Top Table not worthwhile

BethP

We have booked and enjoyed many meals via Top Table in Liverpool and gained lots of points. We eventually earned a TT cheque for ten pounds off our next TT meal. We booked for Zizzi in Liverpool One. Food was yummy, service great BUT they refused the TT cheque as part payment of our £35 luncheon bill! They do not accept cheques from anyone we were told. I politely confirmed our position and the manager accepted the TT cheque "as a goodwill gesture" but added that "I won't accept any others though". He was nice about it and said he would ring TT. I wrote down my mobile number and asked that helmet me know the outcome. Am waiting two weeks now. Have not bothered booking with Top Table again - no point! :sad::(:

Guifre

Hi. I'm not familiar with Top Table's rewards scheme, but I just had a look at it before replying. I'm not entirely clear from what you have written whether the cheque you refer to is:

a) a cheque in the traditional sense, that is intended to be completed with the name of the restaurant company that you're dining in, then given by you as part-payment, or
b) a kind of voucher that they happen to call a 'cheque', again intended to be given as part-payment.

I've spent a lot of time working in restaurants over the past 15 years. If it's a) then I would advise you that one by one restaurant chains seem to be removing cheques as a means of payment - they usually give notice of this beforehand for their regular customers. These days it's always wise to ask before you book, if a restaurant accepts cheques. The change is because cheques carry a higher risk of fraud than cards or cash. The Cheque Guarantee system that helped reassure businesses no longer operates, and it's likely that cheques will be phased out in the coming years.

Top Table ought to be aware of an overall tendency for businesses (not just restaurants) to stop accepting cheques, and think of another, more convenient, way to reward their customers.

If it's b) then Top Table should offer a list of places that accept the vouchers, assuming it's not every single place that they deal with. That way you have evidence that you're in the right if the restaurant stalls on accepting them.

I hope I've been of some help!