Nintendo Service Centre - Sending Wii for Repairs

[Mokong]

Just wondering who else here has had experience with sending their Wii to Nintendo for repairs, and if anyone from Ireland has done so?

 

Last night my Wii's disc drive gave up and died in the middle of an online game of Call of Duty: Black Ops.

 

Got an error message asking me to eject disc and turn off Wii. Did that and when I turned it back on it will no longer read discs, any discs. If I open the disc channel and insert a disc the disc images on screen spin for a bit then it tells me the disc cannot be read.

 

Anyway I went to the Nintendo Service Centre website which was fairly straight forward and easy in making a report and setting up for a repair service. So top marks to Nintendo there.

 

I now have to wait for them to send me (by post) a freepost label thingy so that I can send my Wii to them for free. For whatever reason they can't email it to me.

 

I've bought a parcel box to fit my Wii and a bit of bubblewrap to keep it nice and secure inside. So just waiting for this label. (Anyone from Ireland do this? How long did the label take to come?)

 

Not sure if I'll have to pay for the repair or not, Lostmario told me when he sent his away for the same problem it was free, but he sent his receipt with the Wii that he bought in 2007, I got mine on day one and don't have the receipt anymore. So we'll have to wait and see on that one I guess.... again anyone have a similar experience? Did they charge you?

 

But my main concern is my game saves. Mainly the ones I can't make a copy of, like Monster Hunter 3, Black Ops, Smash Bros Brawl.

 

On the Service Centre site there is an faq and it;s answer to that same question is

 

 

Your warranty information booklet reads: "Before sending the product to the Nintendo Service Centre, you should remove or delete any private or confidential files or data. You accept and agree that Nintendo will not be responsible for any loss, deletion or corruption of your files or data that have not been deleted or removed. Nintendo strongly recommends that you make a back-up copy of any data that you do not remove or delete"

 

In short, we will always endeavour to retain any saved data you may have, but we cannot guarantee that it will not be lost.

 

Great advise but what about game saves that they don't allow you to copy, those are the ones I'm worried about

 

I know the disc drive is the issue so in all likely hood they'll just replace that, check that it works and not touch the harddrive, but still worried "what if", especially for my Monster Hunter 3 file which has over 530 hours of gameplay, that's 22 days, the most played game I have EVER had in my LIFE.

 

Will likely type and print out a note for them kindly asking them not to delete my files and putting that in with my Wii. And maybe detailing how long a customer of theirs I've been in hopes that might get them to do the repair for free Or would they take a youtube video on N-E's channel of me doing a video dairy of the Wii's launch day as "proof of purchase"???

[darksnowman]

Gutted that you will be out of Monster Hunter action for a while.

 

Will likely type and print out a note for them kindly asking them not to delete my files and putting that in with my Wii.

 

I think its a good idea to make them aware that you weren't able to back up absolutely everything, included your beloved MH file. Anyway, if its just a disc drive issue you'd think they would just be able to pop it out and replace it without any effect to the flash memory. *fingers crossed*

[welsh_gamer]

I sent mine away in June last year after the same thing happened, (but during a game of Modern Warfare Reflex) and was charged £28 as I couldn't find my receipt either. Didn't loose any of my save files, the only thing that had changed were the date and clock settings - back to 2006 for some reason - and I don't think that I waited for more than 2 weeks to get my Wii back. Once they've fixed the console, you'll get an invoice via e-mail and you'll have to pay it before they send it back to you. You can pay with a card via a link in the e-mail or send them a cheque.

[Ike]

Just stick in a nice big note asking them to transfer your data.

[Emasher]

I sent in mine back in 2009. They charged $75 for the repairs and gave me a new warranty. They don't transfer the data unless you ask (and even then, I don't know if they do for sure), but they will transfer your online purchases. Basically what they do (at least in my case) was take all the components out and put new ones in the old case, so don't assume they won't touch your data.

 

The best you can do is back up the data you can and leave a note in the box.

 

Also, if you have home brew installed, remove it before you send it in. They don't check any logs, so if you remove it you should be fine, but they might refuse to fix it if they see its installed.

[Mokong]

I don't see why they would replace ALL of the insides if it's just the disc drve that needs replacing?

 

Will have to type up a nice polite note to help make sure whatever I get back my non-movable non-copyable files come back with it.

 

Still no label in the post it better be here before the end of the week. The sooner I can get this thing sent off the sooner it comes back.

[BowserBasher]

I sent my Wii off to Nintendo in this manner when I got the Brawl Read error thing from way back then.

The speed of them fixing it was great, but I had lost everything on my Wii when it came back, all saves, all Mii's, everything. So I do suggest some kind of note to say that you would like your saves copied/saved.

I did leave a SD card in the Wii which did come back though.

[Serebii]

I also had issues with the drive, but I sent it in and they repaired it for free with nothing lost

[flameboy]

I've had two wiis break on me both came back completely empty and wiped of everything, although much like above I did leave a SD card in there which came back. One of mine was within a year which is apparently their cut off point for it being warranty but then my 2nd wii was outside of it by 3 months and still got it for free

[Mokong]

Ok so I've got about 3 - 4 people saying theirs came back no save files missing and now 2 saying it was wiped... great... so pretty much a 50/50 chance I guess. Lovely.

