Topic: Enough with shortages! Nintendo please listen to the fans!

I just posted this on this same text after NintendoLife's article but wanted to see more direct feedback from the community as a whole: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/04/north_american_retai...

For those upset about how Nintendo is treating the Amiibo "shortage" (ie. pre-ordering), you should call Nintendo's Customer Service number: 1-800-255-3700. Select 5 (promotions or general game/console questions) and then 4 (console or game (ie. Amiibo) availability).

I spent the last 30 minutes on the phone with a customer service rep and explained my dissatisfaction of only getting 2 of the 8 Wave 4 Amiibos (coming from someone who wants to collect them all) and finding out most were sold out before I even knew they were for sale (coming from someone who reads the buzz all the time, everyday about new Nintendo product). The rep stated that even he has been frustrated getting Amiibos. He doesn't go out of his way to get them but would collect more if he saw more in store.

I understand there are logistics to overcome: how much to stock, how much space to sell in store, what other product to take away to make the space and more. We're on Wave 4. Nintendo has had the opportunity (ie. time, sales) to re-evaluate how they distribute these and how the process works. Nintendo could have changed the way pre-orders work: instead of creating x number of units and then selling pre-orders, they could take the pre-orders and adjust units. Retailers could pre-authorize credit cards for sale and people would only need to pick-up. It takes the risk out of overproducing when you have these two procedures in place. Not only that but this information could be kept in case the production run fell short - the items would be backordered, just like how a lot of things used to work years ago. You would still get your product; it'll just take a little longer.

There is another solution and maybe DeNA will be able to help them with this aspect: catch up to the 21st century. If I want to buy a video game console, I can do so from nearly anywhere on any connected device. I could go to Sony or Microsoft's websites and purchase brand new, in-box consoles. Nintendo only offers refurbished items that have come back to them; not even, in-stock, in-the-store-now, brand new items! I tried making myself very clear to the Nintendo service rep that, if Nintendo actually created a website to purchase any/all of their products, regardless of price (MSRP so as not to upset retailers) and product availability (item is sold out, backordered, but will be back by x-date), people will buy things from them! When someone has to go out of their way, REALLY deviate from their normal life to find a new-in-store Nintendo item (stay up to 3am to purchase an Amiibo, drive through a snow storm to get Rosalina, visit a store because chaos reigns on a website that is temporarily shut down), this is unhealthy to that business and the people that participate in its ventures.

Nintendo's been in the game for a long time. I'm a pretty loyal fan, as I think most people on this site are. They need to re-evaluate how they interact with their fans, the people that actually spend money on their product and not just try to appease their stock holders. I WANT to open my wallet more to Nintendo, but they just don't seem to want my money.

Yep.

I would recommend sending e-mails instead. I don't like the idea of holding up the customer service department for this. There are fans/customers who have worse problems than stock issues who have to wait for you to finish ranting to reps.

Use e-mail instead

Normally I would agree with your comment but I can only image how many people actually send emails to them on a regular basis. It's not just like writing a letter any more where they just get a few here and there; I'm sure they just get spammed with all sorts of emails everyday and actually have to weed through rants versus positive feedback. The lines could be better used for technical support or questions regarding console/handheld set up, certainly worse problems or more important than I what I've posted above, but Nintendo needs constructive criticism on any aspects of the company it could hope to improve on. Talking to a live person with any company, to me, is the best solution - I'm a little old-school that way and want the personal interaction, rather than just the "faceless" internet responding back to me. I see more stock value in hearing another person actually understanding what I'm discussing; it appears now that more and more businesses seem apathetic and are more interested in the bottom line. I want to know that someone heard my feedback, didn't just skim it and didn't just give a canned response back: "Thank you for your feedback. We will take your comments into consideration in the future. Thank you for your support."

Nintendo: "What's that? We couldn't hear you over all this money. Don't worry, we'll be sending out another box of amiibo for all of America in a few months. Pre order start righ- and they're sold out. Thank you for your patronage"

I have just about given up on amiibos at this point. I really wanted the 4 Fire Emblem characters, since Fire Emblem is my favorite series. I stayed up all night waiting to pre-order Robin and Lucina, since I missed out on Marth and Ike. I closed my eyes for a second and before I knew it they were gone. I don't have the money to pay $40+ dollars for each of them on eBay. I think Nintendo should have the option available to order amiibos from their online store. That way they know that they have X amount of people willing to buy it, so they don't have to worry about overstock and they can just ship it when it prints. It is a lot better than stores getting a handful of amiibos for a few people.

I was lucky enough to get a Shulk from Gamestop by accident when I walked in to trade some stuff and pre-ordered it without thinking it was exclusive. They employee told me they got 2 Shulks for the whole store and haven't gotten any since. Another thing I suggest is if retailers ARE going to do exclusives, they better receive a buttload of that amiibo.

