Random: Nintendo Repairs Faulty Switch And Then Sends It Back To The Owner Without Joy-Cons

it was sent back with
Sad-Cons

I'm sure policy is to send repaired gear if they can but you'd think they'd just eat it and send him new Joy-cons if the delay was egregious enough to split it.

I think that was a good attitude. If it was me I'ld play with the Pro Controller while I wait.

I think it's brilliant they wanted him back up and gaming with repaired gear as soon as possible. Probably they were assuming he owns other controllers. It's amazing they comped him a year's extra warranty for the hassle.

On the other hand if they could have simply given him new Joycons that would be next level outstanding. I'd be totally cool with Nintendo swapping Joycons like that AND Nintendo separately refurbishing and selling on Joycons handed in to them. C'mon Nintendo!

If this is considered as a bad scenario from Nintendo customer service then...? Back in the Wii U days I accidentally shipped a game with the console and they returned it with a nice note. Also the Wind Waker hold music is awesome, I'm not sure if they still do that.

You assume there is a good reason behind this decision? And what the heck would be a good reason behind the decision to keep something that has been repaired and is now in perfect working order instead of sending it back to the owner?

I don't see what the story here is. If it was intentional and already communicated that the Joy-Cons would be sent separately, then this isn't news-worthy.
I know I'd prefer to have my system back ASAP, as I know I could just use another controller in the meantime.

@NintonicGamer It's Ocarina of Time now

@ALinkttPresent Apparently you didn't read the article.
The reason is that the joy-cons also needed repair, so they're being held back until they're fixed.

@LN3000 ...what? Nothing I said contradicted that. I was referring to this dumb sentence in the article: "You would think customer support would hold off until everything is resolved and then send it back in a single delivery"

@ALinkttPresent Apparently I need to work on my reading comprehension. LOL. Sorry my friend.

@LN3000 That's alright, in hindsight my original post wasn't very clear lol

I'd like a refund for my time reading this "news".

Well, at least they sent back the functional part. Gamestop take note

"They had us in the first half, not gonna lie"

Well that still sucks if they didnt have any other controllers. I had to send my switch in for a repair and I was very happy with my experience. I actually was past my warranty but they fixed it anyways so that was awesome. I only sent the left joycon with it and I receiver both the switch and the joycon together

It's good they sent the Switch back cause who knows what the problem with the Joycons could be or how long it could be fix. Besides the dude could always buy new ones while waiting for the old ones or just play using the Pro Controller while he wait. I actually did had some very good experience with Nintendo support back then, I once sent many hardware to Nintendo for repair during my GBA and GameCube days.

First time was the GBA SP cause my two bumper buttons not functioning very well. Sent it in, they replace it with two newer bumper buttons, and even clean the dusk inside. My GBA SP came back with the bumper buttons working accurately again and I got a letter saying the repair was not urgent as it's just the dusk that was the cause of the problem but to make sure I don't get any hiccups with the buttons again they replace the two older buttons with two brand new ones cause the older ones were also dirty. For the GameCube, one of my Resident Evil remake disc (basically disc 2) is heavily scratch and can't be read, I sent it to Nintendo and they buff it so the disc could be read again. They can't replace it as they are not the publisher of the game but the disc works and I was able to continue on with the game.

Is it just me or did I just get click baited??

They held the Joycons hostage...until you give them a 5 star rating for their repair service.

Seems pretty obvious that there is a good reason. Which is that they didn’t know the joy-cons needed to be repaired until they fixed the system itself, and if the owner has another controller at home they can play their system now instead of having to wait extra days or weeks until the joy-cons are fixed and the whole thing gets returned at the same time. It’s definitely the way I would want it to be done if I were in this situation.

