That's pretty ridiculous. Do you sue Best Buy or any retailer when they have a sale and you get there and they are sold out? Everyone eventually got their free chicken. You can't expect them to keep unlimited chicken on-hand.

What a waist of outrage! I never was much for those free things like that anyway. You have to stand in long lines of at least a half an hour for 3 bucks worth of food that probably won't even taste as good as getting it at a normal time because of the rush.

KFC = Kentucky Fuster Cluck

There are 8 million stories about why the legal system is vilified. This is one of them.

@frank64:

What a waist of outrage!

Hey! Is that a fat joke?

Welcome to Entitlement America; someone wants to get paid because they didn't receive something for free.

I had absolutely no trouble getting my free chicken. The fact that KFC was on the way to my destination the day I redeemed the coupon meant I did not incur any extra travel costs.

The cost of printing the coupon was marginal and not worth getting upset about.

I was also pleased as I was able to get a breast since they ran out of thighs when I got there.

The only thing that I was upset over was the fact that the grilled chicken was underwhelming.

I'm more upset by the fact that the chicken isn't grilled, as per the ad by El Pollo Loco posted yesterday.

I hate these people. A lot.

@Saboth: Actually, they haven't sent out the promised meal coupons yet, so they haven't held up their end of the deal.

@Saboth:
You can if it was unlimited ZOMBIE chickens.

I tried the grilled chicked a few days after it came out and I was not impressed. It was dry and didn't taste like good ole grilled chicken. The word fried is in their name for a reason folks.

But what really annoyed me was I had a hankering for some original recipe chicken that afternoon and had to wait in a very long line of people who were seriously pissed when they were told they could not use their coupons to get the dried out grilled chicken. The whole thing was a bad idea and probably did not create new customers but rather brought out the worst in people looking for a free meal.

@frank64: Yeah...I'd love to see half as much effort put in to revamp health care.

Maybe health care reform activists just need to give away more free greasy food...

I don't think it was purposeful at the store level, but if corporate didn't inform and prepare their individual stores, I can see where some might consider it fraud. Shame people are wasting their time with this suit, though.

@bluemarble Yes, I thought the bait and switch was "You offered us grilled chicken, but cooked it in beef lard". Apparently it's the old "I want free stuff waaaaaah" chant.

Not worth a lawsuit in the least, but I really, really wish companies would realize what they're letting themselves in for when they give away things for free. How many times have we seen variations on the themes of "Company server overwhelmed by coupon downloads" and "Company locations swamped with customers/running out of free product"? And the company always issues a statement to the effect of "Gee, we didn't know people would actually want free stuff!"

IT'S FREE STUFF. OF COURSE PEOPLE WILL WANT IT. I mean, if they don't want it, you should really start worrying, because obviously your product is horrible.

If you're going to have a giveaway, here's what you need:

1) Backup servers for your backup servers
2) A supply of the free thing that's at least ten times what you think you need
3) All the employees you can fit into your stores

And you're still going to get slammed, but at least you'll be halfway prepared, unlike all these flaming morons.

Part of the problem was that corporate didn't coordinate with the franchises and some turned down requests for free chicken. If this lawsuits prompts companies to do a better job working out promotions with their franchises, then that's not a bad thing.

I just received my chicken coupon in the mail this morning. The problem is I never signed up for one as I don't eat chicken. I have a feeling a greedy friend will be following up with me about it in the near future though.

@H3ion: He's filed the suit--that doesn't mean it's going to get heard.

@Cruc: +1

I think they more than made up for it by offering extended coupons to those that weren't able to get their meal.

Six flags didnt get sued after is "Free Admission" Debacle a few years back when people drove for hundreds of miles and they closed the park...

@CumaeanSibyl: They should also learn about this thing called the "Internets". You put out a free offer and everybody finds out about it! There were Pakistanis angry because they couldn't get free chicken in Islamabad.

Oh, and Cloud Computing. Companies that do this online should learn about using the cloud to handle these deals.

