Nintendo replaces DS Lite, asks no questions

by David Hinkle { Nov 19th 2007 at 2:50PM }

What's that line from Batman Begins, something like "theatricality and deception are powerful agents" or something? Well, Consumerist reader Mike might not have been deceptive, but he certainly didn't do anything to stop the Nintendo rep from sending him a brand new DS Lite to replace his existing one that was rendered inoperable due to negligence.

Nintendo ended up sending his new DS Lite out by 2-day UPS Air, asking that he only send back the damaged DS Lite to them. All of this, considering it was a friend that spilled beer (he wouldn't be our friend after that, as we can't abide by wasted beer) on the DS Lite. Kudos to Nintendo customer service, we suppose, for not inquiring how the unit became damaged and leaping to the rescue, no questions asked.

[Thanks, Tracy!]

Tags: broken, customerservice, hinge, replacement

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

geozeldadude @ Nov 19th 2007 3:46PM

i totally agree w/ gonintendo on this one: "Nintendo is willing to work with us. They want to help you out when you’re in a bind. Don’t take advantage of that. Nintendo thinks we are honest, and I think we owe it to them to back that up." spilled beer? come on, guys, don't take advantage of a business when it was clearly your own fault.

Nushio (NDF - Blue) @ Nov 19th 2007 3:59PM

I have a broken DSLite. Nintendo refused to take it "for free", they wanted to charge 50 bucks to fix it. It was one week out of warranty.

boxmyth @ Nov 19th 2007 4:49PM

Nintendo actually replaced my defective Wii component cables for free just a week ago. They didn't even ask me to send them the defective ones. Great customer service, only when the company is worth 6 billion dollars.

Frank @ Nov 19th 2007 7:12PM

Nintendo replaced my DS for free: I had a defective pixel, and a hairline crack on the hinge, along with a stick 'R' button. I Spoke to a nice AMERICAN-(weird) person, they sent me a new one, and I got an extra battery out of it. Really good service!

Drew @ Nov 19th 2007 7:21PM

Back some time ago when Nintendo was running a promotion to get the Zelda Collectors disk for the GC, I had fulfilled the requirements but after 8-10 weeks, the game hadn't arrived. So I gave them a call.

Sent me a 2nd copy (The guy asks that I return the 2nd one if I received two copies, which I totally agreed to.) About 3-4 weeks later, one finally came.

The 2nd copy did eventually come... Fan freakin' tastic service by Nintendo!

MidnightScott @ Nov 19th 2007 7:24PM

I wonder if anything ever happened to my Pokemon Dialga & Palkia DS Lite would Nintendo replace it? I bought it from PokemonCenter.com, and I even registered it on MyNintendo account. Apparently they put a US Serial Code on top of the Japanese one...hmm. I'm not about to find out when it was $330 in a Bundle Pak.

Jordan @ Nov 19th 2007 7:26PM

They've advanced since the GBA days:

My story from 9/25/2001 -

So here's my first experience with Nintendo's warranty system:

Earlier this month I had been playing Bomberman in the wee hours, got tired, turned off the GBA and put it on a wire rack with some other gaming equipment. The next few days were kind of warm, really sticky warm, I didn't feel like playing games so I didn't get the GBA urge for a while.

The day Advance Wars came out I popped by the store after work, picked up the game and came home to try it out.

As soon as I pick up the GBA I see a big, black "D" shape in the center of the screen, just off to the left a bit. It's about 2 inches tall and an inch wide. "Oh, crap!" Well, I put in the game and power it on to see what would happen, the game looks fine on the inch or so to the left of the "D", but on the right it's hopelessly scrambled.

The next morning I call Nintendo's warranty service and speak to David. I explain the issue and he states that Nintendo can't help me because it's obvious I broke the screen.

"Excuse me?" He goes on further to say that because the pixels are black with the power off it's the type of problem that can only be caused by an impact on the screen and impacts on the screen aren't covered under warranty.

Now the problem isn't that I've been playing games for 20 years and have never broken a machine, it's that I'm an A+ certified computer hardware technician. I've seen more broken LCD's than I can think of, this didn't look at all like a broken LCD. It looked like a whole bunch of pixels revolted and turned black all at once. If you press on a broken LCD in most cases fluid will ooze out and the screen will discolor around the crack.

That doesn't happen with this unit because there was no crack for the fluid to ooze out of.

