Forums

Topic: VERY disapointed with Nintendo customer service

Posts 1 to 20 of 25

adam296

My family an I have been loyal Nintendo customers for decades, owning many platforms and games. We have had a switch from the launch day and have all the main games. Issue is we have always bought the download versions of the games. We got both the labo sets on launch but as these are cartridge only we had to use the physical card reader. On using this we discovered the card reader is faulty so sent the unit for repair. This is the response we got 'Our engineers have inspected your Switch screen and can confirm that a payment of £53.50 is required for us to complete the repair due to Disc read error.' This is because we have had the unit for more than a year so 'out of warantee'. I Have paid as the children are desperate to play with the labo sets and want the unit back - but appalling way to treat loyal (and possibly not so loyal in the future) customers. Kids are already unhappy with Nintendo and have turned from trying to get their friends to also get a switch to warning them about the way they have been treated and have lost the money out of game savings account.

adam296

redd214

So it was out of warranty and required payment for fixing? Isn't that how most products with warranties work? I'm confused by the outrage.

redd214

adam296

It was probably always broken - if labo was available as a down load it would not be an issue

adam296

adam296

and its not outrage - just very disappointed that they have no latitude

adam296

redd214

Perhaps it was broken from the start but there's no way to actually prove that is there? Labo being physical or digital is irrelevant. You sent in something for repair that was outside its warranty and have to pay for repairs. That's how most warranties and companies work. Im not saying it doesn't suck, trust me I had to send my switch in to get repaired too and lost all my save data, but I don't really see how you can be disappointed.

Edit: outrage was maybe the wrong word to choose, my apologies

Edited on by redd214

redd214

adam296

Indeed and had it worked for over a year then broken it would be ok - but I didn't know it was broken from the start as didn't use any cartridges till now as its the only way to use labo.

adam296

ACK

But you don't know when it broke... Maybe the moment you put the cartridge in did the trick, maybe one of the kids had put something in there at some point over the past year, maybe it was faulty from day one, who knows?

It's on you to inspect your own device and send it in under warranty. If you call Nintendo near the end of the warranty period they will encourage you to send it in for them to inspect, regardless of known issues. You could have done this, you didn't and possibly paid the price. Live and learn.

Anyway, now you think Nintendo is supposed give everyone who calls out of warranty a grace period because they claim to be unaware of the cause of an issue? Why not just have an unlimited warranty then, right?

Basically this is just sour grapes. Everyone wants the rules bent for them.

Edited on by ACK

ACK

Twitter:

SwitchForce

A few problems here...
1. There is no DISC only cartridge reader slot - doubt they said Disc in the response.
2. Warranty exists for a time for a reason and I think you did use the slot before and omitting that here.
3. Find it strange you didn't use the slot before to find it a problem or the kids did something but didn't say so.

I know my nephew dropped my Switch because one of the joy-con clips was loose and would pop out that how I found out and replaced it under extended warranty no question asked. So if your not taking the time to do proper care and storage of the device that isn't a Nintendo fault here. I do recall they say to take care of the hardware and any damages other than hardware failure during the warranty would be repaired but if the kids damaged it and said nothing then it's not a Nintendo fault that it is after the fact.

SwitchForce

Tasuki

Hmmm something breaks out of warranty and someone thinks that they should be given special treatment just because.

Yep you know what that means

Untitled

RetiredPush Square Moderator and all around retro gamer.

My Backlog

Nintendo Network ID: Tasuki311

adam296

Yes they did call it a disc which is why that part is in quotes - I know it’s not but that’s what nintendo call it.

Good customer care is based on building relationships and trust with your customers . Warrantees are a balance between economic risk, production cost and brand reputation. All companies can choose how to apply these and in this instance I think they got it wrong. Also £53 for what is inherently a SD card reader with a BoM value of about £4 is excessive

adam296

adam296

Also - how is it strange I did not use the slot before Labo. The switch does not ship with a cart (disc) game and all our games are downloads.

adam296

HappyRusevDay

@adam296 end of the day bud it was out of warranty and saying it might have been broke since launch puts the fault on you for not testing it. I go 90% digital these days but even if I was at 100% I’d buy 1 damn game to make sure it worked incase something like this ever happened as most if not all consoles have at least 1 game that must be bought physical due to special circumstances. Oh hell at least lend a game from someone who owns the system.

Like Guitar Rock Band Hero, Labo, VR games with VR accessories etc...

