After hearing the exciting news on Baja Fresh’s Facebook Fan Page that today was free burrito day (with the purchase of a drink), I decided to check it out. The coupon clearly states “must present printed coupon at redemption time.” SO – in an effort to be green and save paper, I pasted three coupons in MS Word for myself and my two friends (who were also fans of their fanpage) from Baja's Facebook Fan Page and set off to the Torrance, CA location. After trekking through a half an hour of traffic to the nearest location and waiting on line for 10 minutes to order, our coupons were rejected and we were turned away. The manager had a bogus reason for not accepting the coupon, saying that the coupon needed to be printed directly off of their facebook fan page. She said our coupons couldn’t be accepted because they may have been photocopies and not an original. I don’t get it Baja– even if the coupon came from your facebook fan page, couldn't it still be photocopied?!
In simpler form, I brought 3 of these coupons below like Baja instructed, printed on white paper & cut out (the coupon clearly has dotted lines, indicating it’s meant to be cut out):
What Baja began forcing customers to have on hand after the promotion went so viral, was this:
Not that it’s any harder to print out this coupon, because all you had to do to get it was click a button and become a fan of their page…
After arguing with the girl at the register for a few minutes, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at The Habit Burger Grill (good food + amazing customer service).
Upon returning home, I visited Baja'sFanpage once again and witnessed the up roar of angry customers who had dedicated their lunch break to enjoy a burrito, only to be turned away like we were.
Others were rejected for bringing black & white coupons printed from Facebook. Baja believed they needed to be printed in color. What if you don’t have a color printer?? The Northridge, California Baja Fresh offered one poor boy a free drink instead of the free burrito, stating the coupon was only good at Lunch. Only at Lunch Baja??? Your coupon CLEARLY states 11am-9pm. Another good one…
BF asks for pity on their homepage, mentioning that the promotion didn’t go as planned, that they didn’t expect the free burrito coupon to go so viral and had already given away a ton more than they had anticipated – that it was only meant for Facebook fans.
But really?? In this economy, how can you expect a free burrito NOT TO GO VIRAL?
Baja had a nice idea going for the fans but shouldn’t have been turning people away who simply brought in the coupon as clearly stated. The requirements for getting the free burrito should have been made clear from the start, not changed from store to store throughout the day because of their lack of planning.
I want my my lunch hour back + a few bucks for gas…
Not accepting the coupon as indicated for the promotion was unethical, irresponsible and clearly not thought out, surprising for such a big chain. Unfortunately for Baja, they may have lost a TON more fans than they should have been gaining today, all over a stinking burrito.
