It was supposed to be a summer promotion that would bring smiles to the city: free ice cream sandwiches delivered to anyone who downloaded Uber’s app and made a request.
But the plan, which was conducted in partnership with Vancouver artisan ice cream shop Earnest Ice Cream, quickly devolved into a social media disaster when supplies of ice cream failed to meet surging demand.
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Moreover, by the end of the day, Earnest Ice Cream had issued a formal apology.
The feel-good promotion was meant to work like this: beginning at 11 a.m., anyone who opened the Uber app in the downtown area could make a request for ice cream.
The company said it would donate $1 (to a maximum of $3,000 in total) for every delivery completed to the Vancouver Sun’s Children’s Foundation to fund school meal programs for kids in need.
But things kicked off to a rocky start, when people making ice cream requests — some shortly after the 11 a.m. start time — found there was no ice cream available.
As the day wore on, angry tweets with screenshots of “no ice cream available” or complaining of problems entering their credit card information began to appear.
Not everyone struck out.
Dozens of happy customers did take to Twitter to say they’d recieved ice cream sandwiches and tagging the posts with #UberIceCream, including HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes.
The perception that social media influencers had preferential access to the ice cream added venom to the online backlash.
As the ice cream shortage trended across social media on Friday, food delivery app Skip the Dishes jumped in to capitalize.
The company’s social media account replied to angry tweets promising that it would deliver free ice cream to anyone who direct messaged them before 4 p.m.
Uber’s social media account was busy throughout the afternoon replying to unhappy tweeters, asking people to be patient and keep trying to connect with its drivers.
Uber Canada Spokesperson Susie Heath said demand was simply too high, in response to challenges that users said they were facing.
“Demand for Vancouver favourite Earnest Ice Cream has been through the roof — we have been encouraging people to continue to request through the app so we can bring them a tasty treat. For those who aren’t able to connect with a car today, we have a special surprise in store for them.”
When the promotion wound down at 3 p.m., the company sent out a tweet declaring the promotion a success.
However, Earnest Ice Cream, Uber’s partner in the promotion, took a different track, calling the promotion a “mistake” and apologizing to its customers.
“Last week we made an agreement to sell ice cream sandwiches to a business who’s values do not align with our own,” its statement read in part.
“As we educated ourselves more thoroughly about Uber, we recognized that this is not a good fit for us. We apologize for not doing our due diligence ahead of time and we hope to rebuild the trust that may have been lost with some of you.”