The Internets are aflame over a Pepsi contest that gave out free instant-win Rock Band codes. Apparently the powers that be shut down the contest before it was supposed to end Sept. 12 and 13, while still proclaiming on its website it was going on. 5frets.com has a detailed report of how things went down.

The post explains that the contest started off as a killer deal for gamers, offering nearly automatic instant wins for every bottle of Pepsi purchased. Codes underneath the bottle caps let players download $2 songs or get $2 worth of Wii points — a sweet deal since the Pepsi bottles often cost $1.50 or less. But come Sept. 12, the instant wins were suddenly all instant losses, 5frets says. The site contacted Pepsi on the matter:

Pepsi was contacted for comment prior to publishing this story. They were aware of a Saturday morning incident and chalked it up to “some site maintenance” on the web site. When asked about the site “eating” points during this time, Pepsi disagreed and said that points should not have been lost. Asked whether the winning should have resumed after the maintenance was complete, Pepsi claimed that it should have. Finally, when the idea of there being zero winners this weekend was proposed, Pepsi stated “No, that does not seem accurate.” In all fairness, it didn’t seem that the representative was aware that the win/lose rate had apparently taken such a dramatic fall over the weekend.

However, Pepsi said they would discuss the issue with Yahoo and get back to 5Frets.com. We have yet to hear back but will post an update here if we get one.

We’ll update if Pepsi responds to the matter or offers some consolation for burned players who overdosed on Pepsi this past weekend hoping to be rewarded in downloadable content.

Pepsi Rock Band Contest Crashes and Burns: Everyone’s an Instant Loser? [5frets]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.