Reason #2,782 for disliking Wal-Mart: They won't sell you a Wii [update]

by David Hinkle { Apr 29th 2008 at 2:15PM }

The Wii has been a hard console to find, which is why Wal-Mart has a "one console per customer" policy. This policy backfired on a couple of friends recently, at an Exton, PA store where they found 7 or 8 consoles sitting on the shelf, almost calling out to them in a Siren's song. When they went to each purchase a console, a Wal-Mart employee Wii-blocked them, stating that they were "together" and thus could only purchase one console "together."

Now, personally, this blogger must admit to purchasing a Wii at a Wal-Mart because, frankly, nowhere else was the console to be found. And, like the hero of the story here (also named Dave, that's how we know he's a hero), this blogger was in the store with a friend. We each purchased a console, some games and accessories no problem. The store employees or the manager in the back of the Electronics section had nothing to say about our purchase. So, this story really ticks us off, to be honest.

Besides, isn't it the goal of this particular business to sell things? What should the company, or the lowly employee that pulled off the block here, care about what happens to the console after it is sold. As far as we're concerned, that's where the retailer's responsibility ends. Maybe that's why we're not in the retail game ...

Update: Whoops, typo!

Tags: customer-service, customerservice, wal-mart, walmart

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

adolson @ Apr 29th 2008 2:29PM

What the hell?? If that kind of thing happened to me, I'd be furious and I'd probably smash things. But that's just how I roll.

dwain white @ Apr 29th 2008 7:14PM

Good to know you roll like a fool!

mgroves @ Apr 29th 2008 2:29PM

Complain if the store only sells one.
Complain if the store sells all of them to one guy.
Complain if the store doesn't have any.
Complain!

noirs @ Apr 29th 2008 2:31PM

@adolson
That's totally badass!

Swampgirl Inez @ Apr 29th 2008 2:38PM

Hubby and his friend bought theirs "together" at Wal-Mart too. Someone needs to be fired.

theb1rdm4n @ Apr 29th 2008 2:47PM

easy fix: just go get one of those fake mustaches they sell and they'll never know its you!

mike r @ Apr 29th 2008 2:41PM

Uggh. That wallmart is terrible. I went there about a year and a half ago trying to get a wii. They had signs posted stating they would have wii's on the upcoming sunday. Asked the manager how they where going to go about giving them out, in which he told me they where first come first serve starting at 8:00am or so (don't remember the exact time). Got there bright and early that day to find out the posted a list at 2:00am and if your name is not on the list you were not getting a wii.

TheCoats @ Apr 29th 2008 2:49PM

the worker was probably waiting for her kids to get there to get a Wii......

anyway, Last night at 2am (GMT-6) I beat No More Heroes......I dont know what to do with myself now

gb @ Apr 29th 2008 2:50PM

Walmart hires wage workers. Many of their employees are well below the federal poverty line. They do this so you can save a buck on cheap imported crap from china. They guy was just doing his job, you can't expect that he has the freedom, or capability, to make a judgment about a company procedure. Walmart sucks, I choose not to shop there so I can avoid these types of situations :)

Rocketboy @ Apr 29th 2008 4:09PM

"Retail hires wage workers. A few of their employees are well below the federal poverty line. They do this so you can save a buck on cheap imported crap from china. They guy was just doing his job, you can't expect that he has the capability to make a judgment about a company procedure, and is just playing a case of CYA. I like to vilify things because it makes me look cool, so I believe that Walmart sucks. I choose not to shop there so I can avoid these types of situations, and keep my feeling of coolness and class superiority intact. :P"

Fixed it for you.

angelbabe531 @ Apr 29th 2008 10:05PM

I lol'd, Rocketboy. Good job :P

Roto13 @ Apr 29th 2008 2:51PM

Did they talk to the manager? It's very likely the guy in the department was a mouth-breathing idiot and doesn't understand the difference between one and more than one. There's no way any store's actual policy is going to be to refuse to sell more than one item to a group of people.

Hell, Wal-Mart is a chain, not a franchise. There are a lot of people above the inbred twit behind the counter and his manager, if he was equally stupid. Last I checked, companies don't like it when their employees do things to limit sales.

mjpd1 @ Apr 29th 2008 3:11PM

My wife and I each bought one at the same time at Best Buy. The man in charge of dispensing the tickets for the Wii's didn't care one bit.

adolson @ Apr 29th 2008 3:49PM

You won't let your wife touch your Wii? She had to buy her own.

James @ Apr 29th 2008 3:59PM

Heh, on launch day, I got my Wii at Costco. The kid in line next to me showed me his ticket for CC and Best Buy both, one for him and one for his mom. I bet he drove out of that mall with 6 of the little bastards... he probably made a killing. No more than 10 years old. Man, I wish I had been that scheming when I was that young...

Alexander @ Apr 29th 2008 2:52PM

Same freaking thing happened to me at the Halo 3 midnight launch! I was there with my best friend, and he was going to buy a copy for himself and for me (for my birthday). The clock passes midnight and we finally reach the counter. He buys his copy, and pulls $60 via cashback and hands it to me. The clerk refuses to sell the game to me because he was "paying" for both, and kept saying "1 game per customer". We just waited an hour for that clerk to go away and bought it from another clerk.

snkngshps @ Apr 29th 2008 3:01PM

From a retail point of view..

Yes they make money by selling things but they will have no problems selling Wiis. If they let the first person to walk in the door buy up all of the Wiis and sell them online no one would go to Wal Mart anymore. Yes they sold a lot of Wiis, but they lose customers.

I hate Wal Mart, but just trying to explain it from a retail POV.

THE WICKER MAN (BWF) (GT: Dalek Prime) @ Apr 29th 2008 3:09PM

Retail=fail
Wal-Mart = teh epic fail

Charles @ Apr 29th 2008 3:29PM

I have to admit to buying a Wii from WalMart too, but that's in Canada...

Kinu64 @ Apr 29th 2008 3:47PM

Wow, this has to be one of the first times I have seen something posted here that actually is located about 10 miles from me. I

have been to this said walmart and they are a bunch of pricks sometimes. I had a price issue once there and when I conforted the cashier about it, she started to give me attidtude and was like "well, if you aren't going to pay this price then you need to get out of my line".

Fullmetal Salchemist @ Apr 29th 2008 4:38PM

Wal-Mart has Wiis? Sweet. Time to make a trip to Wal-Mart, then to eBay.

Eternityx @ Apr 29th 2008 5:02PM

I asked if they do pre-orders for games and a Walmart reject told me they don't do pre-orders because it wouldn't make sense to since you have to pay for it twice....I tried to explain to her you only pay once but she was convinced you have to pay more to preorder....I just laughed and drove to Gamestop.

dwain white @ Apr 29th 2008 7:16PM

Rocketboy got it right!

Pyro @ Apr 29th 2008 10:22PM

ok, now you all get a comment from an actual walmart electronics associate. Firstly, the corporate wide limit was in effect for Christmas. You know, when a single Wii was going for 600+ on ebay? Now as far as i know, they've never actually released a statement that the limit is no longer in effect. But at store #2672 we've not been practicing it for quite some time now. Now the reason for limiting the number of purchases to a single customer is obvious. Much more so when you get some greedy bastard in who tried to buy 6+ Wiis at a time when you know there are kids dreaming of one for christmas. I personally will refuse to sell more than 3 wii's to a single person or group. Or at least i used to. At last count we had over 50 wii consoles in the back room. Our small town is saturated and we're down to selling about 15 a week. for the record, the way walmart is distributing Wiis to their stores is they are sending more Wii's to the stores with the higher attachment rate for the Wii. (IE who is making the most money while selling the Wii). So if you are one of the people still madly searching for a Wii, check your small town Walmarts. Its seems to be that the smaller towns have a higher percentage of people buying the wii to actually play and not to resell.