(My personal theory is that the liquid expanded due to heat and caused an internal rupture. In other words, a defect in mfg. Ergo a warranty repair.)

David doesn't want to hear it, so I ask him for the name of a local shop that does Nintendo authorized repairs. He directs me to Sharper Video in Portland, OR.

Here I get the runaround, AGAIN, from ANOTHER guy named David. (I swear I'm not making this up.) He tells me that they can't do anything because it's an impact fracture. So I go through the story again, show him how to identify an impact fracture. I even make him a deal. Open the case, examine the LCD, if there's any physical damage I'll pay to repair the unit. If there is none then I want Nintendo to take care of it under warranty. David tells me "We can't do that." Why not? Well, apparently their deal with
Nintendo is that they don't actually repair anything. They just send the units directly to Nintendo.

So I call Nintendo again, speak to the same David AGAIN, I tell him look... The warranty is for defects in manufacturing, in order to prove a defect in manufacturing the case must be opened. The authorized repair center they sent me to apparently isn't authorized to do any repairs. I tell him the same thing, if it's a broken screen I'll pay to have it fixed, but if it's not they are legally bound to the warranty and I intend on holding their feet to the fire on it.

So David talks to his supervisor and gets an RMA for me to return the GBA at their expense using a special Fed Ex shipping code.

Today I get a replacement GBA back in the mail:

Repair total : 49.00
Less Warranty : 49.00-
Balance Due : .00

Enclosed was a photocopied sheet with a checkbox marked by hand:

"We have reviewed your description of the incident and conclude that evaluation of your components is necessary. Since the evaluation process can be lengthy, we have exchanged your components with product from our inventory and extended your limited warranty for an additional 90 days. We also cleaned or exchanged any games that were sent in with the system and checked them for proper operation."

A few months later I see a display unit at a retailer showing the exact same D-shaped mark in the exact same place.

Yifan Lu @ Nov 19th 2007 7:28PM

I agree. My friend bricked his DS Light with flashme and nintendo replaced it for free with no questions asked. My other friend spilled water over DS, and even though nintendo says they don't cover physical damage, and water damage, they replaced it for free.

hermes @ Nov 19th 2007 7:29PM

Nintendo rocks. We bought a used DS from family-in-law, they said nothing was wrong with it, but you know how it goes, they're liars. The top screens color was off, only noticeable in game, and the touch screens sensitivity was screwed. Unplayable. We called up nintendo, explained what happened and they said they'd repair it. We get it back, the top screens fixed, but the the sensitivity issue was unsolved. One more call, they apologize and send us a brand new one.

Greatest customer service ever.

DeltaOne @ Nov 19th 2007 7:37PM

I had a very similar experience with Nintendo's Customer Service department. I've had three DS Lites with cracked hinges. The first I returned to the store, the second I sent in for repair, but the third system, Nintendo sent me a brand new system. I asked them to do this, and lucky for me, they did! The customer service rep was very nice, very professional, and very American. I guess they haven't farmed out their service yet. Good stuff!

G-man @ Nov 24th 2007 11:53AM

I don't know what is the big issue about being "American" sorry for that, I'm from Colombia and I AM American as well, I have been working for companies overseas and I can assure that even the same North Americans (Yes, that means all of you) sometimes have customer service that s*ck, bad speaking skills and worst listening, take for example AllTel... that's it

triften @ Nov 19th 2007 7:41PM

The lower screen on my sister's DS Lite went faulty after a few months play, and Nintendo of America replaced it free by 2-day air before they even received the broken one. Pretty great customer service if you ask me. Let's all hope it isn't spoiled by clumsy, dishonest drunkards like the one featured in this article.

Robert @ Nov 19th 2007 7:48PM

Nintendo does rule! I had green pixels from a fucked up gpu on my Wii. I called Nintendo and they made an appointment for me to go see an authorized Nintendo repair retailer and they replaced the gpu in 35 mins and transferred all my wii shop stuff. I was able to get everything taken care of in a matter of a few hours. I know first hand with other console manufacturers that isn't the case. So in my book, Nintendo kicks ass!

THe Shit @ Nov 19th 2007 9:04PM

Now I regret whipping mine at the wall when it broke.

Patrick M @ Nov 19th 2007 10:56PM

this is BS. My DSL broke about 2 weeks ago, I had a massive ink blotch on my top screen. There was no crack on the screen at least that is visible to the naked eye and I treat my DSL like a precious little baby. I phoned Nintendo customer service and was told that it would not be covered because the only way this could have happened is if I dropped it (I didn't) and I was told that I would have to pay $80 to get it fixed.

