
Unless you are the kind of person to read through all updated terms and conditions with a fine-tooth comb, the below tweet from the Nintendo Japan's customer support team my have passed you by (don't worry, it did for us too). However, as pointed out by Sora News 24, the latest update actually makes some pretty big, if painfully obvious, changes to better protect its staff from cases of customer harassment.
The changes come following a 2020 investigation into Japanese businesses by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, which highlighted major issues around customer harassment throughout the survey.
The repair service regulations (found in the tweet above) now include a section titled 'About customer harassment', which details the new ways in which the company is moving to tackle the issue through a range of methods from refusing service to contacting the police in more extreme instances.
Sora News 24 provides the following translation to the new guideline additions:
When making inquiries about product repairs, please refrain from engaging in behavior that goes beyond socially accepted norms (including but not limited to those listed below). If we determine that such behavior has taken place, we may refuse to repair or replace your product. Moreover, if we view the behavior as especially malicious we will contact the police and lawyers in order to take the appropriate measures in response to it.
– Threats, intimidation, or menacing behavior
– Insults or degrading remarks
– Infringement on privacy
– Requests for service beyond social norms, such as requesting free repairs beyond what is covered by warranty
– Unreasonable demands for an apology from the company or demands to punish people
– Behavior that prolongs the time spent such as excessively repeating the same request or complaint
– Slander on social media or the Internet
A read through the above list reveals that these changes are not in any way unreasonable. Many customer-facing jobs around the world rely on a similar set of guidelines designed to inform everyone that the workforce is made up of human beings who, you know, deserve to be treated as such.
While it may appear painfully obvious, getting things like this down in writing is always a good idea. It prevents all kinds of 'I was only joking around', 'it wasn't even that aggressive' and 'does it say any of this on your website' which may arise when staff ask to be treated with basic respect. Here's hoping that the reports of customer harassment decrease in line with these changes.
What do you make of Nintendo's new guidelines? Embody the level of kindness that it ask for and let us know in the comments below!
[source soranews24.com, via twitter.com]
Comments 67
Good, hope this keeps the employees safe.
Most of these are just being civil. However, I think we all have probably violated this part of the code — somewhere, sometime:
"Requests for service beyond social norms, such as requesting free repairs beyond what is covered by warranty."
That being said, I understand the issue. And I usually ask such in a perfunctory nature and don't expect to get anything for free.
Nintendo with the Anti-Karen campaign, nice.
I think it's pretty obvious at this point that having written rules doesn't prevent people from breaking them/trolling on the internet.
Isn't Japan supposed to be the land of the overly polite? Some of these types of stories are making me believe otherwise.
Just a bunch of words that is more for use in a court, and actually for reducing the amount of compensation they would have to pay
Treat others the way you want to be treated? well I never who would have believed.
@Dr_Luigi how do you mean ‘rarely is the problem your fault’? If you are representing a company and they are at fault in some way then you are responsible for their complaint.
@Dr_Luigi As a person who used to work in Customer Service during my time with Tesco I can tell you being on the receiving end of an abusive Customer is something I wouldn't wish on any hard working employee.
I'm glad they are including these guidelines. After working for several software companies the last two and a half decades, it is odd how many people think that because they purchased your product, that they also no longer have to treat anyone in that company with respect, like they also own the employees.
I can't tell you how many times I would be onsite for a client, and they had the same crappy attitude of "well, I bought A and it's now exactly how it is supposed to be, so you are also going to do B, C, D and onward until I am satisfied, and I don't give a crap that you are a fellow human being. I want what I want."
I always try to be nice to the service reps, they're just doing their jobs. If I get frustrated I don't get personal, no need.
Why do people suck so much? This should not be necessary.
I agree with everything but the last point. They may view a social media complaint or negative review as slander when in reality it could be justified criticism from a poor experience.
@Ryu_Niiyama I agree. I think it's a lack of compassion and empathy for anyone outside of their immediate circle. It seems to be in short supply these days.
@Heroofthenexus I’ve been working in IT for over two decades. People are arsehats AND issue threats all the time. They think that because they bought a product you are their whipping girl and very often will not accept an answer that doesn’t go their way. I’m pretty sure the two year stint I did in applecare destroyed all faith I had in humanity because the jerks I had to deal with on the daily was surreal. I’m much happier running an IT department now.
