Rewards Network restaurant wouldn't accept CC
 

Hi,
For those of you living in or visiting NYC, there is a new restaurant on the aa.rewardsnetwork called Manganaro's. I went there last Thursday before the hockey game at MSG and ordered a sandwich and a soda. The bill came to $15.00 and when I took out my Citi AAdvantage to pay for it the woman at the counter (most likely the owner) just shook her head in disgust and said "cash only". When I mentioned that it says on the internet that the place accepts credit cards she said it was only for catering. So I paid and took the food, and when I looked for the receipt inside the bag while sitting by MSG already, it was not there. Nice! No CC, no receipt and the restaurant in on the iDine network. I called RN to complain on Friday. They said they would investigate and take care of the problem. I called again today, spent half an hour on the phone and was offered "a courtesy mileage credit", but not a point towards the VIP status (the last one I need for this year).I said it was unacceptable and asked to talk to a supervisor. I was told they were all busy and none available. I was promised a phone call within the next 24 hours. I guess I'll find out the outcome tomorrow. Meanwhile, stay away from Manganaro's if you are looking to collect some miles. Personally, from now on I'm going to start calling restaurants prior to visits to find out if they accept CCs.

Did they display a credit card logo on the door? If so, I'd complain to Visa, MC, etc. Also, no receipt given is probably breaking rules in the city and state they're in, so you can complain there as well.

Would this belong in the iDine forum as opposed to the AA forum since it has nothing to do with the airline?

Cheers.

Uhm, didn't see iDine forum. Will post there.

It's here

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/idine...s-network-400/

Cheers.

No need to repost. A moderator should be able to move the thread. I'll report it.

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If they would have told me that they didn't take credit cards, I would have told them that I have no cash.

Hi there,
Elizabeth here from Rewards Network. I'm sorry to hear about a negative experience at Manganaro's. Mangaro's is a participating restaurant on both the Rewards Network and American Airlines dining programs. As part of their agreement with us, Manganaro's is supposed to accept credit cards. This NYC institution has a history that dates back to 1893--but that's no excuse for taking cash only! I am looking into this issue and will hopefully have some news soon.

Thank you again for dining with us!

Elizabeth

Maybe the CC machine was down, and she was too lazy to do a manual receipt (this happened to me a few months ago - the manager had to find the old-style CC imprinting machine in the storage room (I did get my RN credit a few days later)

Well, someone from RN just called me (sorry, didn't catch the name). They need to investigate this further. Again they said they were going to give me "courtesy miles" but that this dine would not count towards the VIP status. The person asked me for the receipt again. I still don't have it. I wasn't going to miss the first period of a hockey game to go back to get the receipt. To answer one of the suggestion from above, no, the didn't have their credit card machine down. The woman behind the counter chose not to accept a credit card. She just didn't want to take it. No CC, no receipt - no tax to pay. What amazes me in this situation is that I was calling for such a small thing and it turns into countless days and hours on the phone. It reminds me a lot of dealing with SkyMiles. I guess some of you know what I mean. At this point I think I should have just forgotten about this.

Update
 

I just got a message from a rep Tina who said that my account was updated to a VIP status and I will receive miles at VIP level starting today. I very pleasant message indeed. I guess I'll have to wait for changes to take place on the website as it still shows that I have one more dine to go until the VIP. But it was nice from them to call in less then 48 hours, the time frame that was previously suggested for things to be resolved.:)

Great that it was resolved for you. It seemed odd (petty) that Rewards Network would refuse to give you status, just the miles.

It is still on Rewards Network website as taking the following :
Payment Options: American Express® , Discover® , MasterCard® , Visa®

I'm truly glad that this worked out 4 u as I had a similar situation but I didn't call RN b/c I figured that they would say that they couldn't do anything 4 me. The waitress gave me a great conversation b/c I was the only one n the restaurant @ the time, waited until I finished my meal & once I gave her my CC she said there was no machine. The only difference between u & I is that I asked 4 & still have my receipt ($49.11-8/5/09).

Hm. I pretty much never ever have anywhere near $49.11 on me in cash (within the US). It would have been an interesting situation: "I only ate here beause I found about this restaurant from a program which gives me miles when I pay with my credit card, which couldn't work if you don't take credit cards. So I never expected to have to pay cash for this meal. Will you accept the $16 I have in my wallet for this $49.11 meal?" (Yes, $16 is all I have in my wallet in cash at present, and it's going to down slowly for a while before it goes back up. I only go to an ATM once every few months!)

I've never run into a participating restaurant that doesn't accept cards at all. I did run into a participating restaurant once where their card machine was down, and they let me call in a few days later and pay for it over the phone (which I did). (They first asked me to come back in a few days, but when I explained I was only in town for the weekend and lived across the country, they said I could call in and they could treat it like a phone order.)

(And of course I've run into participating restaurants which didn't accept all the types of cards that the RN site claimed they did. In particular, RN seems to overclaim Discover acceptance a lot, something I'm noticing right now given that Discover has a 5% cashback on restaurants this quarter, and so I'm double dipping that way when I can!)