⨳ $329 Retina iPad Mini ⨳

2014 Jan 28, Tuesday

Last night, the Apple store was down for something or other. This morning, I hit the Apple Store app on my iPhone to see what might have changed. It seemed like nothing until I noticed the prices on the Featured section.

Except not. Whenever I clicked through to the iPad mini with Retina page, the starting price came up as $399. I checked store.apple.com, same price. To be sure I wasn’t seeing things, I checked the Apple Store app again; still $329.

Now I don’t really need a new iPad mini, but for the same starting price as the original iPad was upon launch ($70 off), I could more easily be convinced.

This had to be a mistake, right? Only, what if it wasn’t?

I called up Apple and got through to the sales department. Talked to a nice enough guy who saw the same $329 starting price on his iPhone. I asked how I can order one at that price since every attempt to do so led to a page with a $399 starting price. He put me on hold to talk things over with his manager. 5 minutes later he returned.

It was a mistake.

Hopeful, I asked if i could still get one at the $329 price. He said that, unfortunately, the Apple Legal department does not allow them to honor mistakes in advertising.

Nuts.

It did take a few hours, but the mistake was eventually corrected.