• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Walmart in-store Wii U preorders begin 10/14

Mission Accomplished. Arrived at the Walmart at 9 and walked calmly back to the layaway department where a very knowledgeable and friendly employee helped me with the layaway/preorder. He definitely seemed to know his stuff, and he even mentioned that he had gotten his layaway preorder in earlier that morning. All said, the process took only a few minutes and I walked away a happy man with my Deluxe Wii U receipt in hand.
 
If the employees/managers don't even know about this promotion, what are the chances of them holding the consoles when they arrive on release day?

However, maybe going through layaway is more of a guaranteed way of holding the item. Good luck to those doing this. It sounds like nightmare customer service so far.

I'm sticking with my GameStop online pre-order and hoping they come through. Besides, I would rather have the white model, even if it is basic.
 
Got a bad feeling about scalping the way things are going lol

It will definitely be an interesting launch to say the least. I'm curious to see if the WiiU reaches Wii levels of launch ridiculous-ness. Also I remember reading Nintendo had quite a high number of WiiU's in production but don't quote me on that.
 
Another side note that I forgot to mention in my previous post - while I was preordering the Wii U with the knowledgeable assistant manager, another employee walked by and said that she totally had to preorder the Wii U because it was "like a Wii version of the PSP that you can take with you all over". I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I guess any knowledge about the Wii U is better than not knowing it exists at all. Nintendo definitely has to get a solid ad campaign going soon though.
 
My experience in Laurel MD was fun.

They had someone at the layaway desk who was talking to a customer who was asking for a wii U bundle as well. I noticed her muttering that they wouldn't be able to do it because there's nothing for her to scan. So I joined in, said I'm waiting for it as well and she suddenly looked concerned because now her problem had multiplied.

I kindly showed her the circulator that showed on the FRONT page to place it on layaway today for Nov 18th pickup. She insisted it was only going to be there Nov 18th. Then she brought another employee who again said, "look it says Nov 18th you gotta come back then". Now the guy I was with was irritated and asked for her to get a manager.

That manager came with two employees from electronics and they both looked at it and said. "Yeah we don't sell stuff that isn't on the shelves, it comes out Nov 18th look at the circulator." They then asked me if I could just get a regular Wii and buy the games separately instead of the bundle.

Now the guy who was there before me was fairly pissed. So the manager claimed he could call corporate but they would just tell him the same thing that they wouldn't get it until then. They sent two people out back to go "check" on what was going on and call the corporate office.

Meanwhile a 5th employee helped me and the guy setup preorders following the instructions from this thread, no dice. She seemed concerned because it was on the front page and the store had no idea how to do it. She insisted the other employees do something about it because she was sure they would get more people asking about it later.

The manager comes back and says corporate had no idea what he was talking about and that Walmart Policy is that they don't do preorders because of a need to physically scan the item for the lay away system and recommended a regular Wii as a replacement. Furthermore coporate also said that sometimes manufacturers ask for ads to be placed in the circulator for items they never get a stock of because they're in limited supply. The guy I was sitting in line with at this point was pretty pissed so he called ANOTHER Walmart that's an hour away and they claimed they just got an e-mail about it at 12:01am. He gave the phone to the manager on duty and he looked scared shitless that the other store was doing preorders as early as midnight and his store had no idea how. He went back and disappeared into his office on the phone with the manager from the other store doing preorders

He came back with faxed copies of the e-mail that was sent to the other walmart and they processed the layaway that way. He told us to pick up the Wii U's at the managers office on launch day because once ordered the store would receive a certain amount labeled just for us in theory. The lady at the layaway counter started making notes and leaving instructions for people on other shifts after that. I sincerely hope this is the case on launch, my receipt says holiday layaway and the holiday fee was nulled to zero somehow.


Whew this should be fun.
 
If they don't get enough in are the best buy employees going to go in the back and duct tape a couple wii's together for you? If they don't get enough you're boned.

Edit: are bb preorders suspect? Is it truly worthless if you don't get in line on the 18th early enough?

