Dr. Pepper sucks.
Or at least the corporate and logistics side of Dr. Pepper sucks.
You have all surely heard the story of Dr,. Peppers plans to give a free can of Dr. Pepper "every man, woman and child in the U.S." if the band Guns N' Roses released their Chinese Democracy disc before the close of 2008.
Image source: Denise&David via flickr dot com
An MTV page dated October 16, 2008 states:
The Dr Pepper spokesperson told MTV News that, while additional details will be forthcoming, the company's plan to distribute free cans of its product will involve some sort of an online coupon system. "People will go on Dr Pepper's Web site and we will send them a coupon for a free one," the spokesperson confirmed. "It's going to be real easy."
'Real easy'. Yeah right.
Well guess what happens when you try to log onto the site today, November 23, the date picked for the one-day coupon give-away...
You got it. Site hangs up or bounces you back to the registration page. Yup, that is right, they make you register at the site before you can even try to get to the actual page where (I assume) you might enter your mailing address for the coupon.
Do they strip the page down, get rid of the graphics so it loads quicker..?? No. Do they make it easy to leave a name and address..?? No. Though I suppose that might cut down on multiple requests from one individual.
All the while a clock ticks away at the top of the website, taunting you about how much time is left to 'register' for your free coupon...
Repeated attempts to enter and submit the information results in being bounced back to the same page sans some entered information. Or you are dumped at a stark 'Service Unavailable' page.
Efforts to call the listed toll-free number: 1-800-6965891, are, of course, fruitless as it either never connects or you get a busy signal.
Geezus. Hey Dr. Pepper: did you plan this out at all..?? Did you give some thought as to how you would handle the demand..?? Did you beef up your server base..?? Consider a longer submission period..?? Plan for anything that might have been 'customer friendly'..??
Well screw you. I will never buy another Dr. Pepper product again if my efforts to get this stupid free coupon go unrequited..!! And I will use the influence of this blog to keep thousands from doing the same . . .OK, maybe two or three peeps, if I am lucky.
But seriously . . .what the h3ll were you thinking..??
...sigh... OK, I am going back in for one more try ... wish me luck.
...tom...
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3 comments:
I somehow zoned out on all this, and never heard about it until Friday. What the heck does Dr. Pepper have to do with Guns 'N' Roses or Chinese Democracy? That's one weird bit of co-branding.
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hey there D.B.
This snopes page just happened to be the first one in my reader a few minutes ago. I think it re-sets the situation rather well.
...tom...
I love how there was NO MENTION of GnR or Chinese Democracy on Dr Pepper's page. I tried to resend the form over and over and after 20 or so "service unavailable"s I quit. FUCK DR PEPPER
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