More on the "Bail Out"...

...or, as it is also known, the Gift Certificate Expiration controversy. It has been interesting discussing this apparently volatile issue with customers at the restaurant. For those who have read the Blog entry, regarding the tactics taken by the gentleman who wanted us to extend the expiration date on his GC, maybe one in five feels we lost an opportunity to keep a customer and should have accepted the expired gift certificate. The remaining opinions seem to feel that a clearly stated expiration date is enough to warrant not accepting it, despite the length of time of expiration. Everyone understands that it is a difficult situation and definitely agree that the gentleman in question behaved abominably.

My brother sent me this link regarding the states that have mandated that businesses cannot put an expiration date on gift certificates. I found this to be amazing, that laws could be passed controlling how a business handles this aspect of their sales. It brings to mind the whole episode which started the "Caution-this beverage is hot" society, where people need to be protected from the common sense areas of their lives - coffee is hot, knives are sharp, expiraton dates are expiration dates. Oh, wait a minute, in some states there are no expiration dates. Is the coffee ever hot in those states; are the cutters on the aluminum foil box dull?

Every time the phone rings these past few days, with a caller asking "Do you sell Gift Certicates?", I am sure it is a prank call...