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Home Service updates

Nintendo: exception to the rule?
3:43 PM on 02.15.2007, Dale North 59 comments

Nintendo: exception to the rule? photo
     Service

As sad as it is, these days poor customer service is almost expected from the makers of our beloved game consoles, although I think that last generation's horror stories were much worse than this time around. Regardless, knowing this, it's really nice to see a upbeat word about a service experience for a change.

After having an optical drive go south, one Wii owner shares their positive story after coming back from Nintendo's offices in Redmond:

So I called the Nintendo customer service telephone number, located right there on their web site (you would be surprised how many companies, and especially repair departments, don't list their phone number on the web). The message telling me I had to wait for a CSR didn't even finish playing before a rep was on the line. I explained my problem and she said she'd get me an RMA right away to get it fixed.

She asked for my phone number. I gave it to her. She did a bit of a verbal double-take and said, "Are you here in Washington?"

"I'm in Redmond, as a matter of fact [location of Nintendo of America's campus]," I replied.

"Well then, let's not bother with the RMA and the shipping labels and all of that. Just bring it on in to Nintendo," she said.

Wh-what...?

Hit the jump to read the rest of the story. 

She assured me she was not kidding. She gave me directions to the Nintendo campus building where the Customer Service Center was located, and five minutes later I was looking at an unassuming door. I took a deep breath, told my son to hold on to the Wii with both hands, for goodness' sake, and opened the door.

A life-size Mario and a larger-than-life Pikachu greeted us. So did a really nice, cheerful woman behind the sales counter. I related my telephone conversation to her, still certain that I'd been had.

"Oh, yeah!" she said. "We do that!"

"Awesome," I blurted. I really did say "Awesome." I'm embarassed about that now.

"It's going to be about 30 minutes, though," she went on. "I'm really sorry."

She wasn't Japanese, but clearly Nintendo is a Japanese company. Only a Japanese service center would apologize for taking 30 minutes to repair a piece of electronics when my expectation going in was that I'd be without it for two weeks.

The boy played games in the waiting area while I sat under the watchful eye of Mario. 25 minutes later I saw her emerge from the back room out of the corner of my eye, but I was watching the boy playing a particularly suspenseful level of Wario Ware Twist. She waited until she heard the "level complete" sound to get my attention.

In those 25 minutes, they'd transferred all of my Miis, friends, and saved games from the old console to a new one. She logged on to make sure my 500 points transferred to the shopping channel. She sent me out with a $0.00 invoice showing a warranty replacement of my Wii and a reset of the warranty clock, meaning the Wii I took home has 15 months of coverage from today, even though I bought my original one almost 3 months ago.

So this is my Valentine to Nintendo. That was the most awesome customer service experience I ever, ever had.

 

Personally, I've also had two really positive experiences with Nintendo: no hassle replacements of broken systems. How have your service calls gone? Is this the start of a new trend? 

[via Vox]


Next page: More wii stories




Buster's Avatar
Buster at 02/15/2007 15:47
thats pretty damn awesome, but none of my nintendo systems ever broke, so i never needed to call them
Toneman's Avatar
Toneman at 02/15/2007 15:50
Yup, all my Nintendo stuff is still working. Though my Wii does freeze up a lot. Like, every-time-I-put-a-game-in a lot. Maybe I'll have to end up calling them.
Justice's Avatar
Justice at 02/15/2007 15:51
My wii is perfectly fine and so are all my other Nintendo home consoles, (I have them all), although the NES is fucking up

Capcom are meant to be good with customers too
soccerking3t's Avatar
soccerking3t at 02/15/2007 15:52
im with dexter here...ive never had any w nintendo systems
Professor Oak's Avatar
Professor Oak at 02/15/2007 15:52
They've replaced a DS and a GC for me, no questions asked. Mailed it to me express both times, no charge.
Justice's Avatar
Justice at 02/15/2007 15:58
Soccerking3t's avatar totally pwns Snaileb's current avatar

