Ever liked a restaurant voucher deal so much that you went back without a voucher?

moocher on 06/11/2012 - 14:31
Last edited 09/11/2012 - 10:52

Just curious. Has anybody enjoyed their meal on a voucher deal so much that they went back without one (i.e paying regular prices)?

I've really enjoyed a couple of them, but have never gone back on full price, simply because full price is a bit too extravagant. I went back to one of them only because there was a second deal offered. That was Etch - deal 1 and deal 2. Sadly that restaurant is now out of business.

I suspect that once customers (especially bargain hunters) have experienced a restaurant at discounted prices, they will only value the meal at the discounted price, and they would rather wait for another voucher deal to come along than pay full price.

Thoughts? Experiences?

Note: For those in Melb, if you're interested in winning free tickets to Taste of Melbourne, you can share your good dining experiences in the competition forum.

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  • voteoften on 06/11/2012 - 16:12

    I think there is some validity to that. I'd say usually no returns from me, but I have been to places and done tours, etc and have been impressed and told others about it and they have gone.

    The thing is, I have some many vouchers banked up, I have to use a voucher when I go out, if it is just my daughter and myself.

    So many restaurants and hairdressers put up scammy pricing that you wouldn't even consider going at what they would have you believe is full price.

    I did try to book a hairdresser once with the $50 off voucher I got when I used my group buy voucher. I couldn't get in and the expiry was so short. More deals always come up.

    With a lot of these spa packages, you are supposed to get 3 or 4 hours and it's valued at say $500. You walk out in 90 minutes and think, I would never ever ever get anything done there. If you do not have a special niche, you have to treat all of the customers right, all of the time.

    • moocher on 06/11/2012 - 16:23

      The thing is, I have some many vouchers banked up, I have to use a voucher when I go out

      Ha I can see how that would stop you from going somewhere without a voucher :)

      So many restaurants and hairdressers put up scammy pricing that you wouldn't even consider going at what they would have you believe is full price.

      Yeah, I am quite wary of the pricing, I wouldn't buy a voucher deal unless I can see the regular price is (e.g. from website). It's not worth the stress of wondering if you'll get a booking if there's no significant saving.

      • voteoften on 06/11/2012 - 16:56
        +1

        What I meant was that if you go there and it is worth only the $49 you paid for it, but they say it is normally $139, you just wouldn't go back.

        You only go back if you feel that, yeah, this would be worth $139. Otherwise, it is just "next".

        Most of these places shoot themselves in the foot with crappy offerings and shithouse service.

        They should just offer deals like $49 for $99 of whatever you want and show your voucher at the end. That would give people an idea of what they would actually eat there if they go back. Not this rubbish of overpriced garlic bread and dips, etc being priced into the deal. I don't order that crap normally as I don;t eat bread, so what's the point of putting it on the table and acting like I'm getting something out of it.

        • baker bob on 06/11/2012 - 17:18

          Couldn't agree more. I have caught out a few restaurants trying to give me half sized servings and they never like being called out on it.

        • voteoften on 06/11/2012 - 17:44
          +2

          Maretti Restaurant in Mosman Park WA had a several course degustation that was allegedly worth about $90 a head. The voucher was only about half off. I had even eaten their degustation previously, so knew what I should have received. I was livid. I think Living Social gave me some money back, but it didn't help my rage about the restaurant. I bag them every chance I get. So there's an example of a restaurant who stuffed up my previous good imprssion by screwing me over when I had a voucher.

        • waltermann on 08/11/2012 - 16:48
          +1

          Restaurants rip off customers because the cashflow won't balance out if they gave the full value like normally. This sounds like a stupid suicidal tactic but really, but if you do it across 10 groupbuy websites over a long period of time, it works out because there are always new people trying them out. That is, until they have absolutely saturated every single person in the area already and the whole area knows them due to their terrible reputation.