I just received my Joy Cons back from assistance. But they didn't repaired them! There was a drifting on the right jc stick and they replaced it, they also replaced the stick on the left JoyCon that only had a damaged rubber but did not fix the SL and SR buttons that weren't working. Now I need to send it back, but it's really annoying

Wow the switch has been out 2 years and this is a story. Nintendo has offered another year on all repairs fod a while now. They always handle repairs this way. i sent my joy cons in 3 times and each time they have come back at different times. Nothing weird at all

@Ricube ive had terrible experience with the repair service as well. Unfortunatly its the only way, they fix it eventually

@Varkster u did lol

Sigh... Big scoop here.

This is a nothing story if ever I saw one

Have to keep pumping stories like this to suit that on going narrative that switch breaks easy....

Is this really news?,first word problems at their finest.

This, is not news. Slow news day.

I don’t understand why this has not hit the national news...

The "good reason" is probably just procedure and efficiency, different people from different departments who need to get the stuff off their desks as quickly as possible. Separate shipments may mean additional postage and more stress on the environment, but economically it may still be the most efficient way to handle it. No storing the several parts somewhere until the other parts are ready, no risk of miscommunication between departments/co-workers where which parts are located to bring them together afterwards, etc. ... that's my two cents anyway.

@Andrew_R_2000 “Regardless of the scoreboard you can do anything that you work for”

"Nintendo actually plans to send the Joy-Cons back separately, as they also need to be fixed."
Wow, this is ridiculous click-bait.

@RainbowGazelle I get sick of people saying everything is click-bait and have said as much in previous posts... But yeah, if ever there were a click-bait article, this is it. Nintendo does something good by shipping the fixed part out ASAP, and this headline makes it seem like that is a bad thing.

As for my own experience with Nintendo support, I was one of the lucky day 1 buyers with JoyCon connection issues. Nintendo gave me a free shipping label, advance shipped me a pro-controller for 50% off, and overnight shipped my repaired JoyCon when fixed. Hard to complain about that.

If i could get a free year of warranty, i would send in my switch & joy cons asap ;P no matter how long the joy cons are missing, 1 year of warranty extension is way better hahaha

What a pointless article. Even worse, I'm commenting on this ###. 😕

Odd article. I saw the original post on Reddit - where quite a few people complain about Nintendo UK service. It seems to be a pale imitation of the good service received in other territories. I myself sent a pair of joy cons in for repair once, and I was told that I would have them back within two weeks. Three weeks later they told me they were stocktaking and I wouldn't have them back for an additional five weeks. I went and bought another set and took out extended warranty so I wouldn't have to deal with Nintendo UK service again in a hurry.

@BenAV They did.

@roadrunner343 You did see the "Not as bad as it sounds" in the headline there, right? I'll say what you've probably told other people. No one made you click on the article.

I can't be the only one who is interested in articles like this. It's called Nintendo Life.

It's pretty obvious from the category tags they use roughly what tone each article will take. Looking for game announcements? It's unlikely you'll find that in Random.

I don't like every article Nintendo Life put out. Not every one was written with me in mind, funnily enough. But that isn't really their fault.

@MarkieMAN64 It's not a matter of disliking the article. The article is fine. It the header that's misleading. And yes, I did read the subtitle - which certainly helps, but doesn't justify an intentionally misleading/sensationalist headline. I'm not saying it's an outrage and we should all boycott NL =) Because people really do cry "clickbait!" over just about everything - but in this case, it seems justified to me.

It should be ok. No Switch owner should be without 2 sets, right?

I wouldn't call this news.

Well, hopefully they don't want to play 1, 2 Switch or Mario Party in the meantime.

Nintendo Canada is a whole joke... They did the SAME thing to me last week. My JOY CON STRAPS were defective..not my joy cons... Yet these guys made me send in the coloured straps ands my joycons. First of all they shipped from Toronto to Vancouver by ground which is weird and cheap... 2nd of all, they sent my joycons back via Purolator and my 10 dollars straps back via Canada Post.. both with different delivery dates and the most standard shipping which took weeks overall.. never experienced such horrible customer service from anyone. They sent back my same old joy cons with scuff marks on it and a whole letter stating how they joycons weren't at fault?? You think?? I only told you guys that 40 times on the phone prior to sending it in. It was a joke. So pretty much I waited 3 and a half weeks to get 2 replacement straps worth 10 dollars sent through two different carriers with 3 different tracking numbers. I thought I was the only one but this is ridiculous.

