Rumour: Free Joy-Con Drift Repairs Might Be Limited To Certain Regions

Incoming lawsuit!! 😛

I thought class action lawsuits didn't work. Anyways I'm a Nintendo fan so I never say anything bad about the company yet alone try to sue it.

Time to lawyer up.

@sixrings They very much can. Companies get sued all the time and even though the moment netary payout is small, changes in policy are often immediate.

Have patience people, holy frick. The Vice article was a leaked internal memo. To who? Who knows. Probably not the entire staff, definitely not the general public. They need time to initiate these policies. If you look at the timeline of these reports, it sounds like they attempted to get the repairs done right after the Vice article was published and before the company has even officially made a statement, let alone train staff.

I just requested mine for repairs but I’m within the warranty, only just. Everyone I know who’s got a Switch has had drift so maybe Nintendo should look at their terrible flap design and change it before it costs them a fortune in repairs and lawsuits.

Oh no they didn't! Seriously though, I'm hoping it's just a matter of time before the message gets passed across the pond, because this stance would mean law firms in Europe will be all over this.

Doug Bowser was probably the first to suggest the idea. Hence why America has it. The Nintendo Europe people need to approve it. Chill people.

Wow, that sucks for UK residents. My son’s Mario Red (L) joy-con has awful drift so I already started the process to send it in. It was out of warranty so originally o was going to try the contact spray. I had Nintendo fix my (L) grey joy-con already but it was o my after 10 months of owning so the warranty covered it all.

"Our Nintendo UK process still the same"... Until a class lawsuit comes! Please, wait. Loading...

I thought we were past taking nintendosoup seriously.

Its probably because NoE gives you guys all the good discounts 😉

NoA is the one being sued, not NoE.

@commentlife Came to say this. People sometimes can't even wait for some days to see if the memo is made official or if it was real in the first place.

@Quarth yup. Oh well, I am gonna watch for all the folks who comment without reading a gosh darn thing but the headline and proceed to have a good old laugh about it.

Can we just take a second for how funny this is, though? Like, follow me on this journey. Vice Gaming reports on a leaked internal memo that was probably meant for middle management in one region of Nintendo. Some dude reads it and is like “IT’S GO TIME!” Proceeds to call some call centre employee who has no idea what he’s even bloody talking about. Then gets pissed off on the internet about it. That’s hilarious to me.

@commentlife I thought if it’s on the Internets it must be true? 😜

@Liam_Doolan and I’ve adjusted my post accordingly, cheers dude.

That sucks for everyone on the other side of the pond.

I’m from Spain and I can confirm that Nintendo here still charge the drift repair. I sent last week a joycon with this problem (second time that happens to me) and received a mail yesterday with the cost of the reparation: 36,78 euro.

I’m so pleased I have no issues with mine I feel very lucky

@sandman89 Umm... yours is manufactured differently?

@sixrings out of interest, would you never say anything negative about Nintendo even if you disagreed with them on something? Or do you blindly accept anything/everything they say and do?

@datamonkey Brand loyalty is an extraordinary thing. You only have to look at people who buy fruit branded tech.

Any chance this website could maybe, I don't know, go to Nintendo and ask some questions about this rather than just reporting on other websites stories or running another article about how much money some mobile game made or actors reactions to some TV series about some books?!

@SBandy That's too much to ask.

Consumer laws in Europe dictate that the store you buy your products offers you warranty service. (Usually 2 years) The store is required to get your Switch fixed.

Nintendo, on the other hand, is by law not required to do anything in the EU. So yeah, good luck with your lawsuit. Since you will lose that.
The factory warranty thing is not part of any law.

I bought a replacement joy stick and fixed it myself. Cost around a £5 and works fine. Not for everyone though.

How strange I've had 2 joy cons fixed for free from Nintendo support, and free postage, out of warranty (at least one was) early this year.

@spirit_flame 🤷‍♂️ Just haven’t had a problem so far

I enquired here with Nintendo uk and they also told me to cough up those queen quids. Hope this changes

I’d imagine the policy change will come. Would be strange for such a high profile acknowledgment to be in one area and ignored in another. That would be a legal issue surely?

