Warning Re: Using Absynthe Restaurant Vouchers - (mainly Spreets, also Scoopon and Grabone)

quop on 23/03/2011 - 01:17
Last edited 23/03/2011 - 01:25

Some warnings for those who have purchased vouchers for Absynthe restaurant on the Gold Coast and are yet to use them.

Trying to book in the first place

You're best to try to call during the times the restaurant is actually open.
Outside of this, the telephone number with mostly ring out with no answer and no diversion to voicemail.
Occasionally (I'm yet to discern a pattern) you may get through to voicemail. The one time I left a message I did get a call back.
<rant>When you do get through/to speak to a human being, you might have a guy on the other line. Based on other comments I've read for Absynthe, this is probably the manager. He is not friendly - maybe because there are so many voucher holders calling up making bookings (see below if you're wondering how many of you/us there are!). The one time I got through, he answered the phone with "hello". Period. He does not identify that it is Absynthe you have called, or asks how he may assist you… but I digress. </rant>

Trying to book a Saturday

You will not get a Saturday booking before the end of May. How do I know? Because I found out the hard way…

I purchased my voucher via Spreets on 12 Feb, tried to book for Saturday 26 Feb to use on the same day as another Spreets deal for Seaworld entry and cruise, and was told no availability. Ok maybe I need to give more notice I thought. Yesterday 21 March I rang again to book for Saturday 9 April (3 Saturdays away), to coincide with another trip I'd be making to the area. I was immediately asked if I was using a voucher. I said yes, and was told flat out that there are no available spots for Saturday bookings until 28 May - I was not sure if this meant 28 May itself was available or not, but this was a moot issue for me as my voucher expires 14 May. I then asked if I was being treated differently to other customers because I am using a voucher, to which I was told yes, because they are not going to allow voucher customers to take up too many tables on a Saturday night, but that he had weeknights available.

While I can understand putting a limit on a busy/popular night, this is not stated at all in the terms and conditions of the offer when the deal was sold. Is it covered by the catch all "subject to availability" clause? I'll leave that up to you to decide. But take into consideration that having no availability on Saturdays, only weeknights, makes this an exceedingly less attractive proposal for most people in Brisbane (and this was mainly sold by "Spreets Brisbane", ie marketed and advertised to people in Brisbane, for whom the Gold Coast is at best a 90 minute round trip…

A consideration of the numbers of vouchers sold

The "$29 for Two Char-Grilled 350g Prime Tasmanian Black Angus Beef Steaks, Truffled Potato Onion Marmalade & Mushrooms, Valued at $110!" deal has been offered a number of times before on Spreets, and is currently on offer again:
* 10/2, 1092 sold, Validity 11/2/11 - 11/5/11. link
* 13/2, 564 sold, Validity 14/2/11 - 14/5/11. link NB this URL no longer works, and just redirects to the Spreets home page. It also does not show up on the past deals page. The google webcache of this page shows 564 were purchased - link
* 22/3, 875 sold, Validity 23/3/11 - 23/6/11. link
* 23/3, currently on sale (at the time of this post), Validity 25/3/11 - 25/6/11. link

The maths isn't entirely exact because there are overlapping validity periods, but that's at least 2531 (and counting) vouchers to be used within a 135 day period (11/2-25/6), or an average of over 18/day. The restaurant seems to only be open for dinner Mondays to Saturdays, so removing the 19 Sundays during this period gives 116 days during which the voucher can be used. At one opening per day, that's almost 22 vouchers per opening…

The same deal was also offered via GrabOne, with 184 sold; validity appears to be 3 March to 3 June 2011.

So let's add another 184 vouchers for that period, bringing the average to more than 23 per opening… now how many tables do they actually have??

