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Consumers upset over Sears iPad price mistake

Earlier today, Sears inadvertently made 16GB/Wi-Fi iPad 2 available for $69, a healthy $430 of its retail price, and over $600 cheaper than Sears normally sells it through third-party vendor "GSM on Sale."

After seeing at least hundreds of purchases, Sears fixed the ad, cancelled all orders and apologized to buyers.



Said Sears:

Unfortunately ... one of the Marketplace third party sellers told us that they mistakenly posted incorrect pricing on two Apple iPad models on the Marketplace portion of the website.

If you purchased either of these products recently, your order has been cancelled and your account will be credited. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

The second model that was selling was the 32GB/Wi-Fi version, with a $179 price tag.

Angry consumers took to Twitter and Sear's own marketplace review page to vent frustrations but there is little they can do except accept that they aren't getting a $500 device for $69.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Jul 2011 0:41

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• 17 comments

• DVDBack23

  I'm really not all that sure why so many are angry, have they never seen a price mistake before?? No company is taking a $430 loss on an item, ever.
  
  One time TigerDirect cancelled an order on me because "demand was too high." This was of course, after I was charged. Now THAT was worthy of anger.
  

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  18.7.2011 00:43 #1

• Schmick

  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offer_and_acceptance
  
  People have every right to be pissed, and should fight for their rights.
  

  ^ PEBKAC ^

  18.7.2011 04:34 #2

• Rjsiv22 (unverified)

  Sears should have honored the ipad 2, maybe only 1 per household or
  something like that. Maybe if sears did this, more people would visit
  their website looking for the next deal. Plus Sears advertised it on
  their website, sent the confirmations in their name and the billing
  as well. So Sears should have to honor the deal. They get publicity out
  of this already, whether thats good or bad is up to them, or it doesnt
  matter. I still havent receive money back or an ipad 2. Mistake or not they committed false advertising and should stand by their website. Not hide behind a third party problem. What if I paid full price and had a problem. Guess Sears wouldnt cover that Ipad either. Maybe the third party would answer a phone, email, letter, not for one consumer I read about a month ago couldnt get in touch with company & sears wouldnt help him cause they didnt sell it to him on their website "third party" did. So go hide Sears behind your "third party companies" I will never shop with you again, because your not even who you say you are "Sears" ( help us Ty) lol

  18.7.2011 08:15 #3

• klassic

  Originally posted by Rjsiv22: Sears should have honored the ipad 2, maybe only 1 per household or
  something like that. Maybe if sears did this, more people would visit
  their website looking for the next deal. Plus Sears advertised it on
  their website, sent the confirmations in their name and the billing
  as well. So Sears should have to honor the deal. They get publicity out
  of this already, whether thats good or bad is up to them, or it doesnt
  matter. I still havent receive money back or an ipad 2. Mistake or not they committed false advertising and should stand by their website. Not hide behind a third party problem. What if I paid full price and had a problem. Guess Sears wouldnt cover that Ipad either. Maybe the third party would answer a phone, email, letter, not for one consumer I read about a month ago couldnt get in touch with company & sears wouldnt help him cause they didnt sell it to him on their website "third party" did. So go hide Sears behind your "third party companies" I will never shop with you again, because your not even who you say you are "Sears" ( help us Ty) lol "In the event of a pricing error on the Sears Site, Sears reserves the right to cancel any orders resulting from such pricing errors."
  
  Taken directly from the Sears.com Terms of Use. This is standard language for any website. What if you posted your car for sale on Craigslist and accidentally put in a price of $500 when you mean $5000. Are you going to give me your car for $500 because that's the way you listed it? I didn't think so.
  

  I wanna devise a virus and bring dire straights to your environments. Crush your corporations with a mild touch, trash the whole computer systems and revert you to papyrus - Deltron 3030

  18.7.2011 09:09 #4

• d1g1talfr3ak

  No, I wouldn't expect you to sell me your car for $500. However... if you took my $500 dollars and then told me it was a typo... and that I wouldn't get my $500 back for a week??

