Amazon and Nintendo team up to screw hundreds over [Update!]

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Looks like Little Johnny Unlucky (aka me) won’t be receiving his Wii for Christmas. I, like hundreds of others, ordered my Wii (bundled with Madden 07, an official SD card, and an extra remote and nunchuck) from Amazon.com on November 30. As some of you may imagine, I was immensely excited when I put the order through; Wiis were sold out, literally, all over America. I’ll admit it, I did a fist pump. But, two weeks later, I’m still a very unhappy camper. Actually, that was put very lightly. I’m more of a borderline homicidal camper right now.

Why you ask? Hit the jump to find out!

Disgruntled after I noticed that my Wii had not shipped five days after I ordered it, I prepared myself to contact the Devil, himself — Amazon.com customer service, that is. The demon on the other side was actually not as demonic as I had first thought she would be. She answered my questions nicely and then went to check on my order.

“Your Wii’s [I had ordered two, one for my girlfriend and one for me] don’t exist.”

The next few minutes consisted of a few ethnic slurs, a “damn it to hell!” and certainly a “what are you talking about ‘they don’t exist?'” After making nice with the lady on the other side (I admitted it wasn’t her fault after the bitch started crying), she left the phone again to go check on my order. 

“Ahaa!” she said. “Your Wiis are sitting here and will be shipped tomorrow.”

I thanked the woman furiously, convinced that I had just sealed the deal on my two bundles. Boy, was I wrong.

 

After two more days waiting on the “Shipping Soon” status to disappear, I got impatient once again. This time, a man answered the phone. He gave me the same BS that the first lady gave me; he said that there was a “technical error” with our shipment and that it would be shipping the next day. I fell into his trap — he sounded very convincing — and believed him.

Days later, I called the Devil back, this time becoming very agitated; Christmas was coming up soon and, because of the huge amount of items shipped at this time, I might end up getting it after December 25. This time, an extremely nice and apologetic woman answered the phone. She told me the truth;

“We don’t have any Wiis.”

“What?!” I responded.

“It’s a technical error on Nintendo’s part. They told us that we would have more Wiis than we actually got. That and God hates you.”

All joking aside, I was furious. How can they sell things, and then claim to have them, when they don’t have them? Growling at her from my side of the phone, I expressed my dissatisfaction with her, Amazon and the entire ordeal. She said she would throw in a $30 gift certificate and free two-day shipping ($60) just for me having to go through this. I fell into the trap once again.

I went through the same process one more time a couple days later, hoping that by getting on their nerves, they would give up and send me my Wiis. I was sure that they were stocked away somewhere in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere. This time, after explaining my situation, the demon on the other end told me he would place me onto the “priority list” and assured me that I would be among the first to receive my Wiis once a new shipment came in. Yeah, I knew that it was complete bullshit, but I couldn’t do anything more.

So, if you do decide to try and snipe a Wii off of Amazon.com, DO SO AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION. Sure, I understand that it’s the holiday season and that Amazon is under a lot of stress (insert sarcasm here), but it is straight bull that they can do this and get away with it. I’ve been waiting over two and a half weeks for them to ship my Wii, and I’m not even sure that they will before Christmas. Oh well, I guess there’s not much more that I can do than wait it out.

Has this happened to any of you? Are you stuck in my position? What do you think about this? 

[UPDATE: Well, it finally shipped this morning. Problem is, they WOULDN’T change it to two day shipping like I was initially promised and they couldn’t provide a tracking number for the package. So, pretty much this order is up in the air as to when it is it will get here. Another problem is that I’m leaving school to go home on Monday and can’t change where it’s shipping to unless I have a tracking number (I originally shipped it to school because I figured I would be there when it got there). So, bottom line: Fuck Amazon.] 

 


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backflip10019
Well, let's see. I've been here since the first day (found it the day it launched via Gmask) and fell in love. I've been an editor for a few months now and I couldn't be happier with the site (that is, unless they sent me a free Wii to review games on *hint hint*).