Best Buy Had A Spectacular Coupon Fail That Started A Feeding Frenzy

First, it offered a coupon for $50 off a purchase of $100 or more as long as the customer used a Mastercard. Like most coupons of its type, it excluded some items, such as iPods and certain brands of TVs.

But it didn't exclude gift cards. The coupon didn't even limit the number of purchases. All you needed was to spend $100.

People freaked out.

"It was a free for all!" wrote Casey Chan at Gizmodo. "People were getting gift cards for half the price, people were using the coupons over and over and over again and Best Buy was even letting the coupon work on products that rarely get discounted."

The folks over at Slickdeals posted a bunch of the awesome stuff they scored.

Take a look at $1,600 worth of gift cards for $800, an Apple TV for $45.15, and $2,500 of Amazon cards.

Eventually, Best Buy backtracked and issued a correction for the coupon:

The $50 Master Card Bonus – Save $50 When you Spend $100 In-Store and Pay With Any Master Card (valid 1/21/13-1/27/13) Promotional Offer was sent out with incorrect product inclusions, product exclusions, single product call out and end date. An ad correction is available in our retail stores, where you can see a Sales Consultant or Customer Service for any questions or to view a list of the included and excluded products.

The revised coupon limited the deal to a single, regular priced item purchase of $100 or more, and excludes gift cards from iTunes, Amazon and more.

It was supposed to last through the week, but Best Buy essentially killed the coupon, making it valid for one day only. Best Buy employees everywhere have been left to explain to customers why they can't redeem their coupon for the rest of the week.

Whoops.