Nintendo Customer Service Lacking

[Leajess99]

Both of my girls have Nintendo DSs and they both have now gotten the hinge crack. These issues have been known issues to Nintendo for years and they have yet to fix them problem.

Anyway, I sent an email to their customer service and was sent a response to call them and discuss the problem. I made the call yesterday afternoon and the customer service rep started accusing my kids of dropping the DS, stepping on them while they were in a backpack, letting a friend play with them and the friend damaged them, etc. I finally told the rep that my children will be getting PSPs rather than waste anymore money with Nintendo.

My youngest's DS is less than 2 years old and has not been played all that much. My older daughter's is close to 4 years old so I was not as upset until researching the hinge crack. She has gotten more play out of hers and has a new DSi that is waiting to see what Nintendo does before opening it. Their DSes are kept at their grandmother's house and they only get it when there or when we travel. They are very careful with them because they know I will not replace them. My youngest was so upset over the hinge crack because she knew she had done nothing at all to cause that.

I just wanted others to be aware that Nintendo refuses to correct a known defect in their product that affects 14% of the units. Realizing that is not a large number but when it happens, it slowly ruins the unit. It also keeps one from being able to trade it in towards a DSi or DSi XL. Nintendo continues to lack customer service on this issue and expects people to pay $85 to fix it.

 

[pixeegrl]

Both of my girls have Nintendo DSs and they both have now gotten the hinge crack. These issues have been known issues to Nintendo for years and they have yet to fix them problem.

Anyway, I sent an email to their customer service and was sent a response to call them and discuss the problem. I made the call yesterday afternoon and the customer service rep started accusing my kids of dropping the DS, stepping on them while they were in a backpack, letting a friend play with them and the friend damaged them, etc. I finally told the rep that my children will be getting PSPs rather than waste anymore money with Nintendo.

My youngest's DS is less than 2 years old and has not been played all that much. My older daughter's is close to 4 years old so I was not as upset until researching the hinge crack. She has gotten more play out of hers and has a new DSi that is waiting to see what Nintendo does before opening it. Their DSes are kept at their grandmother's house and they only get it when there or when we travel. They are very careful with them because they know I will not replace them. My youngest was so upset over the hinge crack because she knew she had done nothing at all to cause that.

I just wanted others to be aware that Nintendo refuses to correct a known defect in their product that affects 14% of the units. Realizing that is not a large number but when it happens, it slowly ruins the unit. It also keeps one from being able to trade it in towards a DSi or DSi XL. Nintendo continues to lack customer service on this issue and expects people to pay $85 to fix it.

2 out of 3 of ours have cracked. It is a bit ridiculous! It is a known problem that they need to address!

 

[lovebuzz]

Several years ago the same thing happened to my sons DS. I contacted Nintendo and did not take no for an answer. It is an issue with the DS and has nothing to do with how your child pays with it. I told them that we are brand loyal and they needed to do something to fix it. They finally gave in and fixed it for free. I would keep trying.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1460021

As you can see mine happened in 2007

 

[tripletots]

We own 5 Nintendo DS lite's and 100% have cracked hinges.

Last Christmas I replaced one for my DS13. This Christmas I replaced 2 for my DD's 13, my older DS 18 ordered a whole new casing off of ebay for $2.00 (from Hong Kong). He repaired it himself. My DD17 doesn't want another one. She rarely uses it and the hinges still cracked.

So three have converted over to the DSi and the other two don't want to waste the money.

 

[torinsmom]

Are you talking an original DS? Didn't they stop making those years ago? They have had the DS Lite since then and now the DSi. Did you buy the original DS new 2 years ago, or did you buy it used? The DS Lite was introduced in 2006, so its hard to believe Nintendo would have kept manufacturing new DS's for 2 or 3 years after that.

My son had a DS when they were still the current model and they were really good about sending out a new one. It was still under the one year warranty, but the warranty did not cover the hinge breaking. Still, they did replace it free of charge. They did the same for my nephew's DS the same year. I was actually sad when he moved on to a PSP, because we had had every console Nintendo made and never had a problem. We still have the Super Nintendo and the Nintendo 64, and they work fine. Wii was great; DS sold it when he got into Xbox.

I just don't understand being upset at a company who doesn't basically give you an extended warranty on a product. If you want an extended warranty, buy it at the time of purchase and include accidental damage. Even if the DS's were bought original from Nintendo, they shouldn't have to replace a 2-4 year old product, IMHO.

I can tell you one thing---Sony is not any better at replacing things. DS's PSP has been replaced by me TWICE. Once it just froze up and died, and it was just after the warranty ran out. Another time, the LCD screen was broken by a very small bump while it was in his backpack. I didn't even call them the second time, of course, because I know screen damage is not covered. The first time they basically told me "Too bad, so sad". This last one I bought for Christmas, I got a 2 year square trade warranty including accidental damage coverage for $30. If it breaks, it will be fixed or I will get a check for the purchase amount.

 

[momto2inKC]

I hate that they refuse to fix all of the ones that break. We've only had luck with 1, the other 3 they refuse to fix without us paying $75. We did end up ordering a new case and I transferred one of our DS's insides to that. Its not the easiest thing to do, but there are some great directions that can be found online for doing it.

 

[torinsmom]

Several years ago the same thing happened to my sons DS. I contacted Nintendo and did not take no for an answer. It is an issue with the DS and has nothing to do with how your child pays with it. I told them that we are brand loyal and they needed to do something to fix it. They finally gave in and fixed it for free. I would keep trying.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1460021

As you can see mine happened in 2007

That's what I was saying. Several years ago, when the DS was still current, Nintendo would take care of the problem, or send you a new DS. This is 3-4 years later.

