No longer accepting gift certificates???

karl5000

I was given a Christmas present for a 25 gift certificate at cigar.com (via restraunt.com) valid for one year.  I try and use it at cigar.com today and recieved a message they no longer accept them.  Poor taste from cigar.com and dissapoints me they do not wait for the certificates to expire, they just stop accepting.  So much for using cigar.com, I must say that left a bad taste in my mouth (like a rotten cigar).

Unsatisfied Customer,

Karl, Austin Texas

gmill880

If I were you I would at least make an attempt to contact a real person at cigar.com. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that after all I've heard about their customer service something can be worked out if you will take the time to call them. I certainly wouldn't roll over and give up without talking to someone first, you obviously have nothing to lose and maybe 25 bucks worth of smokes to gain.....stand up and be counted man ...

kaspera79

Hang on there Karl.. I agree with G. on this. When reputation is everything to a business, and with your post hitting thousands of potential, as well as long time customers, they would never turn you away for twety five bucks. Call and speak with someone. You will be taken care of. Then be sure to re-post how this was resolved. Customer service is how they built their reputation, I am certain a better solution can be reached. Let us know how it turns out. And, by the way, welcome and I hope to read something from you soon.

urbino

I'm not sure Karl's on the up and up, fellas. Something's rotten in Denmark.

kaspera79

urbino:

I'm not sure Karl's on the up and up, fellas. Something's rotten in Denmark.

Well, this does seem rather odd, but, we shall see. If we never hear about it again We can presume this was a fabricated story. When there is an open forum that allows you to post comments attached to your business, you strive to please. We all know how it is here, and 100% satisfaction mean just that.

kuzi16

even if it wasnt cigar.com the first thing I would do in a similar situation would be to make a phone call to the people that the gift card was for. ... and its not like its hard to get in contact with the people at cigar.com... their phone number is everywhere. heck, its even on the page to post a thread.

if you dont want to even try to make an attempt to call or talk to someone in person after one try on-line then i dont see this as cigar.com's fault. Its yours for not even trying.

sorry if i sound like a jerk but i refuse to believe that cigar.com would give service that poor.

phobicsquirrel

kuzi16:

even if it wasnt cigar.com the first thing I would do in a similar situation would be to make a phone call to the people that the gift card was for. ... and its not like its hard to get in contact with the people at cigar.com... their phone number is everywhere. heck, its even on the page to post a thread.

if you dont want to even try to make an attempt to call or talk to someone in person after one try on-line then i dont see this as cigar.com's fault. Its yours for not even trying.

sorry if i sound like a jerk but i refuse to believe that cigar.com would give service that poor.

i second that, this place is a lot of things and service... umm, yeah that didn't sound right. This place rocks, service is 2nd to none!! I'm sure a call would fix this in no time.

zoom6zoom

I sorta doubt that they aren't taking them, since they are still selling them. I don't know about expiration dates - it's poor practice in my book to have an expiration date or service maintenance fees on gift certificates.

Luko

urbino:

I'm not sure Karl's on the up and up, fellas. Something's rotten in Denmark.

Not saying I don't think you're probably right, just curious what makes you say so.

urbino

It's more a feeling than anything else. Something about it just doesn't scan. It reads kinda like spam.

j0z3r

Could be, I know competitors aren't above these kinds of tactics. I suppose it could just be another case of someone giving up before they try and placing the fault where it doesn't belong too. Hard to say as the guy never came back to update or respond to any advice.

Well, at least we all know that cigar.com is not anywhere near that level of incompetence when it comes to customer service.

madurofan

I only hope this isn't true and I somehow doubt that it is.

urbino

j0z3r:

Hard to say as the guy never came back to update or respond to any advice.

Which leaves me all but certain it wasn't legit.

twtb19

It is not legit, I received a gift certificate and am a new customer to the site. I used it and everything went through very easily and the code is in the email and easily identifiable. There is an expiration date however and it is one year from the purchase date.

brc81

It would be nice to have an official response from someone at c.com.  Users on the slickdeals.net boards have also reported the cigar.com certs are no longer valid.  From what I've read the problem is that cigar.com ended their relationship with restaurants.com, but restaurants.com continue to offer the certs anyway, which is shady on restaurants.com's part. 

gmill880

brc81:

It would be nice to have an official response from someone at c.com.  Users on the slickdeals.net boards have also reported the cigar.com certs are no longer valid.  From what I've read the problem is that cigar.com ended their relationship with restaurants.com, but restaurants.com continue to offer the certs anyway, which is shady on restaurants.com's part. 

Well sounds like the first thing our new moderator can help out with....moddy?...moddy?...MODDY!!!