Anyway, my mates xbox and x360 died both times the charged him £100 and took 2 weeks each thats horrendous to me
precise2282's Avatar
precise2282 at 02/15/2007 15:59
Nintendo's customer service is great. Once I mailed them a complaint letter because they stopped shipping SNES games with that plastic cover that fits on the bottom of the cartridge. A weel later they sent a box to my house and to my surprise they sent me 10 of the covers and an apology letter.
PITT sauce's Avatar
PITT sauce at 02/15/2007 15:59
There are a few dead pixels on my DS. I'm sure Nintendo would replace my DS, but would they transfer all of my sweet stickers?
Nessie's Avatar
Nessie at 02/15/2007 16:01
Thats an awesome story. Love how the woman waited til the level was done hehe :) And I can still hook up my SNES with no problems~
galagabug 's Avatar
galagabug at 02/15/2007 16:02
haven't had a problem w/ a nintendo console since the NES, which they happliy repaired for me twice.

as for other companies who will remain nameless, i still had to buy 4 ps2s. shenanigans.
nerpin's Avatar
nerpin at 02/15/2007 16:03
Never had a Nintendo product fail on me...except the bottom half of my SNES is a weird yellow color.
PITT sauce's Avatar
PITT sauce at 02/15/2007 16:05
thats what happens when your cat takes a wiz on the floor.
momiji58's Avatar
momiji58 at 02/15/2007 16:25
Wow. Just...wow.
Azrael's Avatar
Azrael at 02/15/2007 16:28
Hmmm.. I hate to sound like a Nintendo hater, but this whole thing smells a bit fanboyee to me.

First of all, they are located in the same state of the guy who wrote this. so they told him to bring it to the office... wheres the surprise there, they desserve a medal? did they payed the cab or drive him around town in a limo?

Second. most of the time you dont need to bring your damaged electronics to the factory, just go to the store, use the warranty ,show them it doesnt work and (if they are any good) they will replace it. No question asked, this has happened to me with several electronics and an xbox. (Thats what the warranty is for!)

Guys you've got to stop worshipping Nintendo for their every move, and start DEMMANDING more from them. Where are the games that were supposed to be flooding the damn Wii by now?
And what is with that "poll" channel (supposedly a Valentines present?) How many steps do you have to go to vote on an innane poll? 5-7? it takes one(1) in every damn webpage! you find that entertaining in any way?
ZealousD's Avatar
ZealousD at 02/15/2007 16:30
"Never had a Nintendo product fail on me...except the bottom half of my SNES is a weird yellow color."

If I recall correctly, that's just a side-effect of a certain kind of plastic that some SNES's used. It's basically a weird chemical reaction that happens when that plastic ages.
PITT sauce's Avatar
PITT sauce at 02/15/2007 16:30
Azrael, you are on to something.
PITT sauce's Avatar
PITT sauce at 02/15/2007 16:32
ZealousD, the yellow color comes from cat wiz. Trust me. Im a Scientist.
ArrestedDeveloper's Avatar
ArrestedDeveloper at 02/15/2007 16:34
I've dealt with Nintendo a couple of times and its never been a big problem but nothing spectacular like this story (of course I can't drive to thier America Campus). My snes was busted right out of the box so we called them, mailed in the system and recieved a new one. Then a few months after I had my gamecube it busted and same thing, called the helpline, they mailed me a ups box and I contacted UPS when I wanted them to pick it up.
deanhatescoffee's Avatar
deanhatescoffee at 02/15/2007 16:40
I almost wish something would happen to my Wii so that I'd have the opportunity to drive up to Redmond and check it out myself.

*Almost.*
Necros's Avatar
Necros at 02/15/2007 16:42
The one time my launch Gamecube had a tiny problem with rumble in the first person slot, even though at that point it would be $50 to repair it (I wanted to keep it for the progressive scan option not in later units), they were still great. They were able to drop the repair price to $30 just because I wasn't sure I could afford it otherwise. Any other minor problems I've had have been covered by the superb warranty.
subnet6's Avatar
subnet6 at 02/15/2007 16:55
"Hmmm.. I hate to sound like a Nintendo hater, "

Yeah, you sound a bit like a hater.

