We are just back and kept detailed records of our expenses in our PDA, in part in order to try to figure out if we'd want to order Q&C vouchers again. The details are below (cut and pasted from the PDA). Most of the dining was my husband and I, but we also treated my castmember cousin to a number of meals. Sometimes we used 1 voucher per person and sometimes 1 voucher for 2 people. We enjoyed pretty much everything we ate and would say it was all either good or excellent. The salads in particular were very good.
Date: 9/24/2003
Amount: $22.50
Payment: Prepaid
Vendor: Pecos Bill $28.26
Country: United States
Details:
I got a salad, fries, lemonade, and piece of chocolate cream pie. Stu got chicken wrap, fries, soda, and piece of chocolate cream pie. Bill came to $28.26, the vouchers saving us $5.76. Without vouchers, would have ordered: salad, 2 lrg sodas, wrap, probably split a piece of pie (were starving). Would have cost $19.45 W/O dessert, $23.16 with dessert. Saved $0.66 over what we would have ordered (but we got more food w/vouchers).
Date: 9/26/2003
Amount: $11.25
Payment: Prepaid
Vendor: Lunch at Land Pavilli...
Country: United States
Details:
Stu used voucher. Got chicken, ribs, corn on cob, slaw, coke, and turtle brownie. Came to $12.33, saving us $1.08. Would have ordered exact same thing without vouchers. I was not very hungry, so just paid cash for a salad.
Date: 9/27/2003
Amount: $22.50
Payment: Prepaid
Vendor: Tusker house
Country: United States
Details:
Stu had rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, large soda, and cheesecake. I had salad, fries, large lemonade, and cheesecake. Bill came to $29.64, saving us $7.14. Without vouchers, would have gotten salad, small lemonade, chicken, large soda, and split a piece of cheesecake for a total of $24.02 (incl. Tax).
Date: 9/29/2003
Amount: $33.75
Payment: Prepaid
Vendor: Sand Trap Bar and ...
Country: United States
Details:
I had cobb salad, cup of mushroom soup, iced tea, and chocolate cake. Linda got ruben sandwich, homemade chips, iced tea, tiramisu cake, and was told to order an appetizer as a side: she got onion straws (which we all split). Stu got a California club, homemade chips, soda, and cheesecake for dessert. Could have gotten appetizer as side, but we could not have eaten it, so decided to skip it. Meal came to $55.20. Linda left and additional $3 in tip. We saved $21.45 with the vouchers. Without vouchers, Stu and I would have gotten sandwich, salad, two teas, and 1 dessert, which would have come to around $34.15. We saved $11.65 over what we would have ordered. Didn't eat dessert or half of our meals. Took to Vero to have for dinner.
Date: 10/2/2003
Amount: $14.61
Payment: Prepaid
Vendor: Kringala og Bakeri
Country: United States
Details:
Used 1 voucher. Split ham and cheese sandwich, salad, and cinnamon roll. Stu got large soda with voucher and I paid for a separate latte ($3.16). Cost of voucher portion of meal was $14.02, saving $2.76. This was part of our "dining around World Showcase" plan. Planned to use 3 vouchers that day, but didn't get hungry again until dinner, so only used 1.
Date: 10/4/2003
Amount: $11.25
Payment: Prepaid
Vendor: Lotus Blossom Cafe
Country: United States
Details:
Got Orange Chicken with steamed rice and an eggroll, side of fried rice, strawberry smoothie as beverage, and red bean ice cream for dessert. Stu and I split this meal as part of our "dining around World Showcase" plan. Came to $17.10. Saved $5.85 using the voucher.
Date: 9/26/2003
Amount: $35.75
Payment: Prepaid
Vendor: Beaches and Cream
Country: United States
Details:
I got burger, onion rings, cherry coke, and fudge mudslide. Linda got the same thing, except with a cheeseburger. Stu got the same thing, but a double cheeseburger and fries. Meal came to $57.40, left an additional $2 tip, Linda left $1. We saved $20.65 using the vouchers. Without vouchers, Stu and I would have ordered a single burger, a single cheeseburger, 2 cherry cokes, sub 1 order onion rings for fries, and split a brownie a la mode. We would have spent $27.75 plus tax ($29.55) and tip ($35.05). Still would have saved $12.55.