@dew12333 I understand what you mean, but from being in that world, that isn't necessarily true. From the customer's perspective, sure, but many times Reps have very little power to actually do much.
@Dr_Luigi That's awful I'm sorry you had to be dealing with that. I know I received similar treatment from people and I was just glad to call it a day in the end.
I have been a customer service representative, and let me tell you, they need this stuff. Being yelled at and berated and threatened and insulted all day long, 5 days a week, takes a toll. And when the companies say, "Well they get to do that. Do your best to make them happy, but you can't give them what they want" it takes an even larger toll. I'm glad that Nintendo is giving employees an out from being abused all day long.
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@Ryu_Niiyama Haha you are absolutely right. I remember joining a software company as QA / Customer Support (they had a major RIWF and had combined departments), and during my second week taking a support call from a jerk that said he would blacklist me from the IT world if I didn't personally fix a bug (not QA's job) for a product I hadn't even seen yet. I remember he told me "he was tired of my f*ing excuses".
@AG_Awesome @RubyCarbuncle @Ryu_Niiyama @Dr_Luigi As a video games reviewer and owner of a medium-small-sized blog and forum website that focuses heavily on Nintendo-related content, the social media rule is a bit worrisome given its vague language as if me or one of my staff members write a review or article and give the game / Nintendo a less than stellar score / remarks, Nintendo could, in theory retaliate by denying me and my crew service for their products. It's a very slippery slope that makes it potentially dangerous for influencers and the press to be honest out of fear for being accused of slander...
Sorry for the rant, but this is something that had to be said.
"Requests for service beyond social norms, such as requesting free repairs"
Uh, I'm not sure that counts as harassment. 😰
So basically they want protection from Karen’s
@dew12333 Tell me you’ve never worked in customer service, without telling me you’ve never worked in customer service…
Yeah, this is a great move. Unfortunately it is needed. Not nice to receive any kind of abuse when people are just trying to help.
@Koffyman Sometimes it may be laziness, other times it may be just lack of hands and other factors beyond your control. I'm not speculating but it really depends on the area one is.
Once when I was working in a convenience store, a customer arrived 5 minutes before the alcohol time was up, there was a long line of people waiting to pay (a tour bus had stopped before he arrived), he complained I was attending too slowly and it was my fault only, all of this when I was the only employee at the store and the system was getting slow (something that's out of my control and the best I could have done was to reset the machine, which would have taken up to 10 minutes).
He barely made it to the front just before alcohol time was up, he intended to buy about 75 mexican pesos of alcohol and wanted to pay with a 500 pesos bill. Imagine it as buying about $3.50 and expecting to pay with a $50 bill.
I told him in the most polite way possible I didn't have change for such a bill (it was the start of the turn and my coworker had deposited everything from the last turn), all I got were nothing but insults from him and his wife.
@Koffyman I don’t care what you bought, that doesn’t give you the right to verbally abuse or harass someone. Reps are restricted by either policy or the solution itself (meaning if the fix is something you don’t wanna hear as in no I can’t get the baby pictures off your phone after you ran it over with a car—true story, I got cussed out for that) and just because you don’t get your way doesn’t mean you can go off on someone that is just doing their job, and trying to help you. Be a decent person. Calm the heck down and realize that is another person on the other end of the line.
The customer is not always right.
I like this updated policy. Customers think just because the slogan says "the customer is always right" means they are entitled to treat these workers like crap and get what they demanded. But in reality, the customer is not always right and what a customer sees, isn't always what they get. I'm glad the new policy says that they will not repair or replace a customer's products if what they do is in violation of it. After all, every business reserves the right to refuse service to anyone.
@TowaHerschel7 I would like to hope that the meaning of that point is that they don't want people harassing their staff by making personal attacks on individuals over social media. The wording could certainly do to be a lot more explicit about that, but maybe it was lost in translation. I'm making this assumption because:
1. It's reasonable, in the context of protecting their front line staff, and
2. I don't have skin in the game, unlike you, so I can understand your concern.
Well all of this looks reasonable just don't be an arse on the phone it seems and you're good.
But one thing that confuses me is one of the new policies:
"Requests for service beyond social norms, such as requesting free repairs beyond what is covered by warranty"
does this mean that Nintendo is no longer doing free repairs for some hardware such as joycons?