        • voteoften on 08/11/2012 - 16:54

          And sometimes they do it because they are shitty operators who already have a bad rep and a bad attitude towards customers.

        • waltermann on 08/11/2012 - 17:03

          that too

  • baker bob on 06/11/2012 - 17:13
    +1

    The good ones have been stored in memory, perhaps to be used for a special occasion one day but its rare I eat out without a voucher, we cannot justify paying full price with all these vouchers floating around and my missus has quite an addiction to them so there is always a steady supply.

    I think giving away free / discounted access to unique services works really well because if you enjoy it you have no option but to pay full price to experience it again however when it comes to the restaurant business…..take a walk down King Street and tell me how many Thai Restaurants you see.

    • voteoften on 06/11/2012 - 17:46

      I always recommend the Indian Food tour and the Crime tour in Melbourne. Also the ghost tour. They were all brilliant.

      Wine Guys sucked a bit on their Yarra Valley tour.

      • Magnate on 09/11/2012 - 10:15
        +1

        They sucked massively. I even took the time to write a significant complaint letter

        • voteoften on 09/11/2012 - 12:21

          Maybe you should copy and paste it into trip advisor.

  • Helmuth on 06/11/2012 - 18:20
    +9

    Are you able to admit paying full price on this site without being banned?

    • voteoften on 06/11/2012 - 19:15
      +4

      I was drunk at the time. Diminished capacity.

      • Mikinoz on 06/11/2012 - 19:20
        +3

        Ozbargain membership revoke pending, depending on if it was Ozbargain sourced alcohol ;)

        • voteoften on 06/11/2012 - 19:28

          No, but I went from a fancy wine lunch straight to dinner and I can assure you that I had well and truly received more than my share of wine at the lunch.

    • moocher on 07/11/2012 - 12:50

      As a mod, I can assure you that you won't be banned for that reason :P

  • lukaskrs on 07/11/2012 - 10:29

    I went one, the experience was great and that's why I went back there even at the full price. And yes, still love the experience.

    • royus on 07/11/2012 - 11:00

      which one?

    • moocher on 07/11/2012 - 12:50

      Yes, please share about where you went.

  • Doey21 on 07/11/2012 - 10:33
    +2

    I eat out quite a lot and I can say that I probably only buy the high end food vouchers. Mainly because they are the only places that have transparent pricing and actually have real value. If I've had a good experience, I would leave positive feedback on urban spoon. I've tried the cheaper vouchers in the past and most of the time ive had a bad experience or the value has been misrepresented.

    The good thing about vouchers is that it can fill in business during the quiet periods and make the restaurant seem busy. But to be honest I've never gone back to a place that offered a voucher…but then again I would never have gone there in the first place.

    • nikey2k27 on 09/11/2012 - 23:14

      total true about misrepresentaed of some cheep places.

  • lewcianci on 07/11/2012 - 13:51
    +1

    Never had a voucher, but I went to a place called Jeremy's in Brisbane. Fairly expensive ($35-$45 a meal). But it was so worth it, would be awesome for a first date.

    I think the thing that makes it at a restaurant for me is the waiter. If they can carry a conversation and not rush me in and out then its definitely a great place.

    • voteoften on 07/11/2012 - 16:38
      +2

      That's funny, because I want the waiter to just piss off, get me my food, space the service out appropriately and be knowledgeable. Especially on a first date. I don't bring a friend (except on one I have coming up in about two weeks!!! LOL), so I don't want to have any relationship with the waiter. It's not a power thing or a class thing, it's just what I deem appropriate to the mix of circumstances and personalities.

      • lewcianci on 09/11/2012 - 11:16

        Horses for courses, I think the waiter can "tell" what you want from your mannerisms etc, well a good one anyway. I think it was a good experience all in all.

  • cloudy on 07/11/2012 - 15:58

    I have been to places that i thought would be nice to go back again even without a voucher.

