Skip navigation
KFC finds free meal offer has a price

KFC finds free meal offer has a price

LOUISVILLE Ky. KFC is the latest restaurant chain trying to figure out how best to give away a free meal and avoid operational gaffes associated with overwhelming customer response -- and the angry backlash when patrons can't get in on the deal.

The 5,200-unit chicken chain, a division of Louisville-based Yum! Brands Inc., apologized to its customers on Friday for being unable to honor coupons for a free grilled chicken dinner offered May 5 on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Chain officials said KFC would provide rain checks to the millions of customers who were denied the free meal because of a combination of supply issues and technical problems.

"We would like to apologize to our customers who have been inconvenienced by the overwhelming response to our free Kentucky Grilled Chicken offer," said Roger Eaton, president of KFC’s U.S. operations. "The lines of customers wanting to redeem their coupons have been out the door and around the block, so we’re unable to redeem customer coupons at this time."

The promotional offer, which consisted of a downloadable coupon available on Winfrey’s website, www.oprah.com, was redeemable at participating KFC stores and offered customers a two-piece grilled chicken meal with two side items and a biscuit. The promotion publicized the chain’s new Kentucky Grilled Chicken product line. According to the Associated Press, the chain had never experienced such intense restaurant traffic in its 50-plus years of existence.

KFC said all requests for rain checks would have to be accompanied by an original coupon and returned to a participating restaurant or postmarked no later than May 19.

Other restaurant chains recently involved in high-profile giveaway or reduced-price promotions include Denny’s, Quiznos and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. In February, Denny’s gave away approximately 2 million free Grand Slam breakfasts at 1,500 stores nationwide. Some franchisees, however, said they were forced to issue rain checks resulting from traffic issues and bad weather.

Later in February, Quiznos' promise to give away a million coupons for a free sub caused frustration among both franchise operators, who were overwhelmed by the heavy traffic, and customers who said they had to visit several Quiznos stores before they could find one that would redeem the coupon. The 4,500-unit sandwich chain later offered to compensate unhappy customers who e-mailed their complaints.

In April, the quick-service Popeyes chain offered a “Pay Day” promotion that featured the chain’s eight-piece, signature fried chicken item for $4.99 at all 1,922 participating stores. However, the chain ran into problems when some franchisees in Wichita, Kan., and Rochester, N.Y., among other cities, ran out of food before the daylong promotion ended, angering customers who were unable to purchase the meal.

Contact Elissa Elan at [email protected].

Hide comments

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Publish