They weren’t rude or disrepectful so this ain’t bad customer service, this makes you sound BEYOND entitled and it makes me hope your kids are more mature than you as you sound like a toddler right meow.

Edited on by HappyRusevDay

HappyRusevDay

adam296

If you look at other global brands you will see lots of ballance in these things. Even Apple is reasonable in out of warranted issues if you look at their customer forums. Do you think it’s reasonable that to fix the disc reader is ~20% of a whole unit inc joy cons, dock and power.

adam296

adam296

UPDATE : And now having taken my money . . . “We would like to apologise, there has been a delay in your repair, at the moment our team is awaiting for parts. Once we receive the parts we will treat your repair as a priority.”

Has Labo triggered a wave of returns due to faulty disc readers not been used before?

Edited on by adam296

adam296

rallydefault

Sorry, man, but they're a business. If you're out of warranty, you're out of warranty. I wouldn't expect otherwise except maybe from a "mom-and-pop," smaller kind of store or company.

You cite Apple is showing "balance in these things" by looking at their customer forums, but that seems a fallacy to me. How many times do we have to repeat this: online forums are NOT representative of reality. Sure, maybe you see a dozen or so people on Apple's forums trumpeting a repair or something out of warranty (which I'm sure is not a costly repair), but for every dozen people you could have tens of thousands who, exactly like you in this situation, are told they must pay because they are out of warranty. I'm sure if we dug deep enough we could find a handful of people who have received some leniency from Nintendo in just the same way you're citing Apple, but that doesn't change the reality: out of warranty=out of warranty, and to get upset on a personal level because of that, especially for an adult, is very strange.

You have kids, so I know you have a certain level of gumption of worldliness - you must realize this fact, right?

Edited on by rallydefault

rallydefault

skywake

RusevDay wrote:

End of the day bud it was out of warranty and saying it might have been broke since launch puts the fault on you for not testing it.

Not so much that. It's just that the usual deal with warranty periods is that they cover manufacturing faults and not wear. That's why there's a warranty period. Now it's very easy for an end user to say that they treated their unit fantastically or that they never used that component. But how do you actually test that without effectively just giving in to the sometimes almost professional abusers of the system? You can't. So there are hard and inflexible rules and guidelines.

Otherwise you get the console equivalent of the dude who returns suspiciously well worn "faulty" power tool two days after purchase. "I was just using it under typical conditions, barely got any work done with it, totally broken. Must be the manufacturer's fault. I deserve a full refund"

Some playlists: Top All Time Songs, Top Last Year
"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"

gcunit

How about you take your out of warranty device and fix it yourself then?

If you don't like the service offered by Nintendo, go elsewhere.

You guys had me at blood and semen.

What better way to celebrate than firing something out of the pipe?

Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.

My Nintendo: gcunit | Nintendo Network ID: gcunit

SwitchForce

Pattiecakes wrote:

I have to agree with the others. It sucks that it happened to you, and I'd be upset if it happened to me. My Switch occasionally has a card read error but luckily all I have to do is take out the game card and reinsert it. But at the end of the day an product that is out of warranty is out of warranty. It's not Nintendo's fault you never tried the card reader until now.

I think for the most part Everyone agrees what happens is not good but Out-Of-Warranty means what it says and there is no way around it. Unless you bought a Extended Warranty only then you take it back where you bought it and swap units but if not then you pay for repairs or buy another Switch and this time check the Slot so reads the Cartridges. Beyond that Nintendo isn't in the business of fixing out of warranty for Free.

SwitchForce

heathenmagic

Out of warranty, usually you have to pay, thats the way it goes. Not sure Apple alwatys give free repairs out of warranty, a good friend of mine has been using Apple products for years. They fleeced them lots of money for a repair and it came back worse than before - lost customer. I hope the repair they do comes good for you, that is the utlimate test now.

I have read on here in post where Nintendo gave good grace in some instances, it could be down to repair type, each business can have differing latitude I concur.

Have a 3DS XL and Wii
3DS friend code 3437-3127-2753

AKayzy

My son's switch game card slot also just stopped working within warranty, got it for Christmas last year. Nintendo wants $100.00 to fix it, within the warranty period, we worked them down to 75$ after lecturing them about our loyalty since the 80's😉. I guess warranty doesn't apply to Santa's toys.

AKayzy

This topic has been archived, no further posts can be added.