25 Times Companies Promised More Than They Could Deliver
Most companies want nothing more than to drum up demand. Special promotions and flashy launches are one way to create buzz, even if the product ends up flopping. Other times, these products need no special marketing, selling like crazy on their own, or in some cases, falling far behind expectations. Either way, it's a dream — until high demand or low sales backfire — leaving throngs of disgruntled customers as companies jack up prices in hopes of remaining profitable. From Cabbage Patch Dolls to movie tickets many companies have overpromised and underdelivered, including a maker of fitness equipment that just reported a substantial quarterly and annual loss.
Related: Companies' Worst PR Fails
During the height of the pandemic, Peloton couldn't build its pricey exercise bikes and treadmills fast enough, resulting in frustrated consumers waiting months for equipment to be delivered. But now that fitness enthusiasts have started heading back to the gym, there's less demand for Peloton's products, leaving the company to bleed red ink. Peloton's revenue fell 28% and it lost more than $1.2 billion in the three months ended June 30, bringing the total loss for the year to $2.8 billion. The losses don't end there. Peloton is also cutting jobs — about 800 of them — and shuttering stores, prompting customers and investors to wonder whether the company can regain its footing.
Ten bucks a month to see one movie a day is a shockingly good deal — and that’s probably the reason MoviePass ran out of money. In 2018, frustrated subscribers were turned away at the box office when the company couldn’t pay for users’ tickets. In a desperate attempt to stay afloat, MoviePass raised prices and limited subscribers’ access to some big-name first-run movies, but those moves couldn't save the company, which folded in 2019. But it turns out MoviePass is back for an encore presentation. Its co-founder, Stacy Spikes, bought the company out of bankruptcy and is launching the MoviePass beta app on Labor Day weekend, with $10, $20, and $30 subscriptions based on the user's market. Each user will get a limited number of credits to use for movies each month. The signup waitlist opens Aug. 25, and the lucky ones who make the cut will also get 10 invitations for friends.
Related: The Worst (and Best) Movies Made From Beloved TV Shows
Bringing back the cult-favorite Mexican pizza seemed like a slam dunk for Taco Bell … except that most consumers can't find it. Taco Bell removed the item from menus in 2020 to streamline offerings during the pandemic, but the decision met with outrage from fans. So, with much fanfare — including a Dolly Parton-led TikTok musical — the Mexican pizza reappeared on menus in mid-May. But Taco Bell underestimated its dedicated fan base, because the pizza is already sold out at most locations. Demand is a staggering seven times higher than the last time the Mexican pizza was on the menu, with one location selling 1,000 in one day. The Bell has to get its supply chain straightened out, so don't expect to see the Mexican pizza back on menus until this fall.
Related: Fast Food Dishes With Obsessive Followers
Maybe it's true — there really is no such thing as a free lunch. Grubhub received more attention than it bargained for when it offered New York City residents $15 off their orders for three hours when they used the code FREELUNCH on the delivery app. So many customers clamored for the deal that it crashed the Grubhub app and website shortly after the offer went live, causing scores of angry (and hungry) users to complain that their orders were hours late — or canceled completely. Grubhub was able to fix the jam with only 30 minutes left to spare in the promotion.
Though Donald Trump promised he would "let truth prevail" with the launch of his social network, Truth Social, the site's rollout has been riddled with technical glitches. It suffered a 13-hour outage, and has a waiting list for hundreds of thousands of potential users. The site's logo is also identical to that of a British truck solar-panel company, and a company executive told The Washington Post that it is "seeking legal advice." Even on a help page, the site's own name was misspelled — oops. Former California Rep. Devin Nunes, who now works as a CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group, has pledged Truth Social will be fully up and running by the end of March. (Incidentally, Truth Social was quick to lock out an account named for a Twitter parody of Nunes.)
It’s the chicken sandwich that spawned long lines, brawls, and even a fatal stabbing. Popeyes’ crown jewel debuted in August 2019, and demand was so brisk that the chain shortly ran out, even spurring one Tennessee man to sue, alleging false advertising and deceptive business practices. Why all the hubbub? Well, between the buttered brioche bun, the thick, buttermilk-battered filet, and the tart pickles, the sandwich really is that good, fans insist. And has history has shown, it has inspired knockoffs at nearly every other fast-food chain.
