People across the country looking for deals for Boxing Day thought they had hit a gold mine when Zellers posted a very special coupon on their Facebook page as part of their ‘Festive Finale' promotion.

Zellers posted the "Half Off Any One Item" coupon on its Facebook page that allowed customers to save 50 percent off any one item, including merchandise already on sale for Boxing Day.

One bargain hunter bragged that they paid $95 for a $300 Kitchen Aid mixer.

But the fun all ended on Thursday, already three days into the sale, when Zellers insisted the coupon was printed in error and cannot be combined with flyer deals.

Zellers posted the following on their Facebook page:

Ad Correction

Facebook Coupon Offer

Effective Monday, December 26 – Saturday, December 31, 2011

Attention Valued Customer,

...

We regret to inform our customers that the Facebook Coupon offer that was effective on Monday, December 26 until Saturday, December 31, 2011 should have read:

Get 50% off one regular-priced item when you provide the coupon and use the code ‘Cucumber' at the register – limit 1 coupon per customer. Exceptions are stated on the coupon.

We sincerely regret any inconvenience this may have caused our customers and thank you for your patronage.

As a result, angry shoppers are already taking out their frustrations on Twitter and on Facebook over the retraction of the deal.

One Facebook user wrote, "Suck it up Zellers. You made a mistake and didn't correct it ASAP. Let the coupon stand. Very bad customer service."

Another adds, "Poor marketing. If this was going to be corrected, it should have been corrected the first day, not 4 days later. I imagine you'll be losing some customers from this."

Others, however, are standing up for Zellers saying the coupon is still a good deal, even when you can only use it on non-sale items.