friend that you've gotten these gift certificates & you want to treat them to dinner so they can help you spend it. I've actually done that multiple times, and it's a great way to spend time with your friends, try out new restaurants, and do so on a budget!
Personally, I think those are more a coupon than a gift certficate. And said exactly what I think: too many restrictions.
In my opinion a gift certificate should be enjoyed at the recipients leisure, not have to be preplanned with a certain amount of food and entrees purchased.
I would just rather purchase them a gift card/certificate straight out from the restaurant than to go the restaurant.com route when giving a gift. Just my opinion.
NOOOO!! Don't waste your time or paper!!! The purchased 'deals' usually require you to spend 3x more than you typically would for a fractional discount. i.e. I received a gift certificate for $25 at a local, small town, breakfast only cafe thinking, "Cool! I can treat myself and my son there for breakfast!" Not so, fine print "Minimum $50 purchase required"???? This is a place where, even if you took a group of 10 people to, you'd struggle to spend $50 on one bill!!! What sucks is that someone actually spends the money buying the coupon that will probably never be used, so restaurant.com AND the business get money without any services needed! It's like a complete slap in the face and waste of money; tsk tsk, the old days when you could buy books of coupons offering REAL "buy one, get one free" deals enticed a LOT of people to actually TRY new restaurants???-NO ONE wants to be forced to spend more money than they typically would.