It appears, despite claims from Harvey Norman that they will be stocking the Nintendo Wii come December, that this will not be the case. Nintendo has shot down these claims, and it looks as though the large Australian retailer will not be dealing with Nintendo any time in the future. At least, not concerning the Wii. Vispi Bhopti , Nintendo Australia Public Relations Manager, indicated that Nintendo have not been dealing with Harvey Norman as it was claimed:
They are telling the market that we are in discussions with them but this is not true. We don't like their terms or the way they operate and we are refusing to do business with them. We are dealing with most mass retailers with the exception of Harvey Norman. Their terms are ridiculous. The Nintendo Wii is set to be a hot product going into the peak Xmas buying period so why should we give away margin to Harvey Norman. We are confident that the new Nintendo gaming console will drive sales during the peak buying period that is coming up.
Richard Uechtritz, Managing Director of the JB Hi-Fi chain, who will have the Wii in stocks, is excited about the launch of the Wii and believes it will reach a larger audience than either the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3. He had the following to say about Nintendo’s refusing to deal with Harvey Norman:
Their bullying is coming back to bite them. This is one product that Harvey Norman wanted and I believe that a lot of vendors will take note of what Nintendo have done in refusing to accept Harvey Norman's terms.
1. Anonymous Coward - Tue,
HA HARVEY NORMAN SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... Lowest prices guaranteed my arse they stopped selling gamecube about a year ago... and they were selling leftover stock for full price... wtf is that!
I'm no fan of Harvey's, serves them right for trying to bully their way into the Wii marketplace. But I did think Vispi's comments were a little harsh for a PR Manager! That kind of talk destroys relationships for a looong time.
I think it's great that Nintendo has stood up to Harvey Norman. It's a shame that they are not in a position to stand up to other bullies like EB.
#2 make a good point about the comments though. Nintendo has had trouble maintaining relationships more often than they should, as many developers would know.
In the grand scheme of things Hardley Normals seems like a bit of a small player. Last i heard their stock price was low, and not looking like it was going to get better any time soon. Correct me if I am wrong.
In my experience Harvey Norman are always overpriced and hand pick arrogant / lazy staff, Nintendo, I wuv you
Thing I liked about Harvey Norman was you could always get stuff on Interest Free. Sure you pay a little extra for the privledge, but not having to deal with the full cost straight away helps.
In bris I find it depends which HN you go to. If you don't like the prices, keep moving. That said, I was curious why they never stocked DS stuff..
I looked into the "Interest Free" thing, and its a complete scam. You are better off buying the item on credit card (15-20(percent) interest), or even with a personal loan. From memory they force fixed repayments over a long period of time, and it comes out to cost about 30(percent) more. Its just a clever marketing ploy.
Never been a fan of theirs.
And (again) for people interested in picking up a Wii: Toys R Us have a "Family Pack" deal that includes Zelda (for free), Wii Play (so you get a 2nd Wiimote) and a couple more games. Don't know the price though.
Yeah, if you don't pay back in the interest free period as well, you get charged 27(percent) interest although they are quite upfront about that.
I love how everyone instantly jumps on Harvey Norman, with the exception of poster #3. Nintendo are typically horrible at forming any relationships - ie, you do it our way or the highway. And poster 3 must have had similar experiences in dev with them - they really are very bad when it comes to dev relationships.
As much as anyone here probably hates the idea. This will hurt sales of the Wii in Aus. The average console buyer doesn't really care about news like this, and many do use Harvey Norman to source their console gear, so if the Wii is missing form the shelf - its just lost sales. You dont see the other console makers having problems with Harvey Norman, I really wonder just what got Nintendo so pissy with them (very childish business practice for launch).
Very funny. When Sony tries to control its IP - evil Sony. When Nintendo trys to control its IP.. its ok.
Love the fanboys...
You guys are idiots
The interest free term you get 12 months interest free at the LEAST
You only get a $25 establistment fee and for any month you owe money you get charges $2.95.
So in total your paying an extra $60.40 but you get to pay it a year later.
And If you are stupid enough to leave it for the 12 months thats when you get charged interest.
We always have the lowest prices and we will beat it even if we lose money.
So stop crying about how bad Harvey Norman is because we are only rude to people who are rude to us. If you are wasting our time on finding the best price on every item that you dont plan to buy then we will piss you off.
Controlling IP != Controlling Distribution
Hmm my experiences with harvey norman, is with interest free, harvey norman staff don't hide anything with the fees so your welcome to make a informed decision. GE Money isn't easy to deal with, had to go back to re-sign a application form 4 times since two signatures i signed on the same form were different. Harvey Norman do mark up their prices but most staff members are willing to deal. Its also obvious they get comission for certain products, try to buy a component cable for your TV, they will automatically take you to the monster ones, tell you how great they are, then once you realise $150 is too much to pay, take you back to the $50 item.