The Nintendo UK repair centre has become a bit of a joke - horrendous turnnaround time and poor Customer service leads to frustration. I've had to wait 6-8 weeks for them to sort out my Pro controllers which were all under warranty, excluding the time I had to wait for their emails to come through with postage labels, so I ended having to pay for postage too.

@sanderev In EU the store sends the product to the company/brand. The cost and responsibilities are still from Nintendo, in this case. The difference is that I can go to the store and they take care of everything and send the joy-con to Nintendo.

I know it will eventually come to the EU for free Joycon repairs, but i can't believe Nintendo has taken nearly 2 years to offer free repairs on them as the drifting is a common issue caused by a poor choice in components.

@sixrings I hope you know, you're the problem.

Rumor: Its all in Nintendolife's head! Nintendo never officially stated: Everyone can send in their faulty joycons for a free repair, even out of warranty. Don't give people false hope!!

Oh no it's almost like there's been no official announcement and this has all been clickbait for views during a slow news week.

@Uno True. But if Nintendo refuses to repair anything. By law the store is required to either: replace or refund the broken controller.

As a customer you don't have a sales agreement with Nintendo. You have one with the store. This is why Nintendo doesn't sell consoles directly to consumers in the EU.

@electrolite77 Just the receipt is required, the packaging isn't. Or actually by law it's a "proof of purchase" which could also mean the charge on your credit card.

However you should ALWAYS make a photo or scan of the receipt of your electronic devices and keep the original somewhere safe.

It seems like we need a class action lawsuit here, then.

@D64
i am sorry for you, i am living in the UK both my joycons are drifting since January after the warranty , i solve with an electric contact spray, is only temporary soon os later they will start to drift again so i will need to clean them again, but i will never pay for the repair it's cost as much as one new joycon!!!, and because they did not solve it yet and probably they will never do it it's pointless to send to repair or buy new ones, i am sorry to say that but Nintendo lose me , this is my last console i will buy from them, they are unprofessional and they don't deserve my money neither my support.
P.S i will probably buy the joycon from HORY with the d-pad they are ages better in quality than Nintendo for sure, i know i will sacrifice the wireless ability(plus ir sensor and rumble but they have the gyroscope i believe ) so i will be able to use only in portable mode so no dock or tablet mode but it's is a sacrifice bearable to be able to play, in the past i used to die in dark soul because of the drift you can imagine my rage !!!!

@antdickens sure that's what it is.

Of course. It's not like other people have called out other articles recently for being clickbait.

Probably trying to work out a deal with Lucas to make them leak oil. Localization is very important.

@aresius You can get replacement sticks for $5 each. In a two pack you even get the screw driver you need. A child could do the replacement it is so easy.

@StevenG
not me, i am a clumsy person for repair/fix staff

Nintendo seems to be holding a double-standard. Guess it's time that the UK branch file a class action suit. That'll get Nintendo's attn, lol.

@aresius So have a kid you know do it, or any other human. I could teach the average 10 year old to do it.

@leuvsion You could help people by uploading a scan of the receipt with no charge. If they do it for one, it should be all, even though it looks like it might be coming to that now.

@sanderev
Maybe the shops will be less willing to carry Nintendo branded products, if they alone have to carry the loss on repairing/substituting failed hardware?
Just a thought.

@antdickens "or, we're reporting on all the updates to a developing story which is clearly important to lots of our readers."

Can I take the opportunity to say something? Of course you should report on this subject, but what I and others miss is the journalistic investigation. Instead of all the re-reporting from other sites and forums (which I understand you must do as well), it would be nice if you could reach out to Nintendo and ask them about this controller debacle. As a Nintendo news site you surely must have some contacts right? And if you've already tried to get some info from them without success, write it at the end of the article.

I understand re-reporting is a lot easier and sometimes necessary, but would some digging be too much to ask for? I like this site, but sometimes it seems that articles are put out with no effort, just to gain clicks and comments. No offense, I'm just speaking out of my own subjective point of view, as one of your daily visitors and community contributors. I know it's not easy to run a site and I appreciate you commenting here, but yeah... I got to say what's on my mind. Thanks!