    • Serapis on 09/11/2012 - 14:09

      Likewise, but none of them were restaurants… One was a Go-Karting place and the other was for Gracie BJJ where I was so impressed I joined for a year

  • hellbound on 07/11/2012 - 17:10

    I've since returned without a voucher to KFC many times ;-)
    Unfortunately, my logic is if there's been a voucher for a restaurant once, there probably will again, so I'll just wait till it comes back around.

  • lord henry on 07/11/2012 - 20:02

    I once bought a voucher at the Jazz City Diner in Darlinghurst and have gone back a number of times since and paid full price.

  • citybargainhunter on 08/11/2012 - 08:00

    yes

  • axilur on 08/11/2012 - 11:45

    I've usually only experienced really terrible food from my voucher deals. I've never enjoyed the experience enough to want to go back and I no longer buy restaurant vouchers.

  • moocher on 08/11/2012 - 16:28

    For those in Melb, if you're interested in winning free tickets to Taste of Melbourne, you can share your good dining experiences here.

  • voteoften on 08/11/2012 - 16:56

    There are a couple now that I think about it. My daughter now loves pasta cup. They have a pretty good lunch deal, so I buy that in the late arvo and heat up for dinner.

    We also used asn eagle boys voucher and she quite likes them. If it were a choice between eagle boys and the others and everything else being the same, esp distance to pick up, etc, I would buy from them again. Even though they wanted to charge me the $10 I had paid for my voucher a second time.

  • waltermann on 08/11/2012 - 17:01
    +1

    I think the whole dealsite model is a hypocrisy. The main aim is for businesses to get new customers and increase sales. They do the complete opposite by blowing up the original price to create an illusion that customers are getting great value for their vouchers. They also take out the value out of the deal by giving the customer less than a full-paying customer, in order to make ends meet. So the end result they have is an instant boost in sales, followed by a steady decline of sales afterwards. Most people wont come back due to the huge disparity in price caused by the voucher on their first experience.

    However, the irony is that if the voucher was somewhere less than 51% off, deal-hoppers will probably give the deal a pass (unless they have been to that place before). Maybe we are all just asking to get scammed after all?

  • PlayerOne on 08/11/2012 - 23:37

    I know for fact that livingsocial.com takes quite a large cut of the deal from restaurants. 50% of the total money during winter for fine dining restaurants.

    Should pressure the deal sites into taking less cut and passing on the saving to consumers.

    • moocher on 16/11/2012 - 11:39
      +1

      Should pressure the deal sites into taking less cut and passing on the saving to consumers.

      I wouldn't mind if the deal sites take less of a cut and letting the restaurant at least break even, so that their business is sustainable. (That's for the deals where the normal prices are not ridiculously inflated.)

      • waltermann on 16/11/2012 - 13:50

        I totally agree. Consumers are already getting an absolutely great deal, there is no need to add more savings to the customer. If there is anything the business needs to improve on, it's that the value needs to be put back into the business so that better service can be provided to the consumer.

      • SirFlibbled on 16/11/2012 - 14:07

        I don't care less. The business is free to negotiate and set what every price they want with the group buying site. They should, at a minimum, set a price which after commission breaks even. They make the business decision to offer the deal, I feel no remorse using it.

        • voteoften on 16/11/2012 - 23:04

          Exactly, do restaurants worry about whether people feel regret after blowing money on a meal? Do they regret pushing bottle after bottle of sparkling water? When one person orders sparkling, they just go around the table filling up everyones glass with sparkling regardless of whether they want that or sparkling. Do they regret it if someone leaves still hungry?

  • chiefbodge on 08/11/2012 - 23:44
    +3

    Pretty much all the vouchers I have got from deal sites the restaurants have hardly been worth the voucher value let alone full price. I have only ever gone back to one and that's a south indian restaurant in Prospect (south australia): http://www.cafechennai.com.au/ This place is seriously awesome - great authentic indian food and open all ours of the night and the prices are unbelievable - masala dosa for $7.50 is absolutely delicious.

