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Replacement Wii U Pads $150

nbthedude

Member
So Delta lost my luggage last month and with it my Wii U power supply, sensor bar, and Wii Pad. I waited on placing a replacement order in hopes that they would find it. They did not.

So today I called Nintendo to order a replacement. I had read online that replacement gamepads were around $80. This apparently is incorrect. The amount Nintendo is billing my card is $150+ shipping. Since this is a direct from manufacturer replacement price and not something you can order from them normally via their store, I figure they are not trying to price gouche (at least, I hope they aren't). So I thought this was interesting info to pass along.

Some potential discussion ramifications:

1) This pad is very expensive to manufacture therefore severe pricecuts a la the 3DS seem pretty unlikely any time soon

2) Selling a $150 controller in stores seems very unfeasible to me. Therefore so does the likelyhood that Nintendo is going to make good on their promise to support multiple controllers any time soon.

3) Target has the Playstation Vita with a game pack in for $209 right now. $60 more than just the Wii game pad for comparable hardware as the entire Wii U guts, an OLED screen, and a game. What is going on?

gamepad1qtuf4.png
 

shuri

Banned
Stop the misery and just sell the console on ebay. You know deep inside its the best course of action
 

Jaruru

Member
guess Nintendo hasn't really figured out how much will they sell it for.
price for replacement doesn't justify the selling price later, but anyways we knew that it's not cheap :p

Delta, they should at least cover your lost up to certain amount, right?
 

Suairyu

Banned
Delta is almost certainly legally liable to reimburse you here.

There'll be a clause in whatever you signed that says "we're not responsible for damage to your luggage" but it won't stand up to legal scrutiny. Claim claim claim.
 

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
Uh, Delta needs to be sending you a check for that. They must have a claims department.

And your 3) is about to start some shit.
 
Basically, Nintendo screwed up big time by making a controller that costs half the price of the system's retail price. I hope it severely bites them on the arse.

OP - did you have to fax through a lost luggage report from the airline? I ask because some Italian guy on here had to fax through a police report before Nintendo would even sell him another. What a joke.
 
#1 That's pretty expensive but I think we all assumed the price of the system was mostly controller.
#2 Delta more than likely are going to cover the cost.
#3 Why are you traveling with just just the gamepad, power supply, and sensor bar?
 

Bruno MB

Member
I still can't believe you can't buy a Wii U GamePad in stores outside Japan.

Nintendo is currently so out of touch with everything.
 

JordanN

Banned
3) Target has the Playstation Vita with a game pack in for $209 right now. $60 more than just the Wii game pad for comparable hardware as the entire Wii U guts, an OLED screen, and a game. What is going on?
Ahahaha.

Finding comparisons to Vita and Wii U is like finding comparisons to any hardware where there's at least an 8x difference in power.
 

ZeroGravity

Member
It's worth every penny too, as far as I'm concerned. It's a fantastic controller.

(Hoping I never have to replace mine though)
 
So Delta lost my luggage last month and with it my Wii U power supply, sensor bar, and Wii Pad. I waited on placing a replacement order in hopes that they would find it. They did not.

So today I called Nintendo to order a replacement. I had read online that replacement gamepads were around $80. This apparently is incorrect. The amount Nintendo is billing my card is $150+ shipping. Since this is a direct from manufacturer replacement price and not something you can order from them normally via their store, I figure they are not trying to price gouche (at least, I hope they aren't). So I thought this was interesting info to pass along.

Some potential discussion ramifications:

1) This pad is very expensive to manufacture therefore severe pricecuts a la the 3DS seem pretty unlikely any time soon

2) Selling a $150 controller in stores seems very unfeasible to me. Therefore so does the likelyhood that Nintendo is going to make good on their promise to support multiple controllers any time soon.

3) Target has the Playstation Vita with a game pack in for $209 right now. $60 more than just the Wii game pad for comparable hardware as the entire Wii U guts, an OLED screen, and a game. What is going on?
It is indeed expensive, but we don't really know how much it costs even now; I am definitely sure Wiimote + Nunchuck doesn't cost Nintendo $70, but they still sell it at that price.

Last year they dropped the 3DS price to $169, and they said they are losing money on it.

This christmas, the MK 7 3DS "XL" bundle went down to $149, $20 less than the 3DS dropped price + MK 7, which already would sell loads even if not bundled.

So I guess Gamepad costs may come down a lot in a short time.
 
Sounds right. The price of the pad in Japan is like 18,000 yen or something (3DS being only 15,000).

I'm not going to pretend to understand what the components cost in either device, but intuitively this just seems asinine. The idea that the GamePad costs more than $100 just seems crazy to me, and even $100 would be kind of pushing it if they ever get two working simultaneously for certain titles and they started selling them on retail shelves.
 

