KFC Update:I just wanted to let you all know that KFC is no longer accepting the free meal coupons. I understand how frustrating this can be, especially if you didn't even get a chance to use them. I do think these companies that offer free food promotions need to be way more prepared. They should of known from the get go that the response received would be "overwhelming" and should have planned accordingly. From the fiasco with the free subs at Quiznos, well, I was hoping this promotion would go differently.
This is what they've said on their site:
We are so sorry, but due to the overwhelming response to our FREE Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal coupon, we can no longer redeem the free coupon at this time. But we will honor our commitment to giving you a free Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal. Please visit a participating KFC restaurant for a rain check form. Complete the form, attach your original coupon , and give it to the KFC restaurant manager or postmark per the form’s instructions, by May 19, 2009, and we’ll send you a rain check for your free Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal at a later date, plus a free Pepsi with our compliments. Your participating KFC restaurant will provide you with the form you need.
Please note that the redemption periods of the rain checks will vary. All other terms and conditions of the original free Kentucky Grilled Chicken coupon will apply.
On a positive note KFC is offering this additional promo:
The first 200 people to register on KFC.com each day will receive $10 in KFC gift checks which may be used toward the purchase of KFC’s new Kentucky Grilled Chicken for their mothers. This offer is for a five-day period, May 6 through May 10, beginning each day at noon EST and ending at 4 p.m. EST!
If you want to get in on this deal, then I would highly recommend registering exactly at noon EST. Remember it's ONLY available to the 1st 200, which means they will go FAST!
Good Luck!
44 comments:
I was going to have this for lunch today so this is bad news..but I do think it's great of them to have rainchecks!!! I'll definitely be going to get one of those!
I wonder if you can get four rain checks for the four coupons.
I went yesterday and they did not have rain checks yet. The manager said corporate was probably going to send them in the next day or two. I too wonder if you can get more than one rain check.
WOW I am extremely disappointed in KFC and how they are handling this. Companies shouldn't be allowed to offer these things and then just change their mind because they want to or didn't think through how many people would take up their offer. It isn't like they didn't have a precursor with the 2 free pieces & knowingly having it advertised on Oprah. There goes not having to cook on Saturday!
It really doesn't surprise me too much that they had trouble. They should have known what to expect. They should have warned the stores to order extra and to have extra staff on hand to offset the rise in business. The sad thing is now they are losing out on the people who would have bought drinks with the meal since it wasn't included in the coupon.
On the other hand corporate should have planned things better. Most KFC stores are franchises owned by people that may only own a couple of stores. They would not have the overhead, capital or budgets in ordering that a corporate store may have to prepare for this. On top of that anyone who uses a fraudulent coupon most likely really puts a dent in their store sales if they can't get that q reimbursed by corporate. I really feel for the franchise owners that may not have been giving proper preparation opportunity for this deal and for anyone who lives near a franchised KFC. These are probably where most of our problems are coming from.
No chicken for me!! After driving 15 min. to get there!! The store I visited in upstate NY was not even busy and had plenty of grilled chicken avaliable. I could see it waiting to be purcahsed in their warmers. It was there if you wanted to BUY IT!! Needless to say I left and spent my dinner $ elsewhere. I think they were trying to get new customers with the coupon, but the are definately going to lose alot with this fiasco. What did they expect?? People weren’t going to take them up on there offer. They should have expected alot of people. DUH!!! This has definately LEFT A BAD TASTE IN MY MOUTH!!! Shame on you KFC!
Oprah & KFC teamed up to give free meals (up to 4 per household) nationwide, to be redeemed by the 19th, and no one thought this might be "overwhelming." Sheesh...I'm no marketing or logistics wizard and I could have predicted "overwhelming."
Glad I went Tuesday night to get my three free dinners. However, don't be too disappointed it you didn't get in on the deal because it wasn't that great. I would never pay for it.
Ugghh! This is just a bit frustating though, because I waited through all the loading and reloading issues and only printed off my 4 alloted Bricks coupons, NOT THE DOWNLOADED one, and now for all that trouble I still have to do MORE work! And I know of others who already used their coupons, with no problem. Guess I need to learn to get my rear in gear and act on this stuff, pronto.
