Rapid Rewards Dining - cheated me
 

In mid-September, I felt like going to a restaurant I hadn't been to before. Figuring I might as well get some RR credit for it too, I went to RapidRewardsDining.com and entered my zipcode, then chose a restaurant about 10 miles away that I'd never heard of. I went to the restaurant, dined, and came home.

A week later, the credit hadn't posted to RapidRewardsDining.com, and so I filled out the "missing credit" form. Yesterday, they finally replied:

This, obviously was blatantly untrue. I'd never even heard of the restaurant before I found it on RapidRewardsDining.com. It was the only reason I went there. I replied, pointing this out, and asking them to recheck their records. The response:

This is either also blatantly untrue, or else is the most deceptive and dishonest practice I can imagine. I went to RapidRewardsDining.com. I did not go to any other rewardsnetwork website. Why would any restaurant that doesn't participate in Rapid Rewards Dining show up on RapidRewardsDining.com? Why would I have to "log in" to see the "real" restaurants that participate? How can they justify that blatant false advertising?

UGH. Thoroughly disgusted.

Did you double check that the restaurant was providing credits on that day. I know a local place we frequent does not offer credit on Friday or Saturday. I got caught on this one once or twice. On the restaurant page upper left, there is a rewards calendar that indicates the days they offer credits.

For frequent visits, I usually buy a gift card during the week for weekend use.

Yes I did. But even if I hadn't, and that was the issue, it's not what this RRD rep is claiming. She's trying to tell me the restaurant wasn't a participant in Rapid Rewards Dining when I visited. That's just a complete falsehood.

EDIT: my dine date, 9/16/2009, was a Wednesday.

Wow! I've done the same thing. I guess I've been lucky so far.

It seems like the OP has a very legitimate complaint. I'm surprised that Rapid Rewards Dining didn't make a one-time exception to their rules -- simply because the instructions aren't clear.

How does it show up now? Is it still listed? What days of the week does it show? Does it list the same if you are logged in or not?

I'm not looking to excuse them. I do want to understand where the breakdown was here, to avoid a similar experience. Is this a case of a restaurant leaving the program, but the site not getting updated promptly? Or are the listings misleading/incorrect?

http://www.rapidrewardsdining.com/de...chantId=100498

The only difference I see when I'm logged in vs not, is that when I'm logged in, it has the calendar of when rewards are granted. When not logged in, that calendar doesn't exist. Instead we get the banner of "Earn Rapid Rewards at the Tavern, JOIN NOW"

The claim by the RRD representative is that while it's a member of the program *now*, it wasn't when I dined.

It's pretty sad when we start needing to do screen shots with date stamps when dealing with SWA.

Not dealing with SWA, just a partner program like Hilton or Avis, or Choice...

Oh, thanks. I have never even looked at this, so I didn't know how it worked. My apologies to SWA.

UPDATE: The RRD representative wrote back again. She's now claiming that I didn't eat at the Tavern at all. She's trying to tell me I ate at another restaurant in the same hotel, called Simpsons, and that at the time of my dine, Simpsons wasn't a member of RapidRewardsDining.

While I can understand her confusion, she's wrong. I most definitely did eat at the Tavern. The problem is that because they're owned by the same company, they show up as one restaurant on the credit card transaction - and that restaurant is Simpsons.

This is not the first time I've seen something like with with RRD. There is another restaurant I've gone to a couple times, Legends Sports Bar, in Albany, NY. It is owned by the same company that owns De John's Restaurant & Pub across the street. Whenever I eat at Legends, it shows up on my credit card - and on RapidRewardsDining.com - as being from De John's. Since both are members of RRD, however, this hasn't been an issue in the past.

Since The Tavern is a member, and Simpsons wasn't, however, this is most definitely an issue now. I've responded to the RRD rep again, and we'll see what she says now.

At least she didn't ignore my complaint and continued to follow up on it. +1 for customer recovery.

I have gotten into the habit of saving my cc receipts until the dine posts. What does your receipt say?

No idea. I'm not in the same habit as you, though after all this, I think I'll have to be....

Here's her latest reply:

So now I've faxed my credit card statement (which shows "The Desmond Restaurant", incidentally. Desmond being the name of the hotel that has both The Tavern and The Simpson), along with a transcript of the entire conversation. We shall see what happens next.

I had a similar thing happen to me. They claimed the restaurant did not participate, but asked me to scan a copy of the receipt and send it to them. I spent time doing that, and then they told me they did participate, but didn't offer rewards on that day. The website clearly shows that they did on that day. I think the program is worthless, and just isn't worth my time. It seems like they would compensate me somehow since they had me waste my time submitting a receipt, especially since I chose the restaurant in question to eat at over another only to receive rewards.

I had something like that some years back with another airline. The restaurant was in the hotel where I was staying, and I knew not to charge the meal to my room, but the receipt just gave the hotel name. I eventually got it resolved; it may have been that the credit card statement was more specific.

The Rewards Dining Program with SW is very weak when you compare the program with what is offered for other airlines in terms of miles, bonuses, etc., but I have to say that even with those you sometimes have to grovel and send in receipts occasionally to get your credit.