  18.7.2011 10:08 #5

• Nick577

  Originally posted by d1g1talfr3ak: No, I wouldnt expect you to sell me your car for $500. However... if you took my $500 dollars and then told me it was a typo... and that I wouldnt get my $500 back for a week??
  Sears actually gives refunds immediately. I used to buy tools and other products from their website pretty frequently and would choose site to store pick up. If the item was ever unavailable or was a price mistake, i got my refund within minutes.

  18.7.2011 10:57 #6

• Nick577

  Originally posted by d1g1talfr3ak: No, I wouldn't expect you to sell me your car for $500. However... if you took my $500 dollars and then told me it was a typo... and that I wouldn't get my $500 back for a week??
  Sears actually gives refunds immediately. I used to buy tools and other products from their website pretty frequently and would choose site to store pick up. If the item was ever unavailable or was a price mistake, i got my refund within minutes.

  18.7.2011 11:00 #7

• snowee55 (unverified)

  Originally posted by Nick577: Originally posted by d1g1talfr3ak: No, I wouldnt expect you to sell me your car for $500. However... if you took my $500 dollars and then told me it was a typo... and that I wouldnt get my $500 back for a week??
  Sears actually gives refunds immediately. I used to buy tools and other products from their website pretty frequently and would choose site to store pick up. If the item was ever unavailable or was a price mistake, i got my refund within minutes. Actually they do not!! It has been four days already and still NO refund to my account! They sure did not hesitate taking the money out a soon as I pressed the submit button for my order though!

  18.7.2011 11:02 #8

• d1g1talfr3ak

  Originally posted by snowee55: Originally posted by Nick577: Originally posted by d1g1talfr3ak: No, I wouldnt expect you to sell me your car for $500. However... if you took my $500 dollars and then told me it was a typo... and that I wouldnt get my $500 back for a week??
  Sears actually gives refunds immediately. I used to buy tools and other products from their website pretty frequently and would choose site to store pick up. If the item was ever unavailable or was a price mistake, i got my refund within minutes. Actually they do not!! It has been four days already and still NO refund to my account! They sure did not hesitate taking the money out a soon as I pressed the submit button for my order though! I still have not gotten my money back either. I used a visa check card and the $606 (I bought 3 of the 32 GB ones) was withdrawn immediately... but is still not back in my account. This prevented me from taking a weekend vacation this weekend.... but I thought it was worth it to skip the vacation for such a good deal.

  18.7.2011 11:17 #9

• what3va

  Originally posted by d1g1talfr3ak: Originally posted by snowee55: Originally posted by Nick577: Originally posted by d1g1talfr3ak: No, I wouldnt expect you to sell me your car for $500. However... if you took my $500 dollars and then told me it was a typo... and that I wouldnt get my $500 back for a week??
  Sears actually gives refunds immediately. I used to buy tools and other products from their website pretty frequently and would choose site to store pick up. If the item was ever unavailable or was a price mistake, i got my refund within minutes. Actually they do not!! It has been four days already and still NO refund to my account! They sure did not hesitate taking the money out a soon as I pressed the submit button for my order though! I still have not gotten my money back either. I used a visa check card and the $606 (I bought 3 of the 32 GB ones) was withdrawn immediately... but is still not back in my account. This prevented me from taking a weekend vacation this weekend.... but I thought it was worth it to skip the vacation for such a good deal. So you're angry that you couldn't get a product below the market price that you could personally resell at a profit. You set out to take advantage of a situation where you knew you could benefit for little investment. Sorry to tell you this, but there are no free rides in life. While I'm sorry you don't get your iPad for $180, the righteous indignation over this situation is not required. It should have been apparent from the get go there would be an issue getting the item at that price when everywhere else you go to buy them they are 3x the price.

  18.7.2011 12:18 #10

• Azuran

  Yeah anyone who had to give up their "weekend plans' because they fell for a deal that was obviously an error deserves it. Stop being stupid and fix your self entitlement attitude.
  
  Originally posted by DVDBack23: I'm really not all that sure why so many are angry, have they never seen a price mistake before?? No company is taking a $430 loss on an item, ever.
  
