To get 15-mo warranty coverage, you have to register before you play.
But the Club Nintendo site was down. For "maintenance." All day, Christmas day. It's still down now. No further notices, explanation, ETA for repairs.
So I call the help line. Select to get a live Customer Service rep for Wii. I am immediately disconnected, after being told the call could be recorded for blah blah blah.
So I call again, select Wii help via a different route. It rings, then starts playing a triple-combo of ringing, three-tone "disconnect" sound and a voice — then I'm hung up on again.
Now going for my third try.
Grr-r-r-r.
UPDATE: I select to speak to a Nintendo representative, am informed the call may be recorded, and am immediately hung up on.
Is this some new company, without a financial base, unfamiliar with the concepts of repeat-business and customer service?
(That was sarcasm, BTW.)
UPDATE II: fourth try, I do finally get a recorded message assuring me chirpily that I will be routed to the next representative, and may have a "significant" wait-time. It's 10:02am PT.
UPDATE III: good news is I only wait about three minutes. Bad news: I get Ashley, who tells me I have to register online — using the web site that's down for maintenance.
But it (the web site that has been down for at least two days) should be up "very soon," ashley assures me, because they're "trying to get it up as fast as they can in a timely manner." I offer a few courteous but pointed thoughts, and Ashley puts me on hold.
Then Ashley says that we can play, and when the site comes up, we'll be extended the benefits promised for registering before playing, anyway. She says they'll do that, because they know the site was unavailable. I feel this is pretty tenuous, but.... Yikes.
I say again, as an IT professional: somebody, or some team of somebodies, should be looking for work pretty soon.
Lame, lame, lame.
Friday, December 26, 2008
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17 comments:
Yikes! Sorry to hear you're having so many problems with support. I hope you are enjoying the system, however.
We really like Wii Play and our newest addition, Crash Bandicoot - Mind over Mutant. Of course, we've really loved playing Crash for years on our other systems.
Enjoy!
No, we're really not. They tell you to register BEFORE you play, for 15 months' warranty coverage. Is this the plan - make it impossible to register, then you never actually use the product?
"Is this the plan - make it impossible to register, then you never actually use the product?"
No, it is so they don't have to worry about actually honoring a 15 month warranty.
Dan -
We happened to have one of these under our tree this Christmas too, and we're not able to get on to the registration site either. I did a little Googling and it appears the site has been buggy since it first launched. I checked with Phil, who's also been on the IT side of things at high-traffic times, and he's pretty sure this is a case of server demand waaaaay exceeding supply, and there's no way they're going to risk upsetting thousands of potentnial new Wii addicts by not honoring the offer.
I'd only fire the IT guys if there's evidence they didn't spend several hours a day, every day since last June, screaming at their business managers to not launch a website they weren't fully committed to supporting with the appropriate budget and technology.
You know.... ITSM 101.
Rachael:
"I'd only fire the IT guys if there's evidence they didn't spend several hours a day, every day since last June, screaming at their business managers to not launch a website they weren't fully committed to supporting with the appropriate budget and technology.
You know.... ITSM 101."
You know it, sister. Every IT departmeent I know of is either underfunded or understaffed or more than likely, both. I am doing the work of 2 people at my job: meteorology and IT. I push *hard* to get what I want and justify *hard* (most of the time) to get the equipment I need. Bottom line:
I don't often blame IT departments, in my 10 years of dealing with them. Typically, it's either a bean counter or top manager problem.
It just wouldn't be Christmas without at least one horror story about those good folks who are the "support".
Never in the annals of human history has a grouping been so badly named.
But hey its Christmas - what do you expect?
Sooo...what happened to Tonka trucks for Christmas...you know, low maintenance gifts. :)
FYI--
A really fun and entertaining game that's "safe" for the ENTIRE family is Mario Kart Wii (with the steering wheels!)
Just in case you were wonderin' ;^)
I finally got an email from Nintendo, specifically from one R.M. Ricketts, who said:
"...registration is not required for warranty coverage. That starts when the system is scanned at the point of purchase and is our standard one-year. The 90-day extension can be added via registration at any time so completing it when the site has returned will get you the full 15 months."
So we set it up and got to blazing and blasting, and I had two very happy boys.
See, Dan..that's why we should return to good, old-fashioned board games like Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Battleship, Tiddley-Winks etc. You won't have those kind of maddening problems with those games.
:O
Gilbert,
You could always email Governor Blagojevich and ask him for the funding. (cough cough).
Sorry to bring up the good governor on a family blog.
We were given a Wii for Christmas by PaPaw. Monster Trucks is by far the favorite at the moment. I will have to get some game that has airplanes or space ships shooting stuff and blowing up buildings. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
My favorite board game is "The Farming Game". Kinda like Monopoly(tm), but your goal is to get out of debt farming and be the first to make $250,000 in assets and cash to be called a "successful farmer". You learn a lot about the farming process by playing the game. Very realistic.
Hold on, everybody!
Obviously, Dan is very unhappy with this situation. His intense anger made me wonder if there was a deeper issue. Sadly, there is, and we have obtained exclusive footage from his office as to what goes on there. This is not for the faint of heart...and by extension, certainly not for those running Windows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLbJ8YPHwXM
;-)
Is it ok if I giggled just a little bit? :P
Nintendo Wii is the best...I got to try the karaoke one the other day at a cousin's house..while the music selection was appalling except for like 2 songs or 3 maybe it was pretty cool!
Gilbert
that was hilarious, but Mac is so overrated... :P
I'd rather play games on a Mac than a console...and that is saying something.
Oh, goodie! OS "holy wars." Well, no sense letting others have all the fun.
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