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Memo to KFC: never underestimate the power of Oprah Winfrey.
Or the lure of a freebie.
A free grilled-chicken meal promotion touted by the popular talk show host has caused such a frenzy that a few stores ran out and the Louisville-based chain is asking customers to take a rain check for the deal.
"For the last day and a half, our restaurants have just been absolutely inundated," KFC President Roger Eaton said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. "It's just been overwhelming."
Lines snaked outside some KFC restaurants and cars stacked up at drive-through windows as people waited to redeem the coupons available on Oprah.com for 24 hours this week, he said. The coupons also were available until late Wednesday on unthinkfc.com - a KFC Web site promoting the new grilled chicken.
Restaurants summoned extra help to keep pace with the crowds, yet some customers waited an hour and a half as the chain gave away millions of the meals Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday.
Uncomfortable with the delays, the chain decided to ask people to wait longer for the meals - but with the hope of a more peaceful setting in which to eat them. Eaton said the company will mail coupons to customers in stages and throw in a free soft drink.
"The way we're operating at the moment isn't giving the experience that we'd like to give them," he said.
Police in Greensboro, N.C., said the backup of vehicles heading to a KFC there created a hazard at the dinner hour Wednesday. A 911 caller complained of people arguing and said traffic was stopped, according to a 911 report. Authorities eventually blocked access to the restaurant, and many customers left without redeeming their coupons.
There were isolated reports across the country of customers becoming upset at KFC stores as they waited or as stores ran out of chicken on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The company said Thursday that it had received no reports of violence or arrests.
The rush began when the downloadable coupons were available on Oprah.com for 24 hours beginning Tuesday after Winfrey announced the promotion on her show. Each coupon promised two pieces of grilled chicken, two individual side orders and a biscuit.
A spokeswoman for Winfrey's Harpo Productions in Chicago applauded the company's decision to offer rain checks for the new meals, which KFC introduced three weeks ago as a healthier alternative to its popular staple, fried chicken.
"We feel this new plan is a great new way to accommodate the overwhelming interest," the spokeswoman said.
The free-meal promotion was funded by KFC, a spokeswoman for the chain said.
Known for generosity, Winfrey has doled out impressive giveaways for her studio audiences, from books to cars, and her comments or support have caused distinct spikes in the popularity of everything from consumer goods to political candidates. She also has hosted a televised philanthropy competition, "Oprah's Big Give," where contestants help people in need.
KFC, a subsidiary of Louisville-based Yum Brands Inc., has backed its new Kentucky Grilled Chicken with an advertising blitz. The chain hopes to lure health-conscious customers with its grilled offering, which is lower in fat, calories and sodium than the chain's fried chicken.
KFC has never had such a response to a special-meal offer, said KFC spokeswoman Laurie Schalow.
"It's unprecedented in our more than 50 years," she said. "It beats anything we've ever done."
The chain would not say how much the giveaway cost because the expense was part of its much larger national marketing and promotions budget for the year.
"The relative costs of a day like yesterday are very small relative to the potential value of getting people to taste this product," Eaton said. The draw, he said, was a mix of Winfrey's star power, the lure of a free meal in tough times and curiosity about the new product.
It's been a heady couple days for a chain that's been struggling in the United States but growing furiously overseas, particularly in China.
"
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."
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Comments
By meowmom on 05/11 08:25 PM
I downloaded the coupon Wednesday from a link on Oprah's website. It said you were allowed to print 4, so I did. Went to my KFC Thursday and the sign was already up at about noonish. BUT, they had the grilled chicken-if you wanted to buy the 2 piece meal. They gave me a slip of paper with name and address to be filled out and then they would send in the coupons and we are suppose to get a voucher in the mail. I will be surprised if indeed we do get the vouchers. Remember the website said you could download 4 coupons. So, we'll see. I personally have my doubts about getting vouchers for the free meal. I'm from about 50 miles north of Chicago if that makes any difference.
By john mccrea on 05/11 02:48 PM
In my opinion, this constitutes FRAUD! We attempted to cash in our coupons on the evening of May 9th, and were refused. KFC = FRAUD. In my opinion, don't give KFC another of your hard earned $$$. They got the advertising benefits and had no intention of performing per their advertised deal... FRAUD!
By donna b on 05/11 12:58 PM
I could never get my coupon to download. I guess the sight must have crashed. I'd still like to try it.
