A Gamer’s Plight: Unable To Retrieve Your Console From Nintendo

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A user on NeoGAF, known only by the username “RagingAvatar,” is having a problem with Nintendo customer service; they refuse to give him back his console due to modifications. In his thread on NeoGAF, he details about how he modded his console solely for a region change. He only plays Japanese games and pointed out that he does not have any illegal copies of games. As you may have guessed, this voided his warranty. He was fine with that, as he was more than willing to pay for the repair cost out of warranty.

He needed the flaps replaced on the console; the flaps that cover the GameCube controller and memory card ports. In an attempt to get the replacements sent to him, he was told that they could not send the flaps to him as a stand-alone replacement part; he would need to send in the entire console to get those replaced. Should be no problem then, right? Wrong.



They want £120 (approx. $190 USD) to replace the flaps. However, that isn’t all they want to replace; they want to completely revert his console back to a PAL version. Upon hearing this, he wanted his console returned to him with no alterations. However, he soon learned that it wouldn’t be a case of “you ask, so shall you receive.” He was unable to retrieve his console without signing a form.

When he decided to go ahead and try to retrieve his console through one of Nintendo’s “Ask Mii” customer service representatives, he was given the run around and learned that he couldn’t have his console returned to him without a signed form. His customer service experience was less than stellar. Here is a small excerpt of the situation (“You” being the user, RagingAvatar, and “Kieran” being the AskMii representative):

You: 
You’re basically saying: We won’t return your console without you signing.. something. (What am I going to be agreeing to?)
You: 
So, you are holding my property without my authorisation – it has been recinded.
Kieran: 
You will have to read that on the letter.

You can read the conversation in full here. It is a sad turn of events to hear that someone who modded their console for personal preference and is doing nothing illegal with said modification is having such a hard time retrieving their console back from Nintendo. Having sent in the console for a simple replacement and having it turn into a massive problem for a reason irrelevant to the issue must be extremely frustrating. Here’s hoping the user gets his console back unaltered soon with little to no further troubles.