Switch Owner Claims To Have Taken Nintendo To Court Over Joy-Con Drift, And Won

All that for a drop of blood

Given how easy it is to fix by just cleaning under the rubber, or if necessary paying a couple of pounds for a replacement stick, this seems a bit silly.

@Dezzy That is not the point, Nintendo is selling KNOWINGLY a defective product and you are just accepting it.

It is not a free product, if it was I will agree with you, but it IS NOT, so Yeah people should be pissed off if Nintendo is unwilling to fix their mess.

Is getting ridiculous the length people go to justify a company that IS SELLING you a product.

I know it's poor that we have to do it but it's easily replaced yourself with a joystick you can buy online for like, 2 for £12 or something. Don't even bother sending it away.

Two words guys. Contact cleaner. Trust me unless you brutalized the hell outta your joycons or spilled cool aid all over them there's no excuse for them to be that messed up. Yeah they may have issues but if you're spending hundreds of dollars on replacements or trying to sue Nintendo you're just being stupid.

Yes, it's an issue. Especially if you have a Switch Lite. But everyone is neglecting the fact that other controllers also have the same issues. Like my DS3/4 and XB1 controllers. It was widespread and did people file lawsuits? No. Did Nintendo know of the drift before they first launched the Switch? Based on their history of delaying products I would assume no as well.

IMO This doesn't need to be brought up in court unless future interactions have it as well. The 1st gen JoyCons are a testing phase for Nintendo and lawsuits in the 1st 2 years of the console is extreme especially when you can easily fix the problem yourself.

Just my 0.02 cents and feel free to counter-argue. Seems anything can be taken to court these days if one feels like it.

Here are some tips from me:
1. Regularly clean the neck of the sticks of all your controllers since dust tends to scrape off when in constant use.
2. When not in use, turn your controllers upside-down to prevent build up of dust and debris on the top and on the sticks which can potentially go through the gaps where the sticks are located.

All of this is applicable to any of your controllers, not just JoyCons and Pro controllers.

It's odd that there's so much talk about "drift" but very little news about the side rail failures. 3 out of 4 of my joy-cons the side rail has failed (lights and SL/SR buttons not working). It appears to be a design defect with the ribbon connector.

Good for them.

I had to send my son’s joycon back as it wouldn’t calibrate. It was out of g’tee at the time.

1st repair they fixed a joycon drift, 2nd time they fixed the side rail. To be fair it did have a drift & the joycon did slide out easier than on mine but not the repair it was sent in for.
3rd time they said they had replaced the parts but was still unable to calibrate. 4th time they finally sent a new joycon. No charge.

Usually I’ve had no problems with their consoles or repairs, I have contact cleaner which definitely helps BUT I’ve not had to do this kind of maintenance for my older gamepads. They have to be using cheaper parts or their testing department isn’t doing things correctly.

If a new model does comes out I would rather pay more for better parts being installed than go through repeated fixes

You wanna talk about crappy control sticks? Let's talk about those N64 sticks. They'd get all loose and floppy real easy and i don't recall any talk of sueing Nintendo then.

To quote Weird AL, (I'll sue ya! I'll take all your money! I'll sue ya! Even if you look at me funny!)

@SuperKMx @AlbertXi Just came to say I agree with you both.

@SuperKMx The fact the people are ignoring similar issues is an issue in itself. And I really don't care if Nintendo gets sued for something non-trivial. I get you absolutely. I just think these are some cases that can be addressed in other means. If you bought something and somethings doesn't feel right you don't just get up and sue everyone who was involved.

That's just my opinion on the matter and I also perfectly understand where you're coming from.

@jimtendog

It's worked on both of my joycons. If you give them a thorough cleaning with contact cleaner, it fixes them for a few months. They you have to do it again, obviously.

@AlbertXi I don't think anyone is supporting Nintendo on this subject....there's just bigger issues.

If people were genuinely bothered by it they could get a different console or controller, most consoles have certain quirks and problems.

@jimtendog
Might be inconvenient but i don't recall too many 70 dollar bottles of contact cleaner. Seems spraying them once in a while would be way less hassle than forking over the cost of a new game to replace controllers. If you gotta do it evertime you play that's another issue entirely.

It needs to spread!!! Nintendo fans this is a chance of redemption!!!!

@Dezzy cleaning the joy con is only a temporary fix. Eventually the analogue sticks have to be replaced.