I have a backup plan if BB doesn't come through... Kmart in a small town. I am pretty sure Kmarts open in the mornings even on Sundays. I'm not sure if my BB is doing a midnight launch or not but I'll find out before hand. I'll get to Kmart a few hours at least before opening on launch day. Not expecting Kmart to get a lot in but it's worth a shot.

If it doesn't pan out I'll just wait until I find one somewhere. As painful as the wait would be, If I can get one by Monster Hunter Ultimate launch I'll be a happy camper (maybe both literally and figuratively).

I just found a SEALED copy of Majora's Mask Collector's Edition for N64 for $5 at a moving sale. Hopefully I can sell it soon and use that to pay towards a chunk of my Wii U preorder.
 
I just casually strolled into Wal-Mart at 11 and was the only person so far to place a pre-order or even inquire about it. Similar story to many people, where the cashier fellow didn't know what was going on, but to his credit, he went off on his own initiative to seek out a manager and rectify the situation.

I'm not sure if they fully followed procedure (I didn't see them do anything special with their copy of my receipt or with folders mentioned in the memo) but all I walked out of there with was a receipt of my layaway fee/Wii U Hardware order. Can anyone tell me if that's all that was supposed to happen or not? They did have a copy of the same memo pictured in this thread and used it to scan the purchase in, so I assume it was all good.
 
My experience in Laurel MD was fun.

They had someone at the layaway desk who was talking to a customer who was asking for a wii U bundle as well. I noticed her muttering that they wouldn't be able to do it because there's nothing for her to scan. So I joined in, said I'm waiting for it as well and she suddenly looked concerned because now her problem had multiplied.

I kindly showed her the circulator that showed on the FRONT page to place it on layaway today for Nov 18th pickup. She insisted it was only going to be there Nov 18th. Then she brought another employee who again said, "look it says Nov 18th you gotta come back then". Now the guy I was with was irritated and asked for her to get a manager.

That manager came with two employees from electronics and they both looked at it and said. "Yeah we don't sell stuff that isn't on the shelves, it comes out Nov 18th look at the circulator." They then asked me if I could just get a regular Wii and buy the games separately instead of the bundle.

Now the guy who was there before me was fairly pissed. So the manager claimed he could call corporate but they would just tell him the same thing that they wouldn't get it until then. They sent two people out back to go "check" on what was going on and call the corporate office.

Meanwhile a 5th employee helped me and the guy setup preorders following the instructions from this thread, no dice. She seemed concerned because it was on the front page and the store had no idea how to do it. She insisted the other employees do something about it because she was sure they would get more people asking about it later.

The manager comes back and says corporate had no idea what he was talking about and that Walmart Policy is that they don't do preorders because of a need to physically scan the item for the lay away system and recommended a regular Wii as a replacement. Furthermore coporate also said that sometimes manufacturers ask for ads to be placed in the circulator for items they never get a stock of because they're in limited supply. The guy I was sitting in line with at this point was pretty pissed so he called ANOTHER Walmart that's an hour away and they claimed they just got an e-mail about it at 12:01am. He gave the phone to the manager on duty and he looked scared shitless that the other store was doing preorders as early as midnight and his store had no idea how. He went back and disappeared into his office on the phone with the manager from the other store doing preorders

He came back with faxed copies of the e-mail that was sent to the other walmart and they processed the layaway that way. He told us to pick up the Wii U's at the managers office on launch day because once ordered the store would receive a certain amount labeled just for us in theory. The lady at the layaway counter started making notes and leaving instructions for people on other shifts after that. I sincerely hope this is the case on launch, my receipt says holiday layaway and the holiday fee was nulled to zero somehow.


Whew this should be fun.

Wow good luck with that. I hope for your sake the employees on launch day are better informed than the ones you dealt with today.
 
I just casually strolled into Wal-Mart at 11 and was the only person so far to place a pre-order or even inquire about it. Similar story to many people, where the cashier fellow didn't know what was going on, but to his credit, he went off on his own initiative to seek out a manager and rectify the situation.

I'm not sure if they fully followed procedure (I didn't see them do anything special with their copy of my receipt or with folders mentioned in the memo) but all I walked out of there with was a receipt of my layaway fee/Wii U Hardware order. Can anyone tell me if that's all that was supposed to happen or not? They did have a copy of the same memo pictured in this thread and used it to scan the purchase in, so I assume it was all good.