I work customer/tech support. I don’t believe these guidelines are unreasonable. I’ve had people demand a replacement product because they broke it and “[company] shouldn’t be releasing such fragile products.” Sorry dude, Limited Warranty doesn’t normally cover you breaking it.
@Aerona It counts as harassment when several people have already told them no and they keep calling in about it. Keeps the support staff from actually helping people.
@iLikeUrAttitude No, more likely they’re not going to just give you a free repair or replacement because you demand one. The company I work for has a similar policy and will still honor free repairs and replacements for qualifying products.
@ROOCIS Ah that makes sense, thanks for the clarification.
If Nintendo actually fixed their Joycons appropriately, then they wouldn't have as many repairs or angry customers!
This is good, but if someone really wants to be a creep I doubt written rules will stop them.
Hint : it’s less expensive than permanently fix the malfunctioning product design.
This is very vague. Is this referring to calling Nintendo for service repairs? Or are they going to take action on you if you smack talk their repair program in general?
@mike_intv such as not repairing my Switch Lite that has drift unless I pay $100 + shipping despite the fact that they replace joy cons for free 😓
@Aerona it would maybe be different if they instead replaced “request” with “demand”
@Dr_Luigi (and then Nintendo can shut down said backlash because it COULD THEORETICALLY be considered slander imo as well)
"Customer harassment" I call b.s its Nintendo doesn't want to hear criticism
@iLikeUrAttitude no that’s still gonna be in place
Wonder if Nintendo of America will protect its workers? I know Kyoto values its workers, but I genuinely hope this gets pushed to all Nintendo divisions.
Nintendo reset an old GBA game cartridge for me once. I bought used, it was corrupted and wouldn’t play. Nintendo sent a box and label (this was 2008) to my house. They mailed back within a week and fixed it for me. Free of charge. If they’re like Apple, if you don’t abuse the program, they’ll generally help you out.
However, this goes without saying, be nice to the person on the other end of the line. A little kindness and empathy will go a long way, they’ll even fight for you when a problem doesn’t go your way.
These were all like ok yes good but as an autistic person the "excessively prolongs the time spent by repeating yourself" worries me. Sometimes (very often) I have to ask for clarification multiple ways or explain what Im trying to say multiple ways
Oh wow, theres some unbelievable stuff in this comment thread, I guess we know who the policy was designed for!
@Guitar_bard if it weren’t for the folks that honestly appreciate the work you do I would have left the service industry long ago. Always makes you take extra pride in your job when you make someone’s day and they were kind from start to finish. I used to fix extra stuff for free if you were nice just because it meant a little more peace before I had to go back into the warzone. The “I want it now” mentality is sadly not reserved for kids. Neither is bratty temper tantrums.
lol, "requests beyond the social norm". Such a lame general statement.
Good on you, Ninty. It's a sad state of affairs when treating other humans in a decent manner has to be codified.
Plato's quote comes to mind: "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
When reading this news I envisioned angry yakuza-types yelling at Nintendo employees, but maybe more likely it was entitled fanboys? Customers do wield more leverage in Japan than here in the US, and it can get borderline abusive.
It’s nice to see Nintendo take a stand.
@SonOfDracula There's a dark underbelly to Japanese society, sadly. For example, their so-called "black companies" are highly exploitative and toxic, and can result in people literally dying from overwork.
Japanese people may be polite to your face, but it's entirely possible they may hate you with a burning passion. They're just good at hiding it. But it more or less stems from ignorance, due to their society largely being homogenous.
Compare that to America, where if we hate someone, we are loud and vocal about it, and go out of our way to make our feelings about someone known (as evidenced by a certain group of people who like to wear a certain red hat as a political statement), despite our diverse society.
I'd rather live in Japan. Yes, as a foreigner, I may be looked down upon more, but at least people are more willing to hide their hatred of me than here in America, where not only would they make their feelings about me known, they'd even threaten my life because of it.
It gives me more peace of mind knowing that the more a homogenous society is exposed to people outside the group, the more they will accept and tolerate it, versus a society that is diverse but wants to undo all of that, just because.