I've replaced the sticks in 5 joy con so far, between my brother and myself. It's not dear, but the product is defective and Nintendo need to be held accountable.

Part of the reason I rarely use the joy cons but it's unacceptable to be selling a product they know will fail a large amount of the time. I've been fortunate that its only happened on one set and only effects Mario Maker but a friend had 3 faulty sets that he's managed to repair himself

@Zeldafan79
That was a long time ago. Right now is 2020. My joy cons stopped working after like 4 months. I can’t do anything about that. My other controllers don’t have any issues like that!

I've had two pairs of joycons since launch that started drifting really bad pretty early on and after using the contact cleaner method it worked. Yeah the problem did eventually come back but it's only every few months. I can live with that. These things ain't cheap and I'd rather do that than buy new ones so they can start drifting too. I even have a pro controller that started drifting. It ain't just the joycons. Luckily those things don't cost a pantload!

Mind boggling why anyone is criticising the poster for doing this. Far as I can tell the poster simply filed a claim to recover the value of a defective product. That's.. I mean, that's fair enough isn't it? They're not claiming for millions in punitive fines or anything, them being not a thing in the uk anyway. Though strictly speaking the small claims court isn't a thing either. Nintendo presumably then just settled the claim as it was never going to be worth the nuisance of disputing it.

Edit: damages, punitive damages, not fines. You know what I mean.

This is awesome to hear! Im actually disgusted by how Nintendo lies about this. Its a shame it takes so much effort to go through this, but I hope a lot of people do. If Nintendo actually gets into any kind of trouble for refusing to acknowledge they are selling ***** products, for a really steep price, they deserve to go down. Of course they wont because they will just fix the actually small issue, way before Nintendo takes a real knock for it. Too bad Nintendo dont care about their fanbase anymore. Just look at Mario 3d allstars...

Good on them! I'm glad somebody had the mental fortitude to see this through.

@Zyph an item you have purchased should be fit for the purpose it was intended for, and for a reasonable time. Most companies terms and conditions state that if you try and fix or tamper with the item, ie taking it apart, then you invalidate the warranty.

You should get a replacement or sent it for a repair. 🤔

I still have yet to encounter joy con drift. And I'm using the same joys from day 1. Some people probably just don't take care of their stuff

@Zyph The difference with this is it's a known problem and proven that the graphite chips away over time. In some cases this happens in a month or 2 and others perhaps more then a year. I've replaced no less then 9 sticks since the Switch came out. Most were over longer periods of time for me but why should I just accept it and not hold Nintendo responsible? I understand normal wear and tear but this is anything but normal.

I have now opened my pro controller twice to clean that out and so far that works with compressed air so I have no complaints there but I hear that's an issue for many too.

Wow so many people treating their controllers badly and then blaming Nintendo for the defect, tch!

The problem is not the drift of the joycon. The problem is you have the consumer right (at least in Germany and it seems in EU) to get a refund when there were 2 unsuccessful repairs and Nintendo ignored it/could not handle it. This would also apply for repairs on the switch itself.
Reminds me on the lawsuite about preorders and money back. This was also about a consumer right in EU.

Funnily enough the only joycon I've had this issue with was the blue one that came with my Switch and that one barely got used once I bought a pro controller and a pink/green set. Definitely didn't get used enough to wear out or get mistreated.

@AlbertXi Never experienced Joy-con drift on any of my three sets. I've had them for over three years as well.

I was really pleased with my joycon repair. I bought green/pink joycons online from Nintendo UK over 2 years ago but earlier this year my green one would not connect wirelessly. Sent to Nintendo UK for free, they tried to fix it but still didn't work. Sent it back again and they replaced it for a new one. Very happy. Maybe because it was bought direct from Nintendo, but I was impressed with the service.

Good on him. Deserves a drink from me

@Dezzy What other consoles have you had to tear the controller apart just to get it to work? I love Nintendo and (almost) everything they do but this is ridiculous. Joycons are also the most expensive controllers yet so that’s extra insulting.

@Zeldafan79 But people did sue over the N64 joysticks. Though granted, it was for how they were made of hard plastic and caused blisters when playing Mario Party.

@Aawill91

Just do the contact cleaner approach. It costs like 6$ and has worked just fine for me so far. I've fixed 2 joycons with it.

@AlbertXi

They weren't selling a knowingly defective thing. They obviously didn't know about it until it started happening, which takes months of use before it happens.

