Beginning yesterday at 3 PM ET, at least 500,000 people reportedly tried to access Olive Garden’s website to purchase the very limited edition Pasta Passes that would allow them to eat like bloated kings and queens for 49 days. Obviously, that sudden burst of traffic caused the chain restaurant’s website to crash, which left a lot of people really pissed off that they were losing their chances to purchase one of the 1,000 cards that were available. So where do people go when they’re irrationally furious with a company and want to express their rage in front of the rest of the world? Facebook, of course.
In fact, people are still posting comments about the Pasta Pass to Olive Garden’s Facebook page, whether because they’re pissed that they didn’t get one or with hopes that the Darden property will release more. The former far outweighs the latter, though.
“I must have reloaded the page 1,000 times over an hour. Complete waste of time and extremely frustrating. I’m very disappointed and the whole experience has put me off from your restaurants,” wrote John D. King.
“I know Olive Garden just lost my business. I tried for twenty minutes-even got to the check out once before getting booted out. This was not a promotion for regular working people-it was designed for people with a lot of free time,” wrote Jenny Richardson. (Via Penn Live)
For some people, it seems like doing the math was the hard part. A lot of complaints seemed to come from bitter bargain lovers who didn’t get passes. But for every 100 ladies accusing Olive Garden of false advertising because they don’t understand math and probabilities, there was at least one gentleman trying to use the greatest currency of all – manners. Still, the fury far outweighed the fun, and this guy took the top prize in my “Holy sh*t, it’s just a restaurant promotion, dude” contest.
It was a close one, though, because this guy was the runner-up, taking home the “Really, guy, you can still go eat endless pasta like the rest of the people who have given up” honor.
Okay, one more, because I’m just a sucker for people who spend their time ranting on corporately-owned restaurants’ Facebook pages.
I can’t believe the nerve of Olive Garden charging people $100 to eat now. That might cost them a lot of customers, if you ask me. But if you’re still really pissed off that you didn’t get one of these non-transferable Pasta Passes and you’re hellbent on eating at Olive Garden for 49 days, between Sept. 22 and Nov. 9, don’t worry. There are plenty available on eBay. They just might cost you a little more than $100.