This REALLY sucks. A co-worker who is desperatly wanting to purchase a Wii found two yesterdy at Toys R Us. Now he already owns "Legend of Zelda" for the Wii...just couldn't find a system until last night. Here is what then happened after finding 2 systems at Toys R Us. He was going to buy both available and sell one on Ebay. He was told there is a limit of one Wii system per customer so one was put back. No big deal. Here is the clincher. He was asked what 3...yes THREE games he wanted with it. He said he only wanted the system since he already owned a game. They told him you HAVE to purchase THREE games at $50 a pop. So the system goes from $250 to $400. There was no sign...no disclaimer...NOTHING. If Nintendo packaged it that way that is one thing. But the Wii had a sticker that said $250. He complained to the manager and took the problem all the way to Corporate where he was told "That's just the way it is." He has filed a formal complaint with Toys R Us that will nmost likely get him nothing. I don't think this is a Nintendo issue..I think it's Toys R Us sticking to the consumer. I just think that SUX!!!!!
Almost every store is doing this. They're calling them "bundles." For instance, there's a Wii sports bundle that comes with three sports games, and a kids bundle that comes with three kiddy games. They also include extra controller's and stuff, so a lot of the "bundles" come out to over $500. It's kind of shady. They know people really want the system, so they force the consumers to buy extra accessories with it. Pretty crappy, but if people are paying for it...
CompUSA made people buy a 40+" TV if they wanted to get a PS3. $150 worth of games doesn't seem bad compared to that. I don't think that is much to ask for someone who plans on actually using the system and instead of selling it on ebay. If they didn't have the 3 game requirement I'm sure your friend wouldn't have even seen the system in the store. And the other nice thing about this deal compared to others is that you get to pick the 3 games.
I guess you are right. But I guess he was taken aback because there was no sign or anything. Look...idiots are spends big bucks on Ebay...if I could go out and afford 10 PS3..mark them up 25%-50% and sell it on Ebay I would. That's just good business.
Over 5,000 people have done so allready? Just like the ps3... These people can't wait 3 months and buy one at retail price..
The exact same thing happened with the Xbox 360. Toys R Us and Best Buy were the worst. My friend waited all night for a 360 on launch day expecting to spend about $430 for the premium system. He was then notified they were only selling bundles and he HAD to purchase the other items. He spent a total of $650. Toys R Us was doing this exact same thing. What your friend should have done is purchase the system and games then return the games the next day.
According to GS/eBay... http://www.gamespot.com/news/6162338.html ...more Wiis were sold on eBay (26,708 after launch, 29,452 preorders prior to launch) than the PS3 (14,675 and 28,233). Don't quite understand that one, especially since the average price for the Wii on eBay was like $410-$430 (compared to $1,186 and $1,370 for the PS3).
I think that if there's only 2 left, it's "lame" to buy both for a profit when there are plenty of people who actually want to play it. Launch seasons always bug me.
I'll go to my local Toy's R US and check it out. Hmmm, maybe I should first find out what a damn Wii is. lol
This is really old news... they did the same thing with the Saturn, same thing when the PS2 came out, same thing with the original XBOX... it's common practice. The companies are making very little on the systems themselves, it's the games that are profit for them... they're just assuring some early returns for themselves.
all your friend has to do is buy the whole bundle and then turn around and return the unwanted items for your refund.. How hard could that be???
I read where Sony was losing $250 on every PS3, but they more than expected to make it up in game sales.
sign up for the microcenter credit card and you get $100 off purchases of $399 and more. so that's a grand total of $199 for the premium. i wished i had found this our earlier..i bought the premium w/ only the rebate. o wells, still a good deal.
They didn't make you buy a 40" TV. The deal was done the week before the PS3 was released and it was if you bought a 40" or higher TV you could reserve a PS3.
This plus, fear of glitches in intial shipments, is why I'm just going to wait until Feb/Mar to pick up a Wii/PS3. Evan
