No free pizza for you

In chapter 10 of Real-Time Marketing & PR the author spent some time talking about companies who offer special deals to new customers, while returning customers don’t receive the additional discount (or free gift with purchase, fill in other examples). He posed a question, as I think many people have, why not reward existing customers. I chuckled to myself as I read over this concept because it reminded me of Welcome Fest.

            Welcome Fest is an information fair at the beginning of every school year. Campus organizations and area businesses have tables and give out freebies. Each year, one of the town pizzerias, Padrone's, has a table. Like last year, Padrone's handed out cards to join their text service that sends out weekly specials via text message. At Welcome Fest, Padrone's boasts that joining the service will get you a free pizza when you show that text upon ordering.

We all sent the text code and waited in anticipation for the pizza coupon to be sent to us. What we found out was crushing. If you were already a member of the text service, the Welcome Fest special didn’t apply. I understand the logic, but the advertisement (and even the representatives at Welcome Fest) was misleading. I can see where it might be a problem to provide free pizzas every year for each student. Only new customers were rewarded, returning customers didn’t receive any additional deals.

In the end, yes, we will all still eat Padrone's because their white pizza is a delicious and we can’t get enough. But, on some level, a situation like this still creates disdain for the brand. And that’s the last thing a company should want to do.

What are some examples of this that you have run into?
Which brands are doing it right?