@Zeldafan79 Two words bud, doesn’t work. I tried contact cleaner, dismantling the thing and directly cleaning stuff up....didn’t help. Replacement was the only choice.

@Dezzy They are still knowingly selling a cheap, low-quality product. How far is everyone going to go to defend Nintendo on this?

@Dezzy then please answer to me why in the menu since day one there was "calibrate control sticks."

I've never had this on any system and that goes back 35 years to the original super Mario.

Just get rid of "gummi" at the bottom of the stick, spray some WD40 directly into the joy-con mechanism, move and press the stick to lubricate everything and the problem is solved.

I understand why three years later people burned by joy con drift are still angry enough to post on threads like this.

What I don't understand is why people would spend the last 3 years defending Nintendo when clearly they don't care either way. Perhaps they are contrarians? Maybe they are so upset because they think those with joy con drift are either neglectful or too lazy to fix it. Either was some empathy would be a nice change around here.

I know this is apparently a big problem but it’s pretty alien to me. I had a brief issue once, which was fixed with a quick calibration. My joycon have been almost perfect since launch day.

I really hope nintendo takes this drift disaster into account with their next hardware. The switch might be my favorite console, but man it is flimsy sh*t. I’ve gone through 3 pairs of joy con, and not even for drift(though they all drift)!! People complain a lot about stuff like paper Mario and nso, but nothing even comes close to how badly they’ve handled joy con drift. Fix it nintendo!

@sixrings

The Wii U had ways of recalibrating both its touch screen and joysticks too.
That's usually built in because of normal flaws that can occur. It's not evidence that they somehow knew they were defective components.

I’ve had my system almost 2 years, play A LOT (2-3hrs per day at least?) and have not encountered any drift.

@TG16_IS_BAE

I wasn't defending Nintendo at all. I've said many times I think they should fix it and release an updated version (and replacement joystick components so people can update their preexisting joycons).
Every hardware developer tries to make their product for as cheap as possible though. Including every previous Nintendo product. That didn't randomly change 5 years ago, so you can't blame the control stick issue on that.

@liljmoore
Dude, I hope you don't make this assumption in every aspect of your life. "I don't have this problem, so it probably doesn't exist..."I try to be respectful, but come on.

Typical Nintendo response. Just hoping the problem goes away until their next hardware release, while they endlessly fix millions of joy cons.

Ugh, the dreaded Joy con drift. Got mine fixed, but man I hated that.

@AlbertXi agree, knowingly is a stretch though. They probs didn't know when they shipped it but they def knew when complaints rolled in AND that's when they should have done their due diligence and offered a recall/options...

@Dezzy Of course they changed. They are under completely different leadership than before. And when all my old hardware works perfectly well, you can't really say that. A 30 year old piece of hardware still works without flaw, and their joy con break after 6 months? Of course they suddenly changed, lol.

@Dezzy you know what. I actually dont know if other systems allow you the option to calibrate control sticks. I wonder why I didn't know if other consoles did or not. Oh I know....because I've never had a controller fail on me since I began gaming in 85.

@Dezzy so to be clear you aren't here to defend Nintendo but to blame their users for being to lazy for a weekend DIY project?

@Dezzy people like you are the problem. If this was Microsoft or Sony people would be demanding blood. Nintendo gets a free pass for everything...because hey they are Nintendo! Their OS and online offerings are a decade behind sony and Microsoft but hey its Nintendo! Want to stream a movie? Oh only hulu.. wow.. cloud saved games? Yeah no. I would like to sign into my account on any switch and be able to play my saved games.. i can do that on other major consoles. The switch? Lol nope! I got 2 switches and with in 1 month both have drift issues. I havent purchased a Nintendo product since release day SNES. Sadly I learned a $600 lesson and ill never buy another one of their consoles ever again.. this is a garbage product issue but keep drinking that Nintendo kool-aid. Keep making excuses for them and don't demand they do better. I tried to jump on the bandwagon. I really really did. Stay complacent my Nintendo friends.

@TG16_IS_BAE

I doubt there's been any major change in their policy towards hardware. They've always tried to make their consoles for as low a price as possible. That's how businesses work. Sometimes that leads to hardware errors like drift, or like the Xbox 360 red ring of death. On other occasions it leads to ridiculous pricing policies like with the Vita memory cards. Every company has had some version of this if they've been around long enough.

