My Sad(?) Tale

[ae2k]

Update:

I decided to wait until this morning (Monday, Nov 20th) before looking into my order status, under the assumption that it would take at least half a day for Nintendo to get my order status up. After getting to work I navigated over to the page the customer rep on the phone told me to use, only to get a 404 Page Not Found error. Navigating through the main Nintendo site I was able to find the correct URL, however.

I entered my return number and zip code, and was presented with my order status. According to the site, I had placed an order for a replacement system, but that it was on backorder. Strange, the customer rep hadn't said anything about a backorder- in fact, he was confident it would ship today. Still things haven't been going my way lately so I decide to call Nintendo and see what's up. Every time I call I get a message saying they are too busy to even *wait* for an operator, but that I can use their automated system.

Navigating through the menus I eventually enter my return number, to which I get the immediate reply that it was not found in their system. I am then given the alternate choice to lookup my order by phone number. This too fails, and I am again asked for my return number, phone number, return number... you get the idea. Several of the menus make reference to a confirmation email that I should have received (which the rep also mentioned), which I hadn't gotten. Was my order so badly back ordered that they hadn't even gotten around to sending me an initial email?

Several times throughout the morning I checked the website. Many times it was down, but most of the time I got the same back order status message. Once, without warning or explanation, the status said it was being "packaged", or something to that effect. A few minutes later, it was back to back order status. Finally around 10:30am I get an automated email from Nintendo... it's a survey asking for feedback on the customer service for my service call the previous day. It has absolutely nothing to do with my order or the confirmation code I was supposed to get. Hmmmm...

Finally around noon I got the confirmation email I was supposed to get the day before. Immediately afterwards I tried the Nintendo hotline again, and this time got through to a regular menu! I happily plugged through the menus, selecting to speak with a rep concerning my repair/replacement status. Right before I'm transferred to a rep I am asked for my return number to "assist them" in helping me. I enter it, and of course it fails as it did before. But I'm in a rep menu now, so I figure if everything fails it will still put me through to an operator.

Nope, the same cycle of asking for my number, failing, phone number, failing, and back to return number occurs again. Not only that, I am never given the option to go back to a previous menu. I hang up and call again, hoping to speak with a general customer rep rather than going through the repair/replace menu. Of course, I am met with the "lines are too busy, call back later" message I was getting earlier in the day. Throughout the day I called a bunch more times, but I never got through again after that one time.

Around 3pm I check the website and find that my order status is "being packaged" again, but this time I have a UPS tracking number! Of course, even if the number is valid it won't be activated until the thing goes on the truck, so I'm not surprised when UPS doesn't find it in their system. Still, I'm making progress, slowly. Finally at 4pm I get an email from Nintendo saying my item has shipped, again giving the same UPS confirmation number. According to UPS it still hasn't actually got on the truck (as of 5pm), but I'm pretty confident it's close.

So- although today was a barrage of confusion and phone system failure, I think my unit will actually ship tonight via 3-day UPS. Given how late it was in the day I won't be surprised if I don't get it until Friday after Thanksgiving, but I should be able to live. I've found that I can still enjoy some of the Wii Sports games despite the messed up textures, so all is not lost until I get my replacement!

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[epikon]

i really do feel sorry for everyone who have recieved broken wiis. You wouldnt believe how nervous i am about my wii arriving for (hopefully) the european launch date. whats worst i have to wait until christmas even though i work so i can afford to pay my parents back on the 8th...might have to try it quickly when it comes to see if it works.

[Silent-Sniper]

AWww that sucks man

It will be worth the wait in the end though!

[audiodan]

I Feel terrible for you!

Well, there's a story behind me and a friend getting our Wiis, so I will tell it!:P So, me, my friend (who's getting a Wii) and another who is tagging along, wake up at 4:30 AM! We leave the second friend's house at 5:15AM, and get lost, trying to go to Best Buy. We found out, that the subway station we were planning to go to, was closed until 9AM. What did we do, not being able to drive? We walked! It was a long walk, our feet were numb, but we made it to Best Buy! The location we were at, had 94 Wiis. We counted where we were in line, and we were right on the bubble, we couldn't tell if we would get one or not. It was worth a try! Many people, who were one of the firsts in the line, passed by, offering to sell their spots. My friend buying a Wii, got anxious and went for it. $50 out of his pocket. We waited in line, and I didn't get one. But, he did, and he felt great. We all still wanted to go home with another Wii, so we hit YorkDale. We passed by the EB Games, and it was locked, Darn! But, people were inside! I knocked, asked about the Wii, they let me in and I got one! Too bad, I didn't realize I could only spend $500 a day on my debt card, I have been saving for so long, I forgot!

So, in total, I got:

Wii
+1 WiiMote
Zelda and
Red Steel

I love it!

[frontsidefish]

I hope that when your Wii does arrive that it is all the more sweet.

[YumiJam]

man..there has been alot of screw ups with Wii lately..I wonder what's the deal?
I'm glad they shipped you a new one
happy gameing!

[jshaw]

Soory wut happened to you and ur friends. Sumthing sorta happened to my a a few friends saturday night. Some teens did a drive by shooting us with bb's. Lucky we had paintball guns from our game that after noon and we ran behind my dads suv got them out and shout those bastards. then with a colorful car came us swearing and stuff and my dad who is an attonry explained to them that wut we did was self defense so they uldn't file any charges.lol. so in the end a couple of 15 years olds showed these drunk 20 years olds who really owns.lol

[White-Wolf]

im sorry things dident work out. I waited at a target too. We found out thier would be 1 security guard around all night. We were also close to the road to the internal mall road, but the early ones that showed up (but not the first) to be behind a tiny wall about chest high and a foot thick. I was one of these people and it was a nice experence. I joked that it would protect us from drive by shootings. Nintendo is going to fix your systems. Im glad.

This is one of the only broken wii stories i have heard of. The other is the ones that need that imfumis startup disc, but it dident come with the system. They were demo units not ment for shipping. Most wii problems are people who have old routers that need to update thier firmware.

[st0rmbrkr]

I feel bad for you really. I think i got pretty lucky. Me and my dad went to circuit city the night before and asked how many consoles they had and they said 19 so we were like maybe we can get it. So at 7 in the morning we went there and guess how many people were there 19 amazing. So after being bummed i was jokingly said lets go to toys r us and see what they have. We drove by and there were probably 10 people and we didnt think toys r us would have that many so we were about to leave when my dad said lets just ask and they were going to have 35 consoles so we got in line. The people were nice except for one creepy dude that wanted to sell a ps3 for wii because he promised his wife one. So at 8 30 we get the ticket and at 9 they open up and i get my wii YAY

[ae2k]

It turns out that despite Nintendo's claim of 3-day shipping... they actually sent it via 2-day! Package mapping done using PackageMapping.com, which (obviously) makes use of Google maps:

Strangely today I also got two emails identical to a previous one they sent me titled "Confirmation for order #XXXXXX/member #XXXXXXX", saying my order is being processed and I will be contacted when it ships. They also contained my Nintendo.com account login and password, each of which were blank (the previous email they sent had the correct information). Obviously each of these were sent in error. Strange indeed.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have my new Wii!

Update:
Strange side note about UPS: my package decided to make an unannounced pit-stop. I would imagine with something as dynamic as package shipment across the country things can change quite rapidly: