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:
Comments
It *is* awesome. I am in awe of that level of service. You should not only write them a nice thanks, you should send this story to The Consumerist blog.
[blink]
[blink]
...wow.
LT: Yeah, the kiddo was home sick, so when I said, "Do you want to go to Nintendo and see if they can fix it for us?" I am pretty sure he thought it was just fever delusion.
I did send it to the Consumerist. :) And to Digg. Nintendo deserves the love.
Teho: I know.
You should add this to the We <3 Wii group. I found one dead subpixel on my brand new DS Lite that I purchased when the DS Lite was released. I called them and immediately was sent all necessary shipping labels to ship it back to the mother ship and get a new DS Lite.
However your story just blows anything I've ever heard about away. Neat. =)
All that really happened was that Nintendo saved some shipping money -_-................
I will say that Nintendo's customer service is typically above average but this article is a stupid glorification of that well known fact.
Hi Chad,
I'm not sure why you're so bothered by the fact that I had a good experience with Nintendo and documented it. Thanks for stopping by, though.
I'm not arguing that Nintendo has some stand up customer service, because I know they do. But it's nothing extraordinary.
I think you completely misunderstood the whole 30 minutes point. I waited 30 minutes while they transferred everything I had earned, purchased, and configured from my malfunctioning system to a new one. When you send in a laptop for repair and wait two weeks, you usually get it back with a wiped hard drive. I think what Nintendo did was exceptional -- they could have had me bring it in, drop it off, and come back for it the next day, or the next week. Instead they fixed it for me the moment I walked in.
Frankly, I get sick and tired of hearing people bitch constantly about the customer service they aren't happy with when they rarely acknowledge the good. Imagine if every performance review you got at your job was about the one thing you screwed up, and nobody ever let it go, and on top of that they never acknowledged when you went above and beyond the call of duty. If you think acknowledging that makes me fanatical, I think you're a cynic and we can just agree that you don't need to read the story.
The perception isn't skewed by the content the company creates. It's in contrast to the performance of other companies in the exact same space (manufacture of specialized technology devices).
Go Saska! someone in my CO/VOX hood is internet famous!
(Also, I am still jealous about the Wii.)
I found your post through the team Vox page. your experience is pretty awesome. it's good to know that there are still companies out there that actually want to please their customers by--gasp!--taking care of their problems. this is how companies earn repeat business.
i can totally understand the feeling of getting good customer service. i worked retail for nearly ten years, and both of the stores i worked in were ones that emphasized customer service. i was pretty good at that aspect of my job, if i do say so myself, so i really appreciate it on those (unfortunately rare) ocassions when i actually get good customer service!
what i really don't understand, however, is how many companies out there don't care about pleasing their customers. i guess they figure they make so much frigging money that it doesn't matter if they treat a few people like crap and lose a couple customers out of the deal. one of my training manuels said that people are likely to tell up to ten people about a BAD service experience, but maybe two or three (it might be as many as five) about a GOOD experience.
so it's good to hear about a good one!
Thanks all!
mariser, I saw on Team Vox that you and AuntieM and a few other people were out of Vox all day yesterday, and that makes me feel bad. Whatever hosts my blog stayed up admirably, but I'm very sorry to hear that it may have been at the expense of other users. I hope they're unrelated, and if they are related, I hope that SixApart already has something in the works to address that in the future. Not that I plan on achieving any level of notoriety again soon. =D
oh wow. Is that really why I couldn't get on Vox for most of the work day yeasterday? Don't apologize though...because I actually got a little bit of (shhhh) *work* done.
I agree about the whole thing of bad vs. good customer service. It is common to get horrible customer service, and it's unfortunate that we are so surprised when we actually get the good kind, but it definitely should be acknowledged as much as the bad. I think that if companies got such glowing feedback about their customer service, they might be a little more conscientious about keeping their customers satisfied.
nintendo is a great company it's really nice to see them putting their customers first.
