Big ups to Nintendo

[LLUncoolJ]

Probably not the correct place for this thread, but it is really the only one I read religiously.

My boy broke the hinge on his Nintendo DS a few weeks ago. Pretty much unfixable since a piece of the case broke off. I told him to start saving his money for a new one. So I saw an ad on CL last week by a guy offering to buy broken DS's. I contacted him and he told me he'd give me $20 for it. But he was way on the other side of the city, so it never happened. So I searched google for nintendo ds repair and got Nintendo's webiste. So I called them and they told me for $60 (that includes shipping) they would repair it or replace it. Wow, that is pretty sweet. He'll be getting a new one for less than half price. We're not talking about a workmanship defect, this kid has dribbled it off of the hardwood floor more than once, and that is just what I have witnessed. I'll be buying him some nerf armor for this one. Just thought I'd pass it along.

[LLUncoolJ]

He damaged a couple of the pixils on the top screen right off the bat as well (he's 6), so chances are they will throw his in the gutter and send a new (refurb) one. If it works out, it is worth the $60. Helluva lot better than $130 plus tax.

[Ed_McCarron]

Keep your stylus before you send it and you'll have an extra one when you get it back.

Only one extra?  I buy the damn things 20 at a time the kids lose so many...

[RayB]

HMM This is great to know!  Mine the screen turns white if the screen is at any angle but full open.

@PinballJim: We know why that fuse popped... 

[protokatie]

Never owned a DS (although have had pretty much EVERY other Nintendo system ever made (including the watch and play stuff)). I can fathom a guess as to why they are so good with the returns tho: The don't make their money in the consoles, but on the game licenses. Also, I imagine they count their resending out of refurbished units as "sales" to inflate the number of units out in the wild.

[Felsir]

The don't make their money in the consoles, but on the game licenses. Also, I imagine they count their resending out of refurbished units as "sales" to inflate the number of units out in the wild.

AFAIK, Nintendo does make a profit on the hardware, it's Microsoft and Sony making their consoles at a loss. I don't know if they "need" to inflate the number of sold units - I think it is pretty much confirmed by just looking around that there are more DS handhelds out there than PSP (or any other current gen console).
So far there are 100 million units shipped, those defect units to wouldn't even make a difference to that number. I mean if the "replaced" units would make such a significant part of that 100 million, the reputation of DS-trouble would overshadow the "famous" XBox Red Ring of Death failure rate.

[LLUncoolJ]

Just to clarify, my 6yo f'ed this thing up. It didn't just fail from playing it. They have a 1 year warranty on them if the screen or something screws up. I am having to pay to get it fixed (or a new one), but it is less than half the price of a new one. I am really satisfied (or hopefully will be) with the outcome. Plus, they reset the 1 year warranty.

I don't know how many they have sold, but I think every kid at my son's latchkey program has one, that is the reason I would buy one for a 6yo. And now my 3yo wants one (she's gonna have to wait a year or so). They are pretty incredible when you stop and think about what we grew up with...in my case an Atari 2600 on a B&W tV.

[TacoTownCharlie]

My 9 year old had a DS Lite until the hinge cracked and the touchpad wasn't able to calibrate correctly.  We ended up buying a used DS (the previous model) because it seemed sturdier.  That one has held up quite well.  I recently sent off the broken DS Lite to www.nintendorepairs.com; they charged me ~$80 for a new touchpad and case.  The best part is that I did not have to transfer the guts myself (I'm getting too old for that kind of delicate work).  I just got the DS Lite back yesterday and everything looks and works great.

YMMV

[patrickl]

My 6 year old keeps his Nintendo DS in a protective cover. Works great for keeping the thing in one piece when it falls down.

[Level42]

My opinion is that Nintendo's service and guarantee actually sucks BIG time !

