Gourmet society - [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

funtimefranky

suzibag wrote: »

Went to Pizza Express last night to try to use my trial card (for the first time). Was met with a gruff response that they dont work with the Gourmet Society and havent for months. EPIC FAIL.

Really, whats the point in advertising restaurants if they dont do the offer? obviously I wont be taking up the full year membership. I should have just got a voucher of the web.
:mad:

Which branch did you go to?

marcowil

Applover wrote: »

funtime Franky, your posts are massively in favour of this company and you don't seem to have posted about anything else. Do you work for them by any chance?????

funtimefranky wrote: »

Which branch did you go to?

Franky, unless you work for them (which you still havent answered btw), why does it matter which branch the poster went to!?

pimento

Some Pizza Express branches don't take any kind of vouchers. The one in St. Christopher's PLace in London doesn't.

funtimefranky

marcowil wrote: »

Franky, unless you work for them (which you still havent answered btw), why does it matter which branch the poster went to!?

I was just interested, that's all.

To be honest some of the comments on here could be seen as slandering the Gourmet Society, especially coming from those of you that seem to have a personal vendetta against them. So what if the offices are in Stockport? Does that really matter?

So, to go back to a serious discussion, it would be interesting to find out which branch of PE there was a problem with so I don't try to use my card there.

AppleCore

I was about to come on here to defend the Gourmet Society - I took out a trial about a year ago, was made clear of the T&Cs and returned the book and card in time and was not charged. I found the card was of little use in my area so took out a Tastecard (TasteLondon at the time) and found it was cheaper and far better for me. Up until now though I would still have said that the Gourmet Society would be good for anyone that uses the restaurants in its book regularly. I have now moved to a new area and until reading this thread was actually reconsidering the GS card.

However, if my suspicions are correct and funtimefranky is indeed a rep of the Gourmet Society (I've looked through his/her past posts and I can't help thinking this) I would now suggest that they're a very unprofessional company if they're allowing an employee to come on here posing as a member of the public and making comments praising the GS and slating the rival company TasteCard.

But you don't work for the GS do you funtimefranky?

duckbrfc

I too have read this thread with interest. I'm an avid restaurant goer, have tried pretty much every dining scheme out there (right through from the RBS Jade scheme, to toptable and the Gourmet Society) so I think I'm in quite a good position to judge.

What I think frustrates people, and I'm sure that the Gourmet Society are reading this so I hope that this actually helps you to improve, is that they seem to be being mislead left right and centre. When I joined you could see the restaurants that are participating (although you couldn't actually see their offer). The website has the banner "2 for 1 meals at award-winning restaurants" and the 'how it works' section tells you that there are 2 offers, 25% off or 2 for 1 meals. This is, in my opinion, misleading. Once you join you get a membership number and can log in. This is where all the problems start - the '2 for 1 meals' are generally just on main courses. I wouldn't class a main course as a meal, I'd class a starter, main course and dessert as a meal. It also states "all discounts apply to the full a la carte menu" - again, not true. The full a la carte menu is not just main courses. The problem with an offer like 2 for 1 on main courses is that it's available freely on the net, so I must say I felt rather mislead after buying.

Now I note that you can't even see the list of restaurants, let alone the offers. Why hide the offers until after you have bought? It makes no sense to me. Unless of course you are making out that an offer is better than it actually is.

When I did have my membership I must say I wasn't hugely impressed. I got a card which you opened out and had about 1,500 numbers on it. You could only go to each restaurant once. hmmm, that meant the 5 restaurants in my town could all have been visited and scrubbed out in a month. Again, not a great deal and NO mention of this on the 'how it works' or 'FAQs' section of the site.

I then decided, as per a previous poster, to get my 'no quibble money back guarantee'. I rang them up and after being passed around a bit was told "sorry, that's an old leaflet you must have picked up". "An old leaflet?", I replied "Is that why it says 2 for 1 meals in huge letters on the front and most of your restaurants don't do that?". Cue big argument about the definition of what '2 for 1 meals' means.

I don't think that they are 'stealing' money off people, as has been claimed in some of the posts above. What I do think, however, is that they are a young, naiive company who maybe don't realise that how they behave now as a business could stick for years to come. My opinion, for what it's worth, don't hide behind log-ins and Ts & Cs - be upfront about your product and if people want to buy then great, if they don't you've saved yourself a load of earache and future problems.

Good luck for the future but I certainly won't be renewing my membership.

Charliezoo

I was put off by the whole logging in thing with Gourmet Society. Why would anyone join a scheme like this without even knowing if they have any participating restaurants nearby? I got a Tastecard after downloading the free Tastecard app on my iphone and seeing that there were loads of good restaurants near me.

If that funtimefranky is from gourmet society he should be sacked!

emmalc78

Hi All

Some interesting posts here, and I'm going to throw my hat into the ring if nobody minds. Just to make this clear from the start, I USED to work for Gourmet Society, but don't anymore and can therefore post here within the rules of MSE.

I'm going to start off by telling you that some of the posts on here are defamatory. Saying that we 'took money off me without permission' is not true. GS do a free trial, yes we take credit card details, but you don't send your card back and yes we'll take the money off you. It's called running a business my friends, and if we gave everyone their money back who complained we wouldn't have a business, would we???!!!

Secondly, no we don't show the offers that the restaurants run until you buy. This is to protect the restaurants. We tell them (and it's true) that only our members can see their special offer, that way they don't upset their customers. Once you buy you can then pick the restaurant you want to go to. Also we say "2 for 1" as that is the main offer we run. It doesn't matter if it's just on main courses, it's still 2 for 1 meals, so we aren't misleading anyone. duckbrfc, you seem to have all the answers, maybe you should start your own diners club and see how you get on??!!!!

Thirdly, there never has been and isn't currently anyone at Gourmet Towers who is called Frank or Franky, so this person must just be a happy member. We have 1000s of them so don't jump to the wrong conclusions.

Finally the tone of some of the comments on this site are, I feel, truly shocking and indicative of the 'give me, give me, give me for FREE, you owe me a living, I want but I'm not prepared to work for it' society that we live in. GS provides a great service, a free trial nonetheless, and then when we charge people start bleating about a scam! If you want something for free go and live in Communist China!

I greatly enjoyed working there and I think it's about time some of you gave them a break, or learned to read terms and conditions, before whining about lack of customer service and getting your money back for something you actually signed up for in the first place.

BillTrac

emmalc78, you say you used to work for them, yet you use the term we everywhere, rather than they?. If you used to work there how do you know there isn't someone there currently called franky? And funtimefranky makes people assume he/she must work for Gourmet because he/she 'doth spout too much' in their favour. Not something a 'normal' customer would do. A 'normal' customer may say how good a service is but they don't then move on to plugging it again and again.

estel, all those coloured fonts makes reading your post a trifle difficult.....:rotfl:

halibut2209

estel,

If was in customer service, I also wouldn't be inclined to assist anyone with your agressive and theatening attitude