Open Table Online Service

Only recently did I stumble upon a little gem called Open Table. The website - opentable.com - specializes in making restaurant reservations for foodies and the general public alike, and its gigantic roster of restaurants makes it appealing to many. Not ...

I first learned of this company and their website, opentable.com while working in the restaurant business, and it was quite an advance in reservation techniques for participating restaurants. In the last 5 years since then, I have used it ...

I started using the open table service a few months ago. I find it much easier to make reservations with this servie than calling. I can highly recommend this service. WHAT IS IT Opentable.com is an internet service that allows you to make ...

I used to get a lot accomplished by using my phone. But at some point not too long ago, I got tired of being treated poorly or being placed on hold. So, if I can find information or complete a transaction either online or via telephone, I’ll choose ...

My husband Bill and I live near Washington DC, an area that is saturated with fabulous restaurants. We both enjoy eating good food in nice places, talking to each other as we linger over a good bottle of wine. Since there are so many restaurants in the ...

I though that this could quite possibly the coolest thing in the world. Making reservations online. You can just go to this website and do a quick search of your area (mine being San Diego) and come up with places with open reservations. This is a great ...

Opentable.com can't be trusted.  I made reservations on their site for 9/7/09 at The Red Canary in Chicago having successfully used them on a few other occasions.  After walking 40 min to find the place, we found out it was closed for the day.    My girlfriend asked, 'Why didn't you just call to confirm?"  I said, "Because with Opentable.com, you don't have to call, it makes calling redundant."  To which she said, "Not if they are as bad as this."

So I went to their site to give feedback.  First, finding where to provide feedback is buried deep in the Help area.  Second, the system locks up when feedback is submitted, regardless of whether IE7 or IE8 or Firefox is used.

I found the CEO's email.  He indicated that the restaurant is new and these things happen.  "Here are a few restaurant points for you."  Not worth it, since the points are a challenge to use and they get deleted without notice as shown by other reviews here.

The service is substandard and cannot be trusted.  I will no longer use Opentable.com.  In fact, I'm encouraging my friends here and in NYC to stop using it.  Caveat Emptor!

I used Open Table faithfully, but often did not get points if a) I showed up at the restaurant a _little_ earlier than the reservation or b) I called or visited the restaurant to add another person above the Open Table reservations limit.

Then I discovered that Open Table erased all of my points without an email warning or an expiration date notice. I turns out that in the original agreement (which I read when signing up 3+ years ago) that if you have no activity for a year they delete your points.

I contacted them to explain that I actually use their service frequently but they were not moved and would not give me my points back. This is not a customer-focused service, so I will no longer use them. It's sad when I can honestly say that the airline frequent flier programs are more flexible and understanding.

(Note: epinions deletes with no activity in 4 months!)