Pastamore'
Pastamore' (a restaurant at

Pastamore' (a restaurant at Universal Studios, Orlando) refused to honor a coupon for a free kid's meal.

We went to Pastamore' for dinner; we had a coupon (provided in our AAA Vacation package) for a free kid's meal with each adult entree' purchase. Upon ordering, we informed the waiter that we had this coupon. The waiter replied that the restaurant policy, using this coupon, was to cover up to $4.95 for each kid's meal. The problem was that some of the items on the kid's menu was well upwards of that amount, and my kid's had ordered meals priced around $10.95. I pointed out to the waiter that the coupon only stated "Free Kid's Meal" with no "$4.95 maximum" stipulation. The waiter seemed sympathetic, as if this issue had come up before, and offered to query the manager. A few minutes later, a young lady appeared, to whom I presented the issue to. She was polite, but essentially refused to honor the written word of what was printed on the coupon. She just kept repeating it was restaurant policy to only cover up to $4.95 and that amount was hard-coded into the coupon. The manager simply wasn't comprehending (or more likely, just played "dumb") what I was saying - that nowhere on the coupon was there any fine print or caveat that set a limit on the max amount on a kid's meal. To be fair, she did offer to cover up to $5.95 but that still did not meet the criteria of what was PRINTED ON THE COUPON. I informed her that we travel a lot and this was the first time anywhere in the world where a coupon we presented was not honored by an establishment. I told her if she would not honor the coupon, we would leave. She only replied "Are you sure?", and offered no recompense.

We ended up walking out without having our meals.

I can tell you that this is a mark of poor management at Pastamore'; that a family of four, with two young children were allowed to walk out of the restaurant for few dollars worth of haggling is a discredit to any sound policy of guest relations... Especially when the guest was so clearly in the right, both technically and in principle.

Company: Pastamore'
Country: USA

  <     >