Oprah, her Free KFC Coupon & New KFC Chicken...
In conjunction with the release of KFC's grilled food, Oprah "hooked up" the entire country with coupons for a free meal. This sounds like a nice gesture of epic proportions.
There are two problems that have arisen since the coupon was announced. 1) In order to print the coupon, you have to navigate to a site that downloads spyware to your computer. It's not printed directly at oprah.com or KFC.com. 2) KFC can barely keep up with demand and huge, long lines are forming. This may not be a problem in smaller to medium towns but in big cities where houseplants have their own computers and printers, the crowds have been of swarm proportions.
I printed the coupon but BF is a super mondo geek and will take care of cleaning the spyware out of my computer. Alas, I haven't had time to redeem it.
Has anyone tried the chicken? Any opinions? (If anyone is interested in braving the spyware to print the coupon, go to oprah.com and there will be a link to the site where you can print it.)
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19 Comments:
I don't know if this will deprive me of a SE credential to say this, but even if I ate chicken, the thought of dealing with computer problems would take away my appetite. I update my antivirus software every night and I've still been through two hard drives this year.
HeartofGlass at 6:03AM on 05/07/09
Here's a tip...rid yourself on Windows...and try open source operating systems. LINUX. No more viruses, spyware, blue screens. It's like a Utopian world. I don't have any computer problems. Sorry...I'm not shilling anything...open source is FREE.
(This is all hubby's fault. He's turned me against Microsoft...and it feels so good!)
arm1970 at 8:04AM on 05/07/09
i wouldn't eat that stuff even if they delivered it to my house, for free.
poor chickens.
pooch at 8:26AM on 05/07/09
@
therealchiffonade at 10:22AM on 05/07/09
I got the coupons and went to the KFC yesterday, I live a big city had no problem with swarms of people and there are very few KFC's around here. The chicken was really good, not greasy, very moist, the amount of spices was not overwhelming with salt ect. i would get it again I got another coupon for a buckets and a few sides. The two sides that come with it i chose the slaw because I have loved the shit since a kid, that was great as ever, and the mac and cheese....uh that I would stay clear of not inedible but close. The biscuit was great. But hey it was for free, and like I said the chicken was moist and really good tasting.
pjracz10 at 12:27PM on 05/07/09
I tried the chicken. I was not impressed. Mine was dried out and not as flavorful as one would hope -- 11 herbs and spices be damned. You'd do better to go snag a five buck roast chicken from Costco.
VioletCrumble at 12:50PM on 05/07/09
Oh crap! My whole response didn't post! Grrrrr...
If it means anything - Had I known I would have to visit a 3rd party site, I would not have downloaded the coupons. When Oprah announced the availability of the coupons, there was no mention of a 3rd party site. I thought there would be a printable coupon right on oprah.com or kfc.com. I haven't tried the chicken yet as I haven't had time to locate a KFC. I'm kind of anxious to try it and I'm glad KFC has finally acknowledged they're omitting a sector of the population (counting me) that doesn't eat fried food. If I ever get out to try the stuff, I'll let you know what I think...LOL.
You know the other thing is that the chain is so slammed right now with people looking for the freebies, I suspect even someone who tastes it during the promotion is getting something a great deal different than he or she would have after the frenzy is over.
therealchiffonade at 2:34PM on 05/07/09
I didn't have problems getting the coupon or finding a KFC with no lines to honor it. But the chicken is pretty bad. I wrote a review here:
http://tinyurl.com/cy7yxa
Hopefully therealchiffonade is right and once the spectacle has passed the quality will improve. But you'd think they would put their best foot forward to promote the brand.
NCGourmet at 5:21PM on 05/07/09
@arm1970 While this is a cooking site, I feel I have to refute your comment. It takes as long to learn Linux and all it's ticks, while finding versions of your software that work with it, or alternatives that do what you want, as it does to learn how to properly care for your PC. Linux is a neat toy, and I'm told it's a good server, but it's no Desktop OS for everyday regular people.
As to the chicken, I'm in Canada, No free chicken for me. I MIGHT try it out after if I am hungry and KFC is nearby, but past experience has shown me that KFC isn't as good as it once was.
thepirateking at 5:28PM on 05/07/09
@pirate - You are absolutely RIGHT about Linux. Hence the reason it is running on servers all over the world and not desktops. I should have mentioned my husband is a Sr. Linux Admin for the City of Raleigh and I've had to use Linux at home for several years now. Yes, it has it's quirks - it's not very user-friendly unless you're totally geeked out like my hubby. However, it does have the benefits that I mentioned and that's the only reason I brought it up. Actually, I shouldn't have brought it up at all since this isn't a computer site. Just trying to mention some alternatives to my friends here at SE. ; )
arm1970 at 6:01PM on 05/07/09
@chiff--I think, given the heinousness of spyware, that Colonel Sanders himself should come over to your home and fry you up some of his real original recipe for your grief!
