Furious customers are complaining that Walmart cancelled their Apple Watch orders, sparking concerns that they might miss out on early Black Friday deals

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Furious customers are complaining that Walmart cancelled their Apple Watch orders, sparking concerns that they might miss out on early Black Friday deals
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REUTERS/Rick Wilking

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A Walmart employee explains Apple iPad options.

Angry customers are complaining that Walmart cancelled their Apple Watch orders, forcing them to miss out on early Black Friday deals.

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On Thanksgiving Day, some shoppers took to social media to express disappointment that Walmart sold out of its Apple Watch Series 3 deal mere minutes after the retailer kicked off its Black Friday sale.

On Friday, more customers began complaining that Walmart had cancelled their orders up to two days after they originally went through.

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Chicago resident Matthew Selig told Business Insider he purchased an Apple Watch from the Walmart website right when Black Friday deals began on Wednesday at 10 p.m. He received a confirmation email shortly afterward that provided him with an in-store pick-up date of December 10.

However, on Friday morning Selig found an email from Walmart.com in his inbox notifying him that his order had been cancelled. In the email, viewed by Business Insider, Walmart states, "We're really sorry, but the items shown below are out of stock," adding that the order was cancelled indefinitely "since we don't know when we'll get them in again."

Screen Shot 2019 11 29 at 12.46.28 PM

Courtesy of Matthew Selig

An email from Walmart cancelling an Apple Watch purchase.

Selig said he was concerned that even if the product is ultimately restocked, Walmart might not honor his Black Friday deal. To ensure he would still be able to purchase an Apple Watch at a discounted rate, he got in touch with a Walmart customer service representative on Friday morning, who told him to "rest assured, we will honor the price," according to a transcript of his conversation obtained by Business Insider.

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"I did find it frustrating, because I thought this was a way around going to the store and avoiding the crowds," Selig said. "I'm disappointed to see that they just sort of cancelled the order and I'm not really sure why."

In addition to Selig, at least a dozen more customers who purchased the Apple Watch on Walmart's site on Wednesday took to social media to complain about cancellations.

"I need you to explain how you can cancel an order that was placed on Wednesday night online because it's now 'out of stock', but it's still available for purchase online at a much higher price?" one person commented on Walmart's Facebook page.

Walmart was not immediately able to provide Business Insider with a comment on the apparent cancellations. The company has been responding to upset shoppers on social media, asking them to send a direct message to Walmart's customer service account.

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