People are still really mad at Tim Hortons for ditching their Roll Up The Rim To Win cups
Tim Hortons customers have been panning the iconic Canadian coffee chain in recent weeks, as everything from cruel and cowardly to downright classist, for failing to bring back its traditional Roll Up The Rim To Win program for 2022.
The annual promotion — which has since the dawn of time consisted of people rolling up the rims of their empty paper coffee cups to reveal either prize names or the words "please play again" (grrrr) — changed quite a bit in 2020 amid the COVID pandemic.
At that time, Tim Hortons announced that it was eliminating physical cups from the equation due to environmental concerns and public health restrictions.
"Tim Hortons does not believe it’s the right time for team members in restaurants to collect rolled up tabs that have been in people's mouths during this current public health environment," the company wrote of the change. And, I mean, fair.
Since then, Roll Up The Rim has run as a digital program, allowing customers to virtually "roll up" their "rims" using the company's own Tims Rewards app.
'Member when you rolled the rim of your cup and won a prize instead of scanning an app and winning a coupon you won't use? pic.twitter.com/haeRdh4tRr
— S S (@SSEightysix) March 12, 2022
Nostalgic Canadians were crushed to learn that they'd no longer find anything written on the paper cups they'd painstakingly unravelled with their teeth, but hey — it was a pandemic. Everyone understood.
Even in 2021, when Tim Hortons announced yet another virtual edition of its beloved springtime campaign and went so far as to change its name for the first time since 1986 from "Roll Up the Rim to Win" to simply "Roll up to Win," people seemed to understand.
They didn't like the fact that they had to download an app to play, and yes, some were angry. Real angry. But nothing like what I'm seeing on Twitter this year now that the 2022 campaign has been live for more than a week.
@TimHortons pull your doughnut filled brains out of your ass and put the “roll up the rim” rims back on the cups
— The Manthalorian (@TheManthalorian) March 15, 2022
"Roll Up To Win™ is back at participating Tim Hortons restaurants in Canada from March 7 to April 3. Download the Tims App and scan for Tims Rewards to play!" reads the company's website.
"For more than 35 years, Canadians have been rolling up and winning great prizes when they visit Tim Hortons. Now, Roll Up To Win™ offers the chance to win exciting prizes – like cars, getaways, electronics, gift cards, Tims coffee and donuts, and much more – on more of your favourite treats, all revealed from right inside the Tims App or website. The best part: Every Roll Wins!"
@TimHortons .. roll up the rim is horrible . Rolled up at least 50 rims by now and it's stupid mobile order stuff. Way to use a prize sweepstakes to promote mobile order.
— Krazy Kanuk (@kanuk_krazy) March 13, 2022
Some customers take up issue with the claim that "every roll wins."
So now roll up the rim has been made so when you win a coffee the free coffee doesn’t give you another roll. So no more free coffee streaks which was half the fun. What happened to you @TimHortons you used to be cool. @tjdmy #coffee #timhortons #RollUpToWin
— TrevorCaverly (@trevcaverly) March 9, 2022
While Tim Hortons had boasted that there would be no more losers under its new, digitized version of Roll Up, not everyone thinks that "winning" 20 per cent off a coffee purchase (only when purchased through the app) is really "winning" at all.
Think I might’ve gotten the worst roll up the rim prize of all time. 20 bonus points on my NEXT mobile order. Booo @TimHortons boooo #brutal pic.twitter.com/aCKRi0mRLY
— Becca (@becca9913) March 8, 2022
At least office workers who rolled back in the day could build ridiculous tower of "please play again" tabs on their desks for everyone to enjoy.
Now? Well, you pretty much need a phone to participate, first and foremost.
@TimHortons roll up the rim is so less exciting now. Parents and grandparents can’t partake anymore without a smartphone (which they don’t have).
— TrudStar (@TrudStar12) March 9, 2022
And there's no more picking up a whole bunch of coffees for your colleagues to unroll, potentially gifting them cars or donuts of their own for which they'd owe you for life.
@TimHortons hey! Pretty unfair how we cannot roll up the rim if someone else bought us coffee! Some of us don’t have the app or know how to use it. Bring back the old roll up the rim!!!!! Nobody got time for that! pic.twitter.com/PVneT7tGxT
— Casey Rosa (@c_bombos) March 11, 2022
Customers have been complaining online that the app is confusing and difficult to use...
@TimHortons I understand the roll up the rim is back, however it won't tell me what I've won
— Rajeevan (@Rajeev1884) March 7, 2022
3 rolls and it keeps saying it seems to be sticky try again, and I keep losing the amount of roll have pic.twitter.com/VVolbXCgQZ
If the app even works at all, that is.
First day of roll up the rim and I keep getting this message! I try it over and over, same message. I close the app and open it again and automatically loose my roll. I lost 5 rolls now!! And not one prize!! What the heck! So frustrating!!! pic.twitter.com/JHUQTnpmmm
— Sandra Ferguson (@SFPropertyMgr) March 7, 2022
Some are concerned about the fact that they have to give personal data over to a major conglomerate like Tim Hortons owner Restaurant Brands International in order to win anything at all.
hey @TimHortons i am not downloading some app to virtually roll up the rim #RollUpToWin pic.twitter.com/zOC440wZhO
— uninformed normie (@YKANEVIN) March 14, 2022
Perhaps missing the memo that things changed over to digital a few years back, some are even expressing surprise this year over the news...
PSA @TimHortons changed their roll up the rim without telling anyone. You have to use the rewards program now. The cups don’t do anything. I just got scammed out of two entries thanks Tim’s
— Jake ✖ (@Jaketegrfwedwe) March 7, 2022
Others, deep sadness.
My fiancé is CRYING because @TimHortons did away with the physical roll up the rim to win. Shame on you Tom Hortons, now you have to pay for his therapy sessions. Do better.
— tiny dinky daffy (@denny_jenny) March 15, 2022
But for many, the pivot from rolling up physical cups to downloading an app to roll virtually has simply inspired anger.
@TimHortons quit false advertising with your roll up the rim bs, you don't get to roll up any rim anymore and the app was made by a bunch of chimpanzees aparantly.
— Jack Royston (@jackroyston7) March 9, 2022
"This app crap cheeses me off. We don't all use computers but we all can roll up the rim. Let's change it back, this is not funny Tim Hortons," tweeted one customer on Saturday.
"We need a 'trucker convoy' to protest against Tim Hortons," joked (I hope) another. "We need back the roll-up to the rim on the cups. That is very important!"
@TimHortons you guys ruined the roll up the rim game. I can’t play unless I preorder my coffee? Get bent.
— heylook, it'sED! (@Edinbflo) March 10, 2022
It is not clear if Tim Hortons plans to keep its iconic Roll-Up campaign digital forever, but it's important to note that you can still win serious prizes by participating, app or no app.
You'll earn a "digital roll" for every purchase of a beverage, hot or cold, breakfast sandwich, breakfast wrap and select other items.
Prizes include a staggering 14,015,916 "coffee and food" vouchers, as well as 15 Volkswalken Taos vehicles valued at nearly $40,000 each and ten fully-paid vacations to international Hilton resorts with values of up to $11,585 each.
Tim Hortons says you get a special bonus roll when you place your actual order through their app, suggesting that this ploy isn't necessarily all about public health or the environment.
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