@ezacharyk: Same here, more or less. If you got there early enough, you got your free chicken.

Whether you enjoyed it or not (I didn't) is another matter entirely.

I hope the lawyers just get paid with chicken coupons.

You know, after reading this article.. i could go for some grilled chicken.

Oh and "cost incurred from travel" ? Uhm.. what? KFC is responsible for the costs of their customers driving to KFC?

Whatever happened to personal responsibility?

These lawsuits always seem to be promoted by lawyers; they will represent one or two plaintiffs, and then they'll try to get more plaintiffs to join the class action suit. What happens then is the attorneys representing the "class" of litigants will negotiate a deal with the defendants (KFC) whereby all the plaintiffs in the class get some stupid settlement like a coupon for $5 off their next KFC meal, but the lawyers who represented them in the class action suit get the defendants to agree to a settlement to pay them MILLIONS in legal fees.

Over the years, I have received dozens of notifications asking me to join one or another class action lawsuit, usually for products I have purchased years before, and I have always refused because I don't want to unjustly enrich lawyers in this form of legal extortion.

@Saboth: Yeah, but a meal is a very time-dependent thing. If I have enough time on lunch break to go to ONE store hoping to get free eats, and they're "out", you pretty much have to spend money at the place otherwise you go hungry.

Not cool.

Bait and Switch laws are in place for a reason. If KFC knew, or should should have known, that the majority of people trying to use coupons would end up having to buy something else, then the lawsuit is a good thing.

It's not about somebody not getting free chicken, it's about a Corporations lack of regard for the law and advertising anything they dam well please. The whole franchises not honoring parent corporations advertisements is getting out of hand and does need to get reigned in.

This is probably an appropriate suit at an appropriate time. Might help the overall franchises business.

I also had no trouble getting my KFC the first day. They even let us (hubby and I) choose light or dark meat and what sides we wanted. We've gotten grilled chicken a few times since then because we liked it when we got it free. I think that KFC needs to fix the problems that caused the issues in the first place. ie Deal with their own people. Honestly, when you give away free food anytime, even without people having money issues, it's probably going to end up in disaster. I'm just glad I didn't have any problems.

@CumaeanSibyl: Or at least the ability to give out rainchecks to come back at another time like Denny's did with their free grand slam promotion.

A company that doesn't know that people will actually want free stuff is... a very moronic company (and probably not a company that I want to do business with). Someone up in marketing doesn't know what they are doing.

Of course this is only fast food so its very trivial in the general scheme of things. I personally don't even eat fast food unless its a very big emergency that I have not planned for. If it was a company that myself or my company that I work for was doing big business with and they did a promotion similar to this and were completely unprepared, I might reconsider where I take my business.

There is a local Dairy Queen that does half price day and they get slammed like you wouldn't believe with people buying 2 or 3 days worth of food however they are extremely prepared and probably the most prepared they can possibly be given the size of their store. Even though its only half price food believe me people treat it likes its free food. They hire extra employees for the day and they never run out of food. I have never seen them run out of anything during this sale. They make the cakes and ice cream during the day so they can constantly refill the freezer. The manager is on hand and smiles and personally hands off the food to each customer purchasing. I really want to give props to my local dairy queen for doing this right.

This is an example of how a promotion can go very well and be done right.

Can we start tasering people who use the phrase "bait and switch" when they clearly don't know what it means?

@Saboth: Everyone eventually got their free chicken.

Nope - never got my chicken. So, not everyone did.

I know it's wasteful and stupid and all... but a part of me wants to see the suit proceed, merely for my amusement. Yes, I'm a bad person, I know.

@El_Fez: I was never able to get the coupon link to work and I got a blow-off email from KFC. Stupid move on their part but worth a lawsuit? I dunno.

@Saboth: Why not? It's their offer. If you're going to offer a free meal to everyone, then you have a responsibility to act in good faith to have enough.