    Apart from cafe chennai all the restaurants I frequent have not been due to vouchers and just found them due to luck / urbanspoon

  • voteoften on 09/11/2012 - 01:50

    The thing is that if you just wander into some random restaurant, at least in WA, the odds are it will be crap. Crap service, crap food, crap value. In WA, it is really truly crap value overall. The eastern states seem like Bali prices. So buying a voucher doesn't really makes the odds it will be complete shithouse all that much more likely. It just makes it a bit cheaper to go out and be completely violated. Like you would be violated in WA 9 times out of 10.

  • huntress_love on 09/11/2012 - 15:31
    +1

    Not yet, some of the places are good. I have considered but like other's there's so many deals and i've got the entertainment book, hardly justify paying full price if i just want to go out and eat. Plus i did go a little crazy when the voucher site came out last year, so i'm a little voucher out and want to save some money. Cause even after the discount, it's still cheaper to cook it at home if you can be bothered!

    • voteoften on 09/11/2012 - 19:45

      cheaper and better. I so completely and utterly find it hard to find any place that makes food better than I can. It's almost always plated better in a restaurant, but mine is better tasting.

  • nikey2k27 on 09/11/2012 - 23:20
    -1

    personal. I have eat at place before with cheep deal. they have wow me and don't lie to me. i don't mine spend $200 on good lunch for 2people if i feel worth it. i find deal sometime are for failing places with bad services and rude staff. i as some work in restaurant of 5star or more. if said it 5star i want 5star.

  • PcisT on 10/11/2012 - 00:04
    +6

    I have gone back and brought a full price Whopper.

  • StewBalls on 10/11/2012 - 01:22
    +2

    Well, sort of…Spanish Terrazas! http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/55767 :)

    Some colleagues & I gave their all-you-can-eat tapas deal a fair hiding during a conference in Sydney last year. However, I'm kinda cheating; I had been there a few times for a la carte meals beforehand, so I knew it was good…if somewhat pricey! We've been back quite a few times since! My mouth is watering just thinking about it…might have to talk to the boss next week about some PD in Sydney again soon! ;)

    Service & food are outstanding, atmosphere is great, and portions are generous (which offsets the prices IMHO). During the special we had no restrictions or quibbling about honouring the deal, no service delays, very friendly attentive staff who constantly checked that we had enough to eat…it was just a fair dinkum great deal. Plus, we ate heaps, well and truly our $29 worth…and then some!

    Now, that's the kind of place you wanna keep going back to, even after the honeymoon! :)

    • che_97 on 27/11/2012 - 20:50

      Thanks, Much appreciated. that was a very good deal for the customers. revenue on mondays and tuesdays ( which was when the deal was originally offered) went up a lot. we found however that it was just shifting revenue away from other days.
      thanks for the nice comments. leave an eatability review if you would :)

  • SirFlibbled on 16/11/2012 - 11:32

    No but I've bought a voucher for a restaurant I frequent just because it was a good deal :)

  • tomsco on 19/11/2012 - 11:59

    The only place I returned to was one I already frequented. It was just convenient that the discount voucher popped up for me.

  • voteoften on 19/11/2012 - 12:03

    I don't know that the OzB community is entirely representative. We are pretty hard core here.

    My ex MIL has returned to someplace in Melbourne I took them to on a voucher. It is on the river. I think it is called the Wharf. It is very near where they live and they were not aware it existed and have been back many times.

  • donga100 on 12/12/2012 - 16:56

    I regularly eat at Cafe Hancook in Brisbane but never used the vouchers. They used to be very quiet when I first started going there but are usually full of people with vouchers now. They offer a deal for $64 for 2 people. You can get the same thing without glass of wine but with all-you-can-eat bbq meat for $58 for 2 people as their regular price.

    I like the restaurant but it's unfortunately another example of inflating prices for the sake of selling a "59% off" voucher.

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