Here's how this went: AllThingsD found two explicit references on Sprint's website to a deal that gave new Sprint subscribers a Pre for $100. A few hours later, after an almost certainly hilarious "internal review," they canceled it. Uh, oops?

It's not especially strange for a company to renege on an unannounced offer or a minor typo, but that's not quite what this was. It was an offer couched in specific, deliberate language, and that was featured it two full, publicly-available information pages. In other words, it had been devised and considered—this wasn't a data input mistake.

That said, the fact that it only applied to new subscribers would've caused a PR problem for Sprint, who would be effectively penalizing their most loyal (read: preexisting) customers with the offer. And the two conflicting listed end dates did seem to indicate that maybe it wasn't fully baked. Since the deal was listed on their website, Sprint says they'll honor the service rebate to anyone who signed up for a contract in the last few hours, but after that, it's closed. But hey, at least they're thinking about $100 Pres, right? Right?

Sorry Sprint, I've got nothin' for you. [AllThingsD]

Send an email to John Herrman, the author of this post, at jherrman@gizmodo.com.