[awesome]
Funny that something can be very well known in one group and totally unknown in another. Too often, as has been said, we all hear the bitching (I've done my share) and far too little is praise heard for stellar customer service. You post makes me feel more comfortable in buying from Nintendo for nieces and nephews.
In fact, even if it is just to write and say that you liked something is well appreciated by the company. When I first tasted Nile Spice cup of foods, I wrote to them about my positive experience with flavors and selections. I expected nothing back, but received a dozen containers just for having written.
Thanks for the write up. I appreciated it. (You can send the hugs to Marketing Canapes)
i also really need to get a wii.
Your post reminded me of something that happened to my dad just recently. He managed a branch trucking company. Recently, one of his drivers was involved in a really bad accident where his truck crashed. At 4am on a Sunday, the driver was taking a shipment of Nintendo Wii's to Seattle when suddenly a boulder came loose from the mountainside road where he was driving and literally smashed down in front of the rig, sending it crashing into the air and the trailer breaking into pieces. Over 800 Wii's went flying. The company my dad works for was looking at $240,000 worth in damages to the Wii's. However, after the driver was thankfully admitted to the hospital for only minor injuries, a crew of my dad's of other drivers went to the scene and gathered every single Wii. Not one was lost or stolen and they were all sent back to Nintendo for testing because of the diligent work of my dad's drivers who got woken at 5am on Sunday morning from their beds. Disaster averted. Driver was uninjured and the Wii's saved. Loss minimal. Yay!
after all you also played the Wii didn'tya?
@Kristen
whoa! that's truly going beyond the call o' duty (0=
are they getting a bonus for helpin the company survive the disaster?
Yeep -- so many comments. Thanks to all of you for taking the time to come by, read, and leave your thoughts! Some specific answers:
@peeps who couldn't get into Vox yesterday: I am glad it wasn't my fault. I'm sorry you couldn't get in. Those darned tubes.
@brownamazon: I don't like fame very much when I feel like the spotlight should be somewhere else. As I said in the Team Vox post, I'm just a writer. Nintendo is the star of this story, and Vox gets a best supporting blog for not croaking. :) I'm glad so many people read it. Over on digg, the 200+ comments relating similar experiences with Nintendo tell me that it wasn't a fluke at all, but rather par for the course with Nintendo, which is the coolest thing I learned. This is the first time I ever had to get a Nintendo console repaired.
@Kristen: not only is that also an awesome story of a company's employees going above and beyond the call of duty, there are over 800 families who are happier because of the efforts. ;)
For those who are having trouble finding a Wii, I can't encourage you enough to show up at Sunday opening time for stores like Target and Best Buy. If they list the Wii in their Sunday advertisement, they are holding stock until that day because they can be fined for advertising a product they do not have in stock the day of the ad.
@mikepop: That's hilarious. Thank you. :) I will send the diggers who whined that the post was too long in the direction of that site.
great customer service equals customer loyalty. Good Job to Nintendo and you for having Vox write a blog about your entry!
Thanks for the Target tip! I need a Wii!!!
I feel like after reading this I had to join Vox to share my story on this article: A couple of years back when the DS was new, I'd imported a Japanese version as soon as it came out. I'm in UK, so I got it shipped via Lik-Sang from Japan to UK. I finally get my hands on it after collecting it from the courier one night, and find out that it doesn't work - it just switches on and right back off again. I call up Nintendo of Europe and see if anything can be done, but they say since it's not out in UK yet they can't warrant it.
I thought it was a long shot, but hey, why not - I called up Nintendo of America. After listening to some F-Zero and Yoshi's Island Big Band music, I talked to a very friendly guy who put my on hold after explaining the situation. He said that despite the fact that it's Japanese, it's still under warranty so I can send it to them and they'll repair or replace it. So let me go over this again - I'm in the UK, I imported a Japanese DS, and yet Nintendo of America would let me send my DS to them and they would send it back to me. And they did! I got a brand new silver DS back in the post. They were very easy to deal with and have by far given me the best customer service I've ever seen.
