Every once in a while when I'm playing with the game pad, I've noticed a little bar across the bottom of my screen that's all glitched out. It looks just like a mesh of pixels. I put in a repair order with Nintendo but was wondering if anyone had any insight into how competent Nintendo's customer service is. One tiny scratch will bug the hell out of me forever, so I want it to look perfect when it comes back. Do you think they will just replace it entirely?

I've used the repair service twice. Once for my DSi's shoulder buttons, the system came back in exactly the same condition I sent it. The other was my Wii, the motherboard went and had to be replaced. They replaced the motherboard and sent me back the same Wii, though my data was wiped. Both times, the hardware came back in better condition than it was when I sent it. In my opinion, they are very competent, and they will only replace it if they can't repair it, but they may replace parts of it.

One time I sent in my wii to be fixed and they gave me new covers for the gamecube ports. And they also cleaned it all really well and updated the software, even though I didn't really want photo channel 1.1, but oh, well.

Also, it was completely free both times and completely fixed the problems. So I've been very happy with their service.

Awesome, thanks for the replies. Sounds like I have nothing to worry about.

Sent in my PAL Wii to Nintendo fo Europe, with disc read errors and system errors. got back the same wii without system errors and a new disc drive. no data lost.
Even mail cost was free.

Sent in two DS lites (black one fell in water and was corroded inside, the white one had a broken R button). Had no receipt.
They offered to
a) replace them / getting brand new ones for 60€ each - back when new ones were around 120€.
b) dispose them free of charge (excluding third party add/ons hardware - they sent them back)
c) send it all back (for free)

Another DS had two bad pixels when I got it new. They were always flashing red. Send it back with receipt.
This one was replaced for free.

How far is your Gamepad from the Wii U when this happens?