For a missing dine, "we can't accept a hand written tip"
Mar 31, 2023, 9:21 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: SoCal; DO-RAGS: Old Gold tagged, PIP, LatPass 1/2, AA 4MM, HH LT Diamond, Marriott Titanium/LT Plat, Omni
Posts: 9,185
For a missing dine, "we can't accept a hand written tip"
This is less about miles than how you treat a customer.
I sent in a credit card receipt for a missing $125 dine from a place that had worked before. I wouldn't bother with a small dine, but this is certainly over that threshold.
The food portion was $105, and RN won't accept that the $20 I inked as a tip is legitimate enough and is requiring a credit card statement to support the tip: first time this has every happened. Too small of an amount to hassle over, especially as it's a corporate credit card and I'd need to have my bookkeeper dig up confirming documentation: if I'm not willing to spend time chasing down $2 worth of AA miles, I won't send her on a wild goose chase.
But apparently, I have the time to kvetch. Given that I already had to scan and send a receipt due to a data processing lapse on their end, I bristle that RN's policy seems to revolve around that I might have, I don't know, only tipped $18 and cheated them out of 10 AA miles. They don't seem to trust me, and so moving forward I feel silly going out of my way to dine at RN restaurants and won't be promoting RN to miles' hungry friends/colleagues as I would not want them treated shabbily. Beating me out 100 miles, a cost of less than $2, has alienated a good customer...with about 1.3 million lifetime RN miles, I'd venture a customer in the top tenth of one percent.
I sent in a credit card receipt for a missing $125 dine from a place that had worked before. I wouldn't bother with a small dine, but this is certainly over that threshold.
The food portion was $105, and RN won't accept that the $20 I inked as a tip is legitimate enough and is requiring a credit card statement to support the tip: first time this has every happened. Too small of an amount to hassle over, especially as it's a corporate credit card and I'd need to have my bookkeeper dig up confirming documentation: if I'm not willing to spend time chasing down $2 worth of AA miles, I won't send her on a wild goose chase.
But apparently, I have the time to kvetch. Given that I already had to scan and send a receipt due to a data processing lapse on their end, I bristle that RN's policy seems to revolve around that I might have, I don't know, only tipped $18 and cheated them out of 10 AA miles. They don't seem to trust me, and so moving forward I feel silly going out of my way to dine at RN restaurants and won't be promoting RN to miles' hungry friends/colleagues as I would not want them treated shabbily. Beating me out 100 miles, a cost of less than $2, has alienated a good customer...with about 1.3 million lifetime RN miles, I'd venture a customer in the top tenth of one percent.
Aug 12, 2023, 5:59 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,935
I did get a missing dine credited with a hand-written tip, and it wasn't even the credit card receipt. But it was a personal purchase, and I did supply the credit card statement since the restaurant hadn't given me a final receipt, and in fact had billed the credit card with a slight different name than the restaurant name.
But it took longer than most missing dines have in the past, so it makes wonder if they had to check with the restaurant about that billing.
The restaurant had just switched to a portable tablet for paying, and that tablet seems to have been miscoded, because in addition to not having the actual restaurant name, it didn't code as a restaurant. My previous dine there about a month and half before that had been billed at a credit card terminal and coded correctly.
I wrote up all the issues with the tablet payment in my review and had it sent to the restaurant by Rewards Network.
But it took longer than most missing dines have in the past, so it makes wonder if they had to check with the restaurant about that billing.
The restaurant had just switched to a portable tablet for paying, and that tablet seems to have been miscoded, because in addition to not having the actual restaurant name, it didn't code as a restaurant. My previous dine there about a month and half before that had been billed at a credit card terminal and coded correctly.
I wrote up all the issues with the tablet payment in my review and had it sent to the restaurant by Rewards Network.
Nov 9, 2023, 5:27 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: SoCal; DO-RAGS: Old Gold tagged, PIP, LatPass 1/2, AA 4MM, HH LT Diamond, Marriott Titanium/LT Plat, Omni
Posts: 9,185
Being generous, Im going to assume that RN is suffering the same labor shortages that are plaguing many businesses. Missing dines now take two emails and the last time even the second request reference on the subsequent email didnt elicit action and I had to call. That worked.
Knowing this, I dont mess with anything less than a hundred miles but when timing aligns I will clump a mini-dine together with something larger and such was the case with Burgermeister South Beach. Since they didnt list approved credit cards I used a statistically likely Amex, which didnt post. Suggesting that RN should allow the Amex even if its not a valid card because the error was theirs, no dice/no engagement. I also mentioned that they should correct that omission, but a couple months later no edit. Businesses go through cycles and at the moment I want to believe that customer service is wanting due to staffing and not because the CSRs are marching to directives to push back against customer requests. Ironically, RN is also offering a 500 new customer referral bonuses, which I am enjoying ignoring.
I know, an $18 dine is hardly worth wasting the cyber ink. Now, back to my front yard to continue yelling at clouds as they refuse to issue manna from heaven.
Knowing this, I dont mess with anything less than a hundred miles but when timing aligns I will clump a mini-dine together with something larger and such was the case with Burgermeister South Beach. Since they didnt list approved credit cards I used a statistically likely Amex, which didnt post. Suggesting that RN should allow the Amex even if its not a valid card because the error was theirs, no dice/no engagement. I also mentioned that they should correct that omission, but a couple months later no edit. Businesses go through cycles and at the moment I want to believe that customer service is wanting due to staffing and not because the CSRs are marching to directives to push back against customer requests. Ironically, RN is also offering a 500 new customer referral bonuses, which I am enjoying ignoring.
I know, an $18 dine is hardly worth wasting the cyber ink. Now, back to my front yard to continue yelling at clouds as they refuse to issue manna from heaven.