@roadrunner343 When I read the headline (which includes both the title and subtitle), I knew someone received a repaired console without their joycons, but it wasn't as bad as it sounded. The article, from there, expanded on this story.

I don't think the headline is misleading. It certainly doesn't tell the whole story and made me want to read more, so in that way, it was clickbait...but not with the negative connotation that word usually suggests.

I think the point of the random tag is to be able to talk about subjects, in this case customer service, in a way that's only connected to Nintendo in that it involves them in this example.

I think one needs to read the whole headline and include those tags in deciding whether one wants to read an article and to limit/expand expectations of what you can expect.

@Henmii That's why it isn't in the news section. It's in the random section.

Really confused why people comment this when it clearly isn't marked news.

@MarkieMAN64, I call it news when its on the frontpage. And I think its sensational, as if Nintendo did a scam. Yeah I read the subtitle, but that doesn't make it less bad.

My fan started making a awfull noise so i got mine repaired. They sent it back missing two screws so I complained, they did fix again though.

@MarkieMAN64 That's fine - like I said, I have no issues with the content. I also read the subtitle - but you can't tell me that the headline and subtitle does not still has a negative tone to it, when it was actually a positive response by Nintendo, in my opinion. If that doesn't bother you, fine - but obviously it does other people.

Just as you say people do not need to read the articles, no one needs to read the comments - but we choose to. Do you really want to the comment section to be nothing more than an echo chamber of unconditional praise? Goodness, I hope not. In this case, I simply decided to agree with another poster on a misleading title. Nothing more. It doesn't mean I hate NintendoLife and their articles.

"Nintendo helpfully sends back repaired Switch, even though they could have saved money by sending it back only after the joy-cons were also repaired"

Which is not such a good headline

@Henmii Didn't mention the subtitle. I mentioned the tags. NL make it pretty easy to only read articles tagged with certain categories. If you don't want to read anything in "random", then don't. I don't recall an article marked "random" being news.

This isn't a news site. It's a Nintendo centric site which quite often tells Nintendo news. Meaning, there's no reason why you should expect everything on the main page to be news. I personally quite like the random articles. Do I read them when I want to read news? No of course not. When I'm here for news, I can easily skip by them...because they have a clear tag which I can see before even clicking on them.

This really is inexcusable content. You can't even say there's no other news.

I had a good customer support experience last year. My Switch was cracking by one of the screws in the back. It looked like it may have been machined too tight and caused this crack. The Switch was very fast repaired and send back with a new backplate! No complaints!

"According to the owner of this repaired system, Nintendo actually plans to send the Joy-Cons back separately, as they also need to be fixed."

Here's the problem why not just replace their Joy-Cons. I think something shady is going on. You think a Warranty repair would just replace the defective Joy-Cons in the process. This story is not smelling to nice here. Nothing in what could be seen of the letter mentions Joy-Con other then a he said she said comment. So unless the person of this article has that letter to show - I think this smells pretty badly for a clickbait article.

Why would they send them back together?

Two different departments probably solve software vs hardware problems. Frankly that they return the same console is silly.

A repair depot is far more efficient if you build up an inventory of refurbished machines and send them out as soon as you verify a returned console has a real problem. A huge percentage of consoles, like this one, don't have a real problem. Then every console should be added to the pile for eventual refurbishment.

I mean I'd rather get my Switch back as soon as possible and wait on the Joy Cons. I feel like Nintendo made the right move?

Read title and first 2 paragraph: Man that is messed up I hope they compensate them on the missing Joy-Cons and other equipment.

Read Subtitle and last paragraph: That is efficient since they likely have extra set (Joy-Con or Pro) at home and don’t want to delay it longer than need be.

It is not news but a fun random that would bait some people. I am no exception

Did I seriously just read someone's warranty repairs summary as a news article?

