Reggie Fils-Aime may have referred to it as a raincheck program, but GameStop's official name for their pre-pay Wii program hitting on Dec. 20 is the Wii Certificate Program. There are a couple other things Reggie was a bit off on, according to the details released this morning from GameStop.
The Wii Certificate program will run just one day, Friday, December 21. Customers will be able to go in and hand out the full $250 to reserve a Wii console for pick-up on January 25. Reservations must be made in-person at any GameStop or EB Games location in the U.S., including those in Puerto Rico and Hawaii. The number of reservations available at each store is limited and only one Wii can be reserved per a household.
The certificate itself will be in a custom-designed DVD case featuring a picture of the Wii and Mario. Once the reserved Will arrives customers will receive a telephone call saying it's available for pick-up.
So let me get this straight, you give GameStop your $250 and they get to sit on it for a full month, earning interest, and in return you get an empty DVD case and eventually a Wii? The least they could have done is thrown in a T-Shirt that read: "My Parents Waited Too Long to Shop for Me So All I Got for Christmas was this Shirt and a Lot of Empty Promises. See you in Therapy in Five Years."