El Pollo Loco will honor the KFC coupon on Mothers Day!!!
Lame.
My family went to redeem our 2 coupons last night, and when we got to KFC there was a sign on the door that said that the dining room was closed, and only the drive thru was open. We went to the drive thru and there were three cars in front of us, all trying to use coupons. Of course we were turned away. When we got to the drive thru window you could see about 5 or 6 employees all crammed into the drive thru area. They were HIDING because they didn't want to deal with people face to face about the coupons. That's why the dining room was closed. Pathetic.
OMG!!!
I am sure the KFC employees were fearing for their lives! If someone didn't get their free chicken you don't know what somebody would do!!
Just like the crumbs and day old food in the office kitchen!
Experienced deal hunters know deals like this last 48-72 hours max.
We went the night after we printed the Brick version of this coupon. No issues.
People on other sites speak of writing their Attorney General. I ask people to place this situation in perspective; I hope people value their time better than to bother the AG over a $3 coupon.
It didn't even last 48 hrs!!
We went to 2 different local KFC's last night for dinner, and they were both packed! Both had the rain check forms stating they would not honor the coupons posted on the door.
Obviously it worked well for them. They lured tons of people in with that coupon, and even though they weren't honoring it, people were still buying food! NOT US. We got the foms and then left to buy subs from Jimmy Johns.
Notice that instead of posting the rain check online, you have to go in person to get it? It's another way to lure people in hoping they will buy food.
My husband loves KFC, and we actually eat there a few times a month. We will not be spending another penny there until my 4 coupons are honored, and my husband's 4 coupons are honored. We also printed from Bricks, and all have unique ID numbers. We plan to share the extras with family.
I think people should write someone. Maybe this wil warn companies of offering something and then taking it away. KFC should have made you login and sign up and then sent the coupons to your house. There would have been much less hassle and confusion because alot of people would not have even bothered to sign up. I cannot believe a company this size was not better prepared.
In defense of KFC, I was reading that the Oprah show gave KFC less then 24 hours notice about doing this promotion. How can anyone possibly be prepared in that amount of time? It's just not possible.
The problem was that the pdf was posted and people were redeeming WAY more than 4 per family. They just didn't realize how many DISHONEST people are in the world!!!
There is no loss to those of us who didn't get to use the coupon. A little annoying? Yes.
I used 2 coupons the day they came out--I'm glad I did, but the food was not so good. The chicken was great, but the sides were less than desirable and I am glad that I didn't pay for the meal and I won't be back to buy more!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30629945/?gt1=43001
I think they probably did this because of the PDF that was printed multiple times.
I'm sure they will check each number when issuing the rain checks to make sure each household only gets the maximum of 4.
I printed off 4 and didn't get a chance to use them, so I will head to get the rain checks...hey it will include the drink this way :o)
I will shoot Oprah an email (not that she won't have thousands) but maybe she can shake a finger at KFC for getting her involved in such a mess, I mean it's her name that gets tarnished along with KFC.
I think this was a rediculous move by KFC. I don't usually go to KFC (I think it's about the worst chicken out there) but I was willing to try their new product. I would imagine this will hurt their business.
I'm curious if Oprah has commented about this ordeal. It seems she should have something to say about it since she was promoting it.
Personally, I wasnt too impressed with the chicken, but free is free. We still have a couple coupons left that I hope we will get rainchecks for.
I am not mad at KFC. We should be happy with what we got and not complain about it. The more issues people make, and the more fraud people do with coupons, the less and less we will see offers and deals like this.
We all like it when people give us the benefit of the doubt - shouldn't we be gracious enough to extend that to others...
Does anyone really think that KFC is happy to have to do this given the fact that it will hurt their business? I know that my local KFC did the best that they could - they had extra staff, and plenty of chicken, but they can only do so much and their kitchen is only so big! I believe that they didn't have much of a choice in closing down the free meals for a short time. Reading the other KFC posts from earlier, most were complaining about quality or wait time... now KFC is trying to find a way to give us the best product/experience given the circumstances (and still, complaining...).
