PSA: Wii slot is for discs only, not credit cards

by JC Fletcher { Dec 29th 2008 at 11:00AM }

... not the physical cards. Here's an item of post-holiday hilarity from NeoGAF's HUELEN10. It may stretch credibility a bit, but it's a great story regardless of veracity!

According to HUELEN10, some neighbors with whom he is casually acquainted informed him that they had just given their kids a Wii for Christmas, and then solicited game recommendations. HUELEN10 suggested a few retail games as well as the Sega Master System version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Unfamiliar with the Virtual Console, the mother asked for further explanation, which HUELEN10 offered, saying, among other things, that it requires the user to "put in her credit card when prompted on the Shop Channel, and get the amount of points she wanted."

Which she did, unfortunately. Some time later, the mother called her neighbor, furious that their new Wii had been broken by following his advice. She put the credit cards into the Wii, just like he said.

Right into the disc slot.

And when one didn't work, she went ahead and jammed two more credit cards in there. Now, with three unusable credit cards and one busted Wii, she has demanded that HUELEN10 pay for repairs.

Look forward to a new warning screen on Wii games, right after the Health and Safety screen and the wrist strap warning!

Tags: christmas, credit-card

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

rodjoh @ Dec 29th 2008 11:06AM

Only in America.

The sad thing about this story is that it could be either a joke or a believable true story.

Rocketboy @ Dec 29th 2008 11:29AM

Really? In no other country in the world would you ever find someone who would do this?

meist3r @ Dec 29th 2008 11:44AM

Well everyone else would you be ashamed, shut up and buy a new Wii. Here you demand reparations from the guy who exposed you as an idiot.

brawlerbarbie @ Dec 29th 2008 4:38PM

Honey, I hate to break it to you, but idiots come in all flavors and are available everywhere. This could have easily happened anywhere else in the world other than the states.

Backslash @ Dec 29th 2008 3:55PM

We do have plenty of plastic.

KaBob799 @ Dec 29th 2008 4:21PM

I think it's believable no matter what country it took place in.

rodjoh @ Dec 29th 2008 7:53PM

America is not really a country though ;)

Just messing with u guys. I know there's idiots worldwide. The rest of us just don't have money for Wiis. LOL.

ScottishPrik @ Dec 31st 2008 8:00PM

Too right. Only in America. Nobody's this stupid outside the states.

linebeginstoblur @ Dec 29th 2008 11:25AM

Wow.

I can't think of anything else to say, but.... Wow.

Victor @ Dec 29th 2008 11:32AM

Wow Just wow I know the casual audience doesnt play alot but these people are just stupid

meist3r @ Dec 29th 2008 11:42AM

What I can't fax with the toaster?
But it has slots in it.

Dang it!

Orion @ Dec 29th 2008 11:45AM

Think about all the devices this lady would come across before the Wii. Computer, laptop, dvd player... Which of these devices ever used a disk slot to scan a card?

On top of that, woudln't you get the clue after the first one didnt work and didnt come out of the system? Definitely by the second one, right? What was the third one for, shits and giggles?

I'm sorry, but people like this.. seriously just take them in the back and shoot them, because it's people like this that weigh the rest of us down. I hope she doesn't have a fighting chance in court if she takes it there.

Mr Khan @ Dec 29th 2008 11:48AM

A credit card slot should be universal on PCs and consoles by now. It'd be safer than having to save your info on someone's server, or have to re-enter that whole damn number every time

rov947 @ Dec 29th 2008 12:03PM

I call B.S. on this one...but I'm taking a huge leap of faith that no one not riding the short bus would do that.

Scott @ Dec 29th 2008 12:37PM

The lady is stupid, but I sort of had something similar happen in that my 3-year-old son thought it was a piggy-bank and put a penny in it. I tried to get it out, to no avail. It still works just fine, so I haven't tried getting it out again. Does anybody know if down the road that penny in my Wii might lead to some problems, and if so, does anybody have any advice on getting it out.

Jayenkai @ Dec 29th 2008 1:16PM

Possibly, but if it's playing games just fine, then I'd probably ignore it, and hope he doesn't shove another in!

Ninbrendo @ Dec 29th 2008 1:13PM

In a land with "HOT" disclaimers on coffee cups, this doesn't surprise me at all.

Rocketboy @ Dec 29th 2008 3:34PM

You mean, in a land when people blame someone for being served a beverage that causes 3rd degree (deep tissue) burns in seconds?