My son's DS upper (!) display cracked after only 3 months of use. It did NOT fall or get damaged in any other way and my son is very careful of his toys. It had been in an OFFICIAL Nintendo protective hard-plastic see-through cover for it's entire use. The screen actually broke while he was playing a game (he showed it to me after it happened and I had seen the screens just before he started playing....)

So, back to the store, sent back under guarantee. I get back an "offer" from Nintendo (or actually some freaking 3rd part company that "apparently" does Nintendo's "service" here, it would be nice they would mention NINTENDO somewhere....) For "only €87,50 I can get a refurbished one.

Wait a minute Nintendo, I buy a product, it FAILS well within warranty and you claim LCD's are "not in warranty". I think under Dutch law it is impossible to exclude any part of a product you sell.

Next, I ask Nintendo to proof that the LCD was damaged by US and did not break spontaneously. Imagine my mixture of laughter and anger when they e-mail me a picture of the damaged screen. DUH, I KNOW how it looked when I handed it in. That is NO proof that _we_ damaged it.....

To top it off, if I want the DS back, I will have to pay €25 because of "examination costs". But it is still under warranty Nintendo !!!! I complained about this at the store because they did not mention that I would have to pay this if it turned out to be not under guarantee (which I still do not agree about). Anyway the store agreed to take the 25 euro's cost and so I got the damaged one back.

Later found out that replacement displays are really cheap, so I ordered one. Thing is, this stuff inside there is tiny.
Everything went well, but I made the mistake that I removed the "flat-cable" (actually this plastic flimsy stuff) wrongly from the lower screen (which was completely unneeded to replace the upper screen I later discovered). Anyway, I ---fouled up beyond all recognition--- up, can't re-insert that flat-cable anymore (top screen actually works great)....

Decided to buy a new DS. I actually think the DS is constructed very poorly since it's used mainly by kids. It looks very flimsy at various spots. This is one machine that won't last long but I guess Nintendo doesn't give much about it.

Saw the DS lite for 99 euro's in Paris yesterday by the way, I payed 122 just a week or two ago.

All in all, not impressed at all. I received a questionnaire about customer satisfaction about the warranty treatment and you can imagine how I filled it in....I wonder if they'll even get in touch.....

[LLUncoolJ]

I've never had a system die. I wore the switched out on my 2600. I've wore controllers out on several games. I've never owned an XBox, but the kid that works here is on his 3rd 360. The DS breakage was a result of a 6yo bouncing it off the hardwood floor. When it is replaced, it will be outfitted with Nerf armor.

As far as a screen spontaneously breaking...were you in Antarctica? If my boy came in and told me his screen cracked for no reason other than normal play, I'd call bulllshit. Just like I call bulllshit everytime something in my house spontaneously breaks and 'nobody was even in the same room'.

[Level42]

As far as a screen spontaneously breaking...were you in Antarctica? If my boy came in and told me his screen cracked for no reason other than normal play, I'd call bulllshit. Just like I call bulllshit everytime something in my house spontaneously breaks and 'nobody was even in the same room'.

Yeah. Normally I wouldn't have believed it either if I hadn't been there when it happened....I KNEW that it was OK when he started playing it, else he would have told me right away. I saw him playing for a while on the couch and was there all the time. After some time he calls me and says the game is wrong...and I see the "ink spot" typical for a cracked LCD. There is not a single scratch or anything on the top surface of the screen either.
 My kid is not the kind that throws around his toys but it may have dropped  at one time. If so, I think a TOY (Nintendo may claim else, but this _IS_ a TOY) should be able to handle a drop from 40 cm's.  I've had numerous cell phones and other stuff that survived countless drops, a product should be tested for things like that.

I guess my 2600 is still working fine, but I'd have to dig it up from my parent's attick and try it to be sure. Of course both joysticks broke just after the (6 month) warranty.
Bought a SNES 2nd hand and it's still working.

I generally dislike things that have a "fold up" lid. There are basic laws about electrical connections that tell you that sooner or later the connection between the base and the lid will fail.