AwRy108

Member
Exact reason Nintendo still won't sell them at retail: the price backlash for "just a second controller" would be massive, along with the number of returns by people buying them to use on their original Wii's.
 

Guevara

Member
This just confirms to me that we're not going to see games that use 2 (or more) Wii U pads at a time any time soon.
 
It's worth every penny too, as far as I'm concerned. It's a fantastic controller.

(Hoping I never have to replace mine though)
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha............oh wait you're serious?
Some plastic, awful 800x480 resistive touchscreen, some internal components and a battery is worth $150???

You can get a whole android tablet with better specs for less than $150.
 

nbthedude

Member
Delta is almost certainly legally liable to reimburse you here.

There'll be a clause in whatever you signed that says "we're not responsible for damage to your luggage" but it won't stand up to legal scrutiny. Claim claim claim.

Actually I already put in a claim for the power supply and sensor bar earlier about two weeks afterward. It was only recently when I went to play that I noticed the Wii U gamepad was missing as well. I should probably submit another ticket but I kind of wonder if it is too late.
 

joesiv

Member
Half the price of the system is the controller.

Just for laughs, have you ever looked into replacement costs for other markets, say the automotive industry? The cost of replacement parts is many times more expensive than it actually costs the manufacturer. I'd bet it would cost 10x's more expensive to build a car strictly from factory purchased replacement parts, than to buy it brand new.

As for Nintendo, clearly, they are making a profit on replacement parts, how much is questionable.
 
I'm not going to pretend to understand what the components cost in either device, but intuitively this just seems asinine. The idea that the GamePad costs more than $100 just seems crazy to me, and even $100 would be kind of pushing it if they ever get two working simultaneously for certain titles and they started selling them on retail shelves.

It's a tablet minus some RAM, an SD slot and a CPU. It has all the standard controller features as well as most standard tablet features, plus the gyroscope and sensor bar.

I'm more surprised people don't understand why its expensive.

EDIT:
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha............oh wait you're serious?
Some plastic, awful 800x480 resistive touchscreen, some internal components and a battery is worth $150???

You can get a whole android tablet with better specs for less than $150.

Why iPhone so expensive it just glass and screen and some internal components?
 

nbthedude

Member
probably in another suitcase. I'm guess he had 2 bags with him

Yeah the suitcase with the Wii U was in the suitcase when I got it back. The power supply, sensor bar and gamepad were not. Where they went I have no idea. It's a complicated and not particularly interesting story about the ordeal I went through with Delta. I just thought the more interesting thing was the cost of a gamepad replacement.
 
Off screen play is really awesome but the more I play my Wii U the more I wish they had said "fuck the gimmick" and gone for a more powerful system at the same $350 price point. Instead, they put almost half the cost in the controller.
 

Wiz

Member
Doesn't Nintendo have to build a gamepad from scratch just for him? That might factor into the cost.

I doubt they have a bunch of spare gamepads laying around ready to sell.
 
Doesn't Nintendo have to build a gamepad from scratch just for him? That might factor into the cost.

I doubt they have a bunch of spare gamepads laying around ready to sell.

I'm sure they have hundreds. It's not like there is one guy in a room putting them together from scratch.
 

Nekofrog

Banned
Doesn't Nintendo have to build a gamepad from scratch just for him? That might factor into the cost.

I doubt they have a bunch of spare gamepads laying around ready to sell.

They sell them independent of the system in Japan.

Won't matter for the OP though, because the controllers are region locked.
 
Doesn't Nintendo have to build a gamepad from scratch just for him? That might factor into the cost.

I doubt they have a bunch of spare gamepads laying around ready to sell.

im sure they have a small stockpile for defects alone and weird situations like this.

getapolicereport
 
Yeah the suitcase with the Wii U was in the suitcase when I got it back. The power supply, sensor bar and gamepad were not. Where they went I have no idea. It's a complicated and not particularly interesting story about the ordeal I went through with Delta. I just thought the more interesting thing was the cost of a gamepad replacement.

o_O so they were in the same one? OT but thats messed up...
 
Best of luck going through the reimbursement process.

It's like pulling teeth, but you should be covered for something upwards of $3000 of certain itemized goods.
 

nbthedude

Member
US airlines won't cover any electronics in their insurance, it's blanket policy across the industry. They always recommend any electronics you bring as carry ons.

The bitch of it was, it was a carry on that they grabbed from me gateside claiming that they didn't have room for it. I was partially at fault given that I was running late and only arrived at the gate about 5 minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave. But as a result I didn't even think anything about it when they took my luggage without giving me a gate claim ticket. Then, sure enough, when I got off for my connection it wasn't there. Nor was it there when I arrived home.

The real thing that sucked more than anything is that I was taking it home for Christmas to show to family and play with friends and I didn't have it the entire trip. And that was one of my only chances to even play any of the games multiplayer.

Eventually I got the carry on luggage back but it was missing the aforementioned stuff.
 
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