Red Sauce
 

Went to Red Sauce on sat 9/19 with my wife for dinner. We had a gift certificate that we won at the soup kitchen fundraiser, for a dinner for two. It was issued by Red Sauce in 5/09. Before we ordered I showed the certificate to the waitress. She went over to the owner/manager to inform him that we were using same. He told her to tell us that they would not honor the certificate for a dinner for two. He said that the manager who issued it was no longer with the company, but he would give us a credit towards our meal of $50. As we had no choice in the matter I accepted it. When I got home I realized that the manager who refused the terms of issuence on the certificate, had in fact put his business card in the envelope when it was donated to charity. Seems to me to be a pretty poor thing to do, make a donation and then change the terms when somebody tries to redeem it.

Complain!
 

Just out of curiosity, how much was the dinner?

Red Sauce
 

Not real sure I understand why this is such a problem. How much more than $50 can you spend at a Spaghetti and Meatballs joint anyway. Why not just say thanks for the $50 since you started with nothing. Be gracious and don't make a big deal about it!

WHAT? (Are you the owner of the restaurant trying to mitigate your unthinkable actions) You think it's okay for a restaurant (or any business for that matter) to issue a gift certificate then not honor it? It's like winning the lottery then having the state refuse to pay up. Or your employer giving you a paycheck then having the check bounce.

It's no wonder why so many people are taken in by scammers.

Don't be a doormat. Shout it from the rooftops if you are ripped off. TOTV is the rooftop.

Respectfully request that you read between the lines of my original comments. The initial Post clearly indicated "Dinner for Two". Based on my knowledge of Red Sauce there are virtually no 2 dinners that cost more than $50. Only way $50 might be a problem is if items were added to "dinner for two" such as expensive starters, a couple of Martinis or perhaps even a bottle of expensive wine. Any such add on items , in my opinion, would constitute excessive spending over and above "dinner for two" which might be construed as taking advantage of a good thing. If you feel that these add on items should be included in a "dinner for two" offer then I stand corrected.

Please hold your horses until we get the whole story here.

Maybe it's just the Libra coming out in me (although I don't buy into horoscope stuff, it is kind of fun sometimes) but when I read this I felt like we needed a little more info.

The obvious question to me was could this have been a $50 gift certificate? It seems like that would have been a nice amount for a gift certificate and would have covered two meals.

Also, I cannot imagine that a restaurant would give away an open-ended amount gift certificate. My goodness. Human Nature being what it can be sometimes, just think what could happen if an open-ended gift certificate fell into the hands of some really tacky person who brought a giant purse full of plastic bags. I just don't think open-ended amount gift certificates would make sense for a restaurant owner to go around giving away.

There had to be a value on that gift certificate. Surely? Was is worth 50 bucks maybe and we are just into semantics here?

Before this thread gets turned into a spaghetti western, complete with a showdown and shootout, please tell us what the certificate was worth in the first place.

Just trying to get all the facts here before I factor this in to decide how I feel about Red Sauce.

Judge Judy Boomer

'79-

While I hear what you are saying, dinner for two is dinner for two. Frequently gift certificates not for a specific dollar amount do limit the drinks/wine and rarely include a gratuity.

c6 -

I still think of a meal out as a treat. The refusal to honor the certificate had to dampen the evening for you a bit. I also would call or stop by to chat with one of the owners. They can't fix a problem they are unaware of...

Please post the resolution here. Red Sauce is one of the best restaurants around and I would hate to see it slammed if they remedy the situation.

k

I believe the original post said that conversation was had with the owner/manager. That was the person who made the wrong decision.

Could you imagine winning a "cruise for two" then finding out after you are on the ship that it wasn't really a cruise for two, it was just for a maximum of $200 or so.

JLK

This seems a bit like a tempest in a teapot.

If the bill wasn't over $50, the OP's receieved their free dinner - Maybe it was just a misunderstanding on how the certificate was/should have been handled by the restaurant?

Please re-read the post. The certificate was presented "before" the meal. That was when they were told that they didn't have a gift certificate for "dinner for two". They were told they had a $50 gift certificate.

All that aside, it's isn't a tempest in a teapot. You can't let this stuff get a foothold. I can't imagine a situation where it's okay to say, "oh, my gift is less than you promised, oh, that's okay, I don't want to create any problems. You do whatever you want to me."

If there was no limit on the certificate, then they could have ordered a $100 entree if they wanted.

Jan,

Owner/manager could indicate that the poster was unsure of which was correct or that the person was in fact both. Personally, I would want to speak to that person myself - not via a waitress...

Bob,

I agree that the free dinner may have been received - but what is right is right. One appetizer, a shared salad, two dinners and a shared dessert plus a glass of wine each could cost well over $50.

