Wayne and Erika Pfeiler

Are you trying to buy a Nintendo Wii? They aren't easy to get these days, even though the system was relased in November 2006. There are all sorts of accusations flying around about how Nintendo is cleverly manipulating the market and fixing prices by releasing very game systems. I don't know if that's true, but I do know the demand is much higher than the current supply.

Here's a story about how I found out how hard it is to buy one, and how I finally did (twice): So about 3 months ago, I decided I wanted to buy a Wii. I had a bunch of Target gift cards and decided to buy one there. I went to Target's website and saw the Wii advertised with the normal price $249.99, but no "add to cart" button like pretty much everything else on the website. I didn't understand, so I called them and was informed that because of limited quantities, Wii systems are only available through retail stores. So I pull up local Target store phone numbers, and sure enough, every one of them claims to be out of Wii systems. This was a Tuesday.

I'm surprised and frustrated, so I search online for something to help me find where I can actually buy one. I found something called iTrackr that several people claim helped them. You can use it for free, or pay $2 through PayPal to have them supposedly send your cell phone text messages whenever your selected stores get a Wii in stock. This never worked. I emailed and complained and got no response. So rats off to you, iTrackr.

I found another free tool that figured out Target's inventory system and uses a backdoor to check inventory in stores close to your zip code. Just change my 27606 in the url to whatever zip code you need. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work anymore for Wiis, but you can still use it for Wii accessories. I guess target figured it out.

Later, I found something better. Why scramble all over town hoping to find a Wii, when you can instead know exactly when and where some will show up? The solution: newspaper ads! When a store advertises an item in the Sunday (or any) paper, they absolutely have to have some in stock when they open that day. There are laws about this. I remember a bit about this from my days in highschool when I worked at Staples. So if you're industrious, you could go out early to check your local Sunday paper and quickly read through the ads to see which local retail stores advertise the Wii system.

But here's a wrinkle you might not know about: Those newspaper ads go to the newspaper a week or so before the newspaper sends them out. That means if you can get the inside information, you can find out days ahead of time where a Wii system will be available. I found a (free) website called DVD Talk where some wonderful person likes to tell others about the coming ads for Sunday papers. Just look for an entry titled something like "Best Buy Prices: July 29 - August 4, 2007" when the current date's something like July 25th.

So I found out that Target would have Wiis available the very next Sunday. What luck! I saw they opened at 8:00 am, so I woke up early and checked the Target website to confirm my local store had the Wii in its ad. Sure enough, they did. So I headed over to my favorite Target about 6:30 am. There was one man sitting in his car near the entrance when I arrived. I thought: no rush, they'll have several. So I waited around until he approached the store before I got out of the car. Apparently he'd been there for an hour before me. So I was number two in line, and about 3 more people showed up after me. Around 7:30, a nice Target guy came out and handed us all numbered cards so we wouldn't have to make a mad-dash for the electronics section. He assured us there were plenty to go around. At 8, I calmly walked up, claimed a Wii, Wii Play, extra nunchuk, and the new Zelda game.

So I played my Wii and showed it to lots of friends and family. My sister was much impressed and decided she wanted one too. So last week I decided to look around at the early ads to see who might have a Wii available. Best Buy was the only option, and they claimed to have at least 12 per store. It sounded good, so I called my sister and gave her the good news. Best Buy opened at 11:00, which worried me a little. Eight in the morning is earlier than most people like to show up at a store, but eleven isn't so scary. I thought there might be too many people to show up before me. Well, I drove up to the store at 9:30 and saw a line outside the store. I quickly counted and estimated about 12 people were there. Rats! I thought there might be more than 12 Wiis at the store, so I hurried out and jumped in line.

The woman ahead of me explained that her friend who worked at Best Buy said they're have 45 units. Excellent! So I enjoyed the company of my fellow Wii fans until 10:30, when a couple Best Buy guys came out with numbered tickets stapled to their extended warranty plan advertisement. Nice add on sale! I was number eleven. I called my sister and gave her the good news: she would get a Wii. Once in the store, I called again to ask which games she'd want. I made a quick stop by Office Depot to pick up a $25 wireless G router, and headed over to Fedex-Kinkos to ship it off. Two-day shipping was only $16.22, which included the price of a box and insurance. The whole package weighed 13.5 lbs, so I was pleased with the shipping cost. This also made me suspicious of the E-Bay sellers who want $40 for shipping a Wii.