Man I wish the company I work for had policies like this. We offer fantastic customer service and most of my customers are great, and we can hang up on excessively rude customers. But I really wish that A) there was a system to prevent abusive customers from being able to rate us (which affects pay) and B) I’d absolutely love to tell argumentative jerks who want a new phone because they never learned how to use their existing phone, that since they’ve been so rude their warranty is now void.
@Dr_Luigi Totally agree, personal abusive will always be wrong. I work in the building trade where even good stuff involves bad language, add a complaint to that and let's just say i've heard it all. But I am also a customer too, and the blind protection given by staff especially to these large corporations, adding annoying procedures, moving people around departments, and the general bad service that they give their customers. This is where I think people should be more understanding and appreciate the customers more, and ultimately if the complains are a commonplace thing then they need to leave.
@Dom_31 Thanks for considerate reply, me part of the problem?
@Guitar_bard Thank you for understanding where I am coming from. I also understand how companies but barriers up that restrict the staff from offering a better service to the customers , which makes me understand the customers complaint and that this may lead to frustration. Obviously I will never think it right to personally abuse someone, BUT I have also worked with people who think the slightest moan about service is unjust and therefore the customer is wrong. I find it difficult to agree with them and feel they should show more understanding for the customer, maybe that's just me but I thinks it's looking at the 'bigger picture' and also being thoughtful of others rather than defending something which you probably shouldn't.
@Markiemania95 I have worked in sales/customer service in the building industry for 30 years, what''s your job a poet?
Good but maybe Nintendo should also ask themselves what they're doing to make their customers so angry? Many customer services are absolutely dire and useless these days, especially phone ones. Staff can also be rude and unhelpful or don't listen or lie. Plus sometimes it takes an age simply to talk to a human or speak to correct department.
I'm not surprised some people lose their tempers even though of course they shouldn't.
@dew12333 Close - an English teacher 😂
"Behavior that prolongs the time spent such as excessively repeating the same request or complaint"
Is this different in Japan? Definitely seen that in retail in the US. Some people just do not listen. It doesn't seem like a purposeful thing, either.
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@dew12333 I can't disagree with you there. I have worked with those people as well that always seem to think the customer is nothing but an obstacle to their job, rather than the reason they have a job in the first place. That's a really good point. I can't stand that attitude. Thanks for adding your perspective!
@Dr_Luigi From stories I've been reading and hearing from colleagues in Japan, especially revolving around the way non Japanese (especially blacks) and women are treated, I beg to differ.
@AstroTheGamosian I can't imagine an American wanting to threaten your life over something like that. A criminal perhaps, but not an American.
Americans want freedom and justice for all. As soon as they start to threaten others for the sake of anything else, they are no longer standing for what America is about, and devolve into criminal activity.
I think this is great. Anyone who has worked in customer service can stand behind these rules. You have no reason to treat someone with hatred due to decisions made by corporate overlords in cosy offices.
@Dr_Luigi US and Britain are decades ahead of Japan, socially. I'm surprised you're making the comparison. Weird that you defend social injustices against women and exploitation of workers by just saying "maybe go and judge for yourself."
I'm good. I actually wanted to visit Japan, but the more reasonable thing for me to do would be to avoid such a place.
@dew12333 Hard disagree there bucko. Tell those people who are forced to answer phones for hours, probably living paycheck-to-paycheck, tell them to go up to corporate and force the company to invest their money in new joycon models that won't drift.
Let's see how well that goes for the customer service workers.
@Dr_Luigi Talking to some people on this site is like unpacking a sounding board for NPR or something. Be well, I'm not going to engage your fantasies.
Is it really so hard to treat others like you'd want to be treated? I always try to keep in mind that the person I'm complaining to or obtaining support from very likely had nothing to do with my issue and is trying the best they can. This comes from someone with some customer service experience as well as sitting near their support department at their current job and hears them air grievances on an almost daily basis.
In some ways, I get it. Life can be frustrating. But there are more productive ways to deal with our emotional baggage than unloading on some innocent middleman.
@Guitar_bard Thank you,
@Markiemania95 English teacher, that made me chuckle too. I got a parents evening tonight, maybe see you there lol
@Chlocean Not 100% sure what you hard disagree with, but you are more than welcome to your opinion.
But BUCKO, which I googled and it says it refers to a 'young man', nah I an old git!
America could learn a few things...
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