A two-for-one promotion offered to Uni Times readers by Grill’d has backfired due to the brand not foreseeing digital distribution of the voucher.

The brand issued the following statement on its website:

Uni Times 2 for 1 Voucher Offer

Weve been inundated recently with people trying to redeem a 2 for 1 burger offer that has been doing the rounds via email. The 2 for 1 burger offer originated from the current print edition of the Uni Times Magazine (a magazine for Victorian Uni Students) and we only ever expected for this voucher to be available for readers of the print publication, and not available online.

The Uni Times 2 for 1 offer was intended to be limited to the readership of the Uni Times publication – otherwise we wouldnt have been able to offer it at all – All vouchers from the printed publication will be honoured. To get the real voucher just pickup a free copy of Uni Times from any of these locations.   We hope all of our customers can appreciate the good faith in which the offer was released, and that neither Grilld or its loyal customers will win in the long run if we allow digital copies or scans to be honoured for printed offers such as this. We know a lot of our loyal Grilld fans have  received electronic versions of the offer and we apologise for this, but we hope you understand that this was never our intention.

Grill’d has had to close down comments on the page, stating:

Weve had to close comments overnight to ensure we can monitor any abusive or offensive posts – well be open again in the morning.

A sample of the comments:

“You really should have included a condition that you need to show a student card if you wanted to limit it to Uni students… feel kinda sorry for the marketing person who is responsible for signing this off!!”

“Your customers tried to scam you Grilld, did they? Well this one will never visit Grilld again, so dont worry about being scammed. Grilld pulls a Toyota and destroys their brand loyalty with one stupid move. Good management skills, do you have a 15 year old CEO, or just a greedy moron. Bye.”

“You are a pack of rotten, two faced, lying, manipulating scum bags who over charge for mediocre burgers. Dont worry, the burger fad will die down and Grilld will be forced to close its doors in the very near future.”

“I am regular at Grill’d. Was very disappointed and humiliated when my friend and I were told at the counter that the voucher will not be honoured. Will never visit such dishonest venture who cant admit their own fault and chooses to blame it on their customers. Sorry Grill’d – wasnt happy.”

Update: @MrPaulB informs us Nandos has taken advantage of the situation. The rival brand is offering to honour the vouchers.