Think about buying a car. If you have a 2009 car and its out of warranty, but has a defect, you might be able to talk the company into repairing it. But, if you have a 2005 or 2006 car, good luck. A car is a lot more expensive than a game system, you know?

 

[JoiseyMom]

We had this issue with our sons years ago, this is the email I sent them:

To Whom It May Concern:
As much as my 2 children have loved their DS Lites over the past 2 years I have to say I am very very disappointed. We bought two of them 2 years ago for Chanukah. After 6 months my sons broke in 1/2 and it cost us $50 plus shipping to fix it. Now again it is broken. The touch screen isn't working. It would cost us $82.00 to fix it.
My daughers broke this past August. If I had know these electronic toys would not hold up to be played with by a 5 year old (currently 7) and a 10 year old
(currently 12) I would have either looked into the PSP or I would have purchased the service plans. Yes, the service plan that everyone always says is a waste of money. But when a product doesn't hold up under children using it..then I guess it isn't a waste of money.
Well, time to return the new DS games I bought my son this year and time to look into purchasing a new handheld game system that will hold up to a 7 year old.
When you charge 130.00 for a item, it really should hold up for longer than 6 months or 18 months or 2 years. It should be made to withstand what a child will do to it. Unless you didn't make these items for children.
Sincerely,


Now I sent this on a Saturday. I didn't tell my DH that I sent it, and a few hours later he calls me downstairs, he is on the phone with nintendo. As you see there was no phone number in the email, but I am in their system. They had to send me some items for our Wii. They were very nice over the phone, and they offered to fix DS's for free, and even though DD's was in pieces they fixed that too, but we did have to pay shipping for hers. I was very please with their tracking me down and calling me and fixing the issue.

Needless to say our DS did break his again (this was TOTALLy his fault). I will say that today whenever I buy electronics I use my AMEX card, and when we did purchase a new DS lite, we did buy the plan, and I have recommended to anyone buying them to buy a service contract (but read the fine print to make sure they will fix certain issues).

Good luck, I can understand you being upset. The rep on the phone was OFF base. Write another email to Customer Service, calmly describing what the rep said of the phone and how unprofessional that was, etc.

Good luck!

 

[Mrs.Malone]

We've had similar issues with the hinges on our DS Lites. Even my pre-teen who is extremely careful with all of his possessions has had trouble with his DS Lite's hinge.

We also have two Game Boy Advance and those continue to get a lot of play. After nearly four years they are still in near-perfect condition, even after a lot of use by our 3- and 4-year-olds. No hinge problems at all. I know that the DS Lite is a more sophisticated device with a screen on each side of the hinge but I sure wish they would have found a way to make the DS Lite hinges as durable as those on the GB Advance.

 

[torinsmom]

I am confused. Are these DS Lites or DS's?

 

[pixiewings71]

My girls have original DS's, NO cracked or broken hinges here.......And they've had them for years, at least 6 years each......I wouldn't expect Nintendo to fix or replace anything that was that old......

 

[lovebuzz]

I am confused. Are these DS Lites or DS's?

All of mine happened on DS lites and they all broke within 13 months of purchasing them. I would not expect the company to repair something that was several years old. Ours happened just after the 1 year warranty expired. If I am going to pay $129 for something I expect it to last. And yes we did have ours in a cover and I made sure that they were careful with it. It is an obvious defect with their product if it happens over and over and I think that they should cover it.

 

[Leajess99]

These are DS Lites that it happened with.

I resent Nintendo a letter explaining how I felt their customer service lacked due to the false accusations made by their representative and how I would no longer buy their products because of the customer service. Well, I received a call on Sunday from them (kind of floored me since it was a Sunday) and their are going to fix my youngest DD's DS and all I have to pay is the shipping costs to get it to them.

I would not have had such an issue with this but it is a known defect that happens to 14% of DSes and DS Lites. Nintendo is aware of this yet chooses to ignore it because so many people just go out and replace the broken one with the latest technology. I can honestly not afford to do that and refuse to do that when my youngest rarely plays with hers. They are kept at grandma's house and only allowed to have them for trips and when they are at grandma's because time at home is spent on regular games, playing outside, etc.

Had Nintendo not stepped up than I would have walked away because the friends here with PSPs have never had an issue with theirs. I had never had an issue with a Gameboy and have had every version made and the majority of those still work. We are not hard on games here. My youngest's Leapster Lmax is still going strong and still looks new. She is very protective of her stuff.

I will look at extended warranties now that I know this is a problem with these devices.

ETA: I was not looking to get my 12 year old's DS fixed (it is a ds lite) as it is 4 years old and just happened back in october so at the time I put it to normal wear and tear until researching the problem with the youngest's.

 

[kirstenb1]

If you google Nintendo DS and hinge break, it's all over the internet. Which is a disgrace. Kind of like a company having any widely known defect, and not doing the right thing, which is offering a repair kit, or offering to repair for the actual cost.

DD's DS Lite hinge broke a little less than 2 years after we got it. I researched it, and would not pay 75 to fix it. We paid something like 129, and to pay over half to repair a known defect just seemed like a bad idea. I noticed the new DS Lite's didn't seem to have the problem. So against everything I believe in, I traded the broken one in at GameStop and got a new one. The new one has been fine. The hinges seem more rubberized, and not made of hard brittle plastic like the old ones.

The things we do for our kids, sheesh!!!