"start DEMMANDING more from them"

How could you ever demand a better customer service experience than the one detailed in this story? The answer is you couldn't, so instead you attack them on the game drought? Lame.

And as for bringing electronics into the service center not being a big deal and you shouldn't have to? Did you even read the story?

The guy got his wii back with all his save games in tact as well as VC games and VC points. For some reason I don't think they are gonna do that at best buy. Quit hatin and share the love brother. There's enough for all of us.
TheDruid's Avatar
TheDruid at 02/15/2007 16:55
I had two dead pixels on my DS and I got it replaced immediately. More than I can say for that damned PSP of mine that has 3 dead pixels and a half broken D-pad and doesn't get replaced.

Everyone I know of have had nothing but good experiences with Nintendos warranty services.

Also about microsoft support my friend had to make about a thousand phone calls over the course of two months to get his broken 360 replaced. At some points they couldn't even tell him where his 360 was at. It seemed to be in Germany for a while though. We live in Sweden.
Nintendork's Avatar
Nintendork at 02/15/2007 17:20
Boo! When I saw "itsa fixed" i hoped it was somehow talking about the retarded nintendo online system.
But even so this is good to know. Top service.
noustigres's Avatar
noustigres at 02/15/2007 17:41
And even if they didn't live in the same state, I have a buddy in California and they sent him a replacement ds FIRST and it arrived in TWO DAYS.
Azrael's Avatar
Azrael at 02/15/2007 17:44
Uh? after reading the whole thing, (I confess I had not read it all before) a lot of things do appear odd.

All things are explained in a single sentence to perfection, theres no sintax or grammar mistakes. Besides he doesnt mention who he is, what he was playing, or what is his relation to his boy. (a common writer technique so you get identified with the guy by filling those blanks with your own)

I was looking at an unassuming door. I took a deep breath, told my son to hold on to the Wii with both hands, for goodness' sake, and opened the door.

Nice intro for a suspense Novel but a Web post? and what the heck is an "unassuming door" ussually doors assume they are going to be opened or something?

She wasn't Japanese, but clearly Nintendo is a Japanese company. Only a Japanese service center would apologize for taking 30 minutes to repair a piece of electronics when my expectation going in was that I'd be without it for two weeks.

Yeah. 2 points for milking the fact that Nintendo is Japanese, good one.

So this is my Valentine to Nintendo. That was the most awesome customer service experience I ever, ever had.

yeah, great timing, you could have posted this anytime, but you just had to wait for valentines right?

The cheque I've got for writing this was pretty nice too

Yeah, that was pretty much self explanatory.

Nice try Nintendo.
bassbeast's Avatar
bassbeast at 02/15/2007 17:46
I"ve had two great Nintendo experiences:

1) I bought Zelda:LttP on the SNES back in 1991. When I opened it, though, it was completely in French. I called their service line and they just sent me a copy of the English game once I powered the game on over the phone and read them some of the text (I think the CSR was just curious about the opening text in a foreign language). I still have the French one sitting around somewhere!

2) My N64 controller pak became corrupted and I lost my 100% Goemon and Castlevania games - all four of them. I read the gibberish I saw in the file manager, and the CSR told me, "It'll take a couple of weeks for us to ship this to you, but you'll get it." Sure enough, I got a controller pak two weeks later - and some gameplay counsellors had PLAYED THROUGH THE GAMES that got corrupted, so I got all my saves back!

I've never had a bad case with Nintendo's customer service, primarily because they speaka-da-English.
scrap's Avatar
scrap at 02/15/2007 17:50
My brother had a busted Wii. They sent him a replacement in 2 days. woo! 2 frackin' days!
ian_esq's Avatar
ian_esq at 02/15/2007 17:56
II was lucky with ny 360.

