Nintendo reportedly offering free Switch Joy-Con repairs

Nintendo is in hot water over its sale of Joy-Cons in the US. The firm is facing a class-action lawsuit accusing it of selling the product despite knowledge of defection. Now, reports are surfacing that Nintendo is offering free repairs for Joy-Cons suffering the infamous “drift” issue – along with reimbursements for prior repairs.

Joy-Cons, the Nintendo Switch’s detachable controllers, have been known to suffer from a fault dubbed “Joy-Con Drift”, whereby the devices in question move items on the screen by themselves, without operation from users.

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The issue has snowballed in recent weeks, with the Nintendo telling customer-service representatives that the company will offer free Joy-Con repairs, extending a refund to users who have already paid for the service. What’s more, customers will reportedly be taken at their word, with the company not requiring proof of purchase in order to fix the controllers.

The contents of an internal memo at Nintendo was intercepted by VICE Games, and stipulated that “customers will no longer be requested to provide proof of purchase for Joy-Con repairs”. It went on to add: “It is not necessary to confirm warranty status. If a customer requests a refund for a previously paid Joy-Con repair […] confirm the prior repair and then issue a refund”.

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As for Nintendo, it did not respond to questions for comment. It did, however, release the following statement: “At Nintendo, we take great pride in creating quality products and we are continuously making improvements to them. We are aware of recent reports that some Joy-Con controllers are not responding correctly.”

The statement directed users to Nintendo’s support hub: “We want our consumers to have fun with Nintendo Switch, and if anything falls short of this goal we always encourage them to visit http://support.nintendo.com so we can help.”

When VICE contacted the company to anonymously report Switch defects, Nintendo instructed the user to update the system’s software and contact again if the fault persisted. After carrying out instructions to no avail, VICE got in touch for a second time, with Nintendo agreeing to send a pre-paid shipping label for the no-charge repair of the controller, in turn appearing to confirm rumours of free Joy-Con repairs.

We will be updating this story when we obtain more information on Nintendo’s repairs policy, so be sure to check back in.