@TimboSlice "play A LOT (2-3hrs per day at least?)" - this is not A LOT, imagine 1-2 hours per day and 20-25 hours per weekend I mostly play docked with pro controller, so I personally don't have any issues, but I won't dismiss them. My friend played BOTW exclusively on his switch and his joy-con started drifting.

@Dezzy Can't argue with empirical evidence, not sure why you keep defending these kinds of things, bro.

@TG16_IS_BAE

I'm explaining it, not defending it. I've said many times they should fix it as soon as possible, and I'm not sure why they haven't. Possibly because they think that will act as evidence of culpability, which could spur even more lawsuits.

Sent our "Mario red" left Joycon in to be fixed, came back in about 2 weeks, no drft yet. Knock on wood. Free all around.

Still need to send in our blue 1, didn't want to send both at once in case they got lost in the mail.

I had the same drift problem on my PS Vita 2000. And it was a known issue of the system. But it didn’t raise hell on the internet. Thank god the joycons are replacable, and the Split pad pro exists.

I believe this same principle applies to how mega-corps like Nintendo are [ab]using copyright law to unfairly take down thousands of videos that I don't believe are actually legally sound cases of copyright infringement. But, because no one is willing to legally challenge Nintendo on this (or any other companies doing similarly), it just gets away with it en masse and everyone assumes that's because Nintendo must have all the legal claims without exception and there's nothing they can do about it. No, I don't think so. And I think it's high time some group of YouTube content creators brought some class-action lawsuit or something like that once and for all to really dig into the limits of Nintendo's power under copyright law and make sure that it's actually being used and applied fairly in all cases, which I absolutely do not think is the case right now. Maybe one day we'll see some extremely popular and influential and financially secure YouTuber step up to the plate or something. . . .

@Zeldafan79 Except the N64 controllers would still continue to work perfect well for many years regardless of the analogue sticks going a bit loose over time. This is not even in the same league as Joy-Con drift.

@AlienigenX Sony is a much bigger company that Nintendo and has a much bigger grip on the industry. They can get away with everything. That's why I prefer supporting Nintendo. When there's a problem we can discuss it.

@Dezzy Are you for real?

@Hatchet224

Lololol. Thanks. I'd consider myself more of an exam invigilator

Only brainless utter morons would accuse people of abusing joycons that are EVIDENTLY badly designed. How more stupid can you be to not consider anything else?

Funny how nobody sued Sony for detective PS4 consoles that just stopped working when the system launched. The same for early Play Station 3 usted and for Xbox 360 users, for the red dot of Death.

Ours started drifting after 4 months (UK). Thankfully the repair service was quick (and free) and it came back as good as new.

I won't hesitate to go through the repair service if it starts to go again.

It is worth noting that this isn't exactly 'little guy takes on Nintendo and wins' as you might see for class actions in the US. Small claims really is just that, most companies will just pay up as it's cheaper than actually getting involved legally.

@Edu23XWiiU That wasn't as widespread as this issue with joycons. That's like if you got in trouble by a teacher and you try to remind your teacher "Well he did it too!" and point fingers at another student. It doesn't make you any less accountable for your own actions. Countless players are having drifting problems and Nintendo needs to be held accountable.

The downvote function on this site is clearly useless.

Is getting ridiculous the length people go to justify a company that IS SELLING you a product.

@AlbertXi All of this AFTER Shuntaro Furukawa apologized for the problem.

This article has heavily exercised my Ignore button, and clearly comments like those from Zeldafan79 and liljmoore are low-effort trolling. And yet the cult-like behaviour of fanboys/girls is... interesting.

@Dezzy They Know and they still sell THE SAME design with THE SAME problem

@progx I never had covid or aids so it must not be true

@Kimyonaakuma Yes they are, when they say just clean it, fix it yourself.

The guy was right period.

Do new joy-cons still drift?

My original joycons started to drift, forcing me to replace the sticks (but then the R button stopped working)

My replacement joycons haven’t had any problems.

I've yet to experience this. I've had mine since launch.

I have never had an issue with joy con drift or my joy cons apart from a little connection loss when too far away and having my hands completely wrapped around them(big hands). I actually recently bought a new pair of joy con and was playing Mario Kart with my daughter. My kart started drifting to the left over and over and I was concerned I may have finally met my karma for always doubting this issue is as wide spread as people claim. Turned out I had motion controls on and was simply holding my controller a bit to the left lol. I’m still pretty convinced this is just a bunch of people who simply don’t know how to troubleshoot. Especially when you consider this guy admittedly had very little experience with switch, and it was sent away multiple times. They test these devices before returning them. Are we suggesting that all Nintendo staff just simply realize it’s defective and send it right back?