Boomer, I agree that most gift certificates like this do have limits - such as up to a certain amount, excluding alcoholic drinks, etc.

k

Limitations
 

The Great Mystery of the Red Sauce Gift Cert
 

There has to be more to this thing.

Why on earth would a restaurant give away an open-ended gift certificate? It makes no sense to me. Even if it were the case because the intention was to do this only one time, other charities would be lined up fast, expecting the same kind of donation. It would turn into a no-win for the restaurant. Geez. Put a limit on it. What was this thing? A bad plan? An oversight? A DUH factor? A passive-aggressive employee who wrote the certificate? What's wrong with this picture? Did that gift certificate really come without limits?

But if the bearer of the certificate did indeed hold in his hand a ticket to a completely free ride, I would hope that the owner would honor it and that reason and class would prevail on both sides of the certificate. (and I would also hope that the tip would be given by the diners to the server based on the stated costs from the menu)

And I also have no idea why I have developed such a fascination for this thread this morning. I am not even there yet. But I will be and I know I will need a pasta fix sometime during that time and I have read that TOTVers really like Red Sauce and so I am trying to solve this great mystery and I feel like some clues are missing. And I think without those pieces of information, the besmirching should not begin. (Or dare I say The Ransom of Red Sauce with a nod to O. Henry, of course, and an apology for a hideously lame pun.)

Also.....I know deep in my heart that my fascination really comes from the fact I am just plain goofing off here, like I have been for almost two years. -- Geez. Double-Geez -- when I should be getting some work done.

So I really am going to go get some work done now. But I hope when I return to look back in at TOTV, there will be more clues here about this mysterious gift certificate.

Miss Boomer Marple

One never has to apologize for doing the right thing. Doing the wrong thing haunts you for a long time, sometimes forever.

PS It is my notion that the "former employee" is a "former employee" partly because the "former employee" did such things as hand out open ended gift certificates.

Red Sauce
 

The meal did come to more than $50. The certificate was for a complete dinner for two and when won was presented as including appetizers and salad. We had no alcoholic drinks. The owner stated that the manager who donated it to charity should not have put dinner for two on the certificate, but should have put a money amount. The food was very good, but it would have been easier for the owner of the restaurant to accept the certificate as it was meant to be, other than changing the terms. It seems that the people who state that one should just be happy with the discounted meal, are the same people who get bad service or an un-satisfactory meal and just leave without telling anyone. They become the fall guys over and over. Again the meal was good, the server was fine, and we tipped her accordingly, but it was a poor policy on the part of management.

Its this kind of thinking that shows us as grubby and selfish. A resturant does a good thing giving the certificate to charity. The former employee made a mistake by not putting a dollar amount. Maybe they alerady had a bad experience with someone taking advantage and ordering $100 entrees with a badly written gift certificate. The resturant probably should of honored the mistake but didnt. Im not a resturant owner or even connected with a resturant, but I know how hard this business is, and if this is the only thing a good resturant has ever done wrong, the idea of going out of our way to damage their reputation that could even help it fail, so many do, is just plain wrong . Just my opinion.

Receiving what is coming to you is never "grubby and wrong." Accepting less than what has been promised contributes to the decline of acceptable standards of society and the endorsement of mediocrity.

My point in using $100 as an example was to underscore that "dinner for two" means "dinner for two" regardless if the check is $10, $50 or $100. I didn't expect you to automatically think of "padding the bill." That didn't occur to me.

Do you take all of the social security that is due you? Is that "grubby and wrong?"

Am I understanding this correctly? This sounds like the manager/owner who refused to honor the certificate was the one who put his card in with the award. If that is the case, it sounds like the excuse of it being a "former" employee was a lie. Or, did I misread the above statement?

After paying into it for 40+ years, yes I'm taking it..

They should have just accepted the gift certificate. This was donated to charity, so that means they can write the total bill off as a charitable donation.
My wife and I owned a cafe for several years and would have made sure the customer had nice dinners.:eclipsee_gold_cup:

....sensing a trend here!!
 

In another thread on "Red Sauce", I complained about being charged $9 for wine by the glass.....Chanti!

My wife and I ended up spending more than $50 for dinner for 2, as I had 2 glasses of wine and ended up being surprised by the price(more than NY City wine by the glass).

When I told the waitress of my "surprise" she said she would normally have told me about the high price, but the staff was told to NOT tell customers the price unless asked.

Bad behavior once is an incident, two or more times it's a trend!!!

Management has the right to run their business as they like, just as I have the right (and will exercise it) to not do business with them again!

I agree with Skip here... In a community driven almost entirely on "good will"... Failure to honor an advertisement whether the content was overlooked or uninentional, no matter what the cost to the operator, is professional suicide. The easy thing for the operator to do was to change/set terms to suit their needs and blame somebody that was not present.... The right thing to have done would have been to take it on the chin, comp the bill(be it $25 or $500), and seize the experience as an oppertunity to grow, and serve as a reminder to cover ALL the bases when it comes to limitations on gifts/promotions.
At the very least you keep your integrity..