Amazon relentlessly promotes Prime Day, but in 2018, the e-commerce giant was caught with its pixels down. The website crashed outright when deals were released, and technical glitches continued to plague would-be customers for hours, costing Amazon untold amounts of business. And it's not the first time Prime Day had left customers angry. In 2015, shoppers flooded Twitter with complaints about subpar deals on items no one wanted, such as no-name women's underwear and old Adam Sandler movies.
Amazon's difficulties probably had Build-A-Bear executives breathing a little easier in 2018 after being in the hot seat for a botched "pay your age" promotion, which had the stores offering $2 bears to 2-year-olds, $5 bears to 5-year-olds, and so on. The hysteria that followed seemed predictable to everyone — well, everyone except Build-A-Bear. Lines of frenzied parents and kids reached epic proportions, forcing local authorities to put a stop to the deal.
Nutella has always been popular in Europe, but the French took their devotion to new heights when supermarket Intermarché slashed prices independently on the chocolate-hazelnut spread in 2018. Fights erupted between customers, leaving at least one worker with a black eye and an elderly woman with a box thrown over her head. One store reported selling out of three months' worth of Nutella in minutes.
The Unicorn Frappuccino was one of several fast-food misfires in 2017. Starbucks couldn't keep up with demand for the insanely sugary concoction and many stores ended up selling out of the colorful drink, leading angry customers to vent online. The shortages were cheered by one group, however: bone-tired baristas who spent their days coated in the pink and blue powder they had to sprinkle into each drink.
Video-game consoles are notorious for whipping up insane customer demand, but Nintendo might be king when it comes to disappointing customers. Few were able to track down an SNES Classic in 2017, and it was the same story for the console's predecessor, the NES Classic. Ditto for the initial release of the Nintendo Switch and the Wii. The chronic shortages led many to speculate that Nintendo deliberately creates shortages to create buzz — a charge the company has denied, and one that might seem novel in light of today's very real shortages, driven by a lack of microchips.
McDonald's introduced Szechuan sauce in the late '90s as a tie-in with the Disney movie "Mulan," but it didn't stay in restaurants permanently. After the condiment was featured on an episode of Cartoon Network's late-night cult favorite "Rick and Morty," fans took to social media, pleading for McDonald's to bring it back. McDonald's was all too happy to oblige for a single-day stunt in 2017, but quickly ran out — forcing cops to deal with irate customers chanting, "We want sauce."
Free pizza is bound to draw a crowd. Domino's found out the hard way in 2016 after it co-sponsored a promotion with T-Mobile that offered free pizzas to T-Mobile customers through a special app. Stores reported massive increases in orders, partially because the deal wasn't limited to one pizza per account or household. Domino's stepped in to save its struggling stores, pulling out of the deal after a couple of weeks.
Tesla created enormous buzz in 2016 when it introduced a more affordable electric vehicle: the $35,000 Model 3. Of course, the funny thing about affordable vehicles is that consumers want to buy them. The company took in hundreds of thousands of preorders, but after significant production roadblocks, nearly a quarter of would-be customers ended up requesting a refund of their deposit.
Target relishes its cheap-chic reputation, but its much-ballyhooed partnerships with designer brands haven't always gone smoothly. The most notorious example: Stores sold out of Lilly Pulitzer for Target merchandise in minutes in 2015, leaving long lines of frustrated shoppers — and a thriving market for marked-up items on eBay. The store faced a similar debacle in 2011 with its Missoni for Target line, and in 2018 with Hunter for Target.
Makeup-chain Sephora has some truly devoted customers, many of whom are members of its Beauty Insider customer loyalty program. Members earn points when they buy products, and they can redeem them down the road for reward merchandise — at least, that's how it's supposed to work. During an "epic rewards" promotion in 2015, the rewards turned out to be so over-the-top that they were gone in seconds. Frustrated fans launched a revenge campaign to return everything they'd bought in the past 60 days, even if it was already used, to exploit the store's lenient return policy.