I ordered a cheaaappp broken xbox 360 off of eBay...

and when it came to my door I just called microsoft, and they told me to mail it in to them because its cheaper than sending it to texas to be repaired... cause I knew they replace the old launch boxes.

and got a brand new one in the mail a weeklater...that was my sweet 360 story, ima go play some me some crackdown
TheBrain's Avatar
TheBrain at 02/15/2007 17:59
Only Nintendo problem I've had is a single dead pixel on my DS, I've been told they'd give me a replacement but it doesn't bother me so I won't bother them. Sony wants to charge me 45 bucks to repair my broken PS2, then again, it is 6 years old
ekoala2002's Avatar
ekoala2002 at 02/15/2007 18:06
The only experience I had with Nintendo Customer Service was with my Gamecube. The Games were always freezing on me...especially super monkey bals. I called them up and they sent me a box to ship it to them. About 2 weeks later I get it back with no problems and the games work great.
Mxyzptlk's Avatar
Mxyzptlk at 02/15/2007 18:11
@ Azrael:

lol, why is it so hard to believe Nintendo's customer service is excellent? I've been hearing great stories about them in that respect for years, and have personally known a few people who dealt with them and were very impressed. Quit trolling. :)

While we're talking about good customer service, Canon recently was really cool to me and is taking care of a problem with a digital camera that was a few years old at no charge at all. Virgin Mobile however can suck a cock.
cavapower's Avatar
cavapower at 02/15/2007 18:12
Summa would probably cut his dick off before posting something like this
Azrael's Avatar
Azrael at 02/15/2007 18:21
Oh come on, Mxyzptlk Im not trolling Im just stating some OBVIOUS faults at this so called "news" who is this guy? why is his writing so perfect? how come he happens to live right next to Nintendo? Yeah Nintendo customer service is pretty good, they desserve all the praise they can get, but does Nintendo as a company desserve a love letter considering the Wii doesnt have a single worthwhile game to play right now? (or the noisy vista style poll crap they pulled yesterday?) definetily NO!

Summa and I would cut our dicks off before publishing this!
Mxyzptlk's Avatar
Mxyzptlk at 02/15/2007 18:49
@Azrael:

1) Guess what? There are people on the interwebs who actually have good grammar and take their time when writing! (not me though)
2) Guess what? The city of Redmond isn't just the Nintendo & MS headquarters buildings and parking spaces! People actually live there!
3) Guess what? The point of the article has nothing to do with whether or not the Wii has enough games right now (and they surely could use more), it's about how a company went out of the way to help one of their customers out. And frankly, if I worked customer service, I'd probably tell the guy the same thing. It makes less sense for Nintendo to pay to ship the console 15 miles back and forth when they could just fix it for him in no time. I used to work for a clothing company, and our customers who lived in the same city just a few miles away STILL had to mail their returns/exchanges in. I always thought that was completely stupid.

You "ZOMG FAKED NO WAY IT COULD HAPPEN" stance on this is just baffling.
Azrael's Avatar
Azrael at 02/15/2007 19:09
Mxyzptlk: Ok, you made your point, no prob, I dont want to make a big deal out of it, I mean the story seems pausible (actually I dont see any reason why other companies wouldn't do the same, they should at least) but the writing... hmm well is not convincing me, is too damn convenient for my taste. I mean, just read it again, it looks like professional writing from a PR office to me . but ok maybe its just me.

Peace.

p.s. However I wouldnt recommend praising on Nintendo due to "custommer service" I mean is nonsense, and we already have enough fanboys as it is.

"Hey the PS3 lite showed up and is $200 bucks and has Mgs4, God of War 3 and FFXIII included and the first 100 custommers get a free blowjob!"

-"Yeah but Nintendo customer service is so awesome Im never going back to anything else! is that AWESOME!"

"....uh?"
Mxyzptlk's Avatar
Mxyzptlk at 02/15/2007 19:13
Any company that has excellent customer service should be praised nowadays. It's getting harder and harder to come by. I'd give the same props if it was a story about Microsoft or Sony.
falsoman's Avatar
falsoman at 02/15/2007 19:15
This is one of the few things i do envy of the US and other parts of the world. The customer service kinda always stinks in Mexico. Though i've never had a problem with nintendo hardware...

