My Frustrations with Nintendo Continues

Backstory

One of the main catalysts for the birth of this blog was Nintendo "repairing" my DS lite for a cracked hinge, and sending me back a system with a dead pixel. I called Nintendo's service number and informed them politely of the problem. The best they could do was send me a UPS shipping label and have me send the system back to get repaired - again. So I packaged up the DS lite and sent it back - again; This time, I even included a little note to signify my annoyance. When I got my second repair back today, the first thing I did way turn it on and ensure that there were no dead pixels. I was happy to find no problems with this DS lite. However, my delight was ephemeral...

Nintendo keeps on screwing me.

What I was not expecting was this little gem that Nintendo included with the repair:



The second paragraph of the letter reads:

However, upon examination of your system, our technicians determined that the problem you were experiencing was not due to a manufacturer defect. It appears that the damage to your system was the result of water or some other liquid coming into contact with the circuit board, which caused damage to the internal electronic components. As stated in our warranty text, our one-year hardware warranty does not cover physical damage. Therefore, warranty coverage does not apply.

There are so many things wrong with this letter, it's ridiculous. First of all, the DS lite I had sent back to repair the dead pixel was in the exact same condition as when I had received it. After I had discovered my first "repaired" DS lite had a dead pixel, I did not touch it. It sat on my desk for about a week before I shipped it back. There was no way I could have caused water damage. In addition, I deliberately tried to make it obvious when I shipped it back, that is was just recently "repaired". I shipped in back in the same box that the repair came in. The unit looked new. I even used the same plastic sleeve that Nintendo had put it in. If Nintendo looked up the serial number, they would find that they had sent it to me a week ago. If the circuit board did have indications of "water damage" it would have to be there when Nintendo first sent the unit to me. Either Nintendo missed the "water damage" markings on the circuit board the first time when they sent me the unit, or the "water damage" is completely made up.


A true story.

A few months ago, a friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) accidentally dropped his DS lite in the ocean. He tried drying out his DS lite, but it would not turn on at all. He sent it to Nintendo for repair, putting "dead pixels" in the problem description. His repaired unit came back a few days later. It worked fine, looked brand new, and didn't have any dead pixels. Here's the kicker: he never got a "water damage" letter.

So basically, Nintendo diagnoses a unit that's obviously been dropped in the ocean (there was sand embedded in the slots) as a "dead pixel problem", and diagnoses a unit that they had deemed "repaired" that obviously has a dead pixel as a "water damage problem".