Topic: Bought a wii u at target today, associate didnt know what it was

Lady at target said she wasn't familiar with the Wii u...she didn't know what the difference was between the red Wii ( Wii Mini) and the Wii U. She said she has a Wii but its all dusty and doesn't play it anymore. I explained to her what the Wii U was and even gave her the whole "Wii 2" terminology. She then asked me if it was portable....so she clearly still didn't have a clue. I always read things about Nintendo not doing a good job in advertising but experiencing it in person was kind of a trip...its too bad really.. anyways, just thought I'd share.

Totally Nintendo's fault that a store's employees have no clue what they're selling...

To be fair, some of the clerks in electroic stores around here also think that win8 is the state of the art OS just because "its the new one, it comes with so many improvements", basicly just promoting the box text.
They probably never even operated a PC. Or they are constantly advertising tablets as substitutes for handheld gaming systems saying that they "feature similar great games for a fraction of the price"
Most of these employees have no idea of what they are actually selling. You cant except anyone to know everything and every detail about any product, on the other hand, you can not promote yourself with great customer support if your clerks are oblivious to what these system are and can do.

Another story: I had a discussion with a GameStop clerc about the upcomming Hyrule Warriors. He had no idea what Dynasty Warriors was and expected a new Zelda game (and was promoting the game as such). I told him that it will be nothing like it and that it will be a straightup action hack and slash. "Nah, that cant be. Its a Zelda game and im a long time Gamer, i know every Zelda game and how they play"
A few minutes later, he instisted that only nintendo made Zelda games, and that i got my facts messed up because i "think" that capcom is responsible for the oracle games. Not knowing something is one thing, but instisting that everything you (not) know is also right is a BIG mistake in my opinion, especially if you work at a store that only sells one kind of product.

I worked at Wal*Mart in the electronics department when the Wii U was released. Mind you we were constantly sold out for the first few months ,but nobody knew what it was customers ,and fellow associates alike.

I remember having to explain the damn thing to customers ,and the associates a lot. Most thought it was something you bought for the Wii. I remember customers coming in saying my son wants the new mario bros game for wii. i would tell them there's a new one for Wii U not Wii they're like aren't they the same thing?

The Wii U is a great system ,but Nintendo really screwed up their marketing on this thing. Sad thing is they still are screwing it up.

Honestly I learned a long time ago that for those who don't involve themselves in video games assume that if it has a similar name to another product it's the same thing. Take my parents for example one time they bought me a Zelda Oracle game for my birthday, and later I bought the other one I didn't have, and they got mad saying they just bought me that game.

I walked into a computer shop and asked the guy behind the counter about the Samsung Evo SSD. He had no idea what it was and insisted that Samsung only made one SSD, the now retired standard one, and that they were out of stock. Of course they were out of stock, they don't make them anymore! He then tried to convince me to get the Corsair one because it was a larger drive. He wasn't even aware that they were all the same capacity and some manufacturers just create smaller redundant flash used to cover wear.

Clearly Samsung's entire marketing department should be fired on the spot because a lowly well informed consumer like myself knew more about the product than the dude behind the counter. What a joke, what's worse is that people still make these mistakes! Samsung's SSDs are doomed to fail.

Yes, one point for the store associate's logical faculties.

The portability of the device is in fact an unsung feature; if people are picking up on that from the box... woo!

I guess the game pad is portable but the Wii U its self is Nintendo's new home console and my impression was that the associate thought it was a portable Wii. The fact she owns an original Wii but doesn't know what a Wii U is captures the fact Nintendo is doing a poor job at marketing to these same casual gamers that once bought the Wii.

I agree but I have a feeling that if I was picking up a ps4 today, she wouldn't be confused as to what she was selling... but who knows...just interesting to witness the confusion of the system in person after reading about it on forums and whatnot..hopefully I brought some light as to what the Wii U is and she'll get one some day=)

Once a day if not more. You can go to Amazon and look up Wii U games and find a post asking if this game or that game will play on the Wii. It's proof that despite what gamers say at the likes of Gamespot (Actually had a argument the other day with someone about this) that there is still great confusion on the Wii U being a totally new system. What I find more sad is the fact that there have been numerous reviews on websites of retailers that get upset that the system does not come with the proper controls to play the games (Believing that the Wii U should have Wiimotes) it's a sad thing really. Though Nintendo in their channel over at You Tube is trying to help with this. It is still not enough.

The General public doesn't keep up with New Age Tech.

They see an iPod as an iPod.
They see an Android Phone as an iPod.
They see a PlayStation as a Nintendo or Xbox.

These are people that generally don't care for Games, they probably know more about what's going on in CNN or The Morning News. WiiU doesn't get coverage on News sites like that.

I'm not surprised. There was a clerk at Best Buy that was telling everyone that Windows 8 wasn't Windows 7 BC. Windows 8 is still technically Windows 7, so I don't get the complaints. Whatever...

The salesperson at my usual GameStop told me that A Link Between Worlds was a Skyward Sword remake for Wii U... At least he knew the Wii U was a new system!

PS4 and Xbox is surrounded by tech-nerd hype, as where the Wii U is not. I think this has a lot to do with it too. I'm not so sure naming Wii 2 rather than Wii U would have made any difference, I mean, look at Xbox One, really there is nothing logical about that name to suggest its the newest xbox, but everyone still knows. More than anything though, it probably boils down to a marketing failure on Nintendo's part.

But in other news... How are you enjoying your brand new Wii U?

If the people selling the thing for you don't know what they're selling, you know you've done a pretty crappy job advertising it.

To be fair i don't think it is very realistic to expect a lowly sales person in a megastore to know everything about their entire product range. You want good advice, you go to a specialist shop.

Reading though this thread proves that wrong

If you want good advice (as in facts), go to the internet

Frankly, I've lost all faith in physical retail stores. I was in a computer / electronics specialty shop the other day to get a USB Y cable I could use for the Wii U. 1. They didn't have any Y-cables. 2. The clerk had no idea what a Y-cable was.

It's a totally standard thing for crying out loud! Some HDD and SSD's even come with the damn thing.

Costs 5 euros on amazon.

Time and time again, I've learned my lesson just to order the damn thing on Amazon.