Derek didn’t expect all that much from KFC. He picked up a chicken pot pie for a lunch treat, and brought it back to work. He found that it had what he calls “an extremely strong chemical smell and taste,” and wasn’t about to eat the pie. He’s not upset about the foul-tasting pot pie: he got on with his life. What he finds disappointing is that he reported it to KFC using the form on their web site, then called them on the phone, and received no response. Why bother having a form at all? Why bother having a customer service number if all the representatives are authorized to do is shrug?

Hi, I wanted to share a recent experience I had at KFC and the kind of customer service you can expect from them should you encounter a problem. This might seems like a long story for such a simple issue, but it is the principle of it that irks me most.

About 3-4 weeks ago I took a lunch break at my job to go visit a KFC in [redacted], MA to grab a quick bite to eat. I generally avoid fast food, but I do have cravings for their chicken pot pies, which I happen to find delicious for an occasional treat. I received the meal and went back to my work – as the KFC is quite a bit out of the way for me (I don’t mind going for a drive to get away from the office on my lunch). Once I got back to my work I attempted to eat the meal, but
the first bite was my last. I could not even eat the pie because it had an extremely strong chemical smell and taste, so much so that I didn’t even know if it was safe to eat. I say this with as least drama as possible – it did not ruin my day and I did not get sick or anything like that – but there was definitely something seriously wrong with the meal. I have had these pies many times before and know how they should taste.

Unfortunately, because my lunch was over, I was not able to return to the KFC to bring it back. I looked on their site to find a contact us form and they had one that had options to fill out problems with food, etc. I filled this out letting them know of my experience and possibly unsafe to eat food. Two weeks later I had heard nothing back.

I really am not a hard person to please. A simple response would have been sufficient, but after a few weeks when I had heard nothing I decided to give them a call about their lack of response. After sitting on hold for 5-10 minutes, I spoke to a girl on the phone and let them know that I was unhappy with my experience, but I was most unhappy that my complaint was completely ignored. She offered no apology or anything of use (why do they even have a customer service hotline?) and told me she would submit a second request for a response for me. From the sound and wording of her response, I got the impression this was a common occurrence for customers to not have any response to complaints. This was two months have gone by, and my experience and feedback has still been completely ignored.

I could[n’t] care less about the money. All I wanted was some kind of response from KFC. Up to this day I have not heard a single word from them. It is clear that their customer hotline and issue submission are not something that KFC even bothers looking at or care about. I would have been happier as a customer to not have a place to submit an issue or call then have a place to do so then have the issue completely ignored. KFC has alienated a customer and I will not return. I feel that KFC thinks if they ignore issues they will go away. I would likeothers to know about KFC and its care of customers.

Could Derek have received a refund or at least an apology if he had driven back to the restaurant with the offending pie? Yes. He most likely would have had a better result calling them up and asking for the manager, too. If the company isn’t going to do anything useful with the information they solicit from customers, though, why don’t they just take down that contact form from their site?

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