@Quarth Nintendo has repeatedly replied to multiple outlets, including Nintendo Life, that they do not comment or respond to rumours or any requests for information. They will release a press release when they are ready and in their own time.

I would counter and say, as a significant population (myself included) are frustrated by the current situation. I currently have no means of playing my switch unless the game will only allow right joy cons to be used and I REFUSE to spend more money on replacing my 3rd broken left joy con after 3 in a row have broken (and trying to replace the electronics on one of the drifting ones resulted in me busting the joy con completely rather than just being glitchily unplayable)…

So I guess that's it. Unless Nintendo does something I am out until the next console generation. Ignoring the 2 original joy cons that came with the unit I have spent £140 on replacement joy cons and both have broken within 6 months. I do not have receipt or packaging so I am screwed. And I will not commit another £70 until I hear they have replaced the faulty part and my new purchase will not suffer the same fate.

So I applaud any news updates and chances for sites like Nintendo Life to put consumer pressure on Nintendo to acknowledge the issue they have created by using sub standard parts in their manufacturing.

@Swifthom Fair point and I didn't know that about Nintendo's policy. Sorry to hear about your troubles. I myself haven't experienced any issues with my joy cons, but the pro controller on the other hand...

@antdickens @Quarth I definitely agree that some of the grumbling can be avoided by just a smidgen of investigation/analysis. Nintendo Enthusiast, Nintendo Soup, GoNintendo and Nintendo Life (probably others) all ran the same misleading headline, which was some version of “UK policy hasn’t changed like America’s has”, which was based on anecdotal evidence based on Reddit users who tried to get their joycons fixed immediately after reading a leaked internal memo. Fans probably saw this info weeks before the customer support staff even hears about it. We haven’t heard a statement from any region, let alone the one where the leak came from. No where in the initial Vice reporting was there mention of the policy being in place globally and everyone should send their joycons in. So to say UK policy hasn’t changed CAN be perceived as a touch misleading IMHO since it’s doubtful that even the American policy is in place at this time. This could take MONTHS. Imagine the changes in pipeline and logistics and staffing that’s going to be necessary to handle the biblical flood of joycons they’re about to receive.

I grumbled initially but have sense deleted it and I very much appreciate you guys changing the headline to be more reflective of the reality and not the Reddit reality.

My two cents.

@spirit_flame very true! Amazing how it distorts our perception of reality...

@antdickens Thanks for a good reply! Of course you should continue to report on it even if Nintendo hasn't made an official statement, but hopefully you'll follow @commentlife's excellent advice when reporting on unofficial stuff like this. Have a nice weekend!

This is great news for me. After two lefts started driving within months of purchase I'm glad to see them do something. Now will someone start a class action against Nintendo, forcing them to address and fix the crappy placement of the cable used for the SR and LR as well as the sync button. I have two right joycons that can't be used for multiplayer or synced via the button due to the current placement.

Do you guys think the joycon issue will be fixed for future revisions? What about switch lite? Will that have improved joycons you think?

Only got my switch earlier this year and already thinking about how theyre just gonna go bad xD

@sixrings Yes they do. It's thanks to Class Action Lawsuits that big tech companies like Apple and Samsung, for example, finally acknowledge (serious) issues/flaws with their products and start offering free repair/replacements outside warranty periods.

If it weren't for the recent Class Action lawsuit, Nintendo would not have offered free repairs and repair cost refunds for the joy-cons.

Just yesterday my left joy con started to drift...

If there is a known manufacturing defect you should be covered by the consumer act 2015 for up to 6 years with the retailer. There's a letter generator on the which? Website somewhere

Fine. !!
Nintendo can shove the switch mini up theirs then as on third set of joycons now and not buying a new mini every time they start drifting on that. Robbing ba*****s.

@sakke95 Call them up [and if you live in UK report back here to tell us if anything has changed]

Just got a email from NOA with a free ups shipping label to get my left neon blue joy-con drifter repaired for free.

@ms1021 I called customer support (I'm from Belgium) and the guy said they apply NOE's rules and they don't have any further information to give at this time. So we in europe still have to pay.