Nintendo Offers Free Switch Repairs- Do You Qualify?
by Jude Locke
Released in 2017, the Nintendo Switch’s Joy-Con accessories have persistent issues with performance; in particular the phenomena known as ‘drift’ in which the controller recognizes input on the joystick regardless of if pressure is being applied.
While the issue in design has been present from the start, and even acknowledged by Nintendo, it has yet to be fixed in newer models and may not be. In 2019 a class action was even filed against the company in the US due to the increasing number of cases, and the default 2 year warranty having expired. In 2021 continued complaints caused the EU to follow suit and begin an investigation on the issue.
So what happened? Is Nintendo being forced to address all of the complaints? Did the public win? Well… no.
In November of 2022 the US Class action suit was closed in favor of Nintendo. The court determined that due to Nintendo’s EULA that all users agree to, the user’s have forfeited their rights to engage in a lawsuit in lieu of arbitration. More details of this can be found in the ‘Sanchez et. al. v. Nintendo of America’ case.
Now if Nintendo won the case, how does that entitle you to free joy con repairs? That answer is easy. As an early response to the complaints and the lawsuits, Nintendo opened up free joy-con repairs on their support site. It’s not excitedly advertised anywhere, but we filled out the form, and sure enough the total comes to $0.00
As Nintendo has not said if they have fixed this issue in recent models, you may find yourself doing this with some frequency, but at least the inconvenience does not come with an additional price tag. Game on!