One time i witnesed how in Sams they went through tons of music CDs until a burned one worked on a stereo as proof that the stereo was not defective and not give the guy a replacement.
inque's Avatar
inque at 02/15/2007 20:18
Falsoman you are not alone in this one. Here in the Philippines, customer service is next to none. You gotta be lucky if they will replace the broken console for you for free.

Sigh and the Wii's here are still over priced 8(
momiji58's Avatar
momiji58 at 02/15/2007 20:29
@inque: amen on that one. I think it's because we don't have official service centers for most consoles here, with probably Sony as an exception. Even then they'll probably ship the defective unit outside the country, whose shipping fees they'll charge you of course.

I saw a Wii sa Greenhills priced at about 21k-25k.. So far the cheapest I've seen.
momiji58's Avatar
momiji58 at 02/15/2007 20:33
@inque: I also saw a Wii bundle in Brochiere Megamall branch priced @38k: includes Warioware, additional Wiimote and nunchuck.
inque's Avatar
inque at 02/15/2007 20:35
@momiji58

Glad they're dropping the prices already, I'm holding out until I can find a way to get one from the states or if they will sell one here for at most 18k

And I'm so dying to have one already 8(

michiyoyoshiku's Avatar
michiyoyoshiku at 02/15/2007 20:42
That is so awesome I'm gonna cry.

BUT beat this in Japan if your 360 dies......they pick it up and bring it back to you.

Beat that Nintendo!
momiji58's Avatar
momiji58 at 02/15/2007 20:42
@inque

I think we'll have to wait several months more for the price to reach 18k. O.o

Ah but if you're a hardcore Zelda fan I don't quite suggest getting Twilight Princess for the Wii.. Link's left-handed and in the Wii version he's right-handed. If stuff like that matters.. Ü
Ballistic90's Avatar
Ballistic90 at 02/15/2007 21:17
Azrael, you wouldn't complain of say anything if the exact same article was said about Sony or Microsoft. Not only are you biased against Nintendo, but you're afraid of them. You're afraid of Nintendo being the more popular one. Your opinions are being challenged, and your more and more afraid of what WILL come. And if you deny it, It'll just be more proof. I've never seen you so vehemently expressing these opinions of yours except when it's about Nintendo. In fact, you hardly ever post otherwise. That fact alone shows that you're feelings scared, whether you believe it or not.
subnet6's Avatar
subnet6 at 02/15/2007 21:31
""Hey the PS3 lite showed up and is $200 bucks and has Mgs4, God of War 3 and FFXIII included and the first 100 custommers get a free blowjob!"

-"Yeah but Nintendo customer service is so awesome"

This is funny because you are trying to make an example of how Sony could be awesome and people would still like Nintendo better. What makes it hilarious is the fact that you had to fabricate total BS about Sony yet you used a real world example of praise for Nintendo. Why didn't you use a real world example of Sony hitting one out of the park? Hmm. I wonder. An extra dose of irony is that Sony and Nintendo do the same thing you just had to do. Sony makes shit up, i.e. alliwantforxmasisapsp.com and nintendo has real customers giving positive accounts of customer service.

But hey, at least the PS3 isn't having a post launch drought. Oh wait.....
lowercaseluke's Avatar
lowercaseluke at 02/15/2007 22:15
Azrael.

Deserve.
Demanding.
Syntax.

Please refrain from using big words if you are 12 years old and an argumentative twat.
twesterm's Avatar
twesterm at 02/15/2007 22:35
Why is it so hard to believe that some people just write well? If you sent a story like that to Destructoid to hopefully be published, wouldn't you try to make it sound as good as possible?

Personally, I think it's a great story. Nintendo has always been know for good service and the times I've had to talk to MS about my broken 360, they were a pleasure as well, though their hip automated voice made me want to kill myself.
Cruds's Avatar
Cruds at 02/15/2007 23:16
Azrael, It's time you start DEMMANDING some decent stuff from Sony. You are after all you're the head of there fanboy committee. I know your all red and bloated and I don't blame you, just don't point your anger the wrong people .
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