Don’t Mess With Our Free Coupons
KFC has done several promotions offering free grilled chicken. One of their previous promotions resulted in tons of disappointed and agree customers.
KFC – May 5th Promotion
KFC offered a coupon valid for a free piece of grilled chicken on May 5th, 2009. The promotion was hyped so much (Oprah) that many locations stopped honoring the coupon within hours. From there they offered rain checks, and the promotion become a failure.
Elizabeth Vidrine tried to participate in this promotion. She said
“last time I printed this coupon EVERY KFC I went to had stopped taking the coupons by 11 am and I never did get to use it, they should say on the coupon that the manager will refuse you if he thinks to many people have come in already.”
After alerting my readers about KFC’s attempt to try again, I got an UNDERwhelming response. Most people go crazy for free food, it’s a frugal lovers favorite thing. A coupon for a free anything goes around the internet and back in hours.
Many of my readers weren’t interested in participating again due to the last failed campaign. For some people that was enough to not even visit KFC again free or not.
Shawn Wolfe said “After that last fiasco they had I will never go to KFC again.”
Tammy of Good Plans wasn’t sold on this free promotion going smoothly either. When asked if she would participate she commented:
“I won’t be participating. Every time I went to redeem my coupon, they were out of chicken. Then, I had to send in for a coupon, wait for it to come in, and when it finally did, it wasn’t good for another three weeks. Too much hassle. We haven’t been back since.”
When asked if he would be participating, Larry Rodgers said “No not since they didn’t honor my last coupon, what a waste of gas.”
By doing a failed free offer, it has actually turned off people from KFC.
More Failed Promotions
The KFC free chicken offers may not of been the only fail, but it was the biggest.
Many coupons are rejected or not fully disclosed properly and that can piss off a lot of customers. This can also be due to not educating employees on the promotions.
Another big reason is if a coupon is “leaked”. Meaning that it was sent out to everyone instead of a select group of people. Basically another fault of the company. If you printable coupon and then make it “void” you should fix it!
Buffalo Wild Wings had a coupon for a promotion on their site. The item was 6 free buffalo wings. After the coupon began to be distributed they made it “void” and stopped honoring it. One customer commented on Deal Locker about it saying:
“When I tried to use the coupon, I was treated with verbal attacks by the managment at wild wings. I was a regular customer up to this point. Not any more.”
Could customer service be any worse?
Another comment on the slickdeals forum was
“BWW (Buffalo Wild Wings) in the Waterford Towers Plaza on Alafaya Trail in Orlando FL did not accept these coupons. In fact, they make that clear before you even enter the restaurant. They posted on their doors a sign that says they cannot honor these coupons because they were meant for “Bracket Challenge Contestants”. I thought I’d go in and ask anyways and they looked at me like I was dumb.”
And this one:
“I get very angry when I am told that a coupon is “fake” when I know myself I got it from the company’s website. Revoking their own coupon is their right, but it has to be prominently displayed (like the signs on the door) in order for this to be legally acceptable. (Otherwise it is classic “bait & switch”).”
Don’t mess with our coupons or you will lose our business! What do you think of these coupon fiascos?
I agree, it’s kind of ridiculous. If you are going to market something that big, make sure you take the time to make sure it works out. Otherwise it turns people off to the whole thing – if you can’t get something like that right.
I tried to use the 711 coupon for free coffee and the guy was so rude. Said he would honor it this time, but next time no. Beacuse the coupon says it can not be photo copied. Well, when you print it off the computer, what should it look like?
I didn’t even bother with the latest KFC deal. In fact, I was going to tell a few people and decided better.
On another note, I received a $10 off $10 Sears coupon and when I tried to use it the register beeped saying it was expired. The cashier called a manager who said they will not be honoring any internet coupons and there should have been a sign [there was not]. I did buy the pants for my daughter, but after really thinking about it am a bit annoyed with Sears and the manager for not coming out to speak with me personally or offering some sort of condolence.
These ‘bad’ deals make people weary of any offer by any company.
Yes the 7-11 one was kind of weird, and it was rejected a lot I heard. This is a perfect example of educating the employees of the promotion.
Yeah, I didn’t do the KFC one either.
I’ve noticed that managers aren’t really managing much anymore. What happened to them coming out and making sure the customer right? There SHOULD of been a sign but there WASNT so honor the coupon! Even then, it’s lame.
I had to go through hoops to recover a $13 refund from my local McDonalds for having a bug in our food. They offered to pay just for the food that had the bug in it! After calling the supervisor guy he finally agreed after I submitted an online complaint etc.
Places like that will lose my business!
I get REALLY annoyed when my coupons aren’t accepted. You go through the trouble of searching the web, newspapers, inserts, magazines etc. and then you get turned down. Our local KFC’s in the Boston area OFTEN run out of chicken! How can that happen? your only function and purpose is to serve chicken.
I also experienced several issues with the Entertainment Book coupons. I chose my area when ordering my book. Come to find out the locations that honored these coupons were 30 mins to 1 1/2 hours away from my home. Why would I waste that amount of time and gas to get a free french fry or free chicken roll up? Not worth it.
Not to mention the embarressment when you have to haggle at the counter over coupons and the people behind you are moaning and groaning. I stopped going to Orange Julius because they wouldn’t accept my coupons.
Our KFC had everyone turn in their free meal coupon and write your name and address on back so they could send you a new one with a different expiration. That was months ago and we never received it. I don’t even bother anymore. We got one on email from TGI Fridays and they honored it but said it was fraudulent and made us feel like criminals. No more.