Generally harvey norman though aren't the devil, just another department store out to make a buck like anyone in this society.
We dont get commission on GE contracts, the only reason why we push it is because we dont have to lower the price for cash. So we make more commission and so does the store.
The Wii family pack, to reply to an above comment, is $729.99 bucks.
The games are Wii Sports, Zelda: TP, Need for Speed: Carbon, Wii Open Season, Wii Rayman: Raving Rabbids.
The site says you save over "$470" bucks.
Costy... but probably good value. (I haven't worked it out for myself yet, though) It's not for me though. I'm waiting til it goes down in price and grabbing it and Zelda then.
From the Toys R Us Website:
Reserve your Nintendo Wii Family Pack today with a $50 deposit and receive a Zelda - Twilight Princess Game FREE at launch.
Zelda Family Pack includes:
- Wii Console (incl. 1 Wii Remote)
- 1 Additional Wii Remote
- Wii Console Bag
- 5 Games (including Zelda game)
PLUS $400 Worth of Gaming Savings Coupons!
Wii Launches December 7, 2006!
If you get it, enjoy!
Also, kudos to Nintendo for stopping Harvey Norman in thier tracks a bit.
I spoke to Toys R Us.
The savings really only $70 because you get $400 coupons
However, EB Games reckon its only $40 and they said they will match however they will not give me coupons.
They told me I was an idiot if I bought the wii from Toys R Us instead of them as the free coupons they are giving me are just to lure you in.
So they stated that having nothing is better than having $400 of coupons. Man I hate EB Games
" If you are... ...finding the best price on every item that you dont plan to buy then we will piss you off" uummmm... I think you just made our point for us! For example, my local HN won't even give a discount on their overpriced printer ink stock (unless you bring in your old ink cart for a 10(percent) discount - and even then it is still overpriced. And RE: TV's and set top boxes don't get me started... JB HiFI all the way baby.
HAREY NORMANS SHOULD KISS ME ASS GOODBYE.. IM NEVER COMIGN ABCKK... argghh i love wii
Always bought on interest free from Harbvcey norman and even get decent prices. I have furnished half my house with interest free and it works a treat. You dont get back dated interest but if you miss a payment there are lagre fees. Harvey norman Rock
Always bought on interest free from Harbvcey norman and even get decent prices. I have furnished half my house with interest free and it works a treat. You dont get back dated interest but if you miss a payment there are lagre fees. Harvey norman Rock
Harvey Norman is the rudest place ive been too. I went to buy an item that had the wrong price on it, and they were so rude to me, and told me they wernt going to sell it to me at that price.
I cant believe how I was treated. So disgustingly rude at Indooroopilly Harvey Norman. Never GOING BACK AGAIN! HARDLEY NORMAL ALRIGHT!
I always go to Officeworks ...they're the cheapest! HN's slogan is "We won't be beaten on price"...what a load of croc! they're constantly beaten on price in catalogue by everyone from Big W to Myer!
I think people like going to harvey because they like seeing the whole range and stuff. I think apparently, you can talk them down on price with certain goods. Never bothered myself, as I find most sales people to either by completely ignorant and useless, or utter conmen - I just hunt around for advertised low prices.
Personally I think they are rude. I called them once to find out about if they were still offering a deal, the guy on the other end just hanged up on me.
I tend to go to other places like officeworks, and I always shop around.
Harvey Norman? Who cares if your not happy with them, shop somewhere else! There are heaps of other retailers to choose from -
JB HIFI
The Good Guys
Kmart
Target
Myer
Clive Peeters
Retravision
The list goes on....
Apart from having well lit stores Harvey's are nothing special...besides good old Gerry is the only one smiling forcing supplieirs to pay 16(percent) rebates for so called marketing etc, and when they can't sell the product they want to be able to just return it for a credit or expect suppliers to bail them out for their ordering mistakes. What a joke!
Re "Interest free" stuff - I wanted to buy a PSP from Harvey Norman and thought I'd take advantage of the Interest free thingy. Well my repayments would have been $7 something a month! OK so far BUT I had to go through the full credit check despite being a home owner!! And it took nearly a week!! You'd think with all those computers around they could come out of the dark ages wouldn't you
Thats strange you had to wait that long cause i set up a new GE account picked the tv, amp surround etc etc loaded in up and were home, round trip 2 hrs
and the store is 30mins away
they dont hire there staff to know about games, you ask about games they look at you funny, you ask them about cameras, computers tvs etc they know everything, as if you'd go into harvey norman for games unless everywhere else was sold out,
if you go to officeworks and see a printer for 200, get them to right that on a buisness card go to harvey norman, ask them to beat it and they'll know some off
worked with my tv, went to jb hi fi got a price, went to harvey norman for it all for 400 bucks cheapers, and they threw in a power board,
anyways, 2 cents inserted
Yeah generally getting the products is about half hour process I found once GE gets the application.
