I think the "one time use" thing was more a technical aspect of the coupon... When you got it and printed it out, you couldn't open it up again to print another. Someone found a way around that though, obviously, and shared it with the world. (Yay for them by the way)
That's where the "one time use" deal came in... It technically was something the 85,000 people were to get, print, and never be able to print out again, but they'd at least have the original to go use. There's obviously ways around that though and people used them. It is, without a doubt, all Target's fault... The "removing 'toy' from the coupon" thing though that was going on, was what seemingly ultimately screwed the pooch on this one, and so that is annoying. Target may have been able to take greater steps to stop that from happening, but ultimately it was people doing that who seem to have stopped all the fun for the rest of us... Unless of course Target would've caught on that people were using the coupon a ton, and ultimately cancelled the whole program anyway. I'd love to know if that would've been the case, or if they simply would've just let the good times roll as long as it was used on toys?
Well, I guess I disagree with a lot of you on this.
#1 - anyone that thought this coupon was just randomly thrown out there for everyone to use as many times as they wanted is pretty niave in my book. Pretty much any coupon that reprinted in the forums was not meant to be delivered to a broad audience and certainly something that offers $5 off a $25 purchase is not intended to go to millions of homes for multiple uses. People can claim to have not known the details, but I'm betting most people at least suspected they were getting a deal that they really shouldn't be getting.
#2 - I can't believe people think that it was the use of this coupon for non-toys or the actual change in wording of the coupon that caused the coupon to be discontinued. I used this coupon a lot and sometimes not on toys, but each of the coupons said "toy purchase" on it. I never had a cashier refuse it - they just scan the UPC and if it works, it works. Changing the wording on the coupon is a scapegoat for Target - a reason for them to cancel it without admitting their own fault in the process. Companies need to plan for any kind of coupon in their budget, so if more are redemmed than estimated, they go over budget. I can guarantee you that if they really only intended this to go to 85k people, they didn't budget for anywhere near 85k of them to be used and they obviously started getting in excess of this number rapidly, so they shut it down.
Maybe I'm just too sensitive this week, but I find it shocking how many people are trying to blame each other for this coupon going away. It was a great deal and lasted a long time. 99% of the people that got it and used it, probably were never intended to have it, so if you used one even once, just be thankful that you got a good deal.