  One time TigerDirect cancelled an order on me because "demand was too high." This was of course, after I was charged. Now THAT was worthy of anger. I concur wholeheartedly.
  
  

  18.7.2011 13:50 #11

• klassic

  Originally posted by d1g1talfr3ak: No, I wouldn't expect you to sell me your car for $500. However... if you took my $500 dollars and then told me it was a typo... and that I wouldn't get my $500 back for a week??
  You do realize that more than likely the delay is not caused by Sears but by your bank. I am not 100% sure about how Sears operates, but many retailers do not actually charge your card until your item is shipped. The initial "charge" to your account is actually hold placed on those funds. Your bank will hold on to the amount that Sears requested for up to 3-5 business days until Sears actually finalizes the charge. If after a few days the hold is not finalized the bank releases the money back into your account.
  

  I wanna devise a virus and bring dire straights to your environments. Crush your corporations with a mild touch, trash the whole computer systems and revert you to papyrus - Deltron 3030

  18.7.2011 14:09 #12

• Tash226 (unverified)

  I was one of the ones who ordered it too. I obviously knew it was an error, but theres no shame in trying. I wasnt expecting to get the iPad, nor was I expecting to be reimbursed for my troubles of not being able to the get it so cheap.
  
  I was, however, not expecting to get a call from Capital One on Sunday saying that there was some fraudulent activity on the credit card I used to purchase the iPad. Outside of this one order, this particular credit card is used solely for my gym membership auto withdraw (it has been on this card for over a year) and my netflix account (over three years). Suddenly when I ordered this iPad though, almost half a dozen charges from random and unknown places (CCHKP.com, etc) were made in charges ranging from $39.99 to $59.99 all on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Obviously, either Sears or GSM on Sale is responsible, and since GSMs website is now down, id have to think it was them.

  18.7.2011 14:24 #13

• klassic

  Originally posted by Tash226: I was one of the ones who ordered it too. I obviously knew it was an error, but theres no shame in trying. I wasnt expecting to get the iPad, nor was I expecting to be reimbursed for my troubles of not being able to the get it so cheap.
  
  I was, however, not expecting to get a call from Capital One on Sunday saying that there was some fraudulent activity on the credit card I used to purchase the iPad. Outside of this one order, this particular credit card is used solely for my gym membership auto withdraw (it has been on this card for over a year) and my netflix account (over three years). Suddenly when I ordered this iPad though, almost half a dozen charges from random and unknown places (CCHKP.com, etc) were made in charges ranging from $39.99 to $59.99 all on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Obviously, either Sears or GSM on Sale is responsible, and since GSMs website is now down, id have to think it was them. It's also possible that your computer is infected and the cc number was stolen with a keystroke logger.
  

  I wanna devise a virus and bring dire straights to your environments. Crush your corporations with a mild touch, trash the whole computer systems and revert you to papyrus - Deltron 3030

  18.7.2011 18:51 #14

• xnonsuchx

  So many cheapskates want everything for (almost) nothing. Mistakes like this happen...deal with it like an adult instead of like a 2yo who didn't get the piece of candy they wanted because Mom is such a horrible person.

  18.7.2011 20:37 #15

• hearme0

  This is a cut and dry case of false advertising. Sears MUST honor the price despite their mistake. This is meant to be a lesson learned and Sears is not acting responsibly. They're simply banking on people NOT filing suits against them. I personally would have.

  19.7.2011 15:14 #16

• Azuran

  Originally posted by hearme0: This is a cut and dry case of false advertising. Sears MUST honor the price despite their mistake. This is meant to be a lesson learned and Sears is not acting responsibly. They're simply banking on people NOT filing suits against them. I personally would have. Cut and dry false advertising? Hardly. In order to charge a business with false advertising you have to prove a legitimate effort to defraud customers. The problem with your argument is 1) Sears themselves didn't even post the ad and 2) Sears made 0 (thats zero) profit from this. And no they do not have to honor the price since their terms of service, which you agree to when you use their site, releases them from any liability due to an error. Those of you who have withdrawn funds need to call your banks and review with them their fund holding and credit policies.
  

  19.7.2011 18:08 #17