Gaming Steve: How to Get a Wii (and Lose a Portion of Your Soul in the Process)

December 5, 2007

How to Get a Wii (and Lose a Portion of Your Soul in the Process)

How badly do you want a Wii? Seriously, how badly do you really want one? Well I know of an extremely convoluted way that will score you a Wii this holiday season in just a matter of days. Granted it will only get you a Wii and nothing else (no controllers, no power supply, no sensor bar, nothing else), and I’m sure you will lose a bit of your soul in the process, but this technique will work. As they say ... desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures.

Here is what you need to do. First, you need to find someone who already has a Wii system and who is willing to help you out. And they better be your best friend/owe you big time as they will probably also have to answer to Beelzebub in the end. Second, your friend needs to have a credit card in their name.

What your friend needs to do is call Nintendo Support and report that they are having a problem with their Wii system. I would suggest that your friend reports they are their fan motor broke or that they are experiencing artifacting on the screen. Both are very easy to explain on the phone, won’t require you to do much testing on your end (you either are or aren't experiencing artifacts) and both will require you to obtain a replacement Wii to fix the problem.

And that my friends is how you can get your “new” Wii. Nintendo will explain to your friend that they will need a replacement Wii and that they will ship you a new one to exchange for your original. Best of all they will ship the new one before you have to return the original, you just need give Nintendo a credit card in case you don't return the original. And that is exactly what you plan to do -- not return the original Wii.

After 21 days from the ship date of the replacement Wii your friend's credit card will be charged the full price for a new Wii. But in the end you and your friend will end up with two Wiis – his original one and the “replacement” Wii. And the best part is that your “new” Wii will show up in just a few days!

Once again, I can emphasize enough that all Nintendo will send your friend is a Wii and nothing else. So you will be paying full price for a Wii without a single accessory. You will have to get the Wii Console Stand ($5), Wii Console Stand Plate ($2), Wii AC Adapter ($19.95), Wii A/V Cables ($15.95), Wii Component Video Cable ($29.95), Wii Adhesive Backed Foam Tape for Sensor Bar ($1), Wii Sensor Bar Stand ($1), Wii Sensor Bar ($10), and Wii Remote ($39.99) on your own (plus Wii Sports, prices vary).

Still adding in approximately $124.84 of accessories plus $249.99 for the "new" Wii only comes out to $374.83, which is a lot less than the average price you'll find on eBay for a new Wii.

So just how desperate are you? Just how badly do you want that Wii? Is it really worth a piece of your soul? Is it?

Posted by Gaming Steve at 1:00 PM | Comments (17) | Posted to Wii |

Comments

Tsk, tsk, tsk. How could you do something like that to cuddly old Nintendo? :(

Posted by Malt at December 5, 2007 5:36 PM

It's not worth it. God, can't people just wait?

My case was a rather neat story. The folks over at Gamestop can be so nice once you become a valuable customer to them. My brother moved to New York last year and took his Wii with him... I paniced. At the same time, a friend of mine told me he had a Wii waiting for him at Gamestop. Mind you, he was waiting for it since it came out back on Thanksgiving and this was in June. He was very generous to let me pick it up for myself. What's even cooler is that the next day, another Wii dropped in and they held it again for my friend and he picked it up.

We all won.

Posted by Eligecos at December 5, 2007 5:55 PM

Well i just drink 2 liters of coke so...

(Yes still cracking Wii jokes)

Posted by Cobra at December 5, 2007 9:39 PM

Yeah, I can't condone this method. Nintendo has one of the best customer service departments in any industry and this is a way to seriously undermine their most excellent method of pre-shipping.

Please, don't tell people how to advert the system.

Posted by Snap at December 5, 2007 9:40 PM

Yeah, I don't think this should be on the front page of the site. It seems so...wrong.

Posted by Evildude at December 5, 2007 11:00 PM

Nope, totally disagree with this. It abuses the system and in the long run makes it harder for the honest Wii owner to get their system repaired. It's insurance fraud, plain and simple.

Posted by Simon at December 6, 2007 2:44 AM

It's not exactly hurting Nintendo, because they get to sell someone a Wii for full price while not having to include ANYTHING else. That's all profit for them. I think they'd make more money if more people used this.

Posted by Sander at December 6, 2007 2:54 AM

i'm sorry, but i dont WANT a wii.

if i get to choose between buying a wii or buying no next-gen console, i choose for the last one. the wii has no real games i'm going to like. the 360 has.

Posted by xenomorph at December 6, 2007 8:28 AM

Not impressed... this is pretty shady and hurts the credibility of this site IMO. There are lots of ways to scam people, but it usually ends up coming back and hurting honest people in the long run.

Posted by Joe at December 6, 2007 11:15 AM

Genius!

Posted by PikMini at December 6, 2007 5:34 PM

Btw Steve, I believe that Sony has a habit of never disclosing their sales figures until the official NPD numbers are released. It has nothing to do with how good / bad they did that month

Posted by teo at December 6, 2007 7:34 PM

This is bloody genious. Luckily, I already bought my son's Wii several months ago, and can't wait to give it to him for XMas. I'll probably end up liking it more them him. Sometimes I set it up while he's asleep and mess around in the virtual consoles games.

Good times.

Posted by Daniel at December 7, 2007 1:54 AM

I don't see how this is a scam really. You still pay the full price of the Wii when you don't return the old one. Why not just use that money and go to a store and buy a wii?

Posted by Sporbie at December 7, 2007 5:00 PM

because you get a long wait.

Posted by Ninteen45 at December 8, 2007 6:29 PM

Still... Nintendo doesn't really loose any money... So why not just be fucking patient and get the console the normal way...

Posted by Sporbie at December 11, 2007 1:26 PM

This won't work in Canada, I just had my defective Wii repaired and the only thing Nintendo offered was 1) I send it in, they fix and return via mail or 2) walk into one of the walk-in repair centers (there is one in my city) and drop it off. They did not offer the "ship me a new Wii and I would return the broken one when I got the new one" option.

So what I did was I just dropped it into the walk-in center, and they repaired my Wii, it needed a new DVD drive.

So, if I was trying to get a new one as described, it wouldn't have worked for me (assuming my Wii was not broken, which it was anyway).

Posted by Mike at December 13, 2007 2:42 PM

so what bout going to the store buy one call nintendo tell them it wont work and your mom already threw out the box so u cant take it back. then return the other u bought to the store. i wonder if that would work.

Posted by Corie at December 26, 2007 1:35 AM