 

But maybe that was cuz ye both left an SD card inside, maybe they thought all your files were on that? Took out my SD card already

 

Anyway good news is the free post label just arrived... gonna type up a note to put in with the Wii now then bring it up to the post office.

 

Edit

 

just realised why they couldn't email it to me, it's because they posted me an actual AnPost (Irish Post Office) Priority Post Label.

Edited March 10, 2011 by Mokong

[Shyguy]

Good luck hope you get to keep your saves :P

 

I remember my cousin trying to fix his sons DS cause part of the screen connector fell off and i just went to him "you know they usually repair it for free" he almost killed me and the DS xD

 

but it was cool seeing inside a DS the bit he was trying to fix was soooo small and fiddly

[Mokong]

Righty, wrapped up Wii and boxed it and took to the post office, it is on the way to them as we speak.

 

Just thinking, it took 2 days for their free post label to get to me, so lets assume it takes the Wii 2 working days to get to them, so that's Monday, hopefully they get to wotk on it right away, so lets say best case senario work take 2 days, that's Wednesday and posted back to me, I'm hoping Friday... prolly not likely though, just wishfull thinking i guess

 

[RedShell]

Righty, wrapped up Wii and boxed it and took to the post office, it is on the way to them as we speak.

 

Just thinking, it took 2 days for their free post label to get to me, so lets assume it takes the Wii 2 working days to get to them, so that's Monday, hopefully they get to wotk on it right away, so lets say best case senario work take 2 days, that's Wednesday and posted back to me, I'm hoping Friday... prolly not likely though, just wishfull thinking i guess

 

I think you're going to have to add an additional day for the amount of time it's going to take them to get it out of the box.

That's a lot of tape there.

[Mokong]

Gotta make sure nobody tries to open it before it gets to Nintendo

[Emasher]

I think it took about a week and a half to get mine fixed. It might have been closer to 2 weeks though.

[Mokong]

Just checked the Nintendo Service Centre website, it claims to have recieved my Wii today, yay... now we wait

[Wii]

I sent my Wii back to Nintendo to get repaired. It was having trouble reading certain discs, they relaced the disc drive. It's an absolutely brilliant service. There's no problem with your save files, they'll be kept intact. As I'm sure you're aware, you can keep track of the whole process. They'll also tell you what the problems were.

[Mokong]

Looks like they are working on it now.

 

Also looks like they gonna fix it for free

 

Under fault diagnosis it says "Wii Minor Fault (£0.00) : Others"

 

And the Repair Logs last entry is "Marked for Repair"

 

So fingers crossed it is fixed today and posted back this evening or tomorrow. With luck I might even have it back by Wednesday or at least that's what I'm hoping for right now as Thursday is a bank holiday here (St. Patricks Days), else it could be Friday. Hopefully no later than that which would make it Monday

[Cube]

Perhaps they liked your note.

[Emerald Emblem]

My Wii disk drive broke within the first year, overall waiting for the label, the repair and getting sent back was about 3 weeks for me, I live in the West Midlands, dunno if that affected the time or not though.

[lostmario]

Looks like they are working on it now.

 

Also looks like they gonna fix it for free

 

Under fault diagnosis it says "Wii Minor Fault (£0.00) : Others"

 

And the Repair Logs last entry is "Marked for Repair"

 

So fingers crossed it is fixed today and posted back this evening or tomorrow. With luck I might even have it back by Wednesday or at least that's what I'm hoping for right now as Thursday is a bank holiday here (St. Patricks Days), else it could be Friday. Hopefully no later than that which would make it Monday

 

Exactly the same as what I got, I wonder if they just replace the lens??

 

I bet you'll have it back Friday / Saturday.

[Mokong]

Perhaps they liked your note.

 

haha, perhaps indeed.

 

The last paragraph was a short note on how I've been a Nintendo fan (and customer :wink:) since the NES days and have actually never owned a console from another company (actually true)... and how I purchased most of their consoles on release date and have a 3DS preordered:heh:

 

And that this was the first time any of my consoles had a problem and I had heard their customer service was very good and hoped I experienced a good service too

 

again still hoping game saves come back with it.

 

Currently the repair log still says "marked for repair" but under "Products Being Returned To Customer:" it says "1 x Wii - White Console"

 

Don't know does that mean repairs are complete and it's already on the way back to me?

 

Exactly the same as what I got, I wonder if they just replace the lens??

 

I bet you'll have it back Friday / Saturday.

 

Our postmen only work Saturdays in the run up to Christmas:heh:

Edited March 14, 2011 by Mokong

[Mokong]

hmmm... been checking the status all day and the log was unchanged at "marked for repair" only just changed to "sent to repair workshop" now (or in the last hour or so)... it took them a whole 24hours to do that... guess I likely won't be getting it back in time for the weekend

[darksnowman]

I'll get you pencilled in for some night next week for MH then. In the meantime, enjoy your freedom from it.

[Mokong]

Somewhat annoyed now, the status is unchanged since yesterday... still says "sent to repair workshop" nothing new... just remembered anyway I won't be home this weekend anyway so even if I got it back on Friday I'll be gone Saturday and Sunday.