Fast Food Watch: McDonald's, KFC Draw Consumers' Ire Over New Promotions

Still lovin' it?

Can you super-size anger? Apparently the answer is yes, as McDonald’s found out when it allegedly became the victim of a group-buying scam.

Chinese consumers never expected that McDonald’s would issue group-buying coupons, so when 220,000 set meals went on sale on October 28 for RMB 9.9, the offer sold out within eight hours on Dianping.com, China’s most popular food review and coupon site.

However, the consumers’ happiness was not shared by McDonald’s, which announced on its Weibo page that same day that it would not honor the coupons, as the global burger chain had never signed any contracts with, nor authorized Dianping.com to sell them.

Under McDonald’s announcement Weibo post, netizens left comments like:

@被你二哭了 “I don’t believe Dianping.com is stupid enough to joke about business with McDonald’s. You can see the chain restaurants list which coupons they take, how come Dianping.com knows which restaurants take the coupon or not? This kind of detailed information must have come from McDonald’s itself.”

Although public anger was directed at McDonald’s, ultimately Dianping.com took responsibility on October 29, offering double compensation to customers who bought the coupons.

Some customers suspected the McDonald’s about-face on group buying was in response to a new KFC “Half-Price Bucket” promotion, also set for October 28. KFC also drew fast-food lovers’ ire, with some posting that the “Half-Price Bucket” is not a normal serving size, but, instead, half a bucket for half the price.

When will corporations learn that you don’t mess with the Chinese consumer?

Image: Dianping.com