yes, use the gift certificate ASAP.

In tough times, all things turn slightly feral.

I'll gladly pay you Tuesday if I may use my gift certificate today.

There's always the safe way, a gift certificate from the Restauant Association of Maryland!

While not an expiring gift certificate comment, this thread reminds me of a story I've heard several times about a place (in Denver IIRC) that did an interesting coupon promotion.

They printed a coupon in the newspaper for a free dinner (Buy one, get one free, I think)at "Your favorite restaurant", with the name of the restaurant who bought the ad down in the fine print of the ad, but not on the coupon.

Soon, the owner was getting angry calls from other restaurant owners about the awkward moments when customers came in brandishing the coupon. All was going according to plan.

As I heard the story, the same guy then ran another large ad that had similar graphic style that said something like "We understand that people are having trouble using the coupon printed on . If your favorite restaurant refused to honor the coupon, bring it to . We WANT to be your favorite restaurant!".

It might be an interesting approach to adapt that to this situation. A restaurant could probably get a lot of PR mileage out of a policy of honoring gift certificates from other local restaurants that go under. Sort of "We're sorry that your favorite restaurant went out of business. Let us try to earn the honor of being your new favorite!"

N.B. When getting a gift certificate from the Restaurant Association of MD - please remember that only a select few restaurants will honor it. I found out the hard way that my choices were very limited. For example, Morton's doesn't accept it. Neither do several other "nice" restaurants. So it can be a bit of a letdown. You can check the RAM website to see which restaurants participate, but just because they are members of RAM, doesn't mean they do!

NEPA, you're right about the RAM gift certificates being a safer bet. Of course, the recipient generally has no control over the source of the gift certificate in question. A restaurant may be a client or customer of the recipient's boss, who then hands out gift certificates to employees.

Further to Joanna's comments, RAM's website has a list of participating restaurants, which (as of this morning) was apparently last updated in November 2008. The Bicycle, to give an example, wasn't on RAM's list. If a friend knew that you loved the Bicycle, the friend would have no choice but to get a gift certificate directly from the Bicycle. (I suspect that many restaurants which issue their own gift certificates enjoy the "float" on the funds between the date of purchase and the date of actual use. They also night not have to deal with RAM's requirement that any unused balance be immediately refunded to the recipient in correct change or credit.)

Even if a restaurant is on RAM's list, there may be reasons not to get a RAM gift certificate. The Prime Rib and Ruth's Chris are on RAM's list, but if I think that a recipient may want to dine at of of their out-of-state locations, I may think it safer to get a gift card directly from them, rather than from RAM.

When getting a gift certificate from the Restaurant Association of MD - please remember that only a select few restaurants will honor it.

Foul ball...

Now as the unofficial Monday purveyor of cheer, I have to object to such a statement. Instead of thinking of the glass as being 5% empty, perhaps you could think of it as 95% full.

There are 525 "select few" restaurants that participate. Morton's is not listed as one, so it's not surprising that they won't accept it.

http://www.marylandrestaurants.com/participating/documents/participating_restaurants_11.24.08.pdf

It is a gift after all. There are many "fancy" restaurants that honor a RAM certificate, including Charleston.

As Declan MacManus said, "Get happy!" (or Keith Partridge). Hey. it's Monday and we're all still alive. Come on, let's all get happy.

I find the you can use your expired certificate if you buy one half the cost to be petty. The restaurant has had the giver's money for quite a bit of time. To be truly hospitable they should simply allow the person to use the certificate. Best PR that way. The people using the certificate would probably mention to other friends that the restaurant was so kind as to honor the certificate. Instead, even their words of mouth amongst friends (with the restaurant name not being withheld) will create bad PR.

I say pooh on the dumb restaurant, pooh.

OMG, I didn't mean "select few" as in selected by RAM, but selected by the restaurant in question to participate / not participate. Apologies if it wasn't clear. Plus, I'm not downing the RAM gift certificate, just letting people know that they should check the list / and or confirm with the restaurant in question before going and spending a fortune assuming that the GC will be accepted. I just wanted to give a heads up - there are lots of choices and I wasn't implying not to go with a RAM GC. I used Morton's as an example only, b/c, 1) I remembered it, and 2) as a person who lives on a certain budget, I wanted to go there at the recommendation of a friend, but didn't necessarily have the funds w/o the GC...but, alas, it did not work out. In line with EL's comment of the week, how about cutting me some slack for my poor word choices? I think the spirit of my post was clear - that it was a beneficial note, not dogma.

We had an expired gift certificate from Pazo, like 6 months expired, and they had no problem honoring it. Hats off to Cindy and Tony for knowing how to be good people.

We had an expired gift certificate from Pazo, like 6 months expired, and they had no problem honoring it. Hats off to Cindy and Tony for knowing how to be good people.

FYI - Maryland State law provides that retail gift certificates and gift cards may not expire or decrease in value earlier than 4 years from the date of issue. Coupon expiration dates are not prohibited, however, the expiration date as well as any terms and conditions must be printed on the coupon.