First off I just have to say I've really enjoyed WiiU so far and I hope there is a bright future for it as a center piece gaming machine.
Now the bad.
The WiiU is my first Nintendo Purcahse since the N64, and I've never been a handheld gamer. So basically I'm fairly new to Nintendo once again.
I got the WiiU on the 26th of December, everything seemed to be going with out a hitch, great games, love the gamepad, my controller of choice now for sure.
Now on the 2nd of January, My WiiU started acting up. Could not play most of my games. Insert a game disc, freeze, crash would have to unplug the system and reboot, same thing would happen over an over. I tried uninstalling and reupdating any game that required such. That did not work, same thing over an over, freeze crash, lock up have to reboot. Well I thought, I just bought this thing a few days ago. I'm gonna take it back and get a new one. Whats the harm in that? It seems to be a lemon. So I did just that....
Now the really bad
Well I was not aware that, eShop and Nintendo ID are linked per console, I would have never guessed or even thought it worked like that. What happens if your WiiU was to get stolen? Now, it's not that I have a super big problem with this, what I have a problem with is. Me as the customer/consumer is the only one that gets hurt by this. So now on the WiiU that I just exchanged for, I cannot get any of the games I bought off of eShop, my Nintendo ID is gone as well. I've just lost a 110 $ of software all because I had a faulty WiiU and was well within my 30 day purchase period to return and exchange for a new one. If I had not been in this 30 day period I would have contacted Nintendo and gone through the proper channels there. Thats the way I'm use to a situation like this working.
Nowhere did I see in the unboxing of my WiiU a STOP or CAUTION SIGN about the way eShop and Nintendo ID work. If I had seen anything of that nature, I would have called Nintendo the second my WiiU started acting up and scheduled for it to be sent in. Which is crazy in it's self seeing as how I had just bought it a few days ago and now I'm gonna be without my system for a month or more, when taking it back to the store I got it from would seem like the most logical quick fix.
I contacted Nintendo Customer Support on the 3rd, I was told there is pretty much nothing they can do over the phone. I was asked to send in my recipts of purchase/exchange along with a letter and hope for the best.
I've done all of this and I'm doubtful of anything coming of it. I will keep calling and asking for help and hope I get some.
It's a real shame too, because I love this system and if it gets the game support it needs I could very well be sold on Nintendo consoles for years to come.
This has put a real damper on my spirit though. I have to work hard for what little money I make and loosing 110$ of software is a hard pill to swallow for me and very well may sway me from ever considering an eShop purchase or even future console purchases.
As of right now I'm waiting to see how it all turns out. If I do not get any help with this from Nintendo Customer Service, I know I myself will never bother with an eShop purchase again.
I'm just posting this little story here to hopefully warn anyone that cares to read this.