Topic: Terrible UK customer service reflecting badly on Nintendo

So, I have the dodgy left side Joy-Con (blue neon) from my UK Nintendo shop bought Switch.

I emailed the UK Customer Service 10 days ago and have had nothing but an automated message saying how busy they are.

So I emailed them again this Tuesday telling them that I know that the UK support aren't "really" Nintendo, but outsourced to The Hut Group and this really does reflect badly on Nintendo's reputation.

For good measure I cc'd in Shibata-san of Nintendo Europe "so that he may be made aware of this very poor level of customer service being offered to loyal Nintendo fans such as myself".

Nothing back, diddly squat. So my boys still can't play 1-2-Switch for fear of one of them calling the other a cheat and tears ensuing when the bloody Joy-Con stops working if you just happen to turn your back on the console. Not to mention the Joy-Con also has a nasty machining error on the "L" button which leaves it rough around the edge.

So before I got in touch with my credit card company to let them deal with it I did a bit of my own research and stumbled across https://nintendoservicecentre.co.uk/ (would it not be prudent to mention this on the support contact page at the UK shop?)

So I breathed easy thinking I would get the repair sorted, but, get this, there is NO OPTION TO SEND BACK ONE NEON JOY-CON! You can select to send only the left or right grey one, but the only option is to send back BOTH left and right neon ones.

WTF do I do now? Do I send the working right hand Joy-Con back as well?!

Have to say this is sullying my long standing affection for Nintendo...

edit: got to the end of the form and clicked on to "download packaging guidelines" and...

"Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /assets/ on this server."

Goodness me, what an operation Ninty have in the UK!

Under the Consumer Rights Act (and previously Sale Of Goods Act) in the UK, you should just return the product to the retailer for refund or replacement; they are liable - http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/what-do-i-do-if...

Don't bother with Nintendo, just take it back to the shop - most are getting fresh stocks in now, so replacement shouldn't be an issue.

@zitpig

I made the mistake of purchasing from the UK Nintendo website for the 2 year warranty - so I've got to deal with them!

Also if I return the whole console then that will be us done with Nintendo, I certainly am not going through the tens of hours my boys and I have already put into Zelda because Nintendo can't get cloud saves worked out...

I'm beginning to wonder if my Switch is starting to bend as well as has been noted elsewhere - looks like I will just have to Section 75 them and let my credit card company deal with it.

That's a bit of a bugger then!

I read that if you send in the left joycon they always ask for both left and right and make adjustments to both sides.

@hendie001

I see, it just seems strange that on the repair website you can select either the left or right grey Joy-Cons separately, but there is no option to do this with the neon ones - only two odd looking blank spaces where I assume the pictures should be.

@meherenow I have read people from UK that were very satisfied with support, I think they all mentioned calling, that might be better than email.

I've had a touch more success ringing the UK service centre on 03456050247. Look a while to get through, but the person on the other side was helpful, and I've got my left (grey) JC sent off, hopefully to come back in decent shape. But my brother tried the email, and I think was kept waiting for eons.

Another week, and still no reply either from Nintendo UK customer service OR the CEO office in Europe - extremely bad showing.

I tried phoning, but I just do not have half an hour to spend messing around on hold.

I'll just go through the repair site myself (seeing as I managed to stumble across it no thanks to Nintendo UK customer support).

But again, very poor UK support.

I can reconfirm this. I voice the same opinion. And I've decided to never buy anything from Nintendo's official store. Ever. And about replying to e-mail queries just forget about it, they're not gonna reply. I'm still waiting for a reply of several emails i sent back in 2014 about Wii U, so just take the effort to make a call and even if you do that, their service is outright medieval and frustrating. I can totally see why they've been left so far behind. So basically my Pro controller had issues had issues with analog stick and dpad day one so i requested it to be replaced but no, they would have to look into the issue first. so i had to send in for repair and after two weeks when I finally got back I got right back into gaming with the pro controller only to find out it was as it was, just as i sent two weeks ago with the same problem. Again contacted Their customer service who aren't actually too friendly, I'm not talking rude. So this time around they asked me to send the Pro controller along with my switch console, They wanted to look into the problem. So I sent back both my console and pro con and I've been waiting two weeks long still haven't got my console back. Why do the customers have to go through all of these hassle for their incapability, the controller issue i have is probably a faulty production unit. Why? Just why? Why wouldn't u just replace the Damn controller, Instead of putting your customer through all of these hassle, that's what AMAZON would do, they straight away replaces everything without even questioning, Amazon would even refund if i didn't LIKE the Controller and i wouldn't have to make excuses And here with Nintendo i am having to deal with their incapability and incompetence. I didn't make any forum discussion about this but glad somebody did. Now please everybody, RANT!

I have to laugh, although the packaging guidelines on the repair website goes to a dead link (no pun intended), I received two PDF's with the repair confirmation (which in itself took several days to arrive by email).

One of these was the return label, the other was the mythical packaging guidelines.

"Packaging Guidelines – Nintendo DS, DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL" and was dated 2011.

I think that speaks for itself. I cannot believe Nintendo allow this all round cack handedness when it comes to their UK operation. I just count my lucky stars my Switch managed to turn up on release day despite being sent by Royal Mail 48. Wasn't so lucky with my Mario Kart 8 on Wii U right enough, but that just shows how far back these problems go and still they exist.