Switch owners with the faulty Joy-Con drift issue in the UK, European Economic Area and Switzerland can now receive free repairs from Nintendo, even if they are out of warranty.
The long-troubled, and widely hated, Joy-Con has been plagued with what’s labelled as ‘Joy-Con drift’, which Nintendo UK cites as “responsiveness syndrome,” for its whole life since the launch of the Switch back in 2017. Many Nintendo Switch users reported issues the second they got their hands on the console and have faced a rather uphill battle with Nintendo to get them fixed.
When these Joy-Con drift issues were reported and sent off to Nintendo, some owners were told that they either needed proof of purchase of the consoles while others were asked very few questions and given a free repair. It was a weird time.
Nintendo then became subject to multiple lawsuits across many different regions concerning the faulty Joy-Con. The EU also called for investigations into the Switch’s Joy-Con drift issues after they received thousands of complaints. One lawsuit claimed that Nintendo knew they were selling broken Switch controllers.
Now, the change in Nintendo UK and Europe’s policy brings it in line with other regions like North America, Latin America and France, where there’s no warranty requirement to repair the Joy-Con for free.
This is now what reads on the Nintendo UK support page, in regard to repairs for Joy-Con drift issues, which is similar to that of the other regions:
“Until further notice, Nintendo will not charge you in the European Economic Area (EEA), UK and Switzerland for the repair of the responsiveness syndrome irrespective of whether this is caused by a defect or by wear and tear.
“Nintendo offers to consumers who purchased Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers in the European Economic Area (EEA), UK and Switzerland that the repair of a responsiveness syndrome of the analogue stick will be conducted at no charge by Nintendo official repair centres. This applies even if the syndrome is caused by wear and tear and even if the 24-month manufacturer’s warranty provided by Nintendo has expired.”
Obviously, Nintendo does reserve the right to refuse any free repair if they believe the fault is the result of unofficial modification or due to another issue that’s not Joy-Con drift.
In Australia, it’s been a bit of a wild, rather implicit, ride for owners trying to get the same free repair rights here. Luckily for us, we have pretty good consumer laws and watchdogs (hi ACCC), who are regularly quite good at sorting issues like this out.
As a result, users in Australia are entitled to free repairs should they prove that the Nintendo Switch was purchased in Australia, with a serial or production number. If so, that puts the Switch (and the Joy-Con drift issue) under Australian consumer law and the various protections that apply to customers.
So if you’re based in Europe, or the UK, go on out there and get your Switch Joy-Con drift issues repaired by Nintendo for free, dammit.
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