I know it may seem a bit fanboyish to spread the word about positive Nintendo customer service experiences, and I realize that there are both positive and negative experiences from all console makers out there, but when I constantly hear about friends and co-workers negative experiences with their gaming consoles, it makes me want to focus on the good for a change.

The Consumerist reports on one customers question-free replacement of a beer-drenched Nintendo DS. The customer was prepared to pay to have his son's game system replaced, but Nintendo wasn't having it, and the DS was replaced for free.

(Nintendo) me that they would be sending me a replacement DS and all I had to do was ship the old one back to them, they even provided a shipping label. Already happy beyond belief I was even more surprised when they sent it 2 day UPS air!!!! GO NINTENDO!

This is especially nice to see knowing that Nintendo doesn't honor warranty repair to damages caused by negligence, and you know that beer spilling definititely falls under that.

They've replaced two of my systems in the past in the same manner. It's good to know that Nintendo stands behind their product and cares about their customers. Again, we take our red "M hats" off to Nintendo and their customer service.

Hit the jump to read more about this customer's experience. 

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)

SR388

The real question here is: Did they replace his beer? If they did than Nintendo is truly a family company.

ShadowXOR

I know a few people that work for Nintendo Customer Service and they are FANTASTIC. None of my stuff has ever broken except TWO 360s (which was schedule for delivery on Thanksgiving, which means I get the fat shaft and it won't arrive till MONDAY ON MY FUCKING FOUR DAY WEEKEND).

ShadowXOR

I meant the Monday AFTER my fucking four day weekend. I'm so amazingly bitter I can't fucking describe it.

Sbate

After I bricked my friends PSP accidentally Sony let me pay 90 dollars to get him a newer one...

Zarathustra

The reason they can be so accomodating is that their products have so few problems. I personally have never needed to replace or repair any Nintendo hardware or accessory. I can't say the same for Sony and MS stuff.

Tubatic

Same experience here Zarathustra. I haven't had to buy a replacement console for any of my Nintendo Systems.

Sega either really. My new genesis was kinda just an upgrade, if I recall . . . or maybe for compatibility w/ the Sega CD . . .

but, two PSones and two PS2s. I don't own a PS3.

Cheeburga

Nintendo is awesome. :D

outrage

As cheap as this may sound, it is warranted... 1 UP for NINTENDO!

Excel-2011

I have a DS Lite I bought at a convention this July, meaning it's not under warranty since I don't have a sales receipt. The touchscreen isn't as cooperative as I'd like it to be. I wonder if I can still get a replacement.

Wedge

I worked CS at Nintendo doing exactly this for 3 days before quitting. I had to quit because I felt too guilty about ever not replacing anything like that, and I couldn't stand trying to determine if a broken DS was warranty or not, especially with that fucking defective hinge exception.

CannibalCalvin

Oni

@Sbate: That was nice of them.

RJG

My large mother once trod on my DS Lite, after which the top screen would turn white after powering on. I called up Nintendo and shipped it off and it arrived back a fortnight later. Not a great story, but in comparison to having three original Playstations die on me and not be replaced because "playing them too much" and burning out the motor is not covered under warranty. That left me with no choice but to buy another goddamn console or put my massive collection of PSOne games in a drawer.
The third time it happened I sold all my games and bought a N64. Had no trouble after that.

IceMax

I had a problem with my Wii not reading discs, so i called up nintendo and they were really nice about it, and sent me a replacement wii and all the shipping stuff over 2 day air (from Redmond to NY mind you). Then that Wii would even take discs in. So I gave Nintendo a call again, and they happily replace the 2nd Wii at no cost to me (usually you just have to pay the shipping, which was only about 5 bucks) Now i have a working Wii again and a positive experience with nitnedo customer service!

Topher Cantler

My experience was similar to IceMax's. I got a Wii at launch, and after a couple of days it wouldn't accept discs. 5 minutes on the phone and 3 days later, I'm back to playing Zelda.

Light years beyond Microsoft's sorry-ass service. This story doesn't surprise me at all.

Bob Muir

Nintendo customer service is totally awesome. Every company should look to them for advice on how to act.

kobewan0824

You know, my little brother broke his DS Lite in the same way as the pic up top. Nintendo said that since we had registered the system on the day we bought it, which was the day of the DS Lite's release, they would give us a discount. He was very kind, and he even told me about how Nintendo had set up a Wii with Wii Sports in the cafeteria there, before the systems' release. I got a nice description of each game and how good each one was, and he charged us 50 instead of 75, as it was my bro's fault it broke. He dropped it.

StriderS

My brother dropped my DS. Pretty much slaughtered the top screen, but they're want to charge me for getting it fixed. No fair.

Samit Sarkar

Dale, it’s “negligence,” not “neglience” (I’m not trying to be a dick; nobody’s immune to typos). This is a great story for Nintendo; I just hope we can hear more customer service success stories like this from all companies. If only things were that way...

cjpkiller

still waiting on my 4th red ringer to come back from the grave...
camon microsoft... you can do it.

Aaron Mxy Yost

Next time, put your four-year-old's beer in a sippy cup.