RESTAURANT.COM Credit evaporates from accout IInternet

I got a "gift" from a friend. It had a piece of 8.5 x 11 paper with a code printed. Enter code & get $25 from restaurant.com .... there are many places on their website so I set up an account, entered my code & got the credit posted to my account.
1 week later I went to use it & the $25 was GONE. I emailed them. Here's the reply:

"...our system will hold the available balance for that redemption process only. If for any reason, you close out of the redemption site before selecting your restaurant, the available credit will no longer be in your shopping cart for security reasons."
Of course I threw away the code. I hope they can sleep at night. Make money by cheating people dot com is what it is.