Groupola.com, one of the UKs group buying websites claimed to have 200 Apple iPhone handsets for sale at £99, did they have a single handset?  The site had run a PR campaign (even cleverly getting the Guardian to publish their advertisment as a story) claiming to have 'limited numbers' of the iPhone 4 for sale at £99.  To be eligible to buy the phone at this price, one had to subscribe to their daily alerts and then, this morning (Friday 2nd July) at 9:30 click a link to be able to buy the Apple iPhone for the discounted price.

It would appear that at 9:30 the entire site collapsed under the strain, or, just went offline for other reasons and no-one was able to buy the iPhone 4.

Judging by the angry hordes on Facebook, Twitter and even on the Groupola site, it would appear that they didn't have a single handset for sale.

With cries of 'CON' and 'SCAM' resounding around the social media world this morning, Groupola must be reeling from the shock of a publicity stunt gone badly wrong.

Here are some examples of the comments:

There once was a site called Groupola, who promised an iPhone tombola. But when the time came, their site turned to flame, and there's no longer any fans of Groupola!

I believe that this sort of underhand technique to get new email addresses should be made illegal, or at least tightly regulated. I will not be using this service again.