Yeah that's pretty much what my walmart store did too. Just pulled out the memo and typed in the barcode number. Then they took the store receipt and put it into a labeled manilla folder just like the memo said. I'm sure your store did the same thing, especially if you saw that they had the exact same memo that we've all seen before. Also, as long as you keep your receipt safe you should be good barring a massive screwup by Walmart.

EDIT: Actually I don't know if they actually put the whole extremely long receipt in the folder, I think they printed out a 1 page electronic receipt (kinda like an online order receipt) and put that into the folder. I'm not sure where their long receipt went.
 
My experience in Laurel MD was fun.

They had someone at the layaway desk who was talking to a customer who was asking for a wii U bundle as well. I noticed her muttering that they wouldn't be able to do it because there's nothing for her to scan. So I joined in, said I'm waiting for it as well and she suddenly looked concerned because now her problem had multiplied.

I kindly showed her the circulator that showed on the FRONT page to place it on layaway today for Nov 18th pickup. She insisted it was only going to be there Nov 18th. Then she brought another employee who again said, "look it says Nov 18th you gotta come back then". Now the guy I was with was irritated and asked for her to get a manager.

That manager came with two employees from electronics and they both looked at it and said. "Yeah we don't sell stuff that isn't on the shelves, it comes out Nov 18th look at the circulator." They then asked me if I could just get a regular Wii and buy the games separately instead of the bundle.

Now the guy who was there before me was fairly pissed. So the manager claimed he could call corporate but they would just tell him the same thing that they wouldn't get it until then. They sent two people out back to go "check" on what was going on and call the corporate office.

Meanwhile a 5th employee helped me and the guy setup preorders following the instructions from this thread, no dice. She seemed concerned because it was on the front page and the store had no idea how to do it. She insisted the other employees do something about it because she was sure they would get more people asking about it later.

The manager comes back and says corporate had no idea what he was talking about and that Walmart Policy is that they don't do preorders because of a need to physically scan the item for the lay away system and recommended a regular Wii as a replacement. Furthermore coporate also said that sometimes manufacturers ask for ads to be placed in the circulator for items they never get a stock of because they're in limited supply. The guy I was sitting in line with at this point was pretty pissed so he called ANOTHER Walmart that's an hour away and they claimed they just got an e-mail about it at 12:01am. He gave the phone to the manager on duty and he looked scared shitless that the other store was doing preorders as early as midnight and his store had no idea how. He went back and disappeared into his office on the phone with the manager from the other store doing preorders

He came back with faxed copies of the e-mail that was sent to the other walmart and they processed the layaway that way. He told us to pick up the Wii U's at the managers office on launch day because once ordered the store would receive a certain amount labeled just for us in theory. The lady at the layaway counter started making notes and leaving instructions for people on other shifts after that. I sincerely hope this is the case on launch, my receipt says holiday layaway and the holiday fee was nulled to zero somehow.


Whew this should be fun.

That sounds not good. You should maybe go back there sometime in the next few days to see if you're money went towards the right setup. Maybe after 24 hours they'll have it organized to where they know what they were supposed to be doing.
 
My experience in Laurel MD was fun.

They had someone at the layaway desk who was talking to a customer who was asking for a wii U bundle as well. I noticed her muttering that they wouldn't be able to do it because there's nothing for her to scan. So I joined in, said I'm waiting for it as well and she suddenly looked concerned because now her problem had multiplied.

I kindly showed her the circulator that showed on the FRONT page to place it on layaway today for Nov 18th pickup. She insisted it was only going to be there Nov 18th. Then she brought another employee who again said, "look it says Nov 18th you gotta come back then". Now the guy I was with was irritated and asked for her to get a manager.

That manager came with two employees from electronics and they both looked at it and said. "Yeah we don't sell stuff that isn't on the shelves, it comes out Nov 18th look at the circulator." They then asked me if I could just get a regular Wii and buy the games separately instead of the bundle.

