By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
I wrote earlier about the Nintendo Wii “Raincheck Program,” exclusive to GameStop. That program will run one day only— Dec. 21st (it was originally said on a Nintendo teleconference to be the 20th and 21st). Today GameStop issued a press release outlining the full program details.
Rather than calling it a raincheck, GameStop is calling it the “Holiday Wii Reservation Program.” Whatever. As long as you can get a Wii, right?
Good news: according to the press release, if you manage to fight through the mass of customers and get a reservation made, you will receive your Wii no later than January 25th. Also, so that you have more than paper to put under the tree, you’ll get a custom-designed DVD case festooned with a Wii and Mario wishing you “Happy Holidays! Your Wii is on the Way!” (I’ll believe it when it happens.)
The bad news is a “limited number of reservations per store.” Also, only one reservation per household, so don’t expect to be doing your friends any favors in addition to reserving your own.
How will you get it? You’ll get a phone call, and you drive down and pick it up. Easy? You have to pick it up at the original store, though, so if you’re out of town on Dec. 21st you can’t reserve it in the city you’re at and pick it up at your local store (they thought of everything).
We Say: Good luck. You’d better start building up those muscles for pushing through the lines on Friday.
This still sounds like it will be just as limited as waiting in line for shipments, now you’re waiting in line for a spot on a wait list??? Some company needs to just start selling the Wii on a waiting list basis. At least you’re guaranteed to EVENTUALLY get one… Car makers and dealerships have been doing this for a long time… Say a $50 deposit puts you on the list? If someone was 200 in line on the list you know you might actually have one in a few months instead of camping out every weekend and being disappointed for a few months.
This turned out to be a great way to get a Wii. My wife and I were not going to fight crowds, our time is too important. We call a couple of Game Stop stores on the afternoon of the 21st (I recall it was around 5:00) and found at least 3 stores within 10 miles of our house that still had vouchers. The salesperson at the store told us that we were likely to get the Wii much sooner than the 25th. Guess what? He was right! They called us on January 2nd. The kids (and I) love it (the wife won’t admit she loves it yet, but I can tell she does). I had never shopped at a Game Stop before, I now have nothing but good things to say Game Stop.