Customer service gone shockingly right

(I have to throw in a little plug for Vox here, even though I just use their services for free. This entry survived being #1 on digg.com and reddit.com in the same day, and one person claimed they couldn't get to it, but I personally never saw Vox go down. Nicely done, SixApart.)

(I also have to say that if you read this and you think I got paid, or that I'm lying, you are a sad, sad, cynical person. It only goes to show how rare great customer service is, and how important it is that we tell the "good" stories as well as the bad.)

I bought a Nintendo Wii on launch day (11/19/06). Every day since then, excepting the two weeks I was on vacation, it has been lovingly used in our house. It has traveled to spread the gospel of Nintendo-style gaming in the homes of friends and relatives. It has been lent out as the star of children's birthday parties. And all this time, its optical drive was a little louder than I liked, but I thought maybe they were all that way.

Over the past few weeks it started getting louder. I knew I should get it looked at. It wasn't damaging game discs, but it was really annoying when the vibration noise was louder than the game sounds. I just hated the idea of explaining to my 6 year old that when he does want to play -- because he does a lot of things that are not playing video games, but it's a tradition for us to have a quick round of Monkey Ball or Mario Party in the evenings, and I traded in the GameCube for the Wii since the Wii plays all the GCN games -- that it would be out for a few weeks getting repaired. I finally resolved to send it in over this coming weekend, when we had lots of outdoor outings planned.

So I called the Nintendo customer service telephone number, located right there on their web site (you would be surprised how many companies, and especially repair departments, don't list their phone number on the web). The message telling me I had to wait for a CSR didn't even finish playing before a rep was on the line. I explained my problem and she said she'd get me an RMA right away to get it fixed.

She asked for my phone number. I gave it to her. She did a bit of a verbal double-take and said, "Are you here in Washington?"

"I'm in Redmond, as a matter of fact [location of Nintendo of America's campus]," I replied.

"Well then, let's not bother with the RMA and the shipping labels and all of that. Just bring it on in to Nintendo," she said.

Wh-what...?

She assured me she was not kidding. She gave me directions to the Nintendo campus building where the Customer Service Center was located, and five minutes later I was looking at an unassuming door. I took a deep breath, told my son to hold on to the Wii with both hands, for goodness' sake, and opened the door.

A life-size Mario and a larger-than-life Pikachu greeted us. So did a really nice, cheerful woman behind the sales counter. I related my telephone conversation to her, still certain that I'd been had.

"Oh, yeah!" she said. "We do that!"

"Awesome," I blurted. I really did say "Awesome." I'm embarassed about that now.

"It's going to be about 30 minutes, though," she went on. "I'm really sorry."

She wasn't Japanese, but clearly Nintendo is a Japanese company. Only a Japanese service center would apologize for taking 30 minutes to repair a piece of electronics when my expectation going in was that I'd be without it for two weeks.

The boy played games in the waiting area while I sat under the watchful eye of Mario. 25 minutes later I saw her emerge from the back room out of the corner of my eye, but I was watching the boy playing a particularly suspenseful level of Wario Ware Twist. She waited until she heard the "level complete" sound to get my attention.

In those 25 minutes, they'd transferred all of my Miis, friends, and saved games from the old console to a new one. She logged on to make sure my 500 points transferred to the shopping channel. She sent me out with a $0.00 invoice showing a warranty replacement of my Wii and a reset of the warranty clock, meaning the Wii I took home has 15 months of coverage from today, even though I bought my original one almost 3 months ago.

So this is my Valentine to Nintendo. That was the most awesome customer service experience I ever, ever had.

Edited to add photos for those who claim I'm lying about the experience or the existence of this Customer Service Center: