SquareMeal Reviews 

Using racism for clickbait, how does the email subject say one thing and the article another

BBC fires John Torode over extremely offensive racism term and on the links loads a restaurants

I would like to second the complaint: "Deliberately difficult system". You are given a gift card in order to enjoy a meal from anywhere of your choosing - but it's
such an awful voucher system. The system is deliberately difficult so that people give up. Also, hardly any restaurants on their platform accepts gift vouchers, and it’s misleading on their website. When someone gives you the gift card, their understanding is that you can redeem it at any restaurant on Squaremeal - but it's not. EVERY restaurant we wanted to visit di not accept the gift card, so we went somewhere we didn't want to go, at a time we didn't want to eat....only to find out the kitchen was closed. Definitely wouldn’t recommend squaremeal gift cards.

Such an awful voucher system. They make it deliberately difficult so people give up and don’t bother redeeming. You have to set up an account and link a payment card, transfer vouchers from the gifter, pay for the meal out of your own pocket and then get reimbursed. However we had to contact customer service to get the reimbursement which took a week. I was starting to worry that it was some kind of scam and I’d be £100 out of pocket. Also, hardly any restaurants accept the voucher and it’s misleading on their website. Make sure you filter which restaurants accept it. When we searched by area (Bath) there are 1000 results but only 5 accept the voucher! It’s written in small writing whether the restaurant accepts the voucher. Giving two stars as Dionne from customer services was helpful and quick to respond. Definitely wouldn’t recommend square meal vouchers!

I fail to see what value this service provides. The vouchers don't work, the benefactors are out of pocket and the gift recipients have to shoulder all the cost. From reviews, it seems lots of people simply give up because the process is so convoluted and end up footing the bill themselves. This is fraudulent and should not be allowed. Terrible!

The VOUCHER System is broken-by-design.

This is not a voucher system.
This is a labyrinthine mess of a system that seems to be designed to:
(1) Harvest as much data from customers as possible, and
(2) Make it as hard as possible to get money back from the voucher.

It is borderline criminal.

Firstly, this is not a voucher. A voucher is a medium of exchange used 'in place' of cash or credit. That is not how this system works. This system requires you to pay by card in full, and then await a cash-back refund.

Secondly, this process is bitterly hard to understand, and that comes from someone who is 30 years old and works in Technology. How on earth the technically less-literate would cope is beyond me.
You have to create an account, link the voucher to your card, and then enable smart-vouchers on your card ---- and then the cash-back process begins after the payment is made.

Thirdly, the cash-back is rarely automatic. As many have noted, you seem to have to call customer service, and produce evidence including card receipts, and plead your case. Absolutely criminal --- bear in mind this is not a 'discount' voucher, this is a prepaid voucher with money provided already in full, usually in the form of a gift. This alone deserves referral to the Advertising Standards Authority.

Fourthly, they want you to link all your cards. But guess what - you can link American Express, but 'Vouchers do NOT work with American Express'. Do you think they make that point easy to spot? No. Absolutely not. Hidden in the small print. Again, borderline criminal behaviour given the way this voucher system works. You have to link a Visa or Mastercard to make it work, and then after you have added the card, you need to manually tick a small box (with no prompt to do so, it is turned off by default) to 'enable smart vouchers'. Genuinely vile and utterly immoral user experience design.

And finally, this isn't a criminal complaint, but a genuinely bad product complaint ---- very, very few of the restaurants that they display on their site actually accept or participate in the voucher scheme. Lord knows why, given the fact that perhaps the one-benefit of the 'Cash-Back and Collect Data' benefit would be that you then in theory could apply the voucher to literally any restaurant. But no. It's a tiny subset of restaurants that accept it, and they don't seem to enjoy the process dealing with (rightfully) confused customers.

P.S. The voucher lasts for 1 year only from purchase. Yet another indication to me that they are just trying to collect cash from unwitting gift-givers, and making it as hard as possible to deliver a service with that gift.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS! If I could give a 0 or Negative review, I would. I think they are crooks. I know they are utterly immoral.

The system that they have set up to use these vouchers is absolutely ridiculous.
We were gifted a gift voucher from our staff to use while we were in London over New Years.
I can’t even begin to tell you how many restaurants on their website say that “the voucher can’t be used here”.
I rang so many restaurants and they all said we couldn’t use the voucher in their restaurants.
We finally found a restaurant that would let us use the voucher to be then told we had to pay and then get refunded….. Why would they do it like this?
What if we couldn’t afford to pay the bill initially?
They need to update their website and remove all the restaurants that aren’t participating and change the system when you pay.
Maybe they make it so confusing so people don’t use their vouchers???
I feel it’s almost a scam.
Lisa

Received a voucher for my birthday. Followed all the steps to the letter, which as a note was not super simple, felt like quite a lot of steps which didn't seem easy to find even though it is simple in principle - add your card, enable it, find a restaurant which is participating. Feel like the website could use with some UX upgrades. However the annoying part, which clearly everyone else is having issues with is that then the next step should be automatic refund, I wouldn't mind this as some others in reviews do, but the fact is I had to chase it up to get the refund (looks like not only one on this either). Customer service was helpful which did save it from 1*, however the whole process was a bit convoluted especially for a gift so I cant recommend to be honest. Save your recipient the hassle and give them cash or most restaurants do direct vouchers.

Our son purchased a £50 voucher as a gift and what a joke trying to use the voucher. We got so exasperated trying to register, set up an account and transfer the voucher that we gave up and paid for the meal. Can’t help but think it is deliberately made so awkward. My son’s money has gone to waste which makes me very angry. Wouldn’t recommend SquareMeal vouchers!!

Voucher system is convoluted and flawed. Avoid at all costs.

What is the point of a voucher if it is retroactively applied !? AND only applied at the prompt of square meals customer service.

Advertising regulators should get involved regarding the sales of these vouchers. I have escalated my complaint to them.

Although customer service was exceptional I just don’t see the point of how this voucher system works - for me there is no benefit in having such a convoluted system - I would not purchase again !! I’d much rather have a digital voucher that I redeem in the restaurant!!

Don’t buy these absolute con. Bought them to use in Brighton,comes up with numerous restaurants but no one takes them.

Got a gift voucher from work. The gift voucher system is not ideal, but square meal customer service is great so if you have any questions or problems regarding the use of your voucher just contact them :) read the fine prints of the voucher before using it. Most restaurants that accept the voucher are in London.

I received a £40 voucher. Found a restaurant local to me and booked a table through squaremeal. Also linked my bank card as per the instruction (instructions that took a LOT of finding). I paid full price on the day and I understand I will now be refunded £40 - what a backwards way to do things! It’s hardly a gift when the recipient pays up front. I was concerned I had not done things correctly so emailed to check and they have asked for my bank details to process the refund?! This should apparently be ‘instantly’ credited according to their website. This sounds like a scam to me. We shall see if a refund appears.

After reading reviews here I believe that NONE of the restaurants listed on their site are affiliated with squaremeal as many people have said restaurants had never heard of them. The instructions I found and followed mean the restaurant never even know you are using a squaremeal voucher. You pay first and get credited later by squaremeal. It’s really very odd.

Smart vouchers are difficult to spend as there are no restaurants for over 30 miles around from home address. Most smart voucher restaurants are in central London and are high end beyond the reach of most people.

This company are beyond a joke. There are three different lists online for ‘restaurants who accept smart vouchers’. Each one of them is dated differently and each one states it’s the only list which is accurate and current.
The vouchers work so backwardly. You have to link a card to use the voucher. They let me spend over £100 on a linked American Express card but write in the small print that American Express doesn’t work with smart vouchers.

If that’s the case, they shouldn’t even let an American Express card be linked to their website?

I would advise every one to pick a different voucher provider and avoid this company like the plague.

They’re also impossible to get hold of. No phone number, only an email address which takes days for them to respond to.

Save yourself the hassle and go elsewhere.

Vouchers are a scam. I was gifted one and literally no place on their website accepts it.

Vouchers. Awful activation process, awful redemption process.. very misleading on the participating restaurants. If you live outside of London forget it. If you plan on collecting useless points from Opentable bookings you might be okay.. anything else forget it

Difficult and frustrating. Will never use again.

If I could rate it as a minus I would! Have contacted them 4 times. No response. I got given a £70 voucher and I have tried about 30 to 40 restaurants listed on their website and no one accepts this voucher. Terrible, terrible TERRIBLE. Never ever EVER purchase anyone a voucher.

Why is it that the restaurants that take Squaremeal vouchers are in this thread below and NOT on the Squaremeal website (at least, nowhere obvious)? And what's their relationship to OpenTable exactly since many of my bookings say "powered by OpenTable"?