Let me just start this post by saying that I am a fanboy by no means... but I do have a slight bias for Nintendo products. I feel that this is just something that comes with being 24 and having been raised on the NES, Gameboy, and SNES. A lot of the good memories of my formative years were courtesy of Nintendo, so I am a little biased.
That being said, yesterday my g/f picked up her wii-mote to play the new Harvest Moon on the Wii. She managed to turn the Wii on with the wii-mote, but couldn't do anything else. There were no little blue lights coming on at the bottom of the wii-mote, and no pointer. Assuming the batteries were dead, she replaced them with fresh batteries. Again though, she got no response from the wii-mote. I told her that she could use my controller, and that I'd call Nintendo's customer service to get this fixed. I had no worries and, in fact, had nothing but great expectations
(see wat I did thar? With the image?) for the service I was about to get, based on other peoples'
experiences I'd
read about here on Destructoid.
So I called Nintendo's customer support, and after letting the system know that I'm not a complete idiot, (yes the wii
is plugged in, and
yes the sensor bar is working] I was connected with a Nintendo customer service rep and I explained the issue to him. He had me go pick up the second wii-mote and try to sync it. When I picked up the wii-mote, it was HOT! I took the battery cover off and tried syncing the controller that wasn't on. I told him that this didn't work, and that the batteries and the wii-mote were both pretty hot. He said that it appears that the Wii Remote is failing to get power from the batteries, and that I should
buy a new one. I told him that this controller was a wii-mote bought at launch, and rarely even used, and he told me that the cost of sending it back for repair would be about $50. At this point, I hung up on him. I was amazed at the
lack of service provided by a company that I had always had a tremendous amount of respect for.
So now I have a $40 paperweight. Any ideas on what I should do with my worthless dead wii-mote now? I was thinking about wrapping it in a blanket, and putting it in a 100 degree oven for an hour.
(# 0) on 10/07/2008 11:24
(# 1) on 10/07/2008 11:40
(# 2) on 10/07/2008 12:08
(# 3) on 10/07/2008 12:19
(# 4) on 10/07/2008 12:36
(# 5) on 10/07/2008 13:08
Still, maybe you should call again and see if someone else can give you the hook up.
(# 6) on 10/07/2008 13:32
That's just the kind of thinking that allows companies (see: Apple) to make products that they know won't last. We on longer expect quality goods that will last us a life time or longer.
Why is it acceptable to us for a device as expensive as an iPod to break after just one year? For that matter, why is acceptable for a 360 to last just three years? For the money I paid for it, I expect my 360 to last at least until the next console generation. Unfortunately, it's already red-ringed once, and I'm sure it'll happen again. The same thing goes for my 1st party peripherals. If it had been a second party wii-mote that broke after a few months, fine. I accept that, because I got it cheaper from a company that I know makes shitty wares. But I hold Nintendo to a higher standard, and that controller should've worked at least another 2 or 3 years.
(# 7) on 10/07/2008 15:05
Just a thought!
Also, that is pretty weak of them.
(# 8) on 10/07/2008 15:19
(# 9) on 10/07/2008 15:31
(# 10) on 10/07/2008 15:50
Only thing I can add is when one of our wii remotes died, it was right at 1 year of purchase (our Wii console is just over 1 year old now).. our customer service was quick and no charge. Sorry to hear your experience is so different >:o(
(# 11) on 10/07/2008 23:48
I totally agree with you. I actually asked in the forums whether or not people felt their faith had been shaken in MS after getting a RR, and most said no and that they just sent it in to be repaired because the expected it to break. It's so screwed up that people will still buy products that they know will break and are totally ok with it. Ugh.
(# 12) on 10/08/2008 00:32