Seems like good customer service to me. Nintendo made the perfectly reasonable assumption that this player might have more than one controller and would be eager to have their console back as soon as possible while the Joycons were being repaired.

Had to send my dock in for repairs on Monday as it wasn't displaying on my TV. I wasn't sure if it was the switch or the Dock that was the issue after doing many troubleshoots.

My friend then brought over his dock and switch over to do test to see which was the problem. As soon as I put my switch into his dock it worked but when he put his switch into my dock nothing.

I was glad that it was the dock but the repairs will cost me since it is out of warranty. Just wondering for people who got repairs out of warranty. Does nintendo send a bill to you once they receive the items before they start the repairs?

@MarkieMAN64,

Okay, but that doesn't change the fact that this didn't need to be posted. The title of the article is misleading. There are tons of things we can blame on Nintendo, but this isn't one of them.

@NEStalgia: I really hate to say it, but you did!

@Stocksy the dock setup is very conducive to overheating. So I would say that ongoing narrative is correct. I will say I haven't had a single issue since my repair. No joycon drifting no loud fan noises.i did get a dock extender because of the afformentioned overheating issie.

@Henmii I simply don't see this as an anti-Nintendo article.

For sure, as I think I've said if not to you, then elsewhere, there are some days I am NOT in the mood for "random" articles. However, there are some days I'm comforted that they are there. Nintendo Life is about more than just News, however much I appreciate their news articles. The clue is in the name.

The purpose of a headline, whether in news, random, or any other category is to grab the reader's attention and try to convince them to read on. You should not be satisfied by the headline alone. That's just a fact of journalism. Can these be misused? Of course. Is this one misleading? No.

I knew before going into the article that someone had sent their Switch to get repaired, it had been sent back without the joycons (oh no!), but that wasn't as bad as it seemed. I didn't get the full story from the headline. A head line is meant to be a short line at the head of a document.

When I title my videos, I don't want to mislead, but I obviously don't want people to feel they have had the full experience from the title alone.

TL;Dr If I knew what they meant, then I don't think it can be very misleading. You always have a choice to click or not. Don't expect news from the random tag.

‘You would think customer support would hold off until everything is resolved and then send it back in a single delivery. We'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume there was a good reason behind this decision.’

1. The user may have another pair of joycon so by sending the console back first he can continue to play his switch. OMG drama over haha. Most pointless article ever

It's interesting how the Switch was sent in to Nintendo and it just needed an update. You always update to the latest software when it is out and I bet they didn't do that and that is why there were issues! Seems kinda strange to send it in only to have them install a update. Maybe the Joycons same thing happened as there have been a few updates for them as well! I just had to send my xbox in because the system would boot up but no display and I just did the latest patch. So it is actually a hardware issue! I'm sure the tech people could of explained to them that they should first try an update!

@NintonicGamer last time I called about a year ago they still had Hyrule field from OoT. Made me smile that after 20 years they still have the same hold music.

I would think the better headline would be "Repaired Switch comes back with a new warranty instead of Joycons." subtitled They are coming though.

It would be more accurate and less clickbait.

@MarkieMAN64,

I know they have to do something to pick our interest, to make us click. But I still think this is not the way to do it.

@Henmii You're entitled to your opinions.

As far as I can see, only 3 types of people read this article (and many of the other articles I see similar comments in which are clearly marked random).

People who didn't bother to read the headline or the random category and thought this was some big breaking news story.

People who knew this was in random but wanted to come to the comments just for a moan.

People who read the headline and category, but wanted to read the story because it piqued their interest.

Now out of the first and last options, the person could come away feeling satisfied or not (the first only usually happy when they quickly realise their mistake).

I think I comfortably fall into the 3rd option, and I've got to honestly say given how clear I found the headline, I was pretty satisfied with the article.

Granted, I'd only really read stories marked random when I am in the mood for them and have some time to kill. Today? Nope. I'd not be in the mood. How fortuitous then that the categorisation on this site is so clear...