On Sunday, June 17th (Father's Day), my family and I had dinner at Luigi's Italian Restaurant in Newport News, Virginia. We have been there in the past and consider their food pretty good, but not great. The family decided to go here because I had purchased a $25.00 discount coupon from a company called Restaurant.com and it was close to expiring.
The coupon was not directly from Luigi's Restaurant. Luigi's has an ongoing agreement with Restaurant.com to actively promote their business by advertising for them on their web site and issuing discount coupons for a fee to the customer. These coupons list numerous restrictions such as: Sunday to Thursday only, minimum $35.00 purchase, does not cover alcohol or taxes, and so on. It does not restrict Father's Day or any holiday.
By now you probably guessed it... When I tried to pay my bill they refused to honor my discount coupon because it was a holiday. I let the cashier know I was displeased and was ready to quietly leave with nothing more to say. However, she kept asking me if I wanted to speak to the owner so I finally said OK.
When the owner came out from the kitchen I knew this was not going to be a very pleasant experience because right away he angrily spat "where is he?" Well, to make a long story short he refused to accept the coupon (get ready) because he was a father, and if he had to work Father's Day he wanted to be paid in-full for his work. He also said he had notified Restaurant.com a long time ago to add a "no holidays" restriction to the coupons. I contacted Restaurant.com and they are not aware of this. Furthermore, he should have displayed a "no holidays" sign until they made his imaginary request.
In his defense, there is an "owner's escape clause" listed under the terms and conditions of the discount coupon that says the issuing restaurant credit is at the sole discretion of the merchant. But I say, if you plan to use it... Post a sign, don't give me the Father's Day (BS) excuse.
In conclusion, I paid the bill in-full and gave the waiter a very nice tip just to show the owner, cashier, and waiter who the cheap SOB really is.
One final note... As I mentioned earlier, this owner works in the kitchen. I have to say he smelled terribly of cigarette smoke and had some nasty looking rash (or something) covering a portion of his arm.
All of this for a lousy 25 bucks!!
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