Collection6, thanks for filling in the blanks.

Now that I see the whole story here, it looks to me like the decision that was made by the owner took one mistake (the one made by whoever incorrectly filled out the gift certificate) and made it into two mistakes. Seems like he was being penny-wise but pound-foolish or just not stepping back and seeing the big picture. Had he put forth a few extra bucks, that could have brought a lot of goodwill and a repeat customer.

And, btw, that was nice of you to let us know the food and service were good. Very classy to say that, under these weird circumstances especially. Nice touch, col6.

Boomer

P.S. -- for tpop ... 9 bucks a glass! :eek: I hope that was a great big glass.

Wow!!! I've been reading this and been wondering about the possible, and maybe probable, impact on the business. As related, it certainly seems a penny-wise decision by the manager--perhaps "saving" an immediate 20 or 40 bucks (assuming a $70-$90 Bill, less the $50 limit).

My neighborhood regularly (i.e., weekly minimum) does "19th hole" gatherings, with often groups ranging 60 or more people, and Red Sauce is one of the handful where we enjoy a few drinks, and some generally stay for a dinner. My own experience there has been excellent food and excellent service; however, if word of this refusal to honor one's word got around, I'd think Red Sauce would be off the rotation for us, or at least far less frequently visited. One deferral would be many times that $20 or $40.

I will follow up on future postings, if any, on this to see if Red Sauce responds (I'm not sure of Protocol here: can they?? I seem to remember one Lawn Service that tried to respond--only to initially make matters worse for her.) When we return to TV, I will likely just ask one of the owners about this. (We won't be back in TV for about another month or so). It just seems like a really Dumb decision by the manager. Hard to believe. But believable, I guess. I personally think Red Sauce should try to make every possible effort to contact the Certificate Winners and offer them, plus two guests Full meals on them, and also provide perhaps some small gift or coupon from their next door operation. That would show to me that they truly regreted the action as a BIG MISTAKE!! Everyone entitle to some chance in this type of scenario, I think.

My thoughts

Not big enough, Boomer.
Had to have a 2nd glass to finish dinner.
:smiley:

Great restaurant
 

Red sauce is a great restaurant which we need here in the Villages.

What you say we give them one more chance.

Well, abso-Chianti-lutely, tpop. Hey, what else could you do? I have to tell you though, that when I saw your comment on the Chianti price, my first thought was to ask about what kind of Chianti it was. There are so many out there and they are so different and I know absolutely nothing about what to buy when I go to buy wine.

Right now, on the wine rack, I have two bottles of Chianti. Gabbiano is the name of one and the other one is Duca Di Saragnano 2005 Chianti Reserva. And I have no idea why I chose either one of them at the time. I was just buying some Chianti. And I did not see the one from the days of my youth. The Chianti that had the bottle in a basket and so I could drip one of those colorful candles all over it after it was empty and make a beautiful table decoration out of it. (I was in my 20's OK. Everything is relative you know.)

But I thought if I tried to find out about what a good Chianti might be, I would just end up being seen as somebody who hijacks a thread. But really, I am just somebody who tends to digress a bit.....

Soooo........if anybody out there knows a good Chianti, please tell me. And if there are wine snobs out there who are greeting my Chianti choices above with a withering sneer, ohhhhh, that's OK, too.

And cashman, I bet Red Sauce will get another chance. This was a circumstance that was pretty odd, but then col6 said the food and service were good, in spite of the awkward handling of the situation. I do not think Red Sauce is getting sent down Johnny Rocket Thread Road.

Boomer

Wine by the glass
 

Len

" I THINK WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE."

What I want to know is where do we get these plastic bags .

Tacky Fumar ..:shrug:

Ziploc now makes a variety of different sizes of heavy duty storage bags.

Hey tpop,

Seriously, thank you. I wrote down your recommendations and put them in my purse so I will have them the next time I find myself wandering aimlessly through the wine aisles at the grocery store. I really do not know where to start sometimes. So many wines.

There is a local place that is known for its wine department, and recently I asked the wine guy there a question and he started to talk in that wonderful language of wine that I do not begin to understand, but I sure think it's purdy talk. It sounded like poetry to me, and I followed him around and he told me all about what the wines were doing. One was was "brooding" and another was doing something that sounded much happier, and on and on it went, and I somehow got all caught up in the language of it all and just bought a couple of bottles of whatever he said. I have not opened them yet. I may have to check up on the "brooding" one later. But I can't remember which one it was.....uh oh....shameless confession time.....it was not a couple of bottles.....it was 5 bottles.........

