Kentucky Fried Chicken, the fast-food chain, pulled the plug (at least temporarily) on its chicken giveaway.

The response to a free two-piece grilled chicken meal promotion, announced Tuesday on The Oprah Winfrey Show, was so overwhelming that many KFC restaurants nationwide quickly ran out of chicken and started turning customers away.

"The lines of customers wanting to redeem their coupon have been out the door and around the block, so we're unable to redeem customer coupons at this time," KFC President Roger Eaton said.

Instead KFC will issue customers a rain check to be used at a later date for a free grilled chicken meal. That meal will include the bonus of a free Pepsi drink.

More here:

KFC chokes on chicken: After Oprah Show touts free chicken deal, fast-food chain runs out and halts the promotion -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

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Guess it depends on where you live. I drove by one of our local KFC's this afternoon and it was business as usual -- no long lines.
I think if they're going to offer those coupons, they should honor them. Obviously it wasn't well thought out to begin with.....

I had a feeling this was going to happen. . .glad we used our the first day.

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Hubby used his at work today without a problem. Guess the lines do depend on where you are. I do agree that this was not thought out very well. Did they think people wouldn't want free chicken?

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They are going to honor them.

I used mine yesterday without a problem.

they turned off the coupon early as well.

I can see how in densely populated areas this could happen very easily.

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me too! i went through the drive thru and there were only 2 cars ahead of me and none behind me....the store wasn't very busy either...and it was during the lunch hour which I dreaded because I thought it would be packed.

Lisa

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If you read the above link, the halt wasn't called until this evening.
I have to wonder if the restaurants that weren't overwhelmed will go ahead and redeem the coupon instead of giving a raincheck that the consumer has to mail in to receive a coupon for later use.

Don't throw your coupon away. You can go to KFC and get a form to send in (along with your original coupon) and get a replacement coupon, which also includes a free drink. There's a video (I think youtube) on it, but I can't find it right now. It's kind of a pain, but it should weed out all the fraudulent coupons.

My opinion is that companies do promotions like this thinking that just the people who watch Oprah will get the free meal. They have no idea that it spreads like wild fire through freebie sites. And, they don't anticipate people who save the coupon to their files and print a gazillion. Or, the people who print at home and at work too.

I gave dd a coupon and she used it the first day at our neighborhood location, she said there were many people in line with coupons, she waited more than a half hour LOL must have really wanted that chicken, I would not have waited that long, would have just gone another day!

She also said the chicken was great, so I look forward to trying it. And it was a nice offer on KFC's part, even if it got canceled. Now I do think they should have expected big crowds for a free meal promotion.

of all places, don't announce something on Oprah because everyone will go for it lol. KFC should have known that. If it just circulated on coupon sites, they may not have had a bigger problem.

Part of this is most likely failure on KFC's part to be prepared. The other part, no doubt, is the greedy people who printed more than what KFC's promotion was.

It's happening also with the free Friday M&M promotion. One person is upset because SHE couldn't submit her own, her dh's and her daughters with one login. Let them submit their own for crying out loud !! I read this on another message board and she is very upset.

Greed.

dl

The coupon I got from our Sunday Paper was for just 1 piece of grilled chicken, not a whole meal. Where was the meal coupon found?

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It was announced on Oprah and you could print it on line. You could print 2, then 2 more.

When are these companies going to learn to avoid the dreaded internet...full of cheating potential..coupons. I thought the Sunday paper coupon would have been enough to let people know of their new product. DUMB!!!

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I'm going to get a raincheck before the coupon expires. One of my co-workers used the coupon a few days ago with no problem. I guess it depends on the location.