Now the guy who was there before me was fairly pissed. So the manager claimed he could call corporate but they would just tell him the same thing that they wouldn't get it until then. They sent two people out back to go "check" on what was going on and call the corporate office.

Meanwhile a 5th employee helped me and the guy setup preorders following the instructions from this thread, no dice. She seemed concerned because it was on the front page and the store had no idea how to do it. She insisted the other employees do something about it because she was sure they would get more people asking about it later.

The manager comes back and says corporate had no idea what he was talking about and that Walmart Policy is that they don't do preorders because of a need to physically scan the item for the lay away system and recommended a regular Wii as a replacement. Furthermore coporate also said that sometimes manufacturers ask for ads to be placed in the circulator for items they never get a stock of because they're in limited supply. The guy I was sitting in line with at this point was pretty pissed so he called ANOTHER Walmart that's an hour away and they claimed they just got an e-mail about it at 12:01am. He gave the phone to the manager on duty and he looked scared shitless that the other store was doing preorders as early as midnight and his store had no idea how. He went back and disappeared into his office on the phone with the manager from the other store doing preorders

He came back with faxed copies of the e-mail that was sent to the other walmart and they processed the layaway that way. He told us to pick up the Wii U's at the managers office on launch day because once ordered the store would receive a certain amount labeled just for us in theory. The lady at the layaway counter started making notes and leaving instructions for people on other shifts after that. I sincerely hope this is the case on launch, my receipt says holiday layaway and the holiday fee was nulled to zero somehow.


Whew this should be fun.
Ok that was pretty funny lol
 
Well the amusing part was how absolutely terrified the manager looked when the other store said they were doing it. I saw pure fear in that mans eyes. Like years of incompetence had flashed before his eyes.

Probably because he had turned away customers on Friday because he said it was a mix up of some sort.

It was a sight.

I'll go check on it in a few days when I make another payment, that's not bad advice.
 
I am glad I kept my Best Buy in store kiosk preorder. I know that its not guaranteed but I trust Best Buy preorders a hell of a lot more than walmart. Not to mention Best Buy to rectify any issues unlike walmart.

My iPhone 5 pre-order that took exactly 20 days after initial release to get to me says differently. Best Buy sucks at pre-ordering really bad.
 
Got mine after pretty much explaining how they do it even though I was the third person to do it.

Excited to have one on launch day, now to decide on games for it.
 
Walmart dont care. Any other job it would be embarrassing lol.

Just to play devil's advocate, in all fairness Walmart and other retail outlets pay their employees so fucking little, why should they give any fucks and bother? I do think it might be different if retail actually paid a livable wage, and gave benefits. Then the store could enforce knowing your shit. When you're getting paid 7 bucks an hour and are only allowed to work 25 - 30 hours a week though, why give a fuck?

There's no incentive in retail to do the job well. If Employee 1 busts his ass and works really hard they might get a 25 - 50 cent an hour raise compared to Employee 2 who gives no fucks and barely does anything.

Any other job you get paid a livable wage, get benefits, paid days off etc etc. It's all related.


Edit*

Side note, fuck scalpers. Places really need to institute limits of 1 pre-order and no same person doing it under another name.
 
Just to play devil's advocate, in all fairness Walmart and other retail outlets pay their employees so fucking little, why should they give any fucks and bother? I do think it might be different if retail actually paid a livable wage, and gave benefits. Then the store could enforce knowing your shit. When you're getting paid 7 bucks an hour and are only allowed to work 25 - 30 hours a week though, why give a fuck?

There's no incentive in retail to do the job well. If Employee 1 busts his ass and works really hard they might get a 25 - 50 cent an hour raise compared to Employee 2 who gives no fucks and barely does anything.

Any other job you get paid a livable wage, get benefits, paid days off etc etc. It's all related.

Min wage is over 7.
 
Yeah that's pretty much what my walmart store did too. Just pulled out the memo and typed in the barcode number. Then they took the store receipt and put it into a labeled manilla folder just like the memo said. I'm sure your store did the same thing, especially if you saw that they had the exact same memo that we've all seen before. Also, as long as you keep your receipt safe you should be good barring a massive screwup by Walmart.

