Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze, Red Lobster Ripoff Beware of using promotional Gift Cards that come in the mail! Olive Garden will claim that they don't work and suggest you pay. Kennesaw, Georgia

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT an official representative of Red Lobster Seafood Company or any affiliates. I am not authorized to, nor do I purport to, speak on the Company's positions or policies as a whole, but am answering concerns based on my experiences and understanding as a current employee of The Company. Any remarks made by me should be taken as my opinion, and not as the official view of Red Lobster Seafood Company.

I wanted to applaud you for your thorough response, but also to correct one minor detail: Your claim about the card being rejected if the balance is less than the check amount

This does not happen. Gift cards (when purchased and activated properly) are treated as cash; which is why if your bill is smaller than the gift card, you can leave the remaining card balance or a portion of the remaining balance as a tip. If the bill amount is larger than the gift card balance, the amount remaining on the gift card will be deducted from the check, and the guest owes the restaurant the difference not covered by the gift card.

But I applaud your suggestion to check the balance ahead of time. Unfortunately, we can't be too trusting nowadays, and it's up to us as wise consumers to do our due diligence.

Thanks for reading.

It is not the managers fault that someone sent you a faulty gift card or you were scammed.  Plus, you said you got it in the mail for free? Olive Garden does not randomly send people gift cards for drinking at Bahama Breeze, sorry to disappoint you. 

The only one who is able to help you is the place where you purchased the gift card, if you have the receipt.  Why do you think you should deserve something for free anyway?  Does being an obnoxious customer entitle you to free food?  It is actually amusing that you are sitting home thinking about the big conspiracy plot the Olive Garden has to get your twenty dollars.

I work for Olive Garden.

Some of the restaurants frequently send out gift cards. it states right on the card NOT FOR USE AT OLIVE GARDEN, RED LOBSTER, OR LONGHORN STEAKHOUSE. ONLY VALID AT BAHAMA BREEZE. Sometimes they also state that they are good only at a specific location.

Red Lobster also sends these out.

However, many people do not read the cards, and try to use them at the other locations. The acceptance of these cards at alternate locations is at the discretion of the manager of that store, as they would have to comp the amount off the guest bill, since they are sent by the individual store, to try to boost business, and not by Darden themselves. The computer systems are set up to read the history of each card, as long as it was issued through Darden, not one that was created by individual stores.

I have had several experiences with these, and our manager ALWAYS comps the value off the check of the consumer, as we are ALL ABOUT 100% guest satisfaction.

Additionally, since the cards have been available to purchase at alternate locations, we have had experiences with people stealing the $25 gift cards from stores like CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, etc,. who sell them as a courtesy, and they dont realize that the cards are valueless until activated at the register, upon payment. Unfortunately, this scam is so common, we have to be very careful when a card comes through as invalid. This is why we provide an activation receipt with the cards when they are purchased through us, so the receiver knows exactly what it is worth, as well as having proof of activation.

Here is a little hint for someone to try before going to the Restaurant.

there is a number to call to see how much money is on the Gift Card. (check your balance)
Use that number that is on the card to confirm that they amount (if printed on the card) is the amount that is still on the card.

If the card still had a balance and it was not working, then contact the Head Office and tell them the mag strip did not work and you still have a balance on it.
Note: if the card has less then the amount of the cost of the food. The gift card will be rejected.

If you receive a $25 Gift card and you call the number and says it is $0. then you know you were scamed and can not use the card. (Some Restaurant gift cards can be reloaded.) Check the back of the card to see it it can be reloaded.

If there is a scam floating around it's not the restaurant's fault

Why are you blaming them?

Years ago, I worked at a place and a whole bunch of free, fake coupons (Buy One Meal Get One Free) were floating around on the internet.

Whoever had created them was using them to bait people into providing personal information on the 'net.

Suckers who fell for it (ever hear the saying, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!") were coming in with these fake coupons and we had to explain to them they were not legit.

We finally posted a huge bulletin board in the lobby with a giant arrow pointing to one of the coupons stating, "These are fraudulent!"

Yet we continued to get angry people demanding their freebies.

The restaurant was just as much a victim of the fraud as the people who fell for it were!