"The coffee that burned Stella Liebeck was over 180 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 15-20 degrees hotter than coffee typically served in restaurants.
Liebeck was not driving when she spilled the coffee. Her grandson had been driving a car in which she was a passenger, but the spill occurred when the car was stopped and she was adding cream and sugar to her coffee.
Liebeck suffered third-degree burns over six percent of her body, received skin grafts, and spent several days in the hospital.
McDonalds rejected Liebeck’s offer to settle the suit for $20,000 before trial.
Before Liebeck’s lawsuit McDonalds had received over 700 complaints about burns, some of them third-degree, suffered by customers who spilled coffee on themselves"

Ninbrendo @ Dec 29th 2008 10:09PM

Um, yeah... That's exactly what I mean.

psychedelicpaintbrush @ Jan 1st 2009 2:50PM

Ok Rocketboy.... so are you saying that this woman was or was not an idiot? The coffee was hot, she knew that. I've never taken the temperature of a hot beverage before drinking it, but I've always known that it wouldn't be cool to spill it on myself.

It shouldn't even be possible for an idiot to win a lawsuit.

Ninbrendo @ Jan 1st 2009 7:06PM

Thank you, Mr. P. Brush. I wasn't sure what Rocketboy meant, either.

"...but the spill occurred when the car was stopped and she was adding cream and sugar to her coffee."

"Stopped" or not, 'nuff said. And this may be slightly off topic, but the apple filling might be hot as well (although not as hot as when they used to fry the suckers).

Louie @ Dec 29th 2008 2:36PM

Heh, for some reason reminds me of a bit from the Onion Movie. "Call Kostman's, The P*nis People" Shrugs.

Michael Sliczniak @ Dec 29th 2008 3:31PM

Early on there was a rash of repairs where the drive slot would suck in SD cards. I heard this first hand from Nintendo support. That actually is a design flaw for putting the two so close together.

My young son once put a pbj sandwich into the VCR. He was only three at the time though and did not demand I pay for a new VCR or make a new sandwich.

kiro @ Dec 29th 2008 3:56PM

As stupid as the neighbor was...

HELEN10 could have avoided this by just saying "credit card NUMBER."

manyquestions @ Dec 29th 2008 5:40PM

That's what I was thinking

psychedelicpaintbrush @ Jan 1st 2009 2:56PM

HUELEN10 didn't have anything to avoid. The person who put a credit card into a disk drive was simply retarded. It wasn't a situation in which such a clarification should have been required of the speaker. We're in the 21st Century.

Eric @ Dec 29th 2008 4:48PM

I remember HUELEN from the old NSider forum

I'm really surprised Nintendo hasn't introduced a new forum by now - it's been two years, right?

Renigami @ Dec 29th 2008 9:37PM

It goes to show that next time you have to be SPECIFIC.

"put in her credit card [NUMBER] when prompted on the Shop Channel, and get the amount of points she wanted."

Someone not familiar with technology would have never guessed that we have not advanced far enough to consider a built in credit card reader with devices (although it would be very cool). I don't blame the poor lady on that except....

The Wii Shop channel screen TELLS you to input the credit card number and no way in hell tells you to physically put the credit card in the disc slot.

And it goes to show that one needs to read the manual to know not to stick anything in the disc slot that is not a Wii disc or Gamecube disc. And I quote:

"Game Disc Slot
For inserting a Wii or Nintendo GameCube Disc.
Slot lights blue and blinks when a disc is inserted.
When WiiConnect24 is set to ON, the slot will blink
when messages or data are received."

TTK @ Jan 18th 2009 8:07AM

Still though. You'd think that the person might try looking around for the option to buy points by entering their number in the software before randomly inserting one, two THREE cards into the disk slot.

I mean, has this person never made an online purchase before? Then it might be understandable.

Stevets01 @ Dec 30th 2008 2:00PM

Here's your sign.

psychedelicpaintbrush @ Jan 1st 2009 2:57PM

nintendonick @ Dec 30th 2008 4:37PM

this reminds me of something I did when I was like...five. I shoved quarters into the side of my uncles super nintendo because I thought it worked the same way an arcade machine did.

Benjamin Lopez @ Dec 30th 2008 6:39PM

Renigami is right. Being just a little more specific can prevent many misunderstandings and problems.

And yes, fools are worldwide, not in just one country or continent.

SlaughterMeister @ Dec 31st 2008 11:12AM

This isn't funny. I can't stand people who are this stupid. It doesn't matter what wording HUELEN10 used, the neighbour is a retard. ONE card could MAYBE, ALMOST be blamed on HUELEN10, but THREE? THREE?????

ONE card could be a misunderstanding. ONE card is a simple mistake.

"Fool me once, shame on you!"
"Fool me twice, shame on me!"
"Fool me three times? Well, I hope this is the last time because I'm not sure I can count much higher than this."

Maybe HUELEN10 should have recommended some textbooks for the neighbour instead of games.

MX @ Dec 31st 2008 10:27PM

Yeah but you gotta think this is the lady who put 3 credit cards in a wii, if someone said put the credit card number in she would have probably written it on a piece of paper and put it in, or maybe even cut the credit card numbers off and put them in who knows.