There has also been other dining deals for Absynthe sold on ScoopOn, being a "$49 for Two Main Meals + a glass of wine each" and a "$59 for an Exquisite Seafood Platter for TWO People Plus a Glass of Wine or Champagne or Beer". Total 1001 vouchers sold:
* 16 November 2010 - 2 courses + wine for $45 - 304 sold, valid from 17 November 2010 to 17 May 2011. link
* 19 November 2010 - 2 courses + wine for $45 - 97 sold, valid from 23 November 2010 to 23 May 2011. link
* 22 December 2010 - seafood platter for 2 + wine/champagne/beer - 459 sold, valid from 24 December 2010 to 24 June 2011. link
* 25 December 2010 - seafood platter for 2 + wine/champagne/beer - 141 sold, valid from 30 December 2010 to 30 June 2011. link

There has also been other dining deals for Absynthe sold on Spreets, being "An Entree, Main And A Glass Of Wine For Just $45" and "Just $55 for a Scrumptious Seafood Platter – For Two – PLUS A Glass of Beer, Wine or Sparkling Each". Total 551 vouchers sold:
* 21 Dec 2010 - 215 sold, valid from 21/12/2010 - 21/03/2011. link
* 23 Dec 2010 - 47 sold, valid from 23/12/2010 - 23/03/2011. link
* 14 Jan 2011 - 254 sold, valid from 14/01/2011 - 14/05/2011. link
* 17 Jan 2011 - 35 sold, valid from 17/01/2011 - 17/05/2011. link

What this all means…

Assuming all the vouchers are actually used (which may well not be the case as some buyers will probably either end up pushing for a refund or give up trying to redeem their voucher), this means that Absynthe would be required to honour at least 4083 vouchers between 17/11/2010 and 30/06/2011 (226 days). That's a staggering average of more than 18 vouchers per day over a 7.5 month period. Each voucher equates to 2 diners, or most likely one table… that's a lot of seats taken up by voucher customers, all fighting it out for the coveted weeknight booking slots.

Is this a case of caveat emptor, or should Spreets be offering refunds for these (oversubscribed?) deals, whether proactively or at least reactively? NB. the number of GrabOne vouchers sold was small, and was targeted at a Gold Coast market. The number of ScoopOn vouchers, while significant, can be used over a 6 month period compared to Spreets' 3 months, which exacerbates the issue.

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closed Comments

voteoften on 23/03/2011 - 01:49

Thanks for that warning. I used to go to the GC a few times a year and will avoid that deal if I go out there again.

I think that we should start an entirely new thrad jut for places that continue to offer new deals when there are already difficulties in redeeming exisiting deals.

This one takes the cake, but SPARADISE in WA has sold several deals through at least three companies and they don't even seem like they answer their phone. They want you to book via email, but you don;t know when they will take you, so it is very hard, especially as they don;t always reply to emails.

Same wth Rejuva Skin in Morley WA, sister of The elegant touch in Innaloo WA.

You did a lot of work for that analysis!
- quop on 23/03/2011 - 13:05
  
  +4
  
  This analysis was brought to you by the power of google :)
  
  And I do like to get my facts right (as much as possible) before I whinge / make a complaint. Perhaps I should have done all this research before buying my voucher, but when you typically have at most 24 hours to make that decision to buy or skip, you don't always have the time at the time to do all that digging. And it would be ridiculous if that became a defacto requirement (from a CYA point of view) before buying any deal… but that appears to be the shift if you want to mitigate your risks.
  
  Incidentally I recently heard that the O Bar and Grill at Sanctuary Cove (towards Gold Coast, for the non-Brisbanites/Queenslanders reading) has closed. ScoopOn is giving refunds for this, but I bring this up because the O Bar and Grill was another venue that I recall seeing multiple times on ScoopOn, OurDeal and Spreets (couldn't be bothered linking to all of them). While I can only speculate about the reasons for it closing, it does make (the skeptic/cynic in) me wonder if the more deals a place needs to sell, the more likely it's spiralling towards closing (for reasons like bankruptcy/insolvency etc).
neil on 23/03/2011 - 11:24

There is nothing in the T & C that state anything about mentioning the voucher on booking. Make a booking and say you don't have a voucher. When it comes time to pay mention that your friend or whoever you came with has a voucher that wasn't known at time of booking or just don't say anything.

