Shame On You, Roy's Restaurant

I'm really upset right now regarding something that happened on our honeymoon. Actually, two things, but the other thing I'll cover on another day. 

We received a lovely gift card to Roy's Restaurant for our wedding from three dear friends who went on it together - my girl, Lindsay (from www.iamnotastalker.com), Lavonna, and Kim. It was a very thoughtful gift (since they knew there was a Roy's right by our hotel in Hawaii) and very generous; we were hoping to use it on a few occasions.

Aside from our waitress (who was terrible), our experience at the Kona Roy's was amazing. The food was great, the staff was friendly, and Roy himself (who, coincidentally went to High School with Lindsay's mom!) even came out to our table to congratulate us on our wedding. We couldn't have asked for a better time (and this was on the night of the Horrible Incident which I'll talk about later).

How many people get to meet Roy himself?!?! We were hoping to get a picture with the sign that said Roy's, but this was even better!

Oh, and did I mention the amazing dessert?!? To die for!

But then....the drama. Now, I should preface this by saying that while we had a great time at the Kona Roy's, this is not really the type of place we'd frequent on our own dime. It's just too fancy. It was a lovely gift and fun to treat ourselves, but we'd NEVER go there in a million years. When I want to have a "fancy dinner," my first choice is Outback, my favorite restaurant. The BEST part about our gift card (which was for $150) was that, although we tried to spend as much as we could, the remainder (which was going to be about $50) could be used at their sister company, Outback. Hooray! That's like the gift that keeps on giving.

So, the time came to pay and I handed them our CUSTOM made gift card - it had our freaking PICTURE on it for goodness sakes! It had just come in the mail before our wedding and had been in my wallet the entire time. The girl came back and asked me the balance. I told her I'd just received it and the full $150 balance should be there. She went back and forth several times and then finally the manager came over to our table and said that apparently someone had used our card THREE times at a Kaui Roy's before we'd even gotten to Hawaii and the balance was only $17. UM....WHAT?!?!? Thankfully Roy's in Kona was generous and comped our bill (well, they did take the $17 for the crummy waitress, which was WAY more than I would've given her), which I really appreciated. They didn't have to do that and I'm grateful. I really am.

What I don't like is how we were made to feel from their company about the identity theft which, let's face it, WAS A THEFT. I don't know how someone got our GIFT CARD information, but they used it in a different island that we've never been to and now we're paying the price. Sure, our dinner was comped, but we never got the balance to use at Outback and the whole experience has soured us on Roy's. Lindsay decided to call the company and tell them what happened and she was given nothing but crap. They accused us of lying and of using it, which I don't even understand. I don't know why they couldn't just accept that this had happened to a couple on their honeymoon and sent us the balance we should have had (which is a measly $50). We had proof that we weren't even in Hawaii when the card was used (as we were kinda busy getting married in Malibu and have PLENTY of pictures and witnesses to both), but they didn't care. Begrudgingly they sent a few conditional gift cards. I say conditional because the original card was good for anything - alcohol, tip, taxes. It didn't expire. It was ours. It'd been a wedding gift from generous friends and we could use it as we wished. The crap cards they sent us, however, couldn't be used for any of those things and when I went to make a reservation today to use them (since there wasn't one where we live it hasn't been an easy place to get to), I discovered that the crappy gift cards EXPIRED already. It hasn't even been six months! Who puts a few months expiration date on conditional crappy cards anyway?!?! Thanks for nothing, Roy's. You should be ashamed of yourself.