Originally Posted by
dioxide45
Interested to know why Restaurant.com has changed their marketing strategy/business model? Are they now having to pay some restaurants when people redeem their certificates? Is that why some restaurants have for quite a while indicated "No Promo Codes"? There definitely appears to be a shift in their business model. I am glad I loaded up on three $100 eGift certificates during their last 90% promo. I wonder if they will run that again this year? 90% off the cost of the cert, not the face value. They usually run this the last day of September (except in 2009 when it was on 9/9/09).
Has anyone seen any issues in using the gift redemption site to convert eGift certificates to restaurant specific certs? Is the same inventory seen there as on the Restaurant.com site where you pay for the certs? I know when they added the "No Promo Codes" that those certificates were never available on the gift redemption site.
I am upset too about the changes, and the biggest is the discount from face value vesus from the purchase price. Just like you, i uploaded on $300 worth of certifciates, at 90% off, cost me a few bucks, that was on christmas day last year. (12/25/11)
I guess popularity has increased, overall consumer knowledge. Restaurant.com has been alive for many years, I joined around 2004, back then the inventory of restaurants was minimal, very few restrictions.
Now with flash sales such as LS and Groupon, this is more common, and they are probably immitating that more profitable business model.