Lines form at Apple stores with most every new product, but some releases are more infamous than others. In 2012, the iPhone 5 saw double the preorders of the iPhone 4S, and nearly quadruple the number of the iPhone 4. Stores sold out of their initial supply in under two days, and even those who placed preorders had to wait several weeks to get their hands on a shiny new phone. If Apple learned from its mistake, it had a funny way of showing it: The same thing happened a couple of years later with the iPhone 6.
Air Jordan devotees swarmed stores during the holidays in 2011, hoping to land a coveted pair of Nike's limited-release Air Jordan 11, a white shoe with sleek patent-leather accents. Instead, some of them got a face full of pepper spray as long lines led to fights and arrests all over the country. Some customers angrily accused Nike of artificially creating a frenzy by keeping production low. The company has stayed mum about how many shoes it actually cranked out.
KFC learned the hard way that you shouldn't use Oprah to sell a product if you don't want to sell out — and then some. The company used her show in 2009 to promote a free offer for two pieces of its new grilled chicken, two sides, and a biscuit. Millions of hungry customers tried to take KFC up on the deal (some with photocopied coupons), forcing executives to renege after just a couple of days because of extreme demand.
Chicken devotees weren't the only fast-food customers to get burned in 2009. Quiznos rolled out a Million Sub Giveaway and, unsurprisingly, at least a million hungry customers showed up. But when some tried to redeem their coupons, they were met with strange stipulations, refusals, and rudeness from franchisees. Turns out franchisees were mad because Quiznos was making them eat the cost of the promotion — no pun intended — instead of paying for it.
In one of the stranger marketing stunts in recent history, Dr. Pepper in 2008 decided to troll Guns N' Roses by promising free soda to everyone in the U.S. if the band finally released its album "Chinese Democracy" after keeping fans waiting for 14 years. Lo and behold, the band released the album. Dr. Pepper scrambled to modify its promotion, forcing people to sign up online to get a coupon, but there were still so many thirsty deal-seekers that the website crashed, leaving many empty-handed. A lawyer for Guns N' Roses later demanded full-page apologies from the company in several national newspapers for a campaign that "brazenly violated our clients' rights."
When Pokémon fever first gripped the country in the late '90s, Burger King was there to capitalize with a $22 million promotion. It gave out Pokémon toys with its kids' meals in 1999, but the insatiable demand caused many several restaurants to run out. Pokémon collectors snapping up toys were part of the problem — one even tried to buy 500 kids' meals at a restaurant in Chicago. But the shortages ended up being the least of Burger King's Pokémon problems: It had to recall 25 million of the toys after two children suffocated because the plastic Pokémon balls became suctioned to their faces.
Tickle Me Elmo will forever live on as one of the nuttiest holiday toy crazes. Tyco's laughing, furry Elmo doll became an unexpected hit in 1996 after being featured on Rosie O'Donnell's daytime talk show as well as on"Today." Sellouts fueled news coverage, which in turned fueled even more demand. Then came the inevitable reports of fights, trampled customers, and parents running after delivery trucks.
It was the toy fiasco that started it all: the Cabbage Patch Doll craze of 1983. Ingenious marketing of the unique "adoptable" dolls worked a little too well, and manufacturer Coleco ended up selling millions before the holiday season even began. As shortages started to plague stores, overeager parents resorted to camping in parking lots and ripping boxes from each other's hands.
Pantyhose have fallen out of favor with many women, but in the 1940s it was a different story. When DuPont introduced nylon stockings, they sold out in days to women all too happy for an alternative to fussy silk ones. But U.S. troops fighting in World War II needed nylon for parachutes, ropes, and other goods, so it was rationed — and stockings were nowhere to be found. That is, until the war ended. In 1945, women clamored for nylon stockings again, resulting in massive lines. In Pittsburgh, 40,000 women lined up for 13,000 pairs.
Like Cheapism's content? Be sure to follow us.
