Birthday dinner ruined - restaurant refused eat free offer!

[Heatherstory]

NC’d for this.

Birthday meal out at a local restaurant - they do an offer where the birthday person eats free as long as 1. It’s their actual birthday date and ID is provided to confirm and 2. There’s a minimum party size of 5.

It’s an all you can eat concept where food is brought to the table rather than you go and get it, a great deal as the food is lovely and the offer saves £30.

When we asked for the bill, we mentioned it was my birthday and I said I’d get my ID out of my bag. Someone came over (not the person we asked for the bill) and explained we were not eligible for the offer as only 4 of us had the all you can eat. My 2 year old DD was with us and obviously had a small meal (which we were to pay for).

My DH asked to speak to the manager - the person who came over said that he is the manager and refused to budge. We reluctantly paid.

We’ve checked the offer wording and it’s clearly stated it’s based on 5 dining (doesn’t specify it has to be the all you can eat) which we fulfilled.

It really soured the evening and we will not be returning which is a real shame as it’s a lovely restaurant, but they have been so underhand with this.

Yes, exactly!

Also, with most offers such as 2 for 1 deals or, in your case, buy 5 meals and get one free, it's always the cheapest meal that is free. So that would be your toddler's £5 meal, if they were including the toddler as one of the five people dining, so you would get £5 off the bill.

It was on you to check. They have the offer because it still means at least £120 for a table (assuming £30 each). Your table would only have paid £95 with a £5 childs meal included if they'd honoured the deal. You must have realised there was a possibility it wouldn't have been valid. You should have checked. Leaving them a negative review is unkind.

You are a horrible person if you are prepared to to leave a bad review just because you got the terms of their offer wrong. It is obvious to pretty much everyone else that the offer was referring to full-paying adult meals.

If utilising an offer is that important to you, you should be talking about it to your server before you order. Waiting until the bill comes is too late!

We go to such a restaurant and I would definitely not have assumed the £5 child's meal would count. Agree disappointing but would not be leaving them a negative review over it.

Why is it absurd? I often go out for meals with my children and their friends.

Dream on 😂😂😂

Good thing people with common sense know how to detect the reviews coming from someone who didn't have it their way and is throwing a tantrum from a mile away.

So I'm sorry to say that you won't have any impact on this business. Boo-hoo.

The sad thing is that for many businesses, best foot forward is to accept that bullies exist, just give them what they want, get rid of them as soon as possible, and get on with your day.
I saw this from both sides. From working on customer service and gritting my teeth as I gave a refund to an arsehole who was completely in the wrong. And then a relative who would bully customer service in to giving them a discount and come off the phone smugly saying ‘I knew I was right.’ Never was, just the business knew it was cheapest just to shut him up asap.

I would have been disappointed too - £30 is a lot (to me) and may have made the difference in where you chose to eat. Of course, don't let it ruin your birthday since it was enjoyable overall.

I probably would have checked though, as it is usually full paying adults in this kind of deal, so I am not sure if YABU.

I think it's fine to leave a review as long as it's well balanced (ie comment on enjoying the food, just that the policy needs to be clearer) and polite and non accusatory. You may not get a refund but it will make other customers aware of the offer and maybe the restaurant will word it more clearly to make sure no more misunderstandings happen.

Hopefully as they didn’t on the night, they continue to stand their ground. I think so many places are getting used to this scammy behaviour now they aren’t taking it as profits are so tight.

i was reading a review on trip advisor the other day. And in between the glowing reviews someone wrote a scathing review as they wanted to use their voucher for something and it was for something else, their argument being they hadn’t specifically said it was not for something else, even though it was blindingly obvious like this scenario. The restaurant basically responded,said thems the terms sorry you feel that way.

it really is scummy though to go to an all you can eat that’s cheap in the first place, bring a 2 year old, buy them a kids meal then demand you get your 30 quid off, then when you fail,decide to write a bad review in the hope of getting a voucher so you’d then delete your crap review. Basically trying to blackmail them out of 30 quid.

i mean is 30 quid really so important you’d lose all your morals and behave like this.

Im not sure how this could ruin your birthday unless you couldn’t afford it.

Oh I’m sorry but I think this is possibly a mistake on your part. Perhaps it doesn’t specify it has to be all you can eat, but these offers are almost always based on a set number of full paying diners ie usually not children.
You could try to appeal to their better nature and email them attaching a copy of the offer saying that you dined on x date, were told you weren’t eligible for the offer but nowhere on the offer does it say it has to be five adults eating ‘all you can eat’ (do check the wording carefully before you do this in case it does refer to ‘full paying’ or similar).
They may offer you something as a goodwill gesture like a voucher for money off your next meal. But it sounds to me like that might be pushing it a little.

It might actually boost business - people will read the ridiculous review and choose to support a local business!

“All you can eat…” 🤮🤮🤮

Yabu OP. I love a deal but to expect a kids mean is included is silly. You should have asked when you booked/first arrived. It's your fault. Own it.

No not exactly, this example is very different as people drinking coke are not diners in a million years. Whereas a child having a child’s meal is more arguably a diner. I’m not saying the child was a diner, but the comparison with someone eating nothing is really poor.

Why? Do you think that people with four children under four for example don’t go out for meals? Childminders? Parents of multiples?

This is beyond embarrassing! Going out and sitting with nothing over a deal? Some people shouldn’t eat out.

The minimum party of 5 was for adults, not a 2 y.o. You should have raised the issue before making the booking, instead of thinking that spending 5 pounds for a kids's meal would be allowed on the special.

Surely if you are going to use an offer you say are the start of the meal to check it. Lesson learned maybe.

I suspect they didn’t because they felt they’d more chance of making it happen if they waited till after, like it was a done deal so they thought maybe the restaurant would jist give it to them.

I said YANBU because it sounds like you did meet the published requirements, but I think that you should have notified them in advance of your intention to use the offer and the composition of your party

Edit: and I don't think it's fair to give them a bad review???

What a nasty thing to do. I hate this current trend to punish businesses with a bad review when they have done nothing wrong. So over this you are hoping what? That they get reduced business and go bust maybe?

It shpukd be obvious that a chesp meal for a 2 year old doesn't count in this context and yet you'll push and push to get your voucher. What, and go back to this terrible place you've left an awful review for?

I despair of how vile people have become.

I'm afraid you're mistaken here, OP. Why would you think a 2 year old counts as one of the 5 required for an adult to eat free? The price of 4 adult £30 meals is offsetting the 'free' option for the birthday person. Yes, the restaurant should have been clearer with their wording of the deal, and no doubt they'll correct it now, but I think you're being spiteful to leave them a bad review because you didn't want to pay for your own meal.

Staggered you thought it would be ok to count a toddler as one of the 5