Date: 9/28/2003
Amount: $33.75
Payment: Prepaid
Vendor: Pepper Market
Country: United States
Details:
Took Linda to dinner. Stu had rotisserie chicken, fries, vegetables, carrot cake and tea. Stacey had grilled ribeye, baked potato, vegetables, apple pie a la mode, and lemonade. Linda had the same. Bill for Stu and I would have come to $44.50. For all three of us, total would have been $72.43. Saved $38.68 for all 3 of us. Saved $22 for Stu and I. Without vouchers, we probably wouldn't have gotten 2 desserts, so perhaps the bill would have come to around $39.
Date: 10/2/2003
Amount: $11.25
Payment: Prepaid
Vendor: Yakitori House
Country: United States
Details:
Had shogun combo, salad, soda, and chestnut cake. Came to $17.64. Saved $6.39. Part of our "dining around World Showcase" plan. Stu and I split this meal for dinner.
By our calculations, we saved $58.96 over what we normally would have ordered at these restaurants (but of course we got much more food with the vouchers). Our savings if we had ordered all the food and paid cash was $109.76. If anyone has any questions, please ask. Hope these details help.
Beatnik
IMPORTANT UPDATE: 16 January 2004
Buyer Beware: Hwsc Disreputable!!
Hello all,
Just wanted to let you know of my recent bad experience with the Hotwire Savings Club. I feel responsible for you all, as I have posted previously about my favorable experiences with Q and C vouchers that I had purchased through them. But I had learned from Mary Waring (of Mousesavers) before I joined the HWSC that they are owned by MWI, whose business practices are somewhat disreputable. And now I have learned through first hand experience that HWSC is no better. Here's the story:
About 1 week ago, I received my credit card bill which contained December's charges on it. There were 5 charges to HWSC dated various days that we were on vacation; the total of these charges were around $1000. We knew that we had made no charges to HWSC while we were away, so we called HWSC to see what was up. The customer service rep we talked could find no record of any charges beyond our $7.95 monthly membership fee. He said he had no idea what these charges were, he had no record of them, and there was nothing that he could do about it. So I naturally called my credit card company, who said they would investigate but that they would need to request that the membership be cancelled. Although we were owed some rebates on gift cards we had purchased (the company's policy is that you do not get any outstanding rebates once you cancel your membership), we naturally said this was fine, given the large amount of money involved.
I immediately called HWSC back to see if I could find out more (the first fellow I spoke with really seemed clueless). I got a very clever girl on the phone who immediately figured out what all the charges were-- they were for some substantial purchases that were made in late Novemeber, but because of the Thanksgiving holiday, the charges did not go through until the first week in December. Crisis solved, and I called the credit card company back, told them they didn't need to investigate the charges, and said not to request the membership be cancelled. The credit card company said fine, they'd take care of it.
Today, I went to log onto HWSC and saw that my membership had been cancelled. I called HWSC customer service (spoke to a supervisor) and was told that the membership could not be re-instated and that since I had cancelled it while I still had rebates due to me, I would not get the rebates that were coming to me! When I pointed out that I had not requested that the membership be cancelled, but it was my credit card company who did so, I was then told that this "was even worse, because I disputed the charges." What the heck did they expect when they could not recognize any of the charges that THEY had made to my card! I was speechless (but not for long!), and attempted to point out that the whole chain of events was set into motion by the incompetence of their customer service representative (I said it calmly, although I know it was slightly rude). Anyway, the supervisor and I went round and round, with HWSC hiding behind their "policy" stating that "the membership must be in good standing for any rebates to be issued," my stating over and over that I understood the terms of the membership, I was not disputing them, but that it was their poor customer service that was the ultimate cause of all this...
Well, I imagine I will get nowhere. We will file a complaint with the appropriate state attorney's general office (Ohama, Nebraska if any one else needs to know) and write a letter of complaint to both HWSC and Hotwire. Don't expect we will ever see our rebates, which were proabably $50 or less. I knew I was playing with fire with this HWSC membership, so I am not going to get to bent out of shape about this. But I did want to let you all know of my experience and to warn you:
Caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware!
Beatnik
PS I am not that thrilled with my credit card comany right now either!!!