I mentioned in passing that I ordered the 22″ LCD BestBuy had advertised for $50. It was a crappy monitor on clearance in their Outlet, so I thought there was a decent change it was listed correctly. Still, I wasn’t too surprised when they canceled it a couple days later.

I would contend that they were contractually obligated to fulfil the order given that I had already paid (or at least, presented payment: it’s not as cut-and-dry with credit cards, and even less so when it’s online).

I was a bit surprised when, after they informed me that my answer was canceled, they sent me another e-mail informing me that the order was backordered. As I sat there trying to figure out what this meant (was my order un-canceled? Was I double-charged? Or was it just a pointless e-mail?), another e-mail came in, informing me that the order had been canceled a second time.

I laughed it off as further evidence of incompetence on their part. They put it up with the wrong price, canceled my order due to their mistake, un-canceled my order, and immediately re-canceled it. That was a couple weeks ago. Then I got a survey from them asking about my shopping experience, when I gleefully ripped them a new one, pointing out that they not only failed to honor their product listing, but then sent me a barrage of confusing, contradictory e-mails. I secretly hoped that if I turned up the pressure a little, they’d decide to honor the deal. Of course, I never heard back, and ended up laughing it off as massive incompetence.

I’d pretty much forgotten about it, until tonight. I just got an e-mail informing me that my order has been canceled.

Yes, BestBuy has canceled my order–which was only submitted once and never reopened–three times now, over the span of several weeks.