I still got the old DS and I'll order a touch-screen for a couple of euro's and see if I can get it going again. If it works I'll probably sell it.

The thing is that I'm pretty sure that under Dutch law Nintendo has no right to rule out any part of a product.  The big issue is that _being_ right is something else than _getting_ your right, as I'm not going to spend the money and time for a law-suite against them. In that sense, laws are paper tigers.

[Nipedley]

Sounds like a good deal they offered you on the repair there, especially considering the damage was 'accidental' they usually charge through the roof for things like that. Out of all the consoles and handhelds I've owned, I only ever had 1 PS2 die due to an old laser, excluding of course the fact I'm now on my fourth xbox 360 (horrific design flaws there..) I'm still on my original 'phat' ds as well, though when my friends broke in the same manner as your son's (shattered hinge) she found it was cheaper to buy a new one than go the repair route... The only customer service I've had to test is Microsoft's and surprisingly they have come through for me every time so far. Since they plan to keep the 360 in service for a few more years yet then I suspect I'll have a few more rounds with them as well.

[LLUncoolJ]

I guess my 2600 is still working fine, but I'd have to dig it up from my parent's attick and try it to be sure. Of course both joysticks broke just after the (6 month) warranty.

I sold mine at a yard sale many moons ago. I don't know how many jpysticks I went through, probably dozens. I remember I just scraped up enough money to buy Pitfall II and a new joystick. That night, after making it quite a distance and then getting killed in a stupid fashion, I threw the joystick down to the ground and the thing expoded into about 10 pieces. I was about 12 and my family didn't have a lot of money, so I had to go out and pick up aluminum cans off the side of the road for about 2 months to round up enough dough for a new joystick. Until then, I had to use my old one with the cracked white plastic circle that contacts the switched.

[Level42]

Well after both originals broke I bought a Spectravideo Quicshot like this:


I guess as a kid I was impressed with the flight-yoke design but it sucked completely at every game except "flying games" (How many were there of those at that time ?)

I also had a tight budget and I don't even remember how, but the Spectravideo wasn't that expensive.
It broke even sooner than that the Atari's did, and in a way I was actually glad.

Next decided to get the best of the best available at the time. Not cheap, but this was the "real" arcade joystick:
Suzo Competition Pro:
Luckely I was "early" enough to get the leaf-switch version.They later changed to clickety-click microswitches, and I guess it is this stick that created my love for leafs....
It played and still plays like a dream and works great until this day.
The throw is very short but it's very precise. It's easily my favorite control of any home system ever.
I only had to replace the cord at one time because the outer protection near the body was coming loose, but it was still working fine even then.

They don't build stuff like this anymore......sigh......

[shardian]

I sold mine at a yard sale many moons ago. I don't know how many jpysticks I went through, probably dozens. I remember I just scraped up enough money to buy Pitfall II and a new joystick. That night, after making it quite a distance and then getting killed in a stupid fashion, I threw the joystick down to the ground and the thing expoded into about 10 pieces. I was about 12 and my family didn't have a lot of money, so I had to go out and pick up aluminum cans off the side of the road for about 2 months to round up enough dough for a new joystick. Until then, I had to use my old one with the cracked white plastic circle that contacts the switched.

I had a friend who pulled that ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, and I hated him for it. Here I was a poor kid who could only dream of having a brand new SNES, and here he had one and was pitching a fit repeatedly and slamming/breaking his controllers. I treated my controllers like 24 carat gold.
At least you had to replace your own. He just whined to his mom until she got him a new one...usually same day.

[ChadTower]

Or the guys smashing could just not smash the controllers?  I didn't even get a 2600 until someone gave me a beaten one in like 1982.  I played that thing relentlessly and never had a controller problem.  OEM 2600 sticks lasted forever unless someone was dumb enough to smash it on the floor or chew on it.  Now, if you want to talk 5200 or 7800, now you have a gripe, but the 2600 sticks stood up to everything except stupidity.  Mine had 100k miles on it when I got it and I put on at least another 100 without the sticks ever having a problem.