This guy gets beet spilled in his DSL and Nintendo fixes it for free. I wonder if I call up Nintendo now maybe they will send me a free replacement.

Drew @ Nov 20th 2007 8:38AM

About 2 years ago, my DS phat broke, but only in a cosmetic way. One of the hinge parts broke; not the part with the ribbon cable. All that needed to be done was to glue some plastic back into place, and nintendo wanted 130$ for a new phat, or 80$ for repairs. Bullshit.

Niz @ Nov 20th 2007 8:52AM

Patrick just keep calling until someone agrees to replace it, a different representative might say different.

I think it is taking advantage of Nintendo, if Nintendo starts getting more negligence replacement calls they may stop being so nice.

mko @ Nov 20th 2007 10:25AM

For a long time in Turkey we dind't have Nintendo Products. Just about GBA SP era Nortec began importing Nintendo Products. They are also reponsible for "customer service."
However Nortec not only refuses to replace broken ds lites (just like in the picture above) They clain they can't repair broken ds lites because they don't have spare parts!

ssuk @ Nov 20th 2007 10:52AM

So wait, someone can get a DS shipped to them by 2 day UPS in America... Yet it took 3 fucking weeks for 4 Wii Remote jackets to reach me in Birmingham, United Kingdom? I envy your US Nintendo devision, for ours is shite.

vegi-saurus @ Nov 20th 2007 11:01AM

Good thing it was beer and not dust!

http://playstation.joystiq.com/2007/11/19/fox-news-offers-their-unique-reporting-on-ps3-dust-story/

Timodi @ Nov 20th 2007 12:21PM

Sorry, I have to post this.

+1 read just for the Batman Begins quote.

Reed @ Nov 23rd 2007 2:19PM

I worked at a large video game retailer for several years *cough*EB*cough* and found the customer support from Nintendo was by far the best of any of our vendors. They were extremely helpful to customers and I could always trust them to handle any situation I threw at them. Their success is not an accident.

Aaron @ Nov 24th 2007 10:26AM

As extraordinarily happy as it makes me to hear all these stories of good customer service, I am extraordinarily upset.

I had the same hinge problem with my DS Phat that someone else mentioned and I didn't even bother contacting Nintendo because I thought they wouldn't replace, depsite the fact that it is clear it is a flaw (check on eBay, 1/2 the Phats that are being sold have the exact same hinge piece missing).

But now, after my warranty has long expired (Happy Birthday DS!) I find out that Nintendo has good customer service! I had no idea such a thing existed! But it is too late for me to get it fixed... I is sad.

TheQuagster @ Nov 24th 2007 2:26PM

I broke my NES about 2 weeks ago, and WOW! they sent me a brand new NES yesterday!

Alison @ Nov 26th 2007 9:44AM

We are the biggest Nintendo-fan family you'll find. We've bought every game console and hand-held and since the original Gameboy and the NES plus tons of games (usually we pre-order so we don't miss out, which means paying premium prices).
Our son Patrick got a DS Lite just over a year ago for his 10th Birthday - it was the only thing he got, as it was expensive. Then we moved to the US from Australia, and about 13 months after we bought it the hinge cracked, and Nintendo America want $80 to fix it. (2 excuses, it wasn't bought in the US and it was just out of warranty, not that we brought the receipt with us). We're so bummed at their crappy customer service after having spent so much money on their products over the years. They seem to have slipped a lot from the life-time warranty we got on our N64 (even the controllers were replaced for free when they broke). Stupid Nintendo. They're mean to 11 year olds.
I still love their products though :0(

julie mason @ Dec 18th 2007 12:10PM

mnintendo take the mick

debbie steed @ Dec 18th 2007 4:38PM

we have 3 dsl that the ds games will not work but gba games will called nintendo and first thing they asked have you droped them or have they gotten wet? no!
went thru roubleshooting on phone with them and they said it would be $85 a piece to fix them. they were bought at x-mas last year

Dana @ Jan 19th 2009 2:25PM

This is to Nushio, if your product is a week out of warranty, its OUT of warranty. You shouldn't get any special treatment whatsoever, they give you a year or so (not sure with DS Lite)and thats it, stop bitching and deal with it