[Grubb's] Random Thoughts of the Day

[Fluffyumpkins]

I'll make it say, "Here lies sumo-Merk who died of sumo-skills at Beatmania."

I bought a restaurant.com coupon for a Japanese restaurant called Ruyi. The coupon was for $25 off a $35 purchase, and the coupon was purchased on a deal at restaurant.com for only $1. Ruyi decided not to honor the coupon (had a sign on the door) and seemed content to seat me anyway with 0 discount. Pretty crappy since I drove 9 miles to get there. I took my leave. I called restaurant.com and they added a $25 credit to my account to buy more coupons. Not bad. Does anyone in Indy want to help me eat?

[Merk]

Make sure you an an "Oh noes," "Over 9000," "Frotterism," and a "Teh" into your eulogy.

I bought a restaurant.com coupon for a Japanese restaurant called Ruyi. The coupon was for $25 off a $35 purchase, and the coupon was purchased on a deal at restaurant.com for only $1. Ruyi decided not to honor the coupon (had a sign on the door) and seemed content to seat me anyway with 0 discount. Pretty crappy since I drove 9 miles to get there. I took my leave. I called restaurant.com and they added a $25 credit to my account to buy more coupons. Not bad. Does anyone in Indy want to help me eat?

I don't understand why restaurants get shitty about these coupons. It's advertising! The whole point of them is to get people to come back, if you don't honor the coupon odds are people aren't going to come back. If you don't want people to use the discount, don't fucking put your restaurant up there!

I want to hear Brandon's take on the situation.

[Fluffyumpkins]

I don't understand why restaurants get shitty about these coupons. It's advertising! The whole point of them is to get people to come back, if you don't honor the coupon odds are people aren't going to come back. If you don't want people to use the discount, don't fucking put your restaurant up there!

I want to hear Brandon's take on the situation.

rofl. I had to look up Frotterism.

I feel the same way about the whole thing. Putting out bait to lure customers, then offering no discount whatsoever for my trouble is legal, but shifty. I will not be a returning customer.

Has this ever happened to you? This was my first restaurant.com incident where a coupon was not taken. As I understand restaurant.com takes 100% profit on these coupons so they would have to be liable. I wonder if they're legally liable, or if they're doing so because without trust their business plan is junk.

[Merk]

Yeah it's happened to me and my family before. My mom and brother are the biggest fucking restaurant.com fans in the world and they will not eat anywhere without some sort of coupon. Toscani Pizza in Ft. Wayne had a sign up that they didn't accept restaurant.com coupons but they accepted ours anyway so good on them. Jen (the ladyfriend) had a straight-up Groupon refused by a steak/sushi place in Indy.

I had no idea restaurant.com took a 100% cut -- I figured they had a 50/50 split like Groupon. Obviously I'm not a restaurantuer so I can't comment on whether the website is shady or not but by the look of things it's not all hors d'oeuvres and rainbows. Good to hear you were able to at least get store credit back.

[Fluffyumpkins]

What happened with Jen and the Groupon? Did Groupon refund it? Usually if they refuse one, they'll refuse them all.

I've heard of 3rd party marketing companies using Groupon, Foursquare, and similar sites without the restaurant really knowing (or at least supervisors don't know) the deals exist. I always present my coupon ahead of time just in case.

[Ho]

I've heard of 3rd party marketing companies using Groupon, Foursquare, and similar sites without the restaurant really knowing (or at least supervisors don't know) the deals exist. I always present my coupon ahead of time just in case.

I've heard of this, too. Also, sometimes corporate will do something but franchisees are not on-board. But that's something that happens with traditional coupons as well.

[Fluffyumpkins]

I've heard of 3rd party marketing companies using Groupon, Foursquare, and similar sites without the restaurant really knowing (or at least supervisors don't know) the deals exist. I always present my coupon ahead of time just in case.

I've heard of this, too. Also, sometimes corporate will do something but franchisees are not on-board. But that's something that happens with traditional coupons as well.

With a traditional coupon, I can't feel too bad since there weren't really any sacrifices on my end. With Groupon, Living Social, Resaturant.com, the consumer has personally invested in the deal. What I'm saying is Brian will you eat food with me?

[Ho]

I've heard of 3rd party marketing companies using Groupon, Foursquare, and similar sites without the restaurant really knowing (or at least supervisors don't know) the deals exist. I always present my coupon ahead of time just in case.

I've heard of this, too. Also, sometimes corporate will do something but franchisees are not on-board. But that's something that happens with traditional coupons as well.

With a traditional coupon, I can't feel too bad since there weren't really any sacrifices on my end. With Groupon, Living Social, Resaturant.com, the consumer has personally invested in the deal. What I'm saying is Brian will you eat food with me?

I've also seen it happen with those coupon books like ZooBook or the things that teams and organizations sell as fundraisers. In those case, you're also invested. But yeah, I get what you mean.

And to answer you other question, "YES!" Let's do lunch soon.

[Fluffyumpkins]

I've gotten weird looks from servers whenever I use a Foursquare coupon, especially since it just looks like a picture on a phone.

[Ho]

I've gotten weird looks from servers whenever I use a Foursquare coupon, especially since it just looks like a picture on a phone.

Me too. Only about 1 in 4 seems to have any idea what it is. Although it does seem to be getting better.

I redeem most of my Groupons with the phone app though, and that seems to work every time. Most places just copy the number off the screen rather than scanning the bar code, but that's what happened most of the time when I brought a printout, too.

[Erica6924]

Being a mom now and all i've become a pretty big coupon user. I've used groupon/livingsocial and restaurant.com. I haven't had any problems with any of them *yet* But, I know some peope have had a slew of problems. The only downside to restaurant.com is that a lot of there stuff is like.. "you can get this 25 dollar certificate for 10 bucks but you have to spend 50 before you can use it" ..A lot of times I don't want to spend that much. Lol. Not all of them are like that though.

Anyway.

I am 27 now and I still look 15 oh well.

Noah is no longer a baby he will be 5 in January. I will def post a picture soon for those of you not on my facebook haha

[Pokebis]

I've never been a big restaurant-goer, but I was pretty much oblivious to this world of coupons you guys seem to be living in. I mean I've heard of these networks, but I've never looked too much into them. Enlighten me on how worth it it all is. Or should I just continue my life of "why would I spend this money on a meal when I could spend it on something more substantially long-term?"

[Fluffyumpkins]

I've never been a big restaurant-goer, but I was pretty much oblivious to this world of coupons you guys seem to be living in. I mean I've heard of these networks, but I've never looked too much into them. Enlighten me on how worth it it all is. Or should I just continue my life of "why would I spend this money on a meal when I could spend it on something more substantially long-term?"

Once you get a little older and make more monies, you'll find that often times you just don't feel like cooking or you feel like it isn't worth your time to cook. Getting $35 in food for $10 (after a $25 discount) isn't too shabby.

[Erica6924]

I've never been a big restaurant-goer, but I was pretty much oblivious to this world of coupons you guys seem to be living in. I mean I've heard of these networks, but I've never looked too much into them. Enlighten me on how worth it it all is. Or should I just continue my life of "why would I spend this money on a meal when I could spend it on something more substantially long-term?"

Restaurant.com obviously offers restaurant gift cards ...You can get a certain gift card for a cheaper amount. Sometimes it's a good deal sometimes it isn't.

Now groupon/Livingsocial/Amazon.com deals/Citysmart deals..Stuff like that. They don't just offer restaurant certificates they also offer other stores and places of business. Most of the time it's you can buy a certain dollar amount certificate for half the price..or more.

[Riot]

Hi Erica.