BTW, why the hell does every 2600 stick I have found in the last 8 years have teeth marks all over it?  I'm not talking little ones either.  I'm talking holes chewed through the rubber and the white plastic stick chewed like a dog's toy.

[whammoed]

BTW, why the hell does every 2600 stick I have found in the last 8 years have teeth marks all over it?  I'm not talking little ones either.  I'm talking holes chewed through the rubber and the white plastic stick chewed like a dog's toy.

Reminds me of when my dog ate the entire rubber part of a 2600 stick.  What a mess coming out of both ends.   

[LLUncoolJ]

Now I can't be precise, I would've been about 10 years old, give or take. But my originals wore out from good ole fashion game play. I played that thing every spare minute. I'd estimate at least 2 hours a day. The one I blew up was about 4 or 5 years in...it was an after market Walmart special. I went through several varieties. I once had a Tron looking flight yoke. True that though as far as Atari sucking with that kind of stick. You could play some shooters such as Yar's revenge (one of the 2600's finest games) and the occasional flight game, but Asteroids, Missile Command, Ms Pac...all very awkward.

Don't be clowning me about my 10 year old frustrations with Pitfall II. Very frustrating when I got killed doing something routine and it started me from the beginning. Makes we want to smash a jotstick just thinking about it.

[ChadTower]

We're not talking about the third party sticks.  Of course they were of varying quality.  We're talking about the OEM 2600 sticks.  I have never seen one, even now, that doesn't still work pretty well and also doesn't have obvious signs of abuse or storage neglect.

[LLUncoolJ]

I wore my originals out. The plastic ring that mashed the contacts would break in them. Now, I am remembering things from 25 years ago. I may have been a little overzelous in playing, but I wouldn't say it was outside of the boundries of normal play. These things had a LOT of miles on them. If memory serves, it seems like the OEMs were a little pricey. But you're right, they were the best ones I owned.

Wow...a moment of clarity. I sit around and ponder how my boy can f up a steel ball and realize I was the same way. Oh well, he is still going to pay for the DS repair.

[ChadTower]

Hrm... well I've probably rebuilt 50 of them and parted out 100 more that had been badly abused.  Those contact rings very rarely broke even when the stick had been beaten to crap.

[LLUncoolJ]

Well, I was a fat little ---fudgesicle---, I may have been pushing and pulling too hard. But I was a bad mofo...hardly beatable in the 10 yo catagory. But I assure you that that was the part I broke repeatedly...at least on the OEMs.

[Level42]

Hrm... well I've probably rebuilt 50 of them and parted out 100 more that had been badly abused.  Those contact rings very rarely broke even when the stick had been beaten to crap.

I don't know how you managed to see huge number of original Atari joysticks like that that didn't have that plastic ring broken.

The things were and are infamous for that very ring to break. It's exactly what happend to my P1 joystick after 6 months and a couple of weeks and a week or two later the P2 joystick suffered the same fate.

It's simply a very poor construction. The plastic ring is not up to the force required to push in the "bulb"-click metal contacts for a long period of use. True, this was at a time where I was _SO_ involved in the games that I moved the joystick through the air with the directions I pushed it, but I didn't ever throw them or beat them or abuse them in any other way......

By the way, you are all welcome to come over to throw my Suzo across the room 100 times, and I will guarantee you it's still working after that.

[ChadTower]

It's not up the force required once the part has been deformed via excessive force.  You can tell, once you've seen a lot of them, which sticks were used reasonably and which were used like you're trying to winch up a kid from an abandoned well.

[saint]

Those are what gave out on my original 2600 sticks as well.

[Level42]

You can tell, once you've seen a lot of them, which sticks were used reasonably and which were used like you're trying to winch up a kid from an abandoned well.

