Angry Chinese customers hold copies of KFC online coupons Tuesday to complain about KFC's refusal to honor the coupons at one of the US fast-food chain's restaurants in Beijing. Photo: IC

By Song Shengxia in Beijing and Ye Jun in Shanghai

Customers stormed the Kentucky Fried Chicken at the China World Tower in Beijing on Tuesday evening, flipping chairs and tables and refusing to leave after their coupons were denied, the branch's manager said Wednesday.

The anger stemmed from a national coupon promotion gone awry. It also resulted in KFC scrambling to do damage control after customers were told at counters that the discounts they had printed out from online weren't valid. Some customers refused to leave without an explanation, believing they had been deceived.

The promotion involved KFC branches across China, but it was abruptly canceled after it began Tuesday morning. Electronic coupons had been sent to the first 100 people who registered for a new "Super Value Tuesday" deal.

In an attempt to address consumer outrage, KFC Wednesday made an apparently vague pledge to honor the half-price coupons that had been downloaded from its official website.

The second and third rounds of the promotion were set to begin later Tuesday, but the chain ordered the deal stopped when it found that "coupons were already in circulation before the official releases," according to a statement issued by the company's headquarters in Shanghai and e-mailed to the Global Times Wednesday.

The statements also said "KFC China will recognize and accept e-coupons released by its official and authorized websites," but it added that customers would be required to produce evidence that their coupons had been obtained from official channels.

No indication was given as to how the "authorized" storycoupons could be verified.

According to the terms of the promotion, customers with the printed-out or copied e-coupons are entitled to a 50 percent discount if they buy the take-away family-serving Bucket, Chicken Strips, Extra-Tasty Crispy Burger, or Nuggets on particular days. The normal prices for the items range from 11 to 64 yuan ($1.60-$9.30).

According to the original plan, special discount vouchers were to be sold at a mere 0.01 yuan at taobao.com, a popular online auction and shopping website in China, at three intervals - at 10 am, 2 pm and 4 pm - each for a different type of coupon.

"All coupons relating to the second and third rounds of promotions currently in the market are fake. KFC restaurants, therefore, will not accept any of them," the company said.

Before KFC had issued its statement, a customer who only gave his surname, Qin, was one of the many demanding an apology from the company, saying he hoped it would reinstate the promotion.

The 26-year-old, who visited a KFC Qianmen branch at around 5:30 pm Tuesday, said he had called the store an hour earlier and was told the coupon was still valid.

"But when I got there, the store assistant told me my coupon was invalid," he said.

Qin and about 100 customers protested at the restaurant and were dispersed by police at around 9 pm.

In Shanghai, more than 30 disappointed customers lingered at a KFC branch on Wujiang Road until 11 pm Tuesday, demanding satisfaction. Some reportedly went to McDonald's, purchased food and ate it at the KFC.

Complaints have come out of other major cities as well, including Nanjing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Suzhou. Some have said that, apology aside, they weren't happy with the way they were treated.

Tian Cong, a 27-year-old in Beijing, visited a KFC at Caishikou, Xuanwu district, on Tuesday and told the Global Times that the restaurant's excuse for pulling the promotion, citing counterfeit coupons, was ridiculous.

"My coupon is real. I got the discounted chicken, why can't I get the discounted burger and family bucket?" he said, explaining that his coupon for the Colonel's Crispy Chicken Strips was accepted, but his others were rejected. He said the coupons came from www.kfcyouhui.com, KFC's official Chinese website.

"Even if the promotion may inflict some economic losses, KFC should not cheat Chinese consumers," he said.

KFC has been operating in China since it opened its first restaurant in Beijing in 1987. It has more than 2,100 outlets across 450 cities in the country.

Zhang Xiaoying, a lawyer from the Zhongzi Law Office, told the Global Times that there was no point in canceling the campaign when the e-coupons KFC released weren't marked with any sort of anti-falsification labels.

Global Times' enquires to the KFC Shanghai office about how to tell whether customers got their coupons from official channels were not answered.

A KFC public relations director surnamed Fan confirmed to the Global Times that they have reported the case to the police and the cause of the leaked coupons is under investigation.

Fu Chengwu, a lawyer specializing in consumer rights with the Beijing Bairui Law Firm, told the Global Times Wednesday that "KFC has the right to terminate the promotion if fake electronic coupons are found in use by consumers, because it has announced that it only accepts coupons downloaded from its official website or other authorized websites."

But he added that it still wasn't fair to customers who acquired the coupons legally.

"As a big company, it has to protect its own business interests," he said. "The company must have some solid evidence to prove fake coupons are in use. Otherwise, its image will be tarnished by breaking its promise."

Guo Qiang and Zhang Hui contributed to this story