HeartofGlass at 6:17PM on 05/07/09
Since my experiences with KFC have generally been pretty bad, I've felt not a glimmer of curiosity about their grilled stuff. That said, many of our office young went to the KFC at 42nd and Madison in NY. The KFC stopped serving the free chicken and a sit in protest happened. The customers were livid. I don't think so much because they were denied what would have been, at best, mediocre chicken, but because the franchise had no sign posted as to the end time (it was around 1pm) and people were just plain pissed that they would pull something like this.
the story
chisai at 8:30PM on 05/07/09
@Heart, spyware doesn't damage hard drives. If someone's telling you that you need to do that, you're getting bad (and expensive) advice.
As for KFC, I'm really not that curious.
The spyware thing should be interesting, if that part of it gets well known. Bad for Oprah and KFC.
dbcurrie at 8:58PM on 05/07/09
I haven't tried it yet but it sounds like they are focusing more on marketing than the actual flavor of the chicken, which makes sense... If you want good quality chicken, cook it yourself!
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 11:59PM on 05/07/09
@dbcurrie I know that spyware does not damage hard drives. I was speaking in general of computer problems.
My hard drive was destroyed by a virus that masqueraded as spyware, incidentally--the screen went blue with an advertisement saying I needed spyware, and everything froze.
And no, the advice wasn't expensive.
HeartofGlass at 5:32AM on 05/08/09
I know this is OT, but I gotta answer...@heart, again you said that your hard drive was destroyed, which to me sounds like it was not repairable. That's not possible. If you're throwing away drives because of viruses or spyware, you're getting some faulty advice. I understand that new drives aren't crazy expensive, but it's still a cost that isn't necessary.
If you mean destroyed as in the data wasn't salvageable, that's still very unlikely. Most malware targets system files and leaves user files alone, and even if the computer isn't bootable, the data is still easy to retrieve. I do it all the time.
...now back to our regularly scheduled program.
I'd be interested in trying the KFC chicken one of these days, but no way am I going to stand in line for it. My time is worth more than the value of the free chicken, I'm sure.
And like every other KFC product, the quality is going to vary from store to store and from time to time. It's going to be a lot better when it's fresh than when it's been sitting around under heat lamps.
dbcurrie at 12:25PM on 05/08/09
@dbcurrie--the person who looked over my computer tried numerous things, including all of the recovery programs at our disposal. He is a computer engineer at a major firm, and a friend of the family and I have great confidence in his advice. Given you did not see the problem, I see no reason for you make patronizing and arrogant statements about my lack of computer expertise. It is possible I am not explaining the problem eloquently, but I certainly think you have no reason to pass judgment, given a few LIGHTHEARTED and HUMOROUS comments I meant to inject into a thread about chicken.
My point was that the aggregation of downloading coupons is often not worth the 'free food,' when my obviously lame attempt at a joke turned into a commentary about my computer skills.
@chiff, sorry your thread turned into this. Why does free chicken generate so much hate? A paradox.
HeartofGlass at 12:39PM on 05/08/09
The last time I ate at KFC I was on the toilet for two days. No thanks.
chardonnay at 1:07PM on 05/08/09
@Heart, I didn't mean to sound arrogant or patronizing. You're one of my favorite people here, and I'd hate to see you ripped off by someone telling you that you need to buy hardware when you've got a software problem. I really didn't want to offend you...I was trying to protect you if you were being taken advantage of. It happens all the time. Because people don't know how to fix things like computers, dishwashers, cars, microwave ovens...whatever...there are plenty of other people who take advantage of that. And as I tell my customers, I don't expect them to know about their computers the way I do, because it's what I do...on the other hand, when it comes to my car, I have to trust my mechanic because I can barely fathom where the windshield washer fluid goes. I'd just hate to see you trusting someone who's giving you bad advice.
And I don't mean to imply that your friend is stupid or malicious, but spyware and viruses change every day. If you're not in the business and not dealing with it on a regular basis, there's no way to keep up with all the symptoms and all the tricks to fix the problems. Computer engineers come in a wide variety and the ones that deal with hardware or programming aren't necessarily up-to-date on the latest computer bugs. I have customers who work for Seagate and IBM who bring their computers to me for repair. They might be able to write elegant code or design a servomotor, but when it comes to viruses, it's still a foreign land to them.
@all, I apologize for taking this thread so far off track. I'll shut up about it now.
@heart, I really do apologize. If you want to take any of this offline, you can email me: dbcurrie at gmail dot com.
dbcurrie at 1:18PM on 05/08/09