That's your other option. You can find plenty of new Wii systems on eBay. But be prepared to pay. They like to advertise 5 free games, or 14 free games and 4 controllers. These aren't as good as they sound, since any Wii you buy comes with the 5-game Wii Sports disc. And Wii Play retails for $50 and comes with a controller. The extra nunchuk adds $20. So add up how much you'd pay at your local store before you shell out big bucks on eBay.

As for me, I'm still enjoying my Wii. Happy hunting to the rest of you.

Posted by Wayne at 01:48 PM | Permalink

So you may know I have an 18 year-old Honda Accord named Betty. I take a little pride since the car is so old that it no longer requires emissions tests. Anyway, Tuesday morning Erika had some trouble driving the car to work. It gave her a hard time starting, and then it died about a half mile from our house. Luckily, she was able to coast it down into a parking space at a nearby shopping center. But it wasn't moving. I came out to take a look at it, since I'm pretty much always able to get it to start. I couldn't. Luckily we have another (younger) car.

So Betty sat in the parking lot until lunch time, when I could get away from work and have AAA tow her to a repair shop. The mostly-friendly AAA lady on the phone suggested I have it towed to an AAA repair shop which was also close to our house. This sounded fine to me, so I followed the tow driver out there and gave the repair shop my information and car key. A few hours later I got a call from them. Guess what... They were basically afraid to work on the car since it's so old. I can somewhat appreciate this, since with an older car like mine a seemingly simple repair might reveal or cause other subsequent problems. The repair guy on the phone said I didn't owe them any money, and I could pick up my keys whenever I liked.

After work, I went back down there and talked with the repair shop guy a bit. They suspect that my fuel filter is the original one from 1989 and these really ought to be changed every 30K miles. He hypothesized that this old (and likely very-clogged) fuel filter was restricting the flow of gas so much that the engine was starving. He further projected that if I was to replace this fuel filter, the components past it along the fuel system might fail due to the sudden increase in pressure.

So I was stuck between a possible cause to the problem and the concern that I could cause more problems by trying to fix it. The mechanic said the car would start sometimes, but it took several tries. I didn't have any luck, and I thought I'd probably run the battery down. So they said I could leave the car in their lot overnight and have it towed elsewhere tomorrow. I was tired and I decided to head home.

Thinking about the problem at home, I got out my car repair manuals. I bought these back when I bought the car, since it didn't come with an owner's manual. Back then I thought I'd get more useful information from a repair manual instead, and they were cheaper. The manual detailed how to change the fuel filter, and it didn't look difficult at all. I thought it should be worth spending $30 or less to replace it myself, and at worst I'd still have a car that doesn't run. So I ran by Advance auto parts and picked up a filter for $16. I gathered up all the tools I might need and went back down to the repair shop to do some after-hours repair work. I thought it was pretty funny to be doing this sort of thing by myself while I was right outside the repair shop.

While working, I talked on the phone with Matt, a friend who knows more about cars than I ever will, and he suggested I try to change the filter. He didn't really buy the mechanic's story about a new fuel filter causing problems. He also said if I still had trouble after that, I should give him another call and he could take a look at the car for me. So inspired by this, I finished replacing the fuel filter by the street light over the parking lot. One of the banjo bolts (yes that’s a type of bolt) was on so tight, I had to use an oil filter wrench to hold the old fuel filter in place while I used an adjustable wrench on the bolt.

Then I crossed my fingers and cranked the engine. No good. I realized this new fuel filter was bone-dry and I may have to try a few times to work the air out of the line. So I did, and on the third attempt the car sluggishly started. Hooray! I called Erika and asked her to put down the new Harry Potter book for a few minutes to help me drive the other car home. Unfortunately, my conclusion of success was premature.