I went hunting for printers about a week ago. Harvey Norman were the most expensive - easily - of everywhere I checked. Needless to say, they didn't get my business.
As for hurting the sales of the Wii... yeah right. I see them stockpiled up tp the ceiling, in every store I visit (inserted obvious sarcasm)
I think this story been flipped i heard that nintendp sold a heap of gamecubes to the people at harvey norman and sai nething u dont sell we will buy back off u then when the gamecube turned out to be crap nintentdo washed there hands and i think doin that to harvey norman was a very silly business move in australia
yea.......not selling the Wii in Harvey Norman reeeeeeeeeeealy hurt the sales.
lol i work at dick smith electronics, if they knew how many people hated them they would close down.. people come into work and say "i just come from hardly normals and they didnt know shit" which makes me even happier to help them.. haha i must admit i still shop at harvey norman but only beacuse i am able to answer all my own questions because you would say there staff have the ''know how"
all my questions beacuse you wouldnt** say the staff have the "know how"
I find it all depends on the staff member like with any other company. You can get some absolute rubbish staff sometimes at dick smith as well.
I just went to their website to check out their catalog. Umm I think they may be looking for a knew webmaster cause I can't find shit on their page about any deals other than a huge countdown to PS3. Don't bother checking the catalog as nothing happens. This is what happens when youth is put before knowledge, total blundered ignorance
I have been looking at purchasing a Wii for my son. Thinking I would go in to Harvey Norman to get it on interest free I have only just discovered they do not stock it. I contemplated getting a Playstation for a few minutes, but then thought that there are many other retailers who offer the same interest free deals through the same GE finance cards. I do think however that the stalemate will prove detrimental to both Nintendo and to Harvey Norman. I commend Nintendo for not being bullied, as Harvey's have the potential to to to the Australian Market what Walmart has done to the American Market. Ultimately, consumers will loose out.
YEAH I WANT TO GET A WII INTEREST FREE... ANYONE KNOW OF ANY STORES THAT STOCK IT THAT ACCEPT GE CREDITLINE CARDS?
I only have one comment, and its one I put everywhere I can where I see the word 'loose' used instead of 'lose'. God damn it people, why does the ENTIRE INTERNET seem to make this same grammatical error? ITS EVERYWHERE WE'VE GOT TO STOP IT!
Bad grammar is the corner stone of games development without it we are nothing.
i worked at Harveys for years, and have also worked at Dick Smith. The problem with Harvey Norman Staff is that they are paid commision based on profit that they make for the store, so the insentive is for the sales person to discount as little as possible and get as many high margin items on your invoice as possible, like warranty, cables and surge boards. I have worked with fantastic staff there who know what they are talking about and generally give a good deal, then there are others who go out of there way to rip the customer off and make themselves over $1000 a week in commish alone( I know of one guy who deliberatley marks up the prices on invoices up to $600 on a big sale so you are paying way over the advertised price). The sales staff are less interested in helping you if you have a problem after purchase because the may miss a big sale. Don't blame the staff the pressure is huge to keep margin up. the management need to change the pay structure then consumers would get a fairer deal. In regard to Dick smith they pay such a pittance that there staff don't give a damm about anything, buy dont buy they dont care and in general the staff are bored uni kids without a clue. It all comes down to choice if you want a bargain and bad service go to JB hifi, if you want to get ripped off go to Harvey Norman, and if you want to get served by a drugged out uni student go to Dick Smith. In reply to the above question Dick Smith do Interest free and stock the Wii. All retailers are the same some are just better at making you think you are getting a good deal by making big ticket stuff cheaper and marking uo everything else, in answer to the comment on ink cartrigde prices, when Harvey's take 10(percent) off it is to encourage you to return to the store to buy something else, the margin on ink is stuff all if you want to complain about the price of ink complain to the suppliers they are the ones ripping you off.
have dealt with H.NORMAN for over 25yrs not one complaint in that time.And I am a savvy shopper.Thankyou Gerry.If it was not for you!! we in the country would have no choice..
gogo raising an old topic
Well after all that the GIANT's NINTENDO are now stocked and sold in Harvey Norman.
I work for Harvey's and I must say It is the best place to work, atleast thats my exsperience and if you want a good deal then you have to shop around. If your a tosser then no one can help you nor can they help your unrealistic ideals.