Like the DS, the 2600 controllers were mainly used and aimed at kids. They should have been built sturdier. BUT that would have increased cost of course.

I don't remember exactly, but I think I payed something like 75 Dutch Guilders (ahhhh, the days LONG before the Euro) for the Suzo stick. I think a regular Atari controller was less than half that price RETAIL.

If there was one company in the business in those days who knew how to build sturdy controllers it was Atari.

[ChadTower]

Like the DS, the 2600 controllers were mainly used and aimed at kids.

That's not true at all here.  The commercials were aimed straight at the "for all ages" message and they went to extremes to show it was for the whole family.  Here's a good example and there are tons more all over Youtube.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0kWqjDUu7o[/youtube]

[LLUncoolJ]

If the commercial said it, it must be true. Just like this IS the most interesting man in the world:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCT8x3YoT2s[/youtube]

Slightly different from the version I saw on ESPN last night..that version didn't have the piano, but him with a babe in one arm and a trophy in the other.

Well, if that cheap plastic ring made the 2600 affordable enough for my family, then kudos. I was still jelous as hell of the kids next door that had Intelivision and Collecovision.

[ChadTower]

If the commercial said it, it must be true.

Erm, yeah, if the commercial said it, then yes it must be true that the system was not aimed strictly at kids.  Seeing as how the commercial is how the thing is marketed and all, yes?   

[Ed_McCarron]

Hrm... well I've probably rebuilt 50 of them and parted out 100 more that had been badly abused.  Those contact rings very rarely broke even when the stick had been beaten to crap.

Obviously wasn't a Nintendo stick...

Wait, does anyone even remember that argument anymore?

[LLUncoolJ]

Me: "Gramma, want to play Atari with me?"
Gramma: "Uhhh, not right now"
Me: "Pleeeeaaassseee....I've got bowling...you like bowling"
Gramma: "Get lost ya little ---simply the best thing ever---, I got Pall Malls to smoke"

Clearly Atari's marketing was lost on my gramma.

[ChadTower]

Obviously wasn't a Nintendo stick...

Wait, does anyone even remember that argument anymore?

Well that plastic ring was a consumable part!  Worn out consumables != broken!  Waaaaaaaaah!

 

[Level42]

Chad, you may still believe TV commercials but if you really think that there were just as many adult people playing 2600's in the day as kids, you must be dreaming.

If I see a kid around the age of my son today, it doesn't take very long and there pops up the DS......it's never a PSX or anything else, it's a DS. It's been like that ever since the GameBOY (Notice the word BOY).....

I do think there are more adults playing DS today then there were playing 2600's in it's golden age but I dare to say that it's at least 70% under 18s that play DS's.

[ChadTower]

Chad, you may still believe TV commercials but if you really think that there were just as many adult people playing 2600's in the day as kids, you must be dreaming.

You are the one who brought up the word "aim", not me. 

Like the DS, the 2600 controllers were mainly used and aimed at kids.

I addressed the marketing aspect of your comment.  I haven't said a thing about who was actually using the sticks.

[Nipedley]

I think the main users of the DS are as you say, young children & those who grew up with the gameboy. I'm one of the latter, New Super Mario Bros DS ftw. That being said, I also grew up with an amiga, amstrad cpc 464, megadrive and later playstation too and would expect most of the kids today to have just as much access Think I had a later model atari at one point as well though thats going too far back for me to remember properly. I only remember playing a helicopter game on it

Addressing the other aspect of this thread, I've never broken a controller much less a stick, my original competition pro for my amiga is still going today. May have had a button stick once or twice on a saturn controller but managed to get that sorted as well.

[LLUncoolJ]

The DS showed up fixed yesterday. I shipped it July 28 and it showed up on Aug 11. Not too bad. The lower screen looks to be his old one, but the top screen is new. The case is new. When he fired it up, he had to re-enter his info, that may have been due to the battery being discharged...or maybe they replaced the guts...not sure. I haven't had time to inspect it that closely.