As reported earlier on Blogging Stocks: Connecticut consumer Eric Hammer -- after seeing a computer on bestbuy.com listed for $150-off -- went to his local Best Buy only to be told the sale had ended. A customer service rep even paid him the courtesy of hopping online to show him so. However, when Mr. Hammer asked to navigate the web on his own, wouldn't you know it, the sale was still on!

Has Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE:BBY) discovered a fiendishly clever way to cheat customers? Or is this just another in a long line of high-profile Internet customer service gaffes by companies that should have, you know, figured this stuff out by now?

Like, Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ:SBUX) comes to mind. On August 23, 2006, the company sent employees an e-mail coupon for a free grande iced coffee, with instructions to "pass it on." Needless to say, it got passed on. Not only to thousands of inboxes and message boards, but also to a few eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) vendors, who began to peddle them in packs of nine. Starbucks immediately recalled the offer, saying the coupon was "redistributed beyond the original intent and modified beyond Starbucks control," and was later sued by a New York attorney for $114 million.

Or, how about Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT), whose online ventures can be called, for lack of a better word, lame. Their now-defunct "The Hub," a teen social networking site with so many restrictions on content, kids were pretty much limited to talking about how cool "everyday low prices" can be.

And how about weird product recommendations? Last year Walmart.com provided DVD recommendations to shoppers, based on recently viewed products. Browsers of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, for instance, were pitched "similar items" like Martin Luther King: I Have a Dream/Assassination of MLK and Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson.

But you have to sympathize. With e-mail campaigns and timed rollouts, one bad click and the whole world can come crashing down. On the morning of April 3, 2006 -- hours before tipoff for the men's NCAA basketball championships -- Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) sent customers an e-mail with the subject line "UCLA Wins!" hawking a championship cap for the Bruins. Later that evening, Florida took the title. And recently, Food & Wine drew the ire of Top Chef 2 fans by accidentally publishing an interview with the winner, a full day before the final show aired.

Speed, variety and immediacy make the online world so darn thrilling. It's those same qualities, however, that can magnify any error. The lesson here? Don't rock The Blogosphere.

B. Brandon Barker is the author of the novel Operation EMU.