Late last week I decided to send in my Nintendo Switch’s left Joy-Con for repairs. What follows is a brief timeline of how that went.
LAST THURSDAY: I’m playing Splatoon 2, using the split Joy-Con motion control setup because I like to win. I realise that, now that I need the Joy-Con for a competitive online game, the wireless disconnection issue that plagued some of the early Joy-Cons has become too annoying to ignore.
I’d heard it’s easy to send the controller in and get it fixed, so I call up Nintendo support. After walking me through the troubleshooting steps I’d already taken (move it away from aquariums and so on), the support rep says he’s going to email me a shipping label so I can send the controller in for service.
FRIDAY: I drop the Joy-Con off at the UPS store in a box with the two-day air label that Nintendo sent me.
THE WEEKEND: I play Splatoon 2 with a Pro Controller and do fine. My Switch sits in its dock with only the right, orange Joy-Con. It looks kind of sad and injured. There’s a pretty good episode of Game of Thrones.
MONDAY: No updates.
TUESDAY MORNING: I get an email from Nintendo support saying they have received the Joy Con and will begin work on it.
TUESDAY EVENING: Later that same day, I get a second email saying that my Joy Con has been fixed and sent back to me via overnight shipping.
WEDNESDAY MORNING: I find a box outside my door containing the Joy-Con and a service statement from Minilec Service, a Nintendo repair subcontractor. I try the Joy-Con and the issue appears to have been completely resolved. The momentary disconnects are gone.
To recap: I called Nintendo Support on Thursday and they were able to repair my controller and get it back to me in less than a week. Granted, the Joy Con fix is apparently very simple, and the problem is widespread enough that it behoved Nintendo to set up a faster-than-usual repair pipeline. And yeah, in a perfect world this sort of repair wouldn’t have been necessary in the first place.
All the same, I’ve heard about and experienced so many repair and customer service nightmares over the years that it feels almost miraculous to have a product repair go this smoothly. Nice job, Nintendo.
Comments
5 responses to “Nintendo Fixed My Left Joy-Con Really Fast”
Breaking news, Nintendo perform basic customer service adequately. Remember this date everyone.
I had a dodgy left Joy con.
Rang Nintendo to be told I would have to send it in.
Thought stuff that.
Rang EB games who I bought it from. They swapped out both joycons for a brand new set. Got me some bright yellow joy cons now and they are sweet. I price match everything without issue and get great customer service at EBs…..always have.
To the comment above, if you ever had to get a NES serviced back in the day you would appreciated the timeframe posted in this article.
Quick question, and only out of curiosity – was this a set of joy cons you bought from EB, or the set that came with the Switch itself?
And this is why we come to Kotaku, for engaging thought provoking articles such as this. Thank you, Kirk for taking the 20 minutes out of your morning travels to write this article. I truely appreciate the hard work you put in.
P. S. Actually a big thank you because my girlfriend’s joy con is having the same issue and I can pass this information onto her 🙂
The gold standard for me was MS during the RROD incident, getting my 360 consoles repaired was very quick and painless. The second time I didn’t even have to call, it had been streamlined into a online form to fill out at that point. Never mind the fact that MS RROD debacle was a joke but MS fixed the consoles quickly!