I had driven the car to the edge of the shopping center and gave it some gas to make my way onto the street. The engine immediately died. I coasted backward out of traffic and gave Erika another call to hold on a while. I thought maybe there was still some air in the line and I should just drive it around the parking lot a bit more. So I tried. The car repeated its problem.

After 30-45 minutes of examining the problem in detail and a couple calls from Erika, I came to these conclusions: The car would usually start sluggishly. It would idle all day without any problems in park or neutral and I could even rev up the engine a bit and it'd be fine. When I shifted to drive or reverse with my foot on the brake, the engine would idle poorly. The rpm would drop way down but usually come back up. Sometimes it would just die. If I gave the car any gas in drive or reverse, it was likely to die. I could allow the car to putt along in drive most of the time if my foot was off the accelerator. Reverse was worse than drive. If the car was pointed downhill, it seemed to do a little better. Uphill was rough. So I eked the car into a (different) parking space and called it a night.

At work, another friend (Jeff) suggested the transmission might be the culprit, since the additional tax of trying to turn the axle seemed to make the engine die. I hoped this wasn't the problem, but Jeff also warned that there may have been some merit to the AAA mechanic's concern about the car being so old. I shrugged it off and belayed my fears of Betty coming to the end of her road in a shopping center parking lot.

After work, I called Matt back and left him a message about my predicament. Erika, having finished the new HP book, was eager to take a look at my car too, so we both headed that way after work. No changes, but the car was a little more trouble to start. I think it was harder with a cold engine. While we were there, Matt called back and said he'd be happy to stop by in a few minutes to take a look, since he was on his way to go running. So while waiting, I somehow got a free drink from Hardees, since the cashier was feeling nice and they were short-handed. Matt came by and gave a five-minute assessment of the situation. I explained my findings from the previous night and gave him a summarized maintenance and repair history of the car.

In about a minute and a half, Matt had the distributor cap taken off and found the most likely problem. The rotor button's metal contact plate had all but worn away in the center. This would need to be replaced. He took a look at the spark plugs and suggested they were due to be replaced too. Matt said the ignition wires might be getting old, and they were a third possible problem. A distant fourth possibility was a part called the vacuum advance which affects the engine's timing. An even more distant possibility was the timing belt, which may have lost a tooth. Matt suggested I buy a new set of spark plugs and distributor rotor button. He even offered to help us put those in after his run.

So we ran out to Advance auto parts again and picked up the needed parts for about $10. After changing clothes, Erika and I returned to see Betty and we changed out the plugs. Just after that, Matt called to say he'd be there in a minute. He helped us install the rotor button, and I cranked the engine. Success! A silly $3 plastic part about the size of my thumb was all that needed to be replaced. It was probably a good idea to change the fuel filter and spark plugs anyway. But I was amazed. I have no idea how much a repair shop would have charged to diagnose the problem. We offered Matt our eternal thanks and shook greasy hands.

I can gather several morals from the story: Keep your car up to date in maintenance. Don't always take the first repair shop's opinion. And if you can, make friends with a former mechanic. Thanks Matt, the next round's on me.

Posted by Wayne at 06:47 PM | Permalink

I just purchased some tickets to see the new Harry Potter movie on opening night. I thought I'd avoid the possibility of a sell-out by buying tickets online. I used the Fandango website to do this and wound up pretty mad.

First, I was annoyed that I couldn't buy tickets using the student discount that we're accustomed to. Second, their checkout process works in this way:
1) Choose tickets and see a "total" price.
2) Enter your credit card info.
3) See a message that you must also agree to an additional "convenience charge" of $1.00 per ticket in order to finalize your purchase.

What a load of crap! To me, this is basically a "bait and switch" technique to gouge the customer by tacking on hidden charges. I'm pretty mad about it, and I sent a letter to their customer service. I don't really expect a response, but I wanted to let them know I'm not happy about it.

So, if you can avoid it, DON'T use Fandango to buy your tickets. Unless it's opening night...

Posted by Wayne at 10:02 PM | Permalink