Walmart has drawn fire from rivals for misleading ads, with Best Buy specifically claiming that it lost $65,000 in profit in one day on the iPhone 5. According to a report, Walmart sold the iPhone 5 for $150 on the first day of its promotion, but advertised the device for $127; iLounge noted that the company had misleadingly offered and then didn’t honor an aggressive discount on the current-generation iPad, as well. Complaints against Walmart have reportedly been filed with state attorneys general as a result of the pricing practices.
Best Buy claims that Walmart didn’t have a sufficient number of iPhones available to meet its promised pricing, and Best Buy’s price-match guarantee required the chain to match Walmart’s advertised price. Walmart says that the iPhone 5 was 98 percent in stock at stores that carried the phone, but didn’t release exact figures on how many phones were in stock. [via The Wall Street Journal]
