KFC President Issues YouTube Apology, Offers Raincheck

May 8, 2009

Oprah's KFC promotion for a free Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal has not only caused a lot of controversy, but sky-high demand also has KFC stores across the country turning away customers. In response, KFC president Roger Eaton has taken a strikingly similar approach to Domino's by issuing an apology to patrons via YouTube. In exchange for the inconvenience customers have gone through, Eaton offers a raincheck for a grilled chicken meal, plus a free Pepsi.

Do you think Eaton did the right thing? I question whether customers who've already redeemed the free chicken will simply cash in on more gratis grub. Will you redeem KFC's raincheck offer?

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16 Comments

3 years 50 weeks

I work at KFC and the reason we started telling people that we cant take the coupons is because somebody hacked the website with the free coupons and printed THOUSANDS and sold them on EBAY and gave them away... Other people were printing more than they were allowed and making copies, trying to redeem them all at once, with only one person to claim them. It clearly said on the coupon that COUPON FRAUD IS PUNISHABLE BY LAW and that ONLY ONE COUPON PER PERSON is allowable. It was INSANE how many people came with the coupon/s. Also, we gave out so much chicken the first 2 1/2 days that our suppliers were actually running out, by that Saturday, they told us we would not have anymore chicken left if we continued to give it away. All of the stores recieved an email from the president telling us that due to the OVERWHELMING DEMAND and the risk of running out of chicken, we had to do the rain check. The end. GET THE HELL OVER IT.

3 years 50 weeks

I TOOK THE COUPON INTO KFC AND FILLED OUT THE RAINCHECK FORM AND NEVER DID GET IT AND DOUBT IF I WILL, IF IT SOUNDS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE THEN IT USALLY IS,, DISAPPOINTING

chotasidhu 4 years 1 week

Read more about Rodger Eaton's apology at http://www.aircheese.com/article/kfc-dominos-ms--apologies-part-i

4 years 1 week

There is a lot of misinformation out there. Each coupon I printed for my household has an UNIQUE NUMBER. All KFC had to do is input number to see if it has been already used. Saying that this deal was ruined becuase of scammers is not true. KFC just was not prepared. The CEO should definately get the axe for this one. I'm not a CEO, and my salary is well under $50,000 a year, but I realized that as soon as it was announced on Oprah that this would be HUGE, and KFC was just not prepared!

4 years 1 week

we don't have this reciepe in paris :-(((

shoneyjoe 4 years 1 week

We're *still* talking about this. How is this not a win for KFC?

RockAndRepublic 4 years 1 week

No wonder the majority are overweight. Including the one who endorsed it. I'd be embarrassed to be getting upset over something that no one owes me.

tdcastan 4 years 1 week

i just want my chickies

Happsmjc 4 years 1 week

I watched the Oprah when she gave this away, and since I have been locked in the library studying I had no idea it had gotten out of hand!! This is so interesting...esp. because I went back and read the previous post and people thought Oprah gave these away and not KFC, obviously she can't give away coupons for their food without them knowing it! And, I mean a lot of other fast food places have give away free good lately (Quiznos etc) and not everyone went to redeem at once--I guess people couldn't wait??

kathrynliz 4 years 1 week

the whole thing is ridiculous. you throw out a free meal offer to anyone and everyone and then you're surprised that it got out of hand? i hope you're kidding and that the media coverage afterwards was actually the goal.

Spectra 4 years 1 week

On the Oprah show today, the KFC president told everyone that the reason they had so many problems was because they didn't plan on everyone using their coupons at the same time...they figured people would space the coupons out and use them more gradually between now and the 19th.

lickety split 4 years 1 week

when i worked in retail we did everything we could to make the customer happy. people will tell 10 other people about a bad experience with a business. that makes all the work you've done for good PR worthless. this wasn't very well thought out, but i hope this fixes the problem. i can't imagine telling a customer they can't use a coupon, but then again, i can't imagine 300 people all wanting the same thing at once without warning. someone will lose their job over this. i think the lesson is oprah gets the word out like nobody else, lol.

laurelm 4 years 1 week

honestly I think it is ridiculous that people get in such an uproar over this. KFC wil get screwed by people trying to take advantage of it- geez people fork over the extra bucks for a meal. If you actually eat KFC I am pretty sure you will continue to do so and them running out of this is not gonna stop someone from going....

aimeeb 4 years 1 week

If you got turned away just try to use your coupon again. No?

jen1975 4 years 1 week

Don't you have to mail in the coupon with the rain check form?

Spectra 4 years 1 week

I think it's just sort of a "no duh" kind of thing...if Oprah makes an offer like that, you kind of have to expect everyone to jump on it and bust down every KFC in the country wanting their grilled chicken meals. If he didn't offer an apology and raincheck policy, there would be some seriously angry people out there that quite possibly would never eat at KFC again...not something the company wants, I'm sure. My husband has my KFC coupon and he'll definitely be taking up the raincheck offer, I'm sure.

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