EDIT: Actually I don't know if they actually put the whole extremely long receipt in the folder, I think they printed out a 1 page electronic receipt (kinda like an online order receipt) and put that into the folder. I'm not sure where their long receipt went.

Okay, well I'm just going to trust they kind of knew to follow the memo thereafter. The girl seemed semi-competent and after talking to her a little while she seemed knowledgeable about the post she held (to some extent). I'll probably check with the store some unbusy evening before the 18th and make sure it's all good.

Man, I'm very thankful GAF exists sometimes. It's really nice to be on the up-and-up, fully aware of these things... so a hearty thank-you to all.
 
Lady at layaway said there'd be specific wii u's set aside for us and that they'd have someone working layaway to accommodate us.
 
Do you really expect excellence out of employees paid 8 dollars an hour? That's enough pay to show up but not to care in the least. Fortunately Walmart tends to hire nice old women for customer service so I can't really get mad at them.
 
This was easier than preordering anything at Gamestop, or trying to find that Avengers preorder steelbook case last month.

Walked in at 9. Only one there. Got a receipt for 2 Deluxe Wii U's.

FUCK you Gamestop.

One thing to note, the lady did say that the employees DO NOT know how many are allocated per store. The register will just tell them they can't take anymore preorders once it's reached it's allocation #.

For once I'm glad I shopped at Wal Mart.
 
Just got back. Black Wii U successfully preordered!

I was the first there, actually. Thought I was going to have problems because the first person I talked to had no idea, but her manager came out of nowhere and handed her the memo. Actually think I sold two employees on the system. They started asking me about it and once I mentioned the touchscreen controller and off TV play they were hooked. Both said they were preordering one later today. One of them had apparently been trying to get an original Wii for months before she finally found one, and she didn't want to go through that hassle again. The other one wanted it for her husband.
 
My experience in Laurel MD was fun.

They had someone at the layaway desk who was talking to a customer who was asking for a wii U bundle as well. I noticed her muttering that they wouldn't be able to do it because there's nothing for her to scan. So I joined in, said I'm waiting for it as well and she suddenly looked concerned because now her problem had multiplied.

I kindly showed her the circulator that showed on the FRONT page to place it on layaway today for Nov 18th pickup. She insisted it was only going to be there Nov 18th. Then she brought another employee who again said, "look it says Nov 18th you gotta come back then". Now the guy I was with was irritated and asked for her to get a manager.

That manager came with two employees from electronics and they both looked at it and said. "Yeah we don't sell stuff that isn't on the shelves, it comes out Nov 18th look at the circulator." They then asked me if I could just get a regular Wii and buy the games separately instead of the bundle.

Now the guy who was there before me was fairly pissed. So the manager claimed he could call corporate but they would just tell him the same thing that they wouldn't get it until then. They sent two people out back to go "check" on what was going on and call the corporate office.

Meanwhile a 5th employee helped me and the guy setup preorders following the instructions from this thread, no dice. She seemed concerned because it was on the front page and the store had no idea how to do it. She insisted the other employees do something about it because she was sure they would get more people asking about it later.

The manager comes back and says corporate had no idea what he was talking about and that Walmart Policy is that they don't do preorders because of a need to physically scan the item for the lay away system and recommended a regular Wii as a replacement. Furthermore coporate also said that sometimes manufacturers ask for ads to be placed in the circulator for items they never get a stock of because they're in limited supply. The guy I was sitting in line with at this point was pretty pissed so he called ANOTHER Walmart that's an hour away and they claimed they just got an e-mail about it at 12:01am. He gave the phone to the manager on duty and he looked scared shitless that the other store was doing preorders as early as midnight and his store had no idea how. He went back and disappeared into his office on the phone with the manager from the other store doing preorders

He came back with faxed copies of the e-mail that was sent to the other walmart and they processed the layaway that way. He told us to pick up the Wii U's at the managers office on launch day because once ordered the store would receive a certain amount labeled just for us in theory. The lady at the layaway counter started making notes and leaving instructions for people on other shifts after that. I sincerely hope this is the case on launch, my receipt says holiday layaway and the holiday fee was nulled to zero somehow.


