To insist on a free meal?

[clairecymru]

I have received an email from my favourite restaurant. It says as birthdays only come around once a year have a free meal on us.

My birthday is next week and the voucher sent yesterday is valid for two weeks.

We were planning on going here for my birthday anyway. We tried to ring up and book a table a few days ago and they said that there were not taking any pre bookings at the moment but there will be tables if we are willing to wait or go early.

On looking at the T&Cs it says voucher is only valid for online bookings - but there are no tables to prebook for the next two weeks that the voucher is valid. It also says offer excluded in the month of December - which contradicts the must be used in two weeks.

AIBU to print out the voucher and take it with me and insist on a free meal?

How do you plan to insist anyway?

"I insist you give me a free meal."
"I'm afraid we can't do that."
"But I insist."
"I'm sorry, no."
"But I insist."
"I'm sorry, no."
Repeat until one of you dies?

"I insist you give me a free meal."
"I'm afraid we can't do that."
"But I insist."
"I'm sorry, no."
"But I insist."
"I'm sorry, no."
Repeat until one of you dies?

As talksense says, surely you just call them up and explain the situation? I'd be astonished if you don't have a constructive conversation. If no joy at all (they just might feel unable to tweak the rules) I'd tweet head office politely just to point out the contradiction, as it's possible that no one has twigged that their standard birthday voucher has issues in December.

If you are going to do this could you at least let the people who are going to be there with you know before hand?

Because I would personally die of embarrassment if someone at my table started insisting they get free food.

Oh no, I'm now getting flashbacks of my MIL getting into a barny over Tesco vouchers after a meal out.

DH and I ran away.

Why are people assuming OP would eat the meal and then demand it for free?

I assumed OP would go there, show them the voucher, explain it says online bookings only but there is no availability online. Maybe she call beforehand to ask if this would be ok, but no harm in visiting.

What is the shame in using the voucher? OP is obviously a frequent and valued customer.

The only thing I get on my birthday is a free cookie from Subway.

I don't think I'd wait til the night of the birthday meal, tbh, I'd take the email and go in beforehand. Show them, ask them if there's anything they can do. Then if they insist the "book online" part of the T&C has to apply, ask them how you can do that since booking online isn''t currently an option.

They might be able to do it for you, you never know - part 1 of the T&C met.

However, the December part of the issue might prove more problematic.

But seriously - go in beforehand.

You are not being unreasonable. It's false advertising. They can not offer you something that would be impossible to redeem.

I have a Christmas birthday and I would raise merry hell

Explain the situation to them, and if they won't budge tell them you'll go somewhere else.

They need to tweak the computer system which is sending out these emails to people where the two week period all falls in December. It's not very good marketing to offer a free birthday meal and then say in the small print that actually you can't have one.

I would try ringing up and asking very nicely, saying you're a little confused by the voucher that they've sent as it's impossible to use it and as you're going to be coming in for your birthday, would it be possible to use it then. However if they say that they're really sorry they can't do that because it's their busy time, say something along the lines of oh no, another reason to hate having a birthday in December and ask if there's anything they could do - maybe have a voucher for your birthday plus a month for december birthdays!

Agree with asking them very nicely to start with - but if they are nasty about it and can't be bothered or won't do anythign about it, then I do reckon that it's worth sticking a picture on their facebook and / or twitter to say that you were looking forward to a yummy free meal but disappointed to discover that for December birthdays it was a logical impossibility that even Doctor Who and Spock couldn't have sorted out. Hopefully if you make it funny, compliment their food and don't actively ask for a free meal they will take it upon themselves to offer you another voucher and it won't look as grabby as demanding a free meal from them.