By KC on 05/11 10:11 AM
As soon as we walked up to our KFC in Modesto they had a sign posted on the door they were taking rainchecks on the coupons. So being a smartass I went inside and asked why they were taking rainchecks..I said it looks to me like you have plenty of chicken lol! Of course we were told about people photocopying the coupons and they gave us a form to fill out. I think in the future to avoid this problem all merchants should have a scanner installed that is hooked up to a central computer that way they can just scan the coupons and it will tell them if that coupon has been already used and avoid all of this mess.
By ken strupe kenstrupe@aol.com on 05/09 09:30 PM
I COULD NOT GET MY CUPON I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE ONE WEEK 39
By Cheryl on 05/09 08:24 PM
yes I too am one of the managers that had to deal with this and you would have thought they were giving the deed to a gold mine! from all of us on the flip side this was thrown on us and we did the very best we could but people today are so hateful its sad to think over a free 2piece meal that you have to be treated so bad! And to the jerk that said KFC has nothing but high school drop outs you sir are an idiot, as I like alot of people in the fast food industry are very educated! so everyone needs to give us a break after all its still free for those of you who had real coupons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By KFC victim on 05/09 02:18 AM
I am one of the managers that you all speak of in your posts. It was one of the worst days in my history with the company. While many of you had legitimate coupons, many, many people didn't. I personally had one customer that came in 4 different times throughout the day for another free meal. I honored every coupon regardless of print quality or number, and I still caught grief from the customers. "I want this piece, I want this side" I would explain to them the deal and they would attack me personally. IT IS JUST CHICKEN, NOT THE ER. CALM DOWN.
By pete loomis on 05/08 08:36 PM
i would like to get a free coupon
By B Smithston on 05/08 03:03 PM
They didn't takes mine either. I was told to fill out a form and wait so I went next door to wendys and ate a doller hamberger. i really wanted chicken even it its isnt fried
By Chloe on 05/08 10:29 AM
The country is very misinformed. OPRAH did not pay for these dinners. KFC and its franchisees are paying the price. KFC should be thanked for their generosity. It is so sad that people get angry over FREE. Stop being hateful be thankful! I LOVE KFC!
By PISSED OFF on 05/08 10:19 AM
IM NOW BOYCOTING KFC THEM JERKS!...SE THIS LINK HERES WHAT YOU GET! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su0U37w2tws
By c on 05/08 09:25 AM
Tried to use the coupon in Clayton NC. They wouldnt take it.They told me I could have a rain check on Thursday. Why would I want a rain check for a meal when I have a coupon.NO lines at 5:00 So I went to Mayflower and It was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By Bryan on 05/08 07:55 AM
Ok, First off, The coupon printer software Is not spyware! If you actually had to pay several hundred dollars to someone, Then you really got ripped off good! Or you had spyware before you printed the coupons. For anyone with at least a little computer knowledge it should be a no brainer! Install the coupon software & go to the site in INTERNET EXPLORER, Yes the software is not compatible with other browsers, You have to use IE. The software can be uninstalled when your done printing the coupons, But really the software is harmless. Trust me I am a computer technician. This is the same software I print coupons with when I get my Wendy's coupons. They didn't make it a .PDF because each coupon has a unique barcode, You can not do that with .PDF because they would all be the same, The software talks to "The mothership" & requests a cretin number of prints per person ie in this case 4, Each with a unique barcode. "The meal was delicious, Thanks for dinner Oprah! " -AGREED! Thanks Oprah, Your awesome! We got 4 meals!
By Matthew Mueller on 05/08 02:52 AM
I tried using my coupons in Hope Mills, NC and was told they wouldnt accept them... They were printed in color and all the bar codes were different numbers... They told me that i now have to send in the coupons to an address in IL and wait another 10-12 weeks for them to send me out a coupon to get my free meal... And not only that but they will now only send 1 coupon per address for 1 meal and not the four coupons that we were allowed to print out.... What a rip.... Also to make sure they get your coupon you have to spend money to send it in the mail and delivery confirmation which costs about the same thing the meal would cost so you have a way to track it... Because knowing them they probably would just throw away your couchers and blame it on "Never recieved them in the Mail"
By Nelix on 05/07 11:45 PM
Oprah, my wife and I are extremely dissapointed in your show and KFC over this coupon fiasco. I'm not sure if you are aware of everything that went on with this coupon offer, but when you went to the KFC site to get your coupon, as soon as you clicked the Print Coupon button, the KFC site installed Spyware and Adware on your computer. My antivirus program caught most of it, the rest cost me a few hundred dollars to have cleaned off of my computer. Here is a link to the software that was installed from the Sophos antivirus site - http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/adware-and-puas/couponbardownloa_IDwRXPYS.html You can also do a search on Google for KFC COUPON ADWARE and there are thousands of people complaining about this infecting their computer. I am shocked that you would allow your show and name to be used to trick people into infecting their computers, I thought you had a bit more integrity and class then that. I certainly will never be a patron at KFC ever again, and I have lost respect for you and your show.
