Restaurant.com update: Nawlin’s BBQ

Have you noticed it’s been a few weeks since I promo’ed a [r.com] coupon code?  There was an issue with a local restaurant not accepting the certificates and I wanted to find out more about it before I continued to promote [r.com].

A reader reported that they attempted to use a [r.com] coupon at Nawlin’s BBQ and were refused.  Nawlin’s said Restaurant.com was selling the coupons without permission, and as such, didn’t honor it and gave them a lesser discount.

I emailed Restaurant.com and got a response from them today:

I apologize for any inconvenience. A restaurant listing is not placed on Restaurant.com until a contract is signed and agreed too by both Restaurant.com and the restaurant management.

Nawlin’s BBQ has expressed their dissatisfaction with the marketing service and has opted out of our program, however we do require they honor all certificates previously sold. The department that handles our restaurant contracts is handling this situation, and we have sent out a mass e-mail to our customers that have these dining certificates offering to exchange them for different dining certificates of their choice so there will be no further discrepancies at this restaurant.

We apologize for any inconvenience the customers have been caused, and if you have any outstanding dining certificates to this restaurant, please feel free to send me the 8 digit certificate numbers and I can exchange them for you.

So, it sounds like for whatever reason, Nawlin’s didn’t like the way the promotion was working out and wanted to cancel immediately, without honoring any coupons that were sold when the deal was still in good standing.  But, a contract is a contract, and you can’t cancel what you’ve agreed to.

It’s a bummer that it’s worked out this way with this particular restaurant, but it doesn’t seem to be a recurring problem, and thankfully [r.com] is helping customers that did purchase one of these certificates.

By the way, if you’re interested in how it works, restaurants do not pay anything to offer a certificate on [r.com].  It’s a free service to restaurants and should be considered a marketing expense on their end – instead of paying money for a TV ad, they “spend” their marketing dollars by offering a discount to the consumer.

[r.com] then sells the certificates for a profit, and promotes their site in a lot of different ways, like banner ads or through their affiliate program, which this site and many others use.

It’s a win-win-win deal for the consumer, restaurant, and Restaurant.com, as long as the consumer reads the fine print, the restaurant understands that they should view this as a marketing expense and not a food expense, and the Restaurant.com site takes care of their customers, both the consumers and the restaurants.

Whew.  Well, anyway.  Look for more [r.com] coupon codes in the future! :)  The current one is PUMPKIN, which will take 80% off through today (Monday).