The Better Business Bureau issued a warning to consumers Wednesday after a series of complaints surrounding gift cards purchased on Restaurant.com.
Restaurant.com, based in Chicago's suburbs, sells gift certificates to more than 20,000 restaurants across the nation. The warning is not to be confused with Restaurants.com, an unassociated company with a similar name, a BBB spokesperson said.
BBB received a total of 253 complaints against Restaurant.com in the past three years, according to the warning, with the majority of individuals reporting they were unable to redeem gift certificates they purchased on the website.
Many complaints reported the gift certificates they bought were for restaurants that were no longer in business by the date of redemption, according to BBB. In some cases restaurants learned of unauthorized Restaurant.com listings when diners attempted to redeem the unwarranted certificates, the warning said.
Restaurant.com is headquartered in suburban Arlington Heights, although most complaints received by the BBB against the business were outside of the Chicago area.
"In our internal investigation of 20 restaurants in the Chicagoland area we found 13 who are participating with Restaurant.com; and six that claim they were not aware they were listed and do not accept coupons from the business,” BBB president and CEO Steve J. Bernas said. “The remaining restaurant is no longer in business but is still on the company's website."
The BBB said it initially sent a letter to Restaurant.com on Oct. 5 notifying the company of concerns and complaints against them. A second review on April 15 found the number and nature of complaints had not diminished, according to the BBB. Restaurant.com did not respond to the BBB’s notices.
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If consumers are considering the purchase of a gift certificate from Restaurant.com, the BBB suggests to first contact the specific restaurant before doing so to verify that they are participating in the promotion and will accept the coupon and its terms and conditions.
NBC 5 reached out to Restaurant.com for comment, but the company did not immediately respond.
