Always make sure you're texting the right number if you want a gratis burrito.
Chipotle really wants to make its way back into your heart, even if it means handing out free burritos to earn your trust back.
The Mexican fast-food giant—which has had no shortage of bad press during the last three months—briefly closed locations across the nation on Monday to amp up its food safety. To show people just how much better the chain is, fans could text “RAINCHECK” to 888-222 until 6:00pm on Monday to score their own free burrito.
Upon first glance, you might look at that number and think it looks pretty standard. That is, until you realizing the second set of digits only contains three numbers rather than four, like a typical telephone number.
Handfuls of customers began to text the provided number with an additional 2 at the end. Many texts ended up being sent to Hank Levine, an unsuspecting Washington D.C. lawyer, who unfortunately had to deal with the unending amount of “RAINCHECK” texts that were mistakenly sent to his phone.
According to Tech Insider, Levine spent the majority of his day responding to texts, letting fans know they had the wrong number. He brought the 60 or so texts over to his local Chipotle to show the restaurant all the people who thought they were getting free burritos but now aren’t.
Eater notes that the chain has reached out to the family, explaining they aren’t too concerned about Chipotle fans missing out on the food they expected to receive.
What have we learned from this mishap? 1) You must pay extra attention to what you dial when it comes to scoring a free meal. 2) Chipotle has no sympathy.