By NC on 05/07 11:44 PM
What a TERRIBLE public relations fiasco this was for KFC. If they can't market their food properly how do you think they handle your food? What KFC failed to do: 1) Tell us we MUST have the color prints. 2) Educate their high school drop out staff about the coupons. 3) Put signs up explaining that locations were not accepting coupons at all. 4) Track coupon numbers without the colorful background for those of us who can't afford color ink. "How do I know these things? I'm the cook here and theres one of us in every store." Wonderful, a high school drop out in every store. KFC, you fail at everything. After my coupon was denied, Bojangles was delicious.
By chuck on 05/07 10:25 PM
Oprah didn't give away jack. Infact, KFC payed Oprah 7 million to advertise the product. All of the cost of this promotion is falling on KFC franchise owners! There are tens of millions of fake coupons which has caused a good promotion to turn into chaos! If your coupon ends in 1234 then you do not have a legitimate.
By Cydney on 05/07 10:10 PM
We had problems on both days in trying to print the coupon and even begged them to send us four of them in the mail on KFC's marketing website on day 2 after failing for over an hour to print the coupons. Maybe next time they'll have a better way to do this. Then after we went to one anyway, the restaurant's had the audacity to tell people what sides they could get. For it to be truly healthy many wanted a salad and veggies only to be told they had to take cole slaw and mashed potatoes. Not only was that not customer friendly and they may have chased away currnt and future customers, it was against the terms on the coupon. You had a say about the chicken pieces not the ENTIRE meal and many of the 2 piece dinners were made in advanced and just sitting there on the back counters.
By holly on 05/07 09:20 PM
I went to the KFC in Fremont CA. to use my coupon. When I got there, they told me that they do not except coupon even though the coupon said that it will not expire till the 19th. This made me very upset because I stood in line for an hour before they told me that. This is false advertising.
By barbara stewart on 05/07 08:36 PM
Yes, I try to print KFC coupons and it Didn"t work. No coupons was printed. How about a raincheck. Huh
By James on 05/07 07:26 PM
I did not have a coupon, but I was going to a KFC before I heard about it. I stopped at a KFC in Rosenberg, TX. about 11:45 there were about 4 people in front of many. Normally when I stop there, there are only 1 or 2 there in line. At 12 noon I turned around and the line of stacked out the door, 1/2 to 3/4 had coupons. They took the coupons even black & white one. They seemed a little confused on something. The guy in front of me had a coupon. I did not hear what he asked them for but the clerk responded that will be 20 cents extra for that. The guy said "That's fine" then the other clerks said "I was just told not to charge extra for that" So then the guy did not have to pay anything at all. They seemed some what confused. Before I left, I saw they were bringing in some extra supplies I think they were overwhelmed. Customers were all calm, they were doing the best they could.
By Myrna on 05/07 07:07 PM
I had trouble printing the coupon the first day the offer was announced. I went back to Oprah's website and there was an email address for the KFC marketing department. I emailed marketing to inform them that I could not get the coupon to print. Someone from marketing emailed me back, almost immediately, asking me to try again. I did and was successful. I used it today and the only problem that I experienced was they made me come inside the restaurant to get the meal.
By Cheryl on 05/07 06:42 PM
first of it wasn't oprah giving out the coupons it was kfc she had Roger Eaton who works for KFC on her show & he & KFC are the ones doing this. now for the people who work at KFC they are just doing their jobs and what is instructed by their bosses,so when everyone comes in to get this FREE MEAL they should remember that. After all its free so stop being such a pain in the ass and stop taking it out on the workers and managers they/we are SIMPLY DOING WHAT WE ARE TOLD!
By Rachelle on 05/07 06:30 PM
I had a terrible time printing the coupon but kept trying and finally was able to print it once they posted the PDF. The employee at KFC was totally rude and although the coupon said any two sides the managers choice meant only mashed potatoes with gravy and coleslaw. I think that kind of cancelled out the healthy choice of grilled chicked. The pieces were very small and dry. But hey it was a free meal so thank you very very much.
By Ralph on 05/07 06:29 PM
Me amd my daughter both tried to print the coupons,but kept getting messages that said we had exceeded our limit.We could'nt print a single coupon.
