The silly catch on the McDonald’s free coffee promo

August 13, 2011 by Roy
Filed under: Articles, business, contest and promos, customer service, management, Marketing, roysville

There just have to be some catch! And in the case of the McDonald’s free coffee promo, it’s the silly rule that only one coupon is allowed per customer.

Why silly?

Picture this. The McDonald’s crew went to your office and gave away coupons to all employees so they can avail of the free coffee promo – NO PURCHASE NECESSARY!

Neat isn’t it? NOT!

Because the next morning, most staff would give their coupons to the messenger so he can redeem their free coffee, only to come back with just one coffee on hand because he was told that only one coupon is allowed per customer!

So, they expect all the people from the office to troop down to their store, fall in line, just to redeem their free coffee?

Did the crew who went to the office mention the catch? Because if they did, the messenger wouldn’t be wasting time bringing a thick deck of coupons like he was a coffee addict.

Is the restriction printed on the coupon? I don’t know. I saw the coupon, but the prints were so small and it would too hard to read them with the bare eye.

But the question is, why the restriction? People want to have their coffee and drink it too!

One morning, I was with our messenger and went to the McDonalds just in front of our office to claim our free coffee. By coming along, the messenger wouldn’t have a hard time begging for my coffee.

I gave my coupon and claimed my coffee. No problem.

The messenger gave two coupons but was only given one coffee and the other coupon returned to him along with the scripted line, “Sorry sir, only one coupon is allowed per customer.”

Our messenger tried to reason out with them, saying that he was the messenger and he was just asked by our officemates to claim their coffee.

This time, the manager approached us and stressed that he just couldn’t allow our messenger to have two coffees.

I just couldn’t let this pass without a discussion, so I asked the manager if he can just “punch” them on the register separately. I was told that if there are no other purchases, they do not have to punch them on the cash register.

I was even dumbfounded, because that means there are no traces even of how many cup of coffee a customer redeemed. They just tore the coupons and place them in a box… and yet they wouldn’t accommodate our messenger.

The smart-alec in me kicked in, “Let’s say we went out of the store, and as soon as we step out, he (pointing to our messenger) comes back in, and redeem the second coupon, are you going to give him the coffee?”

The manager replied, “Yes, he can do that”

With that, the manager turned his back on me and walked away without saying a word. TALK ABOUT COURTESY! And that was already the manager! And no! I didn’t have a sarcastic tone while I was talking.

Oh! Did I mention that nobody in the store was smiling? At eight o’clock in morning! I always thought smiles were number 1 on the menu of these fastfood restaurants.

This is a valid customer feedback – on the stupid restriction and the customer service exemplified by the store manager… that is if McDonalds value customer’s feedback.

Times like this, the 3-in-1 coffee really sounds more appealing… because it doesn’t leave any bitter aftertaste… like a rude store manager.