Silly Justin: he thought that because Target advertised two different promotions for the Wii U he bought, he would get to take advantage of both of them. Nope. He learned that he could have $25 off or $10 off, but not both.

This may seem like a minor point, but the advertised promotions were what prompted him to choose Target for his purchase, and to bother ordering the item for in-store pickup. Saving $10 extra was worth the trip. Wasn’t it? Nope. Here’s the item he bought, preserved in screenshot form for perpetuity:

Now, here are those deals that he wanted to take advantage of. Note that Target never says that customers have to choose one one or the other. That’s a common disclaimer for coupons and promotions, and perfectly fair. When you click through for more information on the deals, they don’t say any such thing: the $10 off says that it can’t be used with “store coupons,” but neither of these promotional deals appears to be a coupon. They may be put through that way on Target’s end, but there’s nothing on the customer’s end that indicates the deals cancel each other out.

What happened when he went through with the purchase? He had to make a choice. “Apparently, in Target-speak, this means you get one or the other,” he wrote to Consumerist. We’ve said for years that Target exists in a reality vortex, so that sounds plausible. “So, when I opted to purchase this item and for in-store pickup, I sacrificed $25 for $10. How this makes any sense to anyone, I have absolutely no idea.”

Maybe the more time you spend dealing with Target, things like this start to make sense. That’s the only plausible explanation.

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