Domino’s pulls out of free pizza promotion with T-Mobile as demand skyrockets
Domino’s has pulled out of T-Mobile’s promotion offering its customers free pizza via its new customer rewards app after the fast food company couldn’t cope with the increase in order volume.
T-Mobile Tuesdays
The T-Mobile Tuesdays app, which launched earlier this month, crashed on its first day after a huge influx in customers. It has been created to offer loyal customers rewards, with new giveaways and deals every week.
One of the most popular offers on the app was a free Domino’s pizza for T-Mobile customers, but according to T-Mobile’s chief executive John Legere, Domino’s couldn’t handle the increase in order volume, and has pulled out of the promotion indefinitely.
Legere placed blame for the retraction of the offer on the pizza chain and even published an internal Domino’s memo explaining why the company was pulling the promotion.
3/ OMG @TMobile customers slammed @dominos stores!! They saw 3x & 4x in a typical day and can’t handle the volume. pic.twitter.com/jVvDGAqduS
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) June 15, 2016
The memo told its retail staff that it knew the program had "put a lot of stress on your stores" and said the decision has been made to discontinue the T-Mobile Tuesdays promotion "unless we can find a solution that is best for the brand".
In his tweet Legere said that Domino’s stores saw three to four times the volume of a typical Tuesday’s sales, and that the pizza brand "can't handle the volume".
The retraction of the free pizza offer comes as Domino’s faced backlash for limiting the number of free pizzas per store to cope with a sudden influx in orders, leaving many T-Mobile customers empty handed.
In a statement, Domino’s told TechCrunch the T-Mobile promotion generated "an overwhelming response" but said the demand was "significantly above what we agreed to in advance", resulting in an "understandably disappointing customer experience" for some.
The Domino’s promotion has since been replaced by a promotion by Lyft, which is offering free rides (a $15 value).