Maybe by the time I get there to TV in the next few weeks, there will be a wine tasting somewhere so I can learn more stuff. Education is important you know.

Anyway, thanks again. I will try those you suggested.

- - - - - - - - - - -

And now, to Tacky Fumar and Helpful Bobkat, to address their discussion of those plastic bags I mentioned earlier............

Well, guys, about those plastic bags......I guess you have heard about wine-in-a-box. And if you look inside the box, guess what's there........ You got it.... A plastic bag!.....Now, you two, just think about that for a minute. Just consider the possibilities of an open-ended gift certificate, all inclusive, and good wine available.......Yes, think about it.....(I know that you are)......Just how so very tacky could it all get? Oh My!

Miss Manners Boomer

Anyway, Collection6, you were really nice about this. Somebody sure goofed but it was not you. I hope they make it good.

Love Sausage and Broccoli Rabe!!
 

Oh Kathie...I sure am glad I read this, I love love love broccoli rabe and sausage, love it served in any way yummy!!! I will definitely go there for dinner while my son is down...he loves Italian food too!! :icon_hungry:

An idea
 

Here is a question:

Why would anyone use a gift certificate for a meal and think it would be for an unlimited amount of money?

Here is another question:

Why did the restaurant issue a gift certificate without indicating its dollar value?

Sounds to me like two glaring mistakes in thinking.

BUT I WOULD STILL BE FRIENDS OF BOTH PARTIES.

I really like Red Sauce for a lot of reasons.

First and foremost it is NOT a chain. That means, unlike the Olive Garden, they actually prepare the food on site. I played golf with some friends yesterday and they all love the Olive Garden soup and salad. With no offense to Campbell Soup on this forum, if I want to eat canned soup, I'll buy Progresso.

Secondly, they have a great atmosphere and the chef/owners are LOCAL.

Thirdly, they have a good wine list and offer many wines by the glass in two sizes (the larger being, I think) a "quartino." Like my friend Len, I have been stung there by ordering Sauvignon Blanc without asking the price. Shame on me for not asking about a house white (a pinot/chardonnay blend that it quite good a very good price). Also, the Sauvignon Blanc was pricey for my budget (but not unreasonable given the quality of the wine).

Lastly, I love the deli.

Like Cashman, I hope others will give it another chance. "To err is human..."

redsauce reality
 

I am responding to collection6 only at the urging of many customers and employees. It is not my practice to get involved with any of these posting, in fact I just registered today.
I would like to deal with only facts because I do understand that everyone is entitled to an opinion.
First and foremost we NEVER said that we would not honor a gift certicate.
Most of the gift certicates that we issue for fundraisers (3 last week) are for dinner for 2. These gift certicates always have a line saying "not to exceed $50", this is done only so we can assign a value when the certicate is issued. The fact that this one did not say that was simply employee(human)error. For this I apoligize. The $50 dollar amount is not random, we arrived at this amount by taking our average entree price and doubling it, then adding the price of four(4) glasses of wine and sales tax. We consider this to be a nice night out for two people and a chance to sample our food and service and see what a value we offer.
It is unfortunate that something that was done in good faith to help a worthy organization raise much needed funds had to turn into such an misunderstanding.
Both my partner Rick Dadeo and myself take our customer service very seriously and will do whatever we can to assure that everyone is treated fair. This restaurant is our lively hood we are here everyday working, if Mr. collection6 had contacted either of us directly he could have avoided the feeling of being mis-treated.
In closing I would be more then happy to refund collection6 the $7 in question and apoligize personally for the "misunderstanding" and for the error that one of my employees had made.

Daniel Petrosino

I'm Coming Down This Weekend
 

and will be sure to stop in for dinner. You seem like a very reasonable person. I cannot understand how some get so worked up over seemingly small details. I don't feel like you have anything to be apologetic about.

A mystery. A mistake. A misunderstanding. But certainly not a deal breaker by any means because if you look back through this thread you can find a lot of really good publicity for Red Sauce.

(Yeah, I know I sidetracked and got a nice Chianti recommendation and I had to act silly about plastic bags, but I never could color inside the lines, and so I digress. I do not hijack. I simply digress. But you can ignore that part if you look back through the thread.)

Anyway, I plan to arrive in a few weeks and I want to have dinner at Red Sauce some night. Maybe more than one night. Lots of good comments about Red Sauce's food and service have shown up on TOTV, at different times, including what Kate said about the food being freshly prepared. (not easy to find sometimes)

So anyway, I hope to be having dinner at Red Sauce sometime fairly soon. (Hey, TH, should I have them send my Chianti bill to you? I think I am supposed to win something for getting ready to hit two years and two-thousand posts here. So just let me know if you will be picking up my Chianti bill, OK.)

Boomer