Aaron was so close to a free Outback Steakhouse Bloomin’ Onion appetizer he could practically feel the fried batter clogging up his arteries.

He earned the coupon by logging onto Facebook and becoming a fan of the restaurant’s page, but found he couldn’t print it out after he viewed it. He writes:

I wanted to ask whether you’ve got any customer service contact info for Outback Steakhouse. I’m having trouble with their recent promotion and I can’t get hold of anybody who can help me out.

The promotion is pretty straightforward: become a fan of Outback Steakhouse on Facebook and get a coupon for a free Bloomin’ Onion with the purchase of an entree. I became their fan, and quickly received an e-mail with a link to my coupon. The e-mail warns that I’ll be able to view the coupon only once, so I’d better have my printer ready before clicking. I don’t have a printer at home, so I dutifully refrained from clicking the link, forwarded the e-mail to my work address, clicked on the link first thing Monday morning, and got an error message: “We are sorry but you have previously viewed this certificate.” This is clearly not the case, but I don’t seem to have any recourse.

Looking over Outback’s Facebook Wall indicates that I’m not the only one to experience this issue, and it looks like there are others who never got an e-mail at all.

Free Bloomin’ Onion with purchase of an entree isn’t that much, but I did jump through the required hoops, so I’d like to get what I was promised, but I don’t know where to go for assistance. Any chance you’ve got a customer service phone number for them?

My first suggestion would be to set up a dummy Facebook account, become a fan and get a new coupon. But contacting Outback’s customer service will also probably work. Any other ideas? A Bloomin’ Onion you have to pay for just wouldn’t taste as good.

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