@AlbertXi Really? You’re drawing equivalencies to viruses to Joy-con drift? You need a life dude.

All I said is I’ve never had a problem. I’m speaking for myself, but you’re more than welcome to watch my life. Just pay upfront first jabroni.

@Radbot42 think the issue is more about people not trouble shooting. Admittedly I had a Wii u that I thought was defective. The game pad screen would flicker and have connection issues. I sent it away for repairs and they sent it back saying they couldn’t duplicate the problem, fired it up same thing. Turned out because I was watching Netflix on my Xbox and sitting right next to my Xbox Controller it was interfering with the game pad. Turned the controller completely off and the issue stopped. Pretty embarrassing. But it goes to show. Nintendo probably knows a lot of the joy con they’re getting back simply need to be recalibrated or trouble shot.

@AlbertXi they are repairing it for free. it took less than 2 weeks for mine (just got it done). It isnt worth a lawyer--or even the emotional stress. Its a joystick. They mail it and repair it for free. Case closed.

@SuperKMx bs man almost every game controller on all systems have had drift problems not just nintendos.

I've never had drift on any of my 4 joycons. What I do consistently have is my joycons suddenly disconnect depending on how I hold the console, which completely ruins portable mode for me as several games like Mario Maker 2 do not automatically pause when this happens. I know it has something to do with the rail that holds them, but never got around to looking into it more.

I like how almost nobody care that this guy won, everyone's talking about their own solution or experience instead 😁

@AlbertXi i stand behind your comment. Thank you so much for stating the obvious, than sugar coating the truth with lies. Kudos for being an awesome person.

@AlbertXi apparently according to Dezzy it isn't Nintendos fault since they are trying to make the controllers affordable.

Well done to that man!

I love Nintendo but hate it when big companies try to get away with things like this.

@richardp Big company had different branches for different regions, not all branches had equal service hence why Nintendo service may sucks in Europe but is great everywhere else. It's like having a bunch of kids, you may have 4 great sons but two of them may be jerks.

@chardir I had this on 2 of my 4 JoyCon fortunately the ribbon cables are cheap to buy and only take about 10 mins to swap out. I've also replaced 2 of my four analogue sticks. Total cost for 2 sticks and 2 cables was about £10

I am just so tired of hearing about this. I have started seeing some very minor drift on my oldest set of joycons. But that's after 3.5 years of use. It's so easy to fix. You can get a 2 pack of replacements, next day shipping, on Amazon, with the tools in the box.

A couple screws and you're done.

Grow up people. Things break. There's no need to buy new joycons for this problem. A 6 year old could replace these joysticks. It's that easy.

@Zeldafan79 Good luck using contact cleaner after a couple of months/years of using your Switch frequently. Imagine you're someone with big hands and you preferably play in handheld or you have a Switch Lite, you get drift issues after having used those sticks so many times and you try all the easy fix methods that most people on Youtube have already recommended, you essentially have to send it over to Nintendo for repair after nothing else works. They get mailed back to you and you're back to playing games again. A couple of uses and years later, they start to drift again. The cycle begins again. I'm not someone who has has massive hands but I do use the Switch often and especially for playing Smash Bros, so imagine a kid hammering down on those analog sticks and then having issues. If anybody has watched any videos related to the source of the Joy-con drift, they would see a video where the origin of the source of the issues stems from a faulty material that Nintendo uses in their Joy-con stick pads that could easily be replaced by them if they chose to do so. I'm seriously confused why some people are against this law suit since there's more to benefit the consumer when we win. Some people can be so dumb and oblivious about this issue that they think this will hurt their precious Mario company.

@Baker1000 You should not need to do that yourself though.

I find it absolutely hilarious that the "raging" fanboys blindly stick up for Nintendo selling a defective product and call those upset about getting a defective product and wanting their consumer rights upheld as stupid. It makes me embarrassed to call myself a Nintendo fan. I do not understand what it is about these raging fanboys. Does your hobby blind you to the reality of treatment from a company? Have any of you dealt with Nintendo Customer Service?

