A highly anticipated collaboration has left Taco Bell fans clamoring for more — and an explanation.
Taco Bell is celebrating the 20th birthday of its beloved Mtn Dew Baja Blast soda, the tropical drink that’s gained a following since its introduction in 2004. To commemorate the milestone, the brand has been painting the town turquoise with free beverages, a nationwide release of Baja Blast Gelato and more.
As part of the festivities, the brand released its collaboration with Stanley, the viral cup company, on Aug. 13. This very limited drop on the chain’s app allowed 100 fans to claim a limited-edition Stanley x Bajaversary tumbler.
The first 20 users who claimed a cup also scored an additional perk: free Mtn Dew Baja Blast for an entire year via a $200 gift card.
Both Taco Bell and Stanley have rabid fandoms, so it’s not surprising that there were more than a few people who were disappointed after the drop — but not for the reasons you might expect.
“Only 100 Stanley’s,” reads a Reddit post by u/Odd_Accountant_9204, who was thinking about the likelihood of being a winner. “What are the odds?”
“So I had 8 ppl helping me in a circle and all we got was page not found!” wrote one Reddit user in response. “Soooooo sad! Been drinking baja since the very 1st day : (.”
“Same. Me and my friend both,” replied another user.
“I tried a million times,” said TikTok user @taliacott in an Aug. 13 video. In the caption, they wrote, “im literally about to cry about this.”
“I tried it on my f---ing computer, everything, it didn’t work,” the user said. “I love Taco Bell so much. I just really, really wanted this.”
“Taco Bell, I love you so much, but I have a bone to pick with you,” says TikTok user @bloodhoneys before explaining a similar experience to many others online. They say they logged in on time for the drop and refreshed the page continuously only to be met with an error page and a message that time had run out.
“i will never recover,” wrote one commenter under @bloodhoneys’ TikTok video, to which they replied, “i’m just glad that were all mad about this and i’m not being crazy 💀.”
Other folks seem to have sussed out a possible error in the link Taco Bell provided, with one Redditor adding that they “won,” but were met with an error message when they went to put in their information to have the prize sent.
“Taco Bell, I got beef with y’all over this Baja Blast Stanley tumbler, because why did y’all share the wrong damn link?” said TikToker @berkundy in their video. “This is how you spell tumblers? Really? ‘Cause that’s the link that y’all shared.”
The user shows a screenshot of a url that appears to have misspelled “tumblers” with an extra letter. “Y’all need to do it over again with the correct link this time, because y’all literally set us up to fail,” they said.
There is so much frustration that it has even spilled into the comments section of posts that have nothing to do with the Stanley cups: Folks were venting about it in Taco Bell’s Instagram post about brat summer.
“Of course. nothing to say about yesterdays cluster***k???,” one Instagram user wrote.
“Yo. You guys gonna address the Stanley snafu ? Or continue to ignore us?” commented another, with a third adding “Yall are wack for the bs yesterday.”
Taco Bell did not immediately respond to TODAY.com’s request for comment.
But it's not the only brand to face issues when dropping desirable merch online.
On Feb. 6, Applebee’s added 1,000 Date Night Passes — which allow customers to order up to $30 worth of food and nonalcoholic beverages during each use for a year — to its original offering after widespread backlash online claiming the first campaign was seemingly impossible to score.
Then, in April, Dunkin’ produced a 2024 Super Bowl commercial starring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Tom Brady as the DunKings. The chain then sold the tracksuits to customers online for $60 each. Months later, folks were complaining that they had still not received the swift-selling item.