Yeah, I haven't had much trouble with Amiibo until today. I really want a Greninja Amiibo, and I stayed up until midnight last night to preorder it on Toys R Us' website, but it turned out they weren't gong up for sale at midnight, and no one really knew when they'd go up, so I couldn't even set an alarm or anything. Of course when I woke up, they were sold out... Amiibo should not ever be retailer exclusives, (I don't even live close to a Toys R Us) they need to be more plentiful, and there needs to be a way to stop scalpers. I wonder how many people snagged 10 Greninjas and plans on selling them for 10 times the normal price. I really hope I can get my hands on one...

it's not fair! I don't have even ONE amiibo! all I want is Jigglypuff....

I think this thread shows a fair bit of misunderstamding as to how the Amiibo sales work. A retailer has to order the amiibo ahead of time to get them. They get as many as they order, within reason. The reason GameStop in Saskatoon, AL has two Greninjas is because GameStop only ordered enough for Saskatoon to get two Greninjas. The scarcity is due to three primary parties. Nintendo doesn't make backstock for some reason. This leads to restocks being nearly unheard of. The ports on the West Coast had a strike recently. This is the cause of the infamous Ike delays. There's no telling how many Amiibo were just sitting in warehouses, waiting to be shipped. And the retailers are the ones trying to create a false scarcity by understocking certain characters for the sake of increasing demand.

Also, from what I've seem, most stores have started up a one-per-person deal for their Amiibos. Toys R Us especially. So scalpers aren't nearly as much of a problem as they were in Wave 3.

WDIT: As a side note, making the Amiibos available for order on the website would solve the availability issues, but seriously damage their collectivle value. There would still have to be some kind of limit on available orders or a lit of the reason Amiibos sell like they do will be gone.

Lol, sad but true.

You know, writing a letter might not be a bad idea. They're harder to ignore (they have to deal with it because it takes up physical space). You gotta think that the amount of snail mail they get a day is really low. Plus, it shows you care more, since more effort goes into handwriting the message and using a delivery service, and best of all, their phone lines are free for actual customer service.

The scalpers disgust me. There should really be a law against this.

Look at this….

Thankfully, I buy them from the BX at a military base, so that means less people have access to get onto the base. This is also a pretty remote base in the middle of nowhere in a small town.

PS: I've read that it's easier to buy them as imports from Japan. Is that true?

I think since the port strike is coming to an end we will get more "less popular".
However I still don't agree with retailer exclusive mainly because it makes them harder to get. In the future the following amiibo should be available to all retailers if they are being re released.
Shulk
Meta Knight
Lucario
Rosalina + Luma
Ness
Greninja
Jigglypuff

...Y'know, if I ever get a job at a videogame store and I see an obvious scalper trying to buy a crapload of amiibos, I just won't sell them to him. I don't even care if I get fired, because scalpers are some of the biggest scumbags out there. I agree with you wholeheartedly in that this should be made illegal.

Except the limited stock is literally the only thing keeping Amiibo in the general collective consciousness of gamers. Otherwise it would've just been another novelty on the shelves. Now it's something people have to have. They did that with the Wii, and that sure as hell worked out for them, so of course they're gonna do it here for what are essentially expensive collector's items with small in-game perks...

Actually, I'm pretty sure scalping IS illegal, and the majority of sellers have begun taking measures to avoid it to the best of their abilities. (As I said before, Toys 'R Us has been known to do a "one-per-customer" limit on most Amiibos at launch, at the very least since the Rosalina shenanigans hit.)

In my experience, yes. I cannot find Pac-Man anywhere store-wise, however there was a Japanese seller with the cheapest price on eBay at ~£20 with free postage (from the delivery time I expect surface post). It's dearer than the launch price, but it's not as high as what I see many of these going for. I haven't received it yet so I cannot recommend the seller yet, but I'm hopeful since they have a decent rating and have been online for awhile.

exactly, they're playing everyone so well, the hype is still big. if everyone got what they wanted straight up... well, they'd have nothing to complain about every day! nintendo are giving y'all stuff to do.

seriously, for some reason people don't think about this either: nintendo weren't actually flying before the gamecube adaptor release, Majora's Mask 3DS XL, amiibo etc. perhaps they released all of this in limited quantities not to create hype but because they didn't think the demand was out there?

at the time it would seem ridiculous, absurd, to print as many Marth amiibo as there were Mario or Pikachu and send them to a Western country. everyone can see this, right? right?? but people love to complain instead of just having a think......

Good points, but now, well, they know the demand is there, so hopefully there will be reprints or new lines with the same characters in them eventually.

Nintendo used this tactic since ages ago, especially with Super Mario Bros. 3 for nes. They specially create a shortage so the customers (mostly kids with parents who are they main marketing target) go to shops and when they don't see their favourite character/game they would buy a different one instead and wait till the one they want is back in stock at some point (that way they can sell 2 amiibo instead of only 1). And to be honest... it works. They have created demand on amiibo which probably wouldn't exist (at least not to that extent) if there was no shortage, even though the tactic seems a bit unethical. Wait a bit and some figures will probably come back in stock again, like it happened with Marth, Villager and Wii Fit Trainer.

But looking at it from a customer point of view, I totally agree. It sucks you can't find your favourite character in stores! Wish they produced more stock