@Zyph
Indeed i had it with my ps4 controller and also where my DPad on ps4 didnt work properly.
Nintendo is not the only one. Although i never had any drift problems with my switch.
I saw it when playing on my cousins switch playing mario kart.

All that hassle to go through, and all you have to do is purchase a replacement joycon stick through Ebay/AliExpress/Amazon and do the simple replacement yourself. For under $5. It's actually very easy to do, once you've done it once. I agree, it's bad design on Nintendo's part, but at what point do you value your own time more?

People need to stop being self-entitled to things in life, learn how to fix things. Crap breaks, it's very empowering to learn how to fix things yourself.

@ryancraddock Question? Does the Switch Pro Controller work with the Switch Lite? I see a sync pro controller option in its settings menu. I'll definitely get one if it is compatible.

Nintendo should also be sued for the sub-par antennae in the Joy-Con controllers. My friend often can't use the Joy-Con separated from the console because they keep loosing connection. I've noticed too that it depends a lot on the environment if the controllers work fine or barely at all. It's kinda sad that even holding the controller behind my leg is enough to obscure the connection.

@Dragonstar It's a matter of standards. Customers should not start to find it acceptable that Nintendo starts to loose their grip over quality control while still charging the same exorbitant prices for their products.

@KisekiFan7 Of course it's compatible!

@chardir my console side rails (on the console themselves, not the joycons) have failed on both sides once each. Luckily just like with joycons, it's an extremely easy repair due to smart modular design, but that and joycons drifting are both issues you either need to fix with time or money or some variant in between a bit of both especially if you aren't confident enough to just open them up with a triwing and know how to deal with ribbon an mini ipex connectors.

@Moshugan I do understand, that it's not great business to have an issue like this with their product. HOWEVER things like this happen all the time with companies in all industries. To get so upset like I see people here, and the hyperbole thrown around for something that can VERY easily be fixed by yourself at home for just a couple of bucks is very indicative of where I see society is today. People feel entitled to everything, somehow feel just because they bought something, they are entitled to a lifetime of the company/government bending over backwards for them. Mine started drifting after maybe a year and a half. I wasn't happy, but I did some research, and learned how to fix it myself. It sure felt good afterwards, knowing that if it ever happens again (it has, multiple times per side) I can easily fix it myself now.

Having 3 joycons that now have drift is hugely unacceptable. Had to spend a fortune on new joycons.

For those wanting to sue they should really document repairs and problems from when it happened. Not doing so doesn't help your case. No amount of it doesn't work talk but having no history/documentation of problems and repairs doesn't help either. Documentations are required to backup the claims if not they will poke holes in your case. That is how it is. You either have a documented problem from repairs or Fixes to show the fault otherwise your fighting up the creek.

Another person on Twitter has been relaying the exact same story: Nintendo fails to repair a console under warranty, they then charge for repairs and also refuse to elevate matter to management because they "have no internal complaints process or policy". Seems to be a pattern.

https://twitter.com/CollateralWill/status/1298684062983499777?s=19

My JoyCons started drifting on Day One.
I talked about it here on this website and a couple of others.
After a few weeks then others started to report in about it.

So, no, I wasn't being careless, they are terribly made.
Nintendo needs to fix their $70 product, make a new one and refund everyone that bought them.

Why would anyone go through this much trouble?

The people countering with the fact that THEY themselves haven't experienced this are pointless noise.

I've never gone bald, so clearly baldness doesn't exist.

On the other hand, I had to send in two of my joycons for drift, and one of my Pro controllers due to ghost D-pad triggers. Nintendo fixed/replaced all at no charge, and fast.

@Baker1000 And switch lite owners?

@AlbertXi

You are so right.

And you know what's worse? Not fixing it after more than 3.5 freaking years...
Sure, every console has its infancy issues... But after this long and for a 40 euro product you'd expect quality especially since you kind of need two of them. There's simply no excuse.

@Riff-the-Don If this cheap garbage costs $90, I can't imagine how much they'd charge for an actually well-made product...

Everytime I hear of this I think back to the Xbox 360. Imagine if Nintendo had the Red Ring of Death problem instead of the Xbox 360. Now we know their difference in policy.

Sure, you may argue that a bricked console is much worse than a drifting controller and of course you're right.

However, a faulty product is a faulty product.
At least Microsoft did the right thing and owned their mistake. Not only did they offer free replacements GLOBALLY but also fixing the problem in newer versions of the console.