I went down with my coupon and was turned away. They I had to go back and get a form. Then fill out the form and wait for a new coupon. So what should have been "go down for my free meal" turned into "make 3 separate trips to KFC to only get free food on the third trip".

I'm sure lots and lots of people made purchases there when they were expecting to be able to use their coupon. Seems like there was still plenty of fried chicken, so why wasn't that chicken grilled instead? Hmmmmmmm.

In the end, it became too much work and I never got my free chicken.

@Saboth:

I guess if there are still people that haven't gotten their chicken, that is a different story. I was lead to believe they would fulfill their agreement before the promotion was over.

@sanjsrik: mmmmmmmmm...zombie chickens.

@floraposte: It will cost them money to show up and defend against it, or to file motions for summary dismissal, or whatever.

@H3ion: I'm not at all fond of the abuses too many corporations do to people. But this is certainly a case of abuse of the legal system.

I actually got three free meals (out of the four entitled) by going back three different days. On the fourth day, they said they ran out of chicken, and issued the rain check coupon. But I was very surprised by the quality and the fact they let me choose white meat.

I admit that I was a glutton, and don't expect the free coupon to be mailed. But overall, I was really happy by the promo after I got the coupons to print (which was a nightmare, especially on my Mac).

I'm sorry for all those that didn't get hot, juicy, fresh chicken and sides. Our NYC 14th Street store has been consistently good.

Sheesh. Is a piece of free chicken really THAT important to some people? As if another restaurant wouldn't be right beside KFC or around the corner if they were worried about wasting time driving there during their work break for lunch?

Ridiculous.

Wow close. I do not for a minute believe that this was an intentional scam. Ill concieved to be sure but save the CA suits for something important

@burnedout: I couldn't agree more with you. Yes, the other posters here have a point, "It's free, what do you want, anyway?" But this lawsuit serves the larger good. I am SO sick and tired of idiot-ahole consultants running these promotion gimmicks at these companies and wasting consumer's time, just as much as the potential of wasting their money. People shouldn't have to call individual stores before they go and say "do you have any chicken left?" when they are PROMOTING it. HELLO!

Technically, consumers who spent time and money and energy driving to stores for the sucker-punch promotion should be compensated gas money too, therefore, lawsuit warranted. Not that they'll get that out of the lawsuit. That's a whole nother topic.

KFC, Do your damn job, plan the promotion right and make sure you are ready before wasting everyone's time with "Sorry, we are a chicken business and we are out of chicken, have a nice day". Retardiculous, and they deserve to be a laughing stock and ridiculed for it.

Stop doing things Colonel Sanders would be ashamed of and want to beat you with his cane for, or stop showing his picture everywhere.

Oprah should sue them too for any damage to her reputation out of it.

I ordinarily would not support such a thing but in this case I think it's fully justified. Not only was the KFC management totally irresponsible in thinking they could force franchised stores to provide unreimbursed food, but they also probably didn't count on the fact that some of the franchisees that wouldn't offer the food would also refuse to accept a voucher request (KFC in Whitehall, Michigan, I'm giving you the stink eye) because it was "too late in the day" (5:30 PM) on the last day of the promotion. So I support this particular lawsuit, just because of the massive stupidity shown by the KFC corporation in how they handled this.

@Red_Eye: They should have been and should have had to give out vouchers for those folks. A smart business would do this without question and further partner with some oil & gas concern for discounts on re-fillups too.

@Knippschild: It's not people's personal responsiblity to get ripped off.

@labeled: I remember my aunt crying foul when I told her that they were canceling the promotion early.

"It's because of people who take advantage of the system and ruin it for everyone."

Nevermind that she had photocopied her coupon 15 times.

@Outrun1986: Thank you! So to all the KFC apologists and advocates on here, why couldn't THEY do what DQ does as Outrun states above? Hmmm?

Because they don't care. And when you don't care and you therefore inconvenience others, you need to be made to pay.