The best medicine for a disappointed shopper is more shopping, Best Buy reckons.

Thus all the customers who thought they might profit from a mistake which priced the Nvidia GeForce-4 at a preposterous $129 have been issued $30 gift certificates redeemable against any on-line purchase.

But time is not on their side. The offer expires on 28 February.

This is clearly good PR for Best Buy, and it may make customers out of the portion of buyers who only sought to exploit the pricing error. Meanwhile, $30 is a decent sum for a stuff-up which the company might well have been able to walk away from.

Is everybody happy now? We certainly hope so.

Dear Best Buy Customer,

We sincerely apologize for the error in your recent pre-order of the VisionTek Xtasy GeForce4 Graphics Accelerator. Because we value you as a BestBuy.com customer, we would like to offer you a $30 digital coupon to use on your next online purchase.

Click here to redeem this coupon or visit our homepage, click on Redeem Coupons, and enter and redeem the following code before February 28th, 2002:

10E9XXXXXX (coupon code).

If you have received a backorder email notification from us, please disregard the backorder email notification, your original order of this graphics accelerator has been cancelled. We apologize for any disappointment this cancellation may cause.

Thank you for your understanding. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns.

Best wishes from Best Buy,

The Customer Care Team

(Coupon can only be used one time and must be redeemed by 11:59 p.m. CST 2/28/02. Coupon cannot be redeemed for gift card purchases. Redeemable online only. Coupon cannot be replaced if lost or stolen. Not redeemable for cash. Valid major credit card required for online purchases. Not valid as payment on the Best Buy credit card.)

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Best Buy offers, withdraws, $129 GeForce-4