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.

You mean like OP who’s planning to try and publicly sabotage the reputation of a restaurant that she admits serves good food and she’s been to several times? Impatient, intolerant and arsehole behaviour like that?
Or is this just you following me around this thread again with your important comments?

You’ll be back.

Following you around? Ermm. Ok.

I’ve said upthread the review is an extreme reaction and that’s a separate issue but yes still arseholey behaviour too. I can see you’re clinging on to that and side stepping the issue about posters on this thread.

My focus is the deeply unpleasant attitude towards people who need things spelling out to them.

I really thought I was the only one earlier on today but more posters have come along during the course of the day who say common sense isn’t actually that common and that it’s actually completely ok to not know things. It doesn’t make someone stupid.

And I bet even if OP hadn’t mentioned the review people would still be laying in to her.

Exactly.

I’m genuinely not sure what point any of that comment was supposed to make vs what we’ve already discussed.

I suppose the restaurant should clarify their t&c to say '5 full-price meals' and the op should have guessed the offer might not apply with a fivers-worth of kid's food. I'd have asked at the start so it was clear I couldn't use the voucher or even when I phoned up to book the table. The mean review is a separate issue and hopefully people will read between the lines what actually happened.

Very much so.

OP isn't listening to the replies.

No the op has ran away, I think she started this to try to shame them and be able to say even on mumsnet people are horrified you dint give us the free food. The fact everyone has done the opposite isn’t what she wishes to hear,

I always check that an offer is on or that a voucher is acceptable before ordering . There’s often caveats in the small print so checking is helpful
You can’t really blame the restaurant as you didn’t meet the criteria

Please don't try and damage their business to get a voucher. That's very unkind. They've done nothing wrong.

So child meals are £5 and the adult meal the birthday person could get free is £30.

If a birthday mum takes her 4 children, would you expect the whole group eat for £20?

While the next table over has a lone adult paying £30

Everyone hasn't, some of us have said if the terms weren't clear the restaurant was at fault. Hopefully they will clarify the offer if it isn't clear.

Everyone hasn't, some of us have said if the terms weren't clear the restaurant was at fault

You know that you can die from drinking too much water (it’s a LOT but technically possible), or by juicing carrots and drinking too much carrot juice. Neither water taps nor bags of carrots have warnings on them, as there has to be a base level of common sense. This is really no different.

So you going to try and potentially ruin someone's business because you assumed you could get a free meal by paying for only 3 meals and a £5 kids meal. You misunderstood the offer take some responsibility.

Thanks for the info it was still incorrect to say everyone had said something when that wasn't true.

There’s a bit of a leap between getting the wrong end of the stick (and that’s all this is) about a voucher and drinking enough carrot juice in one sitting to kill yourself. One is fully understandable and the other is just a bizarre thing to do. But even then I would feel sorry for someone who ended up doing that to themselves.

Have you ever got the wrong end of the stick about something in your life? You’ll never poison yourself with water or carrot juice but I bet you’ve made a little boo boo at some point. 😆

Yeh, I agree. If a business is going to advertise an offer, they should definitely make clear the Ts and Cs. If they don't, that's on them! Misleading otherwise.

You have to be trolling. You can't actually be this much of a narcissist....

Absolutely trolling, or you are completely delusional.

It's a bit odd to insist on a minimum group size of 5, given that the average family has four people in it, or that people will be going out in couples.

But hey at least you can shout liberation. But what have women actually gained from it, aside from allowing you to have a louder mouth

Wow, how incredibly ignorant you are.

Any reason for the 7 week hiatus?

I assume it’s targeted towards an extended family or group of friends, going out to celebrate someone’s birthday.