• The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, December 28, 2011 11:03 AM

Best Buy Co., the world's largest electronics chain by revenue, boosted discounts after Black Friday and offered free online shipping to counter rival Amazon.com Inc. The response was greater than anticipated. Best Buy is facing unhappy customers after it was forced to cancel some orders made online in November and December. Consumers flooded Best Buy's online forums in recent days, complaining they received notices informing them that the purchases they had made weeks ago were canceled. It was Best Buy's second online problem of the holidays: the company flubbed a pre-Black Friday special for customers who spend at least $2,500 a year. A technical glitch left them unable to check out and complete their Web purchases.

Best Buy acknowledged the latest snafu, which it said affected less than 1% of orders on Thanksgiving weekend. Target Corp. also experienced problems in September when its website proved unable to handle the rush of customers trying to buy its Missoni clothing collection.

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