A restaurant doesn't want to cause a scene especially as it states it's "QLD's best restaurant".
- quop on 23/03/2011 - 12:41
  
  +1
  
  I was going to disagree with you because the voucher says
  
  How do I redeem my voucher?
  To redeem, bookings are essential and subject to availability. Call Absynthe on 07 5504 6466 to make a booking. When booking mention that you are a Spreets customer.
  
  ie you need to disclose the voucher / Spreets at the time of booking. And based on my experience of using another Spreets deal (not a dining one), the provider will also ask for your voucher number and PIN (from the voucher) before accepting/confirming the booking.
  
  However, the actual T&C from the advertised deal only says (in relation to booking)
  
  Bookings are essential and subject to availability
  
  So I'd say you have a point there. And looking through the standard Spreets T&C (particularly items 8, 9 and 10), I'm thinking that there would be a case for a refund from Spreets based on the fact that the item they have supplied is different to what was advertised, in that it imposes additional T&C not disclosed in the offer, which makes redemption less available. Valid argument / consistent with statutory rights? In any case I don't particularly want to lie (say I don't have a voucher when I really do), or risk the round trip from Brisbane to have an argument at the end of the night about what's printed on the voucher.
  
  As for the restaurant not wanting to cause a scene, I'm not so sure… depending on how much weight you give to the more recent comments on urbanspoon or tripadvisor, this establishment's "reputation" appears to be either falsely deserved, or possibly not very valuable to them…
  - quop on 13/04/2011 - 12:42
    
    +1
    
    Happy days… I've gotten a refund, so can forget about trying to tangle with Absynthe any longer.
    - voteoften on 13/04/2011 - 13:02
      
      Do you reckon you would have received a refund if you had not spoken out on OzBargain?
    - quop on 13/04/2011 - 13:31
      
      +1
      
      That I don't know. The refund request (made under my real name) made no reference to things like this ozb post or any other comments/feedback I've posted elsewhere, and was premised on the additional T&C that appears on the voucher post-purchase, which was not disclosed at the time of sale, and to which I did not agree.
voteoften on 23/03/2011 - 12:52

If too many vouchers were not sold, then there wouldn't be a problem with too many voucher customers on a weekend.

I have seen a few places give an extra incentive for redeeming on a weeknight. Maybe if more did that, then there wouldn't be a problem.
- quop on 23/03/2011 - 13:12
  
  +1
  
  Or just be upfront about the reason for your deal, like this guy :)
  - dasher86 on 23/03/2011 - 13:29
    
    +2
    
    sorry to be off topic but…
    quop - someone should add that guy to the EPIC threads. Awesome rep with a sense of humour
voteoften on 24/03/2011 - 01:16

And so it it goes. Again.

http://spreets.com.au/deal/Brisbane/restaurants-and-bars/326…
- quop on 24/03/2011 - 01:20
  
  Yes, that's the current one I mentioned above. Started 23/3 but is running for a few days.
  - voteoften on 24/03/2011 - 01:39
    
    Oh, sorry.
clandestino on 29/03/2011 - 11:20

Some interesting reviews on this website….
http://www.eatability.com.au/au/gold-coast/absynthe/

I think that if you buy vouchers solely based on the info on the deal websites… you're going to get burnt.

However - if you buy vouchers for services/restaurants/businesses that you know are quality establishments, well it's a different story altogether.

The key is to know what you are buying. With too many of these kind of deals, you don't know what you're buying until it is too late.
finance on 18/04/2011 - 16:52

+1

the review on this place is unbelieveable. the ppl who paid the retail price got really bad food too!
quop on 03/06/2011 - 09:27

+1
i can scarcely believe it but they're back at it again. then again, i probably shouldn't be surprised… the last batches of vouchers have either expired or are expiring soon, so it's time for some new "deals". seen today:

spreets

jigocity
- voteoften on 03/06/2011 - 12:22
  
  It's a great lil' earner for them!
jon on 06/05/2012 - 17:14

Anyone been here with a voucher and didn't have a bad experience?