Nintendo US is, afaik, the only devision that offers free joycon replacements. And it's been three years and Nintendo is still selling not only the same joycons but a whole console (Switch Lite) with the same poor design choice. Truly showing that they don't give a f.

@Zeldafan79 I spilled nothing on my launch joy-cons, was always careful with them, I got the drift.
I mean hell my old 3DS, DSi, DS Lite, GBA SP, original GBA, Wiimote and nunchuk, Gamecube controller, PS1 and PS2 are still in perfect working order.
I suffered bad anger issues as a child btw, and even my console that I used to hit repeatedly still work perfectly.
Sometimes, you just have to admit that Nintendo are rubbish now.

@Ninfan

Fairly easy. The contact cleaner approach has worked for me on both joycons. Very cheap and easy to do.

@Zyph I do remember having this exact thing with my GameCube controller all those years ago. Of course I was so young back then I didn't even know about Nintendo repairs cause this was back in 08/09.

But my question is (if you're in the US) what is the perfect contact cleaner to use after sending the Joy-con/Switch for repair and fails? Could you find them in local stores? Asking for a friend

@chardir yep I've had that happen and sent it away for repair at a cost of £30. A few weeks later the other Joy-con went too so I just bought my own cable and replaced it, same with my drifting joysticks. I haven't seen many complaints about the side rail issue, maybe because the buttons aren't used often. I actually contacted Nintendo Life about it at the time and even tweeted them a video of the problem to see if they'd RT or make an article on it but it just got ignored.

@JoeyTS It was. And It was More serious. The consoles themselves got f*cked up, not the controllers, and I didn't ser anybody suing Sony ir Microsoft, I only sale asslickers buying the console again.

@Edu23XWiiU https://www.pcworld.com/article/152463/xbox_360_lawsuit.html
There were lawsuits! Like I said, that was an issue then. That doesn't excuse Nintendo for their actions now!

@JoeyTS good for them then,because It was way worse. If you're so unhappy with the Joy Cons, go and Sue them.

@Edu23XWiiU No need to! Someone already has and now maybe Nintendo will do something about it! ☺

@JoeyTS great! Now and ask them for your money, if that's what you want

@Edu23XWiiU All I want is for them to fix their faulty controller which judging by this lawsuit and alleged Switch Pro, they will! Consumers win! ☺

@JoeyTS yey, Jump on one feet then!. The problem Is not the materials, Is the design of the stick, it's two separate parts, like the N64 one, that drifted even worse, no one knew how to changed It, and we had to Live with It. In life, you can't always get what you want kid 😘

@Edu23XWiiU https://www.polygon.com/nintendo-switch/2019/9/28/20888540/nintendo-switch-joy-con-drift-lawsuit-switch-lite-repairs

Here, if you look at the class action lawsuit documentation from page 32-35, you'll see how the technology really works. It isn't just the sticks (though they do play a big factor), it's the conductive pad which lies on the flexible circuit transmitting signals to the motherboard. The steel brushes that move according to analog movement rub away the carbon material that make up the pad leading to wear of the material and the cause of drifting. The entire build as a whole is faulty as shown.

Here's the solution for Nintendo, make a new controller which is what they might just be doing for the Switch Pro so if that's the case, wonderful. I don't see why you feel the need to revive such an old discussion with completely false information while attempting to patronize me. I'm getting exactly what I want and what many fans want, a potential solution from Nintendo to fix this problem! Personally, I don't think it's unreasonable to want a controller that won't drift on me just months after I receive them. Wouldn't you agree?

@JoeyTS I love my Switch too mucho. Ha! And I have bigger problema to attend to. I already have my Joy Cons fixed, and I live un a third World country, which means I don't have an official Nintendo service to fix them. Where do you Live?

@Edu23XWiiU Hopefully with the new Switch, the new joycons will still hopefully work for your original Switch which will be great. Since the current joycons are faulty, as proven by the evidence I've provided!

@JoeyTS You should probably start studying industrial design, and you should give them the solution And, what new Switch are you talking about?

@Edu23XWiiU No need to because the people involved in the class-action lawsuit are already doing so. I don't think I need to study something like that to expect a good quality product! And I'm talking about the expected Switch Pro which may come with updated joy-cons. This is such an old thread I don't see why you keep randomly commenting on it. I proved to you that joy-cons were faulty, you even admit that your joy-cons would drift, and now we can put this thread to rest.