Personally, I am just grateful that they will still be honoring their offer.
Life is too short to go through it annoyed... thankful hearts make happy lives :) ~I hope that is an attitude that my kids catch; that outlook is much more important than being frugal!
KFC scored big on free advertising with this deal. I wrote my thoughts on my blog if you are interested, check it out by clicking on my name.
wow! That is scoring big - having half the nation irritated that they didn't get their 'deserved' free chicken! ???
how do we know if we will be one of the 200 per day getting the $10 gift checks for registering?
I entered at exactly 9 am and was able to enter in my info, but when I submitted it went to an error page, so I'm not sure if it went through. Most likely not. :(
I was able to register before they put up the screen that said the limit had been reached, but I never got an E-mail or a confirmation screen that I was one of the first 200. If I hear something back, I will let every one know!
I tried to use the KFC coupon today and I was told that due to scamming of the coupon (zerox copies made probably) they told me to give them the coupon, fill out my name and address, and KFC will mail me a new coupon in two weeks. I live in a small university town, and our little KFC was flooded with over 1000 coupons in the first day!
I know KFC has lots of excuses but this feels like a "bait and switch" scam to me, literally). They received a nationwide promotional benefit, without having to deliver the offer. Just look at how many people are talking about KFC. They know that they will lose a few folks to the poor service, but they also know that a little "we're the victim too spin", will mitigate most of the negative. I plan on giving them a raincheck on my patronage.
What a JOKE!!!!!!
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Friday, May 8, 2009
Mothers Day At El Pollo Loco W/ KFC Coupons!
Dont want to wait to redeem your KFC Free Meal coupon? Go over to El Pollo Loco on mothers day and use your KFC coupon they will give you a free 2-piece meal of their citrus-marinated flame-grilled chicken. Is this getting crazy or what?
I don't think it's necessarily KFC's fault. It sounds like, from the MSNBC article, it was a campaign they were running, and then Oprah decided to "help out". I think the problem has stemmed from the announcement on her show and the pdf file on her site. I believe if it had just been left as a bricks Q, it would have been fine.
I can't believe Oprah would lend her name to a bunch of scam artists. They got you in the store with your mouth watering, hoping you will dig deep into your pockets because you're already there and your children don't understand why they can't eat. This really makes Oprah look bad as well as KFC. Four stores and $15of gas later, my kids are still hungry. Free Food? No such thing!!!! Shame on you, Oprah.
I can't find anything regarding El Pollo Loco giving away free meals. I did see on their site that if you bring in the coupon you will get $1 off.
KFC president's comment from the MSNBC article:
"We're getting people into the restaurants through this promotion who haven't been to KFC for a very long time," Eaton said. "We're basically repositioning the brand through this exercise."
I do not plan to contact the AG, Oprah or KFC, but this is really disappointing. The quote applies to me b/c I haven't been to a KFC in a long while. I wrestled with getting the right coupon to print b/c I thought my time was being well spent.
The amount of planning required for offers like this is known thanks to previous promos like the elusive free Dr. Pepper. They could have used the Oprah show that day, but put a future date on the coupon. I can think of tons of ways to better implement an offer like this, even on short notice.
Companies can (and I hope will) continue promos like these w/ a teeney bit of planning.
You spoiled brats!!!
I can't believe that so many are complaining about getting their FREE meals RIGHT NOW! Give the company a little grace, send in your rainchecks, and be thankful that you are also now getting free drinks too!
Here is the link for the el pollo loco add and I also called my loco store and they said they were participating in this. I hope that helps. Thanks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrQX96ka89c
I'm with everyone commenting on Oprah. I think she should take some responsibility. I wanna know if KFC asked her to say anything, because, if not, it is not their fault at all. Millions of people watch Oprah--I don't think that many people would have found out about the coupon.
Another article on web.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/05/08/oprah.kfc.coupon/index.html
KFC lost alot of money from this incident.
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