Shop much at 6pm.com, the web retailer owned by Amazon.com? The site made a collossal mistake over the weekend, pricing all items at $49.99, a blunder that it says cost it $1.6 million. People will be talking about this mishap for some time, but not because it lost a bundle, but rather because it’s generated so much praise from the web community for honoring every transaction at the mistaken knock-down price, even, reportedly, a $1,400 GPS system.

To be sure, pricing mishaps happen from time-to-time with online retailers. But they don’t always honor the deal. Instead, they blame the error on a software glitch and cancel the order, enraging unforgiving customers. But 6pm.com, founded by Zappos.com, now part of Amazon.com, decided to eat the loss and turn the mishap into a wave of goodwill. Just look at the surge in Twitter followers it gained since news broke of its mishap late on Friday.

Why is this a big deal? 6pm.com is a direct-sales specialist that regularly publicizes bargains and deals via Twitter daily. This graph measures potential customers.

There are plenty of people this morning questioning the authenticity of this story, wondering if this is merely a marketing gimmick to raise the retailer’s profile. Perhaps so, but so what?!? It’s shown bravery, humility and transparency in its handling of this mishap. And the wider web community has taken notice and approves.

Editor’s Note: Want to learn more about social media best practice? Join our LinkedIn Group and enjoy a great discount on attending the Social Media Conference, June 22.