Sears apologizes for $69 iPad 2 snafu

Wailin Wong

Tribune reporter

2:33 PM CDT, July 18, 2011

Sears Holdings Corp. has apologized to customers for an errant online listing by a third-party sellers that offered two Apple iPad models at too-good-to-be-true prices.

"Unfortunately, today 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," the retailer said on its Facebook page Friday night. "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 third-party seller was a company called GSM On Sale. According to media reports, its Sears offer listed the 16-gigabyte, Wi-Fi-only iPad2 for $69. The tablet retails for $499 on Apple's website. The other iPad model listed on the Sears Marketplace website was a 32-gigabyte, Wi-Fi-only iPad2 for $179, compared with Apple's normal retail price of $599.

On Monday, visitors to GSM On Sale's website were greeted with a message saying: "Our online store is currently closed for maintenance."

Sears spokeswoman Kimberly Freely said Monday that the error was discovered on Friday but did not know how long the incorrect pricing had been live on the website or how many units had been ordered. When asked whether GSM On Sale remained a vendor partner, Freely said Sears does not comment on vendor relationships.

The iPad 2 mix-up isn't the first time Sears has had trouble with third-party sellers on its e-commerce platform. In May, the company apologized after a religious group found that pornographic DVDs were being sold through the site by a vendor partner.