Dine.Restaurant.com Restaurant.com scam Internet

I received a certificate for Restaurant.com from Qwest Reward Program for $50. Went on Restaurant.com to redeem it. It showed that it indeed was for $50. However, it said to check in or register, which I did (registered). I then went to redeem the certificate and picked out restaurants and clicked on them to put them in my cart. OK so far.

Went to checkout and there was no way to access the credit. I was being required to enter my credit card info, which THANKFULLY I did not. I then went back to a page where it said Redeem a Certificate. Put the number in and my zip code and got a message that "another customer has claimed that certificate number". I then e-mailed customer service four or five times and got their stock (I-did-not-read-your-e-mail-but-here-is-my-answer type of response, not actually addressing the problem). Nothing. I only continued to get the same generic automated message on how to access my credit - which never worked.

Finally I did a search on-line and found an 800 number. Called it and was put on hold for about 15 minutes. Finally got a live person and explained the disappearing credit and was told to go back to the original issuer as they did not have any ability in their system to locate it - which has to be BS otherwise why do they ask you for a code number in the first place?

What I will do is write or call every restaurant on the list in my area and tell them that Restaurant.com is a scam and that they should cancel their contracts with them. 

I read hundreds of reviews afterwards and so many people have been conned and cheated. DO NOT buy any certificates from them. Also many people have found that the restaurants advertised do not accept the certificates. It is all a big scam. At least I did not actually spend anything, I only lost my "reward" for renewing for another 2 years with Qwest. I will alert them to the scm as well.