JKTex

My suggestions was also going to be pointing to restaurant.com.

alphax3

I'll tell you guys what really happened. A couple of weeks ago a bunch of guys over at HP shook down cigar.com over a couple of days, using many (hundreds?) of the $25 gift certificates. Shortly after, c.com ended their relationship with r.com. C.com says to go back to r.com and get your money back for those coupons.

kaspera79

alphax3:

I'll tell you guys what really happened. A couple of weeks ago a bunch of guys over at HP shook down cigar.com over a couple of days, using many (hundreds?) of the $25 gift certificates. Shortly after, c.com ended their relationship with r.com. C.com says to go back to r.com and get your money back for those coupons.

hey alphax.. and where did you get this information ?

gmill880

So your saying they printed bogus certificates???

alphax3

I was the one that posted the info over at HP. It just snowballed an everyone was using the coupons. They went nuts, and think c.com got killed on the 601 deal a couple of weeks ago. People were buying 30 601s for about 2 bucks a piece with the coupon. c.com ended accepting the certificates like a day later. Also, someone from HP called up c.com and they told him to go back to restaurant.com or dining dough and get your money back. Bad form for c.com, IMO. They should have accepted existing certs.

alphax3

No, they didn't print bogus certs, but restaurant.com had deals where you could get $25 certs for $2 bucks, so it was a steal.

rwheelwright

alphax3:

No, they didn't print bogus certs, but restaurant.com had deals where you could get $25 certs for $2 bucks, so it was a steal.

Sounds to me like a few people ruined it for all who were involved. I don't blame c.com for ending something like that if they were taking advantage of. It's like someone going in to McDonalds for a free Sunday and them eating it, walking out the door and wallking back in for another and another and another to the point where they are loosing too much money to keep the promotion going. That is why something like this usually has a coupon that says one per customer or something similar.

vankleekkw

I disagree with this statement. C.Com should have never created a deal that they could potentially loose money on. That practice is bad business for the two reasons that happened here. 1. They lost money by more people cashing in than project. Who cares if it was guys using the site more than once or hundreds of different customers. 2. It make C.com look bad for not honoring an agreement that has already taken place.

Personally, I would like some sort of explanation from C.com as I think that this leaves a sour taste in my mouth even though I wasn't involved. I just can't stand when people make wrong decisions and don't hold up their end of the deal. This is just as bad as a trade gone wrong inho.

brc81

I think it'd be fair to limit it to 1 GC use per 90 days or something like that. That would prevent the abuse and allow those that got them to use them.

Alex Svenson

Be advised that the company that was selling these was not authorized to do so. As you can understand, this puts us in a difficult position because of course we want to make sure we are taking care of our customers and also accomodating new business that may have come from restaurant.com If you have a gift certificate, please call and we will do what we can to get you taken care of. We do need to limit the use to a certain extent but our #1 goal is to make sure our customers are 100% satisfied and I assure you that we will do everything in our power to make that happen.

rdnstn

Thanks for chiming in on this Alex. CCOM always seems to do the right thing or go that extra step. I knew they wouldn't leave a guy hanging.

vankleekkw

Alex Svenson:

Be advised that the company that was selling these was not authorized to do so. As you can understand, this puts us in a difficult position because of course we want to make sure we are taking care of our customers and also accomodating new business that may have come from restaurant.com If you have a gift certificate, please call and we will do what we can to get you taken care of. We do need to limit the use to a certain extent but our #1 goal is to make sure our customers are 100% satisfied and I assure you that we will do everything in our power to make that happen.

Thanks for the clarification Alex. I hope that Restaurant.com can be held accountable for the issues that this has caused.

vankleekkw

P.S. if you did buy one from Restaurant.com, give them hell here.

We're committed to doing everything we can to make sure your experience with Restaurant.com is nothing short of completely satisfying. That's why our customer service professionals are available to answer your questions. Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm, Central Standard Time.

Just call toll free: 1.800.979.8985.
(9:00a.m. – 5:00p.m. CST, Monday through Friday)

Or email us and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Usually within one business day.
info@restaurant.com

madurofan

Alex Svenson:

Be advised that the company that was selling these was not authorized to do so. As you can understand, this puts us in a difficult position because of course we want to make sure we are taking care of our customers and also accomodating new business that may have come from restaurant.com If you have a gift certificate, please call and we will do what we can to get you taken care of. We do need to limit the use to a certain extent but our #1 goal is to make sure our customers are 100% satisfied and I assure you that we will do everything in our power to make that happen.

Thanks again for popping up when it gets important Alex. I had faith in you guys.

tuelle

I had one of these and cigar.com totally took care of me. Thanks to Alex and Jeff Jackson!