Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

I decided that I was going to buy a Wii U this week, so I went to the same Target store where I recently bought my 3DSXL and my Vita. I looked and they had 3 of them left. I asked the guy to buy one, along with Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge and a Wii U Pro Controller. I gave him the money and walked out a happy person.

When I got home, I started to unbox it and I noticed that there was no seal tape on either side of the box. I didn't think much of it and began taking out all of the things that were inside. I unwrapped all of the cables and unpackaged the game that came with the system (which I'm never going to play), and then I took out the bottom tray that contained the system itself and the Wii U gamepad. Sure enough, there was no Wii U gamepad in my box. The cardboard sleeve where the gamepad was supposed to be was empty.

I packaged it all back up and took it back to the store. I explained to them what happened and they were very understanding. They gave me a new Wii U system and I checked this time to make sure that there was indeed a Wii U gamepad in the box. The funny thing is that there was no seal tape on the replacement Wii U I got either. My curiosity got the best of me and I looked at the remaining Wii U that they had and there was no seal tape on that one either.

Thinking that maybe it was just a strange coincidence I went to a local Walmart and noticed that there was no seal tape on the side of their Wii Us either. The next day I went to another Target and it was the same thing, no seal tape on the side of the Wii U boxes. Is this normal? Did Nintendo really package these so that anyone could just open the box up and take out a gamepad if they wanted to and put the system back the way it was? If so that's incredibly stupid. It makes me wonder why there are not more reports of missing Wii U gamepads since they are only available through buying a system, and they would be rather easy to take from the box.

I told the service desk at Target that they should keep an eye out for employees stealing the Wii U gamepads. They said they are going to investigate it. It doesn't really affect me now since I already got my Wii U, but I like Target and it's embarrassing for them to be selling incomplete products like this.

Oh well, another reason I hate retail shopping. I usually buy game systems from retail stores since the prices don't differ much from buying online.

Has anyone heard of this happening to anyone else?

Huh. Now that is truly bizarre. I have not heard of this happening to anyone else. The fact that this was the case across multiple retailers in your area is a tad alarming, to say the least, as it indicates the issue could be further up the supply chain, not just in the retailers themselves. I hope Target can trace this back and other retailers might be wise to follow suit.

Yeah I was kind of confused by it all too. Every other console I remember purchasing had some kind of seal on the box, but these have none.

Very strange story, Vistablade... I've never heard about it too ! Here in Europe or specifically in France..But even if I'm sure not to buy a wii U, this story is always sad to hear and I hope that not too many Wii U pads are gonna be "stolen" like that ! (or whatever happen).