Best Buy's coupon mistake allowed customers to spend $800 for $1,600 in Amazon gift cards

Why does Best Buy carry Amazon gift cards in the first place?

Talk about adding insult to injury. A Best Buy coupon mistake allowed at least one customer to spend $800 for $1,600 of value toward digging Best Buy's grave -- namely, buying Amazon gift cards.

SEE ALSO: Best Buy's Brian Dunn is the worst CEO of 2012, according to Bloomberg

The mistake was the result of a MasterCard promotion that didn't include enough fine print. Customers using a coupon and a MasterCard could spend $100 and automatically save $50, but the promotion put few limits on what people could buy and apparently no limit on how many times they could take advantage of the promotion.

From Yahoo's Business Insider:

First, [Best Buy] 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.

And Gizmodo provides some specifics about the "freak out":

It was a free for fall! 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 Apple TV, etc.). But it didn't last forever. The coupon, which was supposed to last the entire week valid (1/21/13-1/27/13), was neutered by Best Buy in the afternoon once the big box company realized it was being swindled by customers taking advantage of Best Buy...

Before Best Buy had smartened up though, people landed some insanely awesome deals. Just check out this Amazon gift card score by a slick dealer. That's $1600 worth of Amazon money for 800 bucks in actual money. [The post shows an image of the receipt.]...

Best Buy should do this more often if they want us in its stores.

Ouch! But maybe this was just shewed marketing on Best Buy's part. After all, admit it: You'll be paying closer attention to their coupons from now on, won't you?