Best Buy Complains About Walmart's iPhone 5 Ads

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Posted January 4, 2013 at 5:06pm by iClarified

Best Buy has complained to attorney generals in more than half a dozen states about allegedly inaccurate product ads that targeted retailers including Toys 'R' Us and Best Buy, reports the WSJ. The ads are said to have cited inaccurate prices and compared different products.

Walmart spokesperson Steven Restivo defends the ads saying, "We know competitors don't like it when we tell customers to compare prices and see for themselves. We are confident on the legal, ethical and methodological standards associated with our price comparison ads."

Best Buy said some of Wal-Mart's promotions, including a deal on the iPhone 5, had a measurable effect on its profits due to a price-match guarantee that requires the retailer to match the price of competitor's ads. Best Buy said it lost about $65,000 in profit the day Wal-Mart's promotion first ran on Facebook, because it was compelled to match Wal-Mart's advertised $150 price, even though it concluded that Wal-Mart didn't actually have a sufficient number of iPhones available.

Responding, Walmart told the WSH that it shipped double the amount of iPhones during the promotion and that it was 98% in stock at stores that carried it.

Just before the holidays Walmart discounted the iPhone 5 further to $127.

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Best Buy Complains About Walmart's iPhone 5 Ads

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Mick jones - January 6, 2013 at 5:31pm

Best Buy has leadership, marketing, inventory and mangement problems it' need to focus on. Then they possibly can get the chan to become relevant in American retail again, if now another will crumble to the Great Wal-Mart.

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None45 - January 4, 2013 at 11:05pm

Isn't the price match only against 'in-stock' items? Here in Canada Bestbuy and Futureshop will check competitor's stock before giving a price match.

Stephen - January 5, 2013 at 8:29pm

No, although the policy states that it's only if it's in-stock, but in practice stock really isn't checked, all they check is the ad for the price only. In the states, to do a price match, we need to bring in a printed ad of said advertised lower price or a printout of advertised price from the competitor website (or show them on your mobile device). That is all they do, no stock check.

b080d2a - January 4, 2013 at 8:49pm

The complaint isn't the pricing so much. The real problem Best Buy has an issue is that Walmart is advertising low prices without them having sufficient stock, therefore Walmart sells out its small batch and customers wanting to take advantage of the price go to Best Buy and price match it there since Best Buy has way more stock than Walmart. It's a smart tactic, sell low when you're low on stock and your competitors have lots of stock. You lose way less money than your competitors are losing.

Bill - January 4, 2013 at 7:15pm

Sour grapes Best Buy! You going to complain about Amazon.com undercutting your prices on the Internet as wel?

Wood1030 - January 4, 2013 at 5:31pm

This is funny to me because Fry's undercut Walmart's sale price with it's own sale for $1.00 less, I paid $226 plus taxes @ Beat Buy by price matching Fry's sale price (Fry's didn't have the 32 gig in black in stock) At least Best Buy got the sale...lol