Melinda's Musings

You might remember a few weeks ago when KFC advertised their new Grilled chicken by letting people download coupons for a free meal. Wow, what a great deal. I went to the site straight away and downloaded some coupons. I was annoyed that it forced the user to download a coupon program, but it was so that a unique bar code could be generated. That made sense, so that people couldn’t duplicate coupons. I was excited about using the coupons that weekend, but when I went to KFC to use them. I was told that they were no longer honoring the coupon due to fraud. The girl behind the counter said that people had been copying the coupons and using them over and over. This made no sense to me since wasn’t that the whole point of having to download the annoying coupon printer? Perhaps she was just misinformed. She gave me a form that could be filled out and mailed in or turned in at the store for rain check coupons that could be used at a later date. At any rate, I did not buy anything there that day and went somewhere else to eat. I was not about to get duped into the old bait and switch trick.

After I got home, I filled out the form and sent it along with my printed coupons to KFC. I was extremely annoyed with the whole affair as I’m sure plenty of other people were too. I don’t know what KFC’s marketing department was thinking, it should have been obvious from the start that there could be trouble.

A few weeks after I mailed in my coupons, I received my new KFC coupons in the mail and these coupons also included a free drink which was nice. However, the coupons were not good until almost two months after the date I received them. Perhaps they are hoping that in two months time I will forget about the coupons and they won’t have to give out the free meals after all.

It is nice that KFC wanted to give out free meals, but they really should have thought through the whole thing a little better. When they quit honoring the coupon, I’m sure it upset a lot of people. Maybe it upset them enough not to want to go to KFC again, or at least put a black mark on the KFC name. Some people in California were so upset that they are suing KFC. It will be interesting to see how that lawsuit turns out. In a couple of months time, I plan to enjoy my free KFC grilled chicken and I will then be able to determine if it was worth all the fuss.

I started receiving calls a couple of days ago on my work phone from people thinking I had called them. I hadn’t called anyone and rarely even use my work phone. After a few calls, I was curious and answered the phone and asked the person who called what number they were trying to reach. The lady said that my number was on her caller id and she just hit call back. I asked what the number was. I immediately saw what the problem was, my work number is the same as the first 7 digits of the number, so the caller id did not dial 1 first, hence the first 7 digits of my number is what was dialed in my area code and it ignored the last three digits. This would not be a problem on a cell phones, but landlines still require the 1.

I am absolutely amazed at the number of people who call back a number that they don’t even recognize. I usually don’t answer unrecognized numbers, much less call them back. A quick Google search of the phone number revealed that it was from Pennsylvania and there were several complaints of it being a telemarketer selling cruises. There are several web sites such as Caller Complaints where people can report telemarketing calls and also comment on them. I have not been answering my phone when outside calls come in, however, one lady was quite insistent and left 3 voice mails asking to be called back. I finally called her back and explained the situation. This morning I had 5 voice mails, some hang-ups and some actual messages. Some people even tell me their name, phone number and where they live. It’s somewhat amusing but also annoying. Hopefully the telemarketer will be shut down soon or use a different number and I will quit getting these calls!