Geeze, their customer service isn't that good... look at the sign on the front door. Closed Sunday?
But in all seriousness, It's good to hear about excellent customer service! Go Big N!
That is a great story of what customer service should be about. Like you, I am often frustrated with going to a company Web site and cannot find a phone number or a Web chat application. Either of those works for me, but please don't make me submit a Web form or an e-mail.
I have not had the customer service like you did, but I will offer kudos to a few companies that seem to have it right. My Honda dealer has a great service dept. and never questions what I want. DISH network answers the phone quickly, does what I want, and make great offers for additional help. Finally, even thought it is a huge company, Bank of America is very customer-friendly. And, like you, I was not paid for these endorsements.
Amazing!
I am forwarding this to my colleagues and friends. Common sense, down to earth service.
Thanks Saska for shering this with us!
I don't have a Wii, but I want one... or a DS Lite. :)
this is truly the nicest thing i have read in days. i dont have a wii yet but this quality of customer service is amazing., i can imagine how bad it might have been to have lost your wii for two weeks.
to quote someone in Digg.
"I think I've been officially converted into a Nintendo fanboy "
The thing is, this is simply the kind of service that consumer have been wanting for years. Perfect. 10/10 to nintendo. thanks for posting this
I'm really, really glad your little boy didn't have to be without his Wii. A lot of people might think it extreme that he plays every day, but coming from a family that has not went without a Nintendo console in the house for over 18 years, I know just how hard it can be, especially when gaming is not just a solo activity --- it's a family affair.
Glad you had such a wonderful experience. And anyone who thinks you were paid is a twit. Ignore the haters, love the Nintendo!
You are sooooooooo fortunate. Does Nintendo make printers? (I know they don't.)
I had a week long experience with HP and a printer they sent me to replace a broken printer. it was a nightmare!! I will never buy anything made by Hewlett Packard again.Their customer service is absolutely the worst I have experienced. Each time I called or emailed for help, they started at the beginning of their "script" and I had to repeat everything we had done or tried before.They disconnected the email after 45 minutes, although the problem was not taken care of. I finally gave up in despair and will buy a new printer--not an HP.
Maybe we could talk Nintendo into manufacturing printers or teaching HP about customer service!!
Just, awsome.
And I still haven't gotten a wii. Should, though.
Here's an independent verification of this post. :)
Inspired by this story, I brought my Wii to the customer service center on Monday because of an issue I was having (static over the speakers when in Standby mode, just Google it).
I work down the street, so I just dropped my Wii off in the morning. I came by a couple of hours later, and was given a brand new Wii, everything (settings, Miis, saves) transferred over, and as good as new as well as my issue resolved with the new unit.
Nintendo's customer service rocks.
But this is not to say that I think events like these should always be glorified as a rarity. I know of other companies where I've received great service. It's definitely more common for me to receive crappy service than adequate. However, I really think this post deserves it's praise and popularity in hopes that other companies will perk their heads up from the gutter and focus on massive customer service issues.
My nephew was a destructor in those days, and his dad took 2 of them in and they fixed them on the spot. Nintendo's got a great rep here in Melbourne, Australia, for great customer service.
I'm saddened that the days of the lifetime warranty on consoles and games died with the switch to disc-based media, but at least they stand by what they offer enthusiastically still.
After reading your blog I was inspired to write about my customer service experience with Linksys at http://craftisandesigns.blogspot.com. Unfortunately, my experience was not good but perhaps someone from Linksys will read it and make changes. It's a shame to lose a customer because you can't provide good customer service.
Nintendo's already been good at customer support. Wonder how many support personnel they have out there? thought it was only like a 100 or so in Redmond
I too praise Nintendo for their Customer Service! I have never seen anything like it! I once needed to send in my Game Boy Advance in for repair after several years of ware and tare. I couldn't afford a brand new one, so I didn't mind paying the $50 dollar charge to get a
I used to be, but this gives me a whole new respect for Nintendo!
interesting read, cheers.