Whew this should be fun.

lol pretty sure this is what happened to the guy in front of me. Luckily I got there at what seemed like the end of the ordeal.
 
If the employees/managers don't even know about this promotion, what are the chances of them holding the consoles when they arrive on release day?

However, maybe going through layaway is more of a guaranteed way of holding the item. Good luck to those doing this. It sounds like nightmare customer service so far.

I'm sticking with my GameStop online pre-order and hoping they come through. Besides, I would rather have the white model, even if it is basic.

Wal-Mart is pretty serious about layaway. If they were taking pre-orders any other way, I might not trust them.
 
Called my Walmarts manager to try to get some more details. He said at the end of every sentence that there is no guarantee they'll get the system. Hopefully they will though, I don't know why a super Walmart wouldn't.
 
Missed the GS and BB preorders and was mad bummed, but had success at Wal-Mart today. Amped for Nov 18.

Edit: I was only offered layaway at this store and they swore up and down that layaway units would not hit the shop floor.
 
Called my Walmarts manager to try to get some more details. He said at the end of every sentence that there is no guarantee they'll get the system. Hopefully they will though, I don't know why a super Walmart wouldn't.

You know, in dealing with Walmart recently this appears to be the go to response.


If we fuck something up, it's because the Fedex guy isn't here or corporate didn't send any.
 
What the hell...the person in front of me got four of them. I thought it was a limit of two? Oh well, I got two more. Dirty scalpel in hand.
 
My experience was relatively painless.

Walked back to the layaway counter at around 10:30 this morning. Had to wait for some lady and her son to put an iPod Touch, 3DS and some legos on layaway (lucky kid, btw). I asked the guy at the counter about it and mentioned it was in the circular today.

"OK, let me just go find the sales sheet." I presume this means I was the first person to ask about it, which isn't terribly surprising, as I was in podunk nowhere Kentucky. He was in the back for about 10 minutes, during which time a few more people showed up at layaway. I don't know if they were there for preorders; didn't ask.

Guy came back with a sheet of paper with instructions and a barcode, got my info, scanned me in, told me I could come in and get it on November 18th. I walked out with a hella long receipt and peace of mind. My layaway clerk had a "10 years of service" sticker on his name badge, to which I'm willing to attribute his apparent competence.

Now I just need to decide whether I want to try to pick the thing up at midnight or just wait until morning on the 18th. And which launch game(s) to pick up with it.
 
I'm from Puerto Rico and called both walmarts from my area and they said they "don't take video game preorders, that's only online and in USA stores" >_> anyone from Puerto Rico had any luck preordering?
 
I'm from Puerto Rico and called both walmarts from my area and they said they "don't take video game preorders, that's only online and in USA stores" >_> anyone from Puerto Rico had any luck preordering?

Eh I haven't lived there in forever, but the Cayey one is usually a little better at customer service. I'd show up personally because I know for a fact they'll likely get it on launch day.
 
My walmart knew what was going on and were very knowledgeable on it. Their management staff trained everyone in the electronics and layaway department on it the day before.

The manager who was back there said all wiiu's in the first shipment are being shipped to the layaway department and will be locked up in their rooms, they will not be sold to the public unless there are extras.
 
Eh I haven't lived there in forever, but the Cayey one is usually a little better at customer service. I'd show up personally because I know for a fact they'll likely get it on launch day.
I'm from Ponce that's too far away, my Mom works for one of my local walmarts and she asked personally but they said no also. I know they will get them on launch day because I got my 3ds on launch date. It's the preordering bit that I really don't know if they will do the same as US stores. Oh well I still could get one easily there on launch date anyway.
 
Ordered one for an out of town friend. No problems at all. Showed the ad and it just took the lady at layaway a second to find the UPC to scan.
 
Do you really expect excellence out of employees paid 8 dollars an hour? That's enough pay to show up but not to care in the least. Fortunately Walmart tends to hire nice old women for customer service so I can't really get mad at them.
You also have to understand that the amount of expected tasks that Wal-mart dumps onto the Photo Lab associates is simply obscene and far outstrips any other non-upper-management position in the store. Probably most of those, too.
 
Top Bottom