By blanche on 05/07 05:59 PM
I used my coupon, had no problem. It was a blessing and would like to say thanks. i called a couple of families that need the meal and they enjoyed it.
By Dyanne on 05/07 05:17 PM
It's hard to use a coupon that you can't get in the first place, so I have no idea if it will work or not. I went on opera.com/kfc as instructed and couldn't even find a place to print the coupon. As they say, "if it's too good..."
By Rick on 05/07 05:10 PM
Here in NJ they are not accepting the coupons and taking you name and address. I assume they are going to mail something to us for a free meal. No sure. This marketing job sure sucked. I won't be going back no matter how good it might taste.
By leah on 05/07 05:08 PM
I tried using it in Raleigh, the woman at the window did not accept it because it wasn't in color. I don't have a color printer! The crew seemed uninformed and was kind of rude about the whole thing.
By Joselyn on 05/07 05:00 PM
I used the coupon and it worked beautifully. the meal was very good. I will purchase the grilled chicken again. If that was the goal it worked on me. Thanks KFC and Oprah!
By Casey on 05/07 04:15 PM
I think the clerks working at KFC are completely uninformed. Almost all the coupons have the same code on them, so the clerks think they're the same and a photocopy. Also, I had to get approval from the manager to use my black ink only coupon. It wasn't a photocopy, but did not have the yellow spots behind the expiration date because it was printed in black ink. The clerk told me that the yellow spots can't be photocopied, and this is how they tell if it's a photocopy (even if it's not). My neighbor showed me how the colored copies look, they do have spots behind the expiration date. The manager accepted my coupon, but he had to approve it. You might want to talk to a manager if you have a problem. Thank you Oprah, my dinner was good.
By Tanya on 05/07 04:06 PM
I USED MY COUPON IN AUSTIN TX AND DID NOT HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH MINE. SO THANK YOU OPRAH!!
By Anthony on 05/07 04:03 PM
All the stores in Albuquerque, New Mexico have been told NOT to accept the coupon until further notice. Thanks Oprah
By Pete on 05/07 04:00 PM
Used it yesterday. The grilled chicken was alright, mashed potatos and gravy was bland as were the baked beans. I'd say it was worth every penny.
By Briah on 05/07 04:00 PM
The expiration date on the correct coupon is 5/19/2009 and includes Mother's Day only. It does need to printed in color to show that it's not a photocopy. Haven't used it yet to avoid the rush but have til the 19th. I have a MAC and was able to download the program to print the coupon. It worked fine.
By esther on 05/07 03:57 PM
I used mine just fine. The worker at KFC told me that each coupon has a specific code that could only be used once. Supposedly the same coupon got passed around 1000's of times so they don't accept ones with the code ending in 1234 or something like that.
By Michael on 05/07 03:55 PM
I tried to use mine in Aurora, IL, they would not accept it, they said it was already used by someone. I Just printed the darn thing! How is that possible. Bunch of bull..
By Jon from Holly Springs on 05/07 03:30 PM
I could not seem to get the print program they wanted you to download to print the coupons in the first place to work on my Mac. Tried clicking "Print" several times but no luck. Not sure why they didn't just make it available as a PDF. Sounds like it could turn into a PR fumble.
By Jackie on 05/07 03:28 PM
I had no problem printing my coupon ( I waited a few hours after the rush) or using them in Riverdale, Ga. As a matter of fact everyone in the drive thru had coupons. The meal was delicious, Thanks for dinner Oprah!
By Casey on 05/07 03:28 PM
If you printed the coupon out in black and white, it's missing the spotted yellow markings behind the expiration date. This is why it looked like a photocopy. This coupon had to be printed out in color, this should have been stated on the website but wasn't.
By Kim on 05/07 03:22 PM
The KFC in Wake Forest wouldn't accept it. There was a HUGE crowd in the restaurant and I think the employees were overwhelmed. It is too bad, but what did they expect! Maybe they will extend it...
By Robbin on 05/07 03:09 PM
The KFC at 1804 S. Miami Blvd. told all the customer in the store while I was there that their coupons were "bad". I asked why and was told that it was a photocopy and it was missing "something". Excuse me, but mine was not a photocopy. What a bunch of bull, if you don't want to redeem the coupons, put a sign on your door please.
By May Al-Najjar on 05/07 02:31 PM
I tried and it didn't work out. it was too late and expired.
By From Raleigh on 05/07 02:15 PM
i tried using the coupon here in raleigh and they didn't take it. if they have a promotion, they should follow through.
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