Red Robin caused quite an uproar on Thursday after its Bottomless Burger Pass went on sale.
The now sold-out pass, which cost $20, allows customers to get one free burger with a bottomless side every day in May in honor of National Burger Month.
But customers’ excitement over this promotion quickly turned to rage. Just minutes after the pass went on sale at 11 a.m. ET, the website began crashing due to such high traffic. By the time people were able to get through, the pass was sold out.
On X, customers aired their frustrations with Red Robin, with many noting that they spent over an hour trying to get the pass and ran into multiple issues, including receiving an “Access Blocked” message when they tried to purchase.
“i only woke up this early to try and score a free month burger pass at red robin only for the site to not load,” read one tweet.
Another read, “It was literally easier to get tickets to Taylor Swift than it is to get a Red Robin burger pass,” citing Swift’s Era tour and the resulting Ticketmaster fiasco.
Others had some choice words for the gourmet burger chain. “F— you Red Robin and your fake a– burger pass that no one could get,” penned one user.
Meanwhile, multiple people who made it to the Bottomless Burger Pass checkout page claimed their total was $682 instead of the promised $20.
As customers continued to run into dead ends, the brand stayed quiet on social media, which ultimately frustrated its patrons even more.
Some folks were so irate over the Bottomless Burger Pass “scam” that they vowed to boycott the chain.
“Well, it was fun while it lasted, but I am never going to Red Robin again after that scam,” said one user.
“Honestly, everyone should just boycott Red Robin until they give the public a real chance at this. I got to the page 4 times and it just wouldn’t fully load for me to do anything,” tweeted another.
In a statement provided to TODAY, a Red Robin representative apologized on the company’s behalf.
“We did everything we could to anticipate interest in the Bottomless Burger Pass, including working with our web and gift card partners to prepare for the influx of traffic, but due to overwhelming excitement in the pass — 12 million visits in the matter of seconds — our website and supporting systems crashed. We’re sorry that this happened to our loyal guests.”
Although the passes are currently sold out, Red Robin is choosing 12 of its Royalty members to get free burgers for a year. Members can enter to win by purchasing both a burger and a beverage while logged into their account between May 1 to May 31.
Red Robin had 498 U.S. restaurants as of 2024, with multiple locations in Upstate New York. Last month, the chain announced it would be closing 70 locations within the next five years due to poor performance, but it’s unclear which locations will be affected.
