I wanted to buy a $100 gift card as a gift to my parents for their anniversary, and the process was rather complicated and frustrating.
The website says to call either your nearest location or a specific phone number to purchase a gift card, so I called my nearest location. I was told to call the alternate number on the website.
I called the number and the person who answered sounded like he had never received an inquiry about a gift card before. He said, ""Um.... I think you have to call the restaurant - I'm in California. I don't really know how that would work."" I told him the restaurant had directed me to call him and he still told me to call the restaurant. I asked if the only way to buy a gift card was to go to the physical location and he said ""Maybe the restaurant could fax you a credit card authorization form, you could fill it out, fax it back to them, then they could mail you a gift card."" I told him that process would take too long and I don't own a fax machine, and his only suggestion was to call the restaurant again.
A few days later I went to the physical store to buy my gift card, thinking it would take 10 minutes at most. I walked in and the manager greeted me and walked me to the bar to purchase the gift card. He got the attention of a bartender and she said she would handle it. I ended up sitting at the bar for 20 minutes, waiting for someone to help me. The bartender never asked anyone to get a gift card and continued to make drinks while I sat there. After 10 minutes she said ""Are you still waiting for a gift card?"" and I said ""Yes, the manager said I could buy it from you."" She said ""I have to get a manager for that,"" and continued to make drinks.
Another bartender saw that I had been waiting and asked if I was waiting for a gift card. I said yes and he said something to the female bartender before walking away. 5 minutes later a different manager brought me a gift card.
I was less than enthused to be handing over $100 at this point. It was too late to change my parents' reservation to another location - but I would have if I had the option.
It would be in the restaurant's best interest to make it as simple as possible for customers to spend money there.
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