The good news is that Onondaga County’s double-your-money gift card program was so popular that it sold out more than $300,000 worth of vouchers in the hour after its official launch at noon Thursday.
The bad news is that the online system for downloading vouchers proved to be slow and balky, leaving many users frustrated — and plenty of people with nothing to show for the time they spent trying to get in. (And that’s not counting the “snafu” that let some users get in early and download vouchers on Wednesday night).
“Totally frustrated !!!,” Mary Beth Barclay posted on the Where Syracuse Eats Facebook page in response to a syracuse.com query about the experience. “Started right at noon!, tried for an hour. Able to fill out registration 3 times, but when I tried to submit it wouldn’t take it and just dropped off! There must be a better way to do this. Very difficult!”
“An hour of my life I can never get back,” Beth Savicki posted in Where Syracuse Eats. “What a disaster.”
And yet, some people did succeed, though it wasn’t always easy.
“I got through but it took forever,” Bob Belvick posted. “Kept getting an error but I kept refreshing and finally I got one (voucher) in my email.”
The program, called Keeping It Local, is intended to give a boost to the local restaurant industry. The vouchers are downloaded for values up to $100. They can then be redeemed with a purchase of a gift certificate for twice their value at participating restaurants. Spending $50 of your own money along with the county-subsidized voucher gets you a $100 gift card, for example.
In all, 5,809 users were able to download the available vouchers, said Sue Stanczyk, chief of staff to County Executive Ryan McMahon. That included about $80,000 worth of vouchers in the accidental opening from 9:30 p.m. Tuesday to 1:30 a.m. Wednesday and $320,000 in the hour or so after the site officially went live at noon Thursday, she said.
In addition, a special set aside of $75,000 worth of vouchers for seniors sold out in several hours on Friday, Stanczyk said.
The volume of people trying to use the program overwhelmed the the system at times Thursday, Stanczyk said, despite efforts to increase the bandwidth available on the site.
McMahon Friday acknowledged the issues. “Like everyone, I wish the technology worked better,” he said.
Still, he said he believes the program is a success. He noted that the system had “250,000 hits” on Thursday, proving its popularity.
“In something like this, with limited funding and availability, some people are going to be disappointed no matter what,” he said. “But the goal is to stimulate the restaurants. So mission accomplished.”
Many of those trying to get in compared the situation to trying for online tickets to a popular concert.
“Like trying to get tickets for a Zeppelin reunion,” Blair Frodelius posted.
Stanczyk suggested that people who think they were shut out Thursday after filling out the form should keep checking, including in their junk or spam folders. Some of the vouchers were taking hours to go through.
That was confirmed by some of the people who posted on Where Syracuse Eats.
“We did it over and over for an hour no response or confirmation just a blank page,” Donna Enslow posted. “In the end (we) checked again and received 2. (We) wrote them an email asking about the process and the lack of confirmations. Definitely need a better system but so lucky we got 2 despite the craziness.”
“I was able to get one,” Sarah Fox posted. “I had no clue that I would though. Always said ‘error’ and then a voucher showed up in my inbox.”
This week’s version of Keeping It Local was the second round of the program. The county launched the first round in April, only to have the available vouchers sell out in five hours, also creating some frustration for users who couldn’t get in. A second, smaller round, took place in June.
Problems with that earlier phase contributed to the annoyance felt by some uses this week.
“Once again, the voucher experience was both wonderful and awful,” Karen Stearns of Syracuse wrote an e-mailed letter to syracuse.com. “Program = great! Delivery = Not so good. ... Then trying to access the live site today was incredibly frustrating. Despite repeated tries, I kept getting a server error and then when I did get through the vouchers were gone.”
Some Facebook users and those contacting syracuse.com directly expressed skepticism about the early window that allowed some people to get in ahead of the official launch. They wondered if, perhaps, the system was rigged.
“First off, some folks got a head start while the rest of us waited not knowing that the site was live on 11/10. Just unfair!!,” Stearns said in her email. “How did the early birds know to try the site last night? Hmmmmm.”
But some of those posting on Where Syracuse Eats said they just lucked into the pre-launch open window.
That led to exchanges like this one at Where Syracuse Eats:
“How do they accidentally open at 9pm the day before?,” George Jones posted. “How and Why were there people sitting there when it happened? Seems fishy. It’s like they opened it for their friends. $80,000 worth of vouchers gone. Really.”
He was answered by Christina Tenasco: “I got mine at 10:30 last night (Wednesday). Just a fluke. I was very surprised!”
Some people said they were just checking out the site when they discovered it was live.
“I was one that got through last night,” Abby Luckach posted on Thursday. “I was just looking to get a list of restaurants but actually was able to get vouchers. I was surprised and confused then concerned they wouldn’t be honored but they are.”
In the end, many of those frustrated by the system said they were mostly disappointed that they couldn’t take advantage of the program.
“Page would not load and then would get an error message that the page could not be found,” Jessica Lynn posted. “I was really looking forward to this as I missed out on the first 2 (rounds of the program) and there were many new restaurants that we wanted to try.”
Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.
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Onondaga County’s restaurant gift card program is popular, but leaves many people frustrated - syracuse.com
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