Situation:

I do take-out from a restaurant near me, which is a small chain. It has about 6 locations total, and all of the restaurants are fairly large, doing brisk business from what I can see. (I'm establishing this so you understand that, while not a huge corporation, it's not a charming mom-and-pop cafe struggling to get by.)

They issue a $10 off on a $40 purchase pretty much constantly. At any point you can find one of these coupons either online (where you can obviously print an unlimited number) or in the mail. So it's pretty much established that if you want $10 off $40, you can get it at any time with very little effort.

They recently had a sale of gift cards. The sale was, "For every $50 in gift cards you buy, you get a $10 certificate to spend here." I decided to purchase six of them, costing me $300, and getting me six extra $10 certificates. There were only two restrictions on the certificate:

1) They can't be combined with other $10 certificates (that is, I can't walk in with all six of them and ask for $60 in food for free.) It does NOT say they can't be combined with coupons or promotions -- only that they can't be combined with each other!

2) They have to be used within a specific two-month period. This was a pain, as they forward-dated them about 2 months, so I had to remember to use them two months later, and two months after that they would be useless.

Well, the date arrived where the certificates were good. I ordered $45 worth of food, and showed up with both my $10 certificate and my $10 coupon. I expected to be charged $25. Instead, the manager refused to accept them both.

Manager: It says here that the coupon cannot be combined with any other offer or discount.

Me: This isn't an offer or discount. It's a certificate that's supposed to be worth $10 here during these dates. It's not a coupon, and it's not a discount.

Manager: That's still a discount. I'm sorry, you just can't use them together.

Me: So what about the gift card? Could I use that?

Manager: Yes, of course you could.

Me: When I bought the gift cards, I was told that these certificates were the same as gift cards, except they were only valid for a certain time frame, and couldn't be combined with each other.

Manager: Well... umm... there was a little confusion here for awhile, I know that. But that's not what was intended. We never meant to allow two $10 discounts at once.

Me: Then what was the point of buying these gift cards on this promotion if a $10 discount is always available through a coupon, no matter what?

Manager: I understand your point, but again, our policy is only one $10 discount per meal.

He said that he would have to consult his district manager over the next few days, and would get back to me. I agreed to not use the certificate for the time being, until the district manager could rule on it, and just used the coupon.

If you were the district manager, how would you rule on this one?

Also keep in mind that I am a regular customer, and the manager recognized me. And for your information, I have not complained about any order in the entire time I've been going to this place.