Due to the recent class-action lawsuit filed against Nintendo over Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons suffering from “drift”, they have promised free repairs.
Joy-Con drift on the Nintendo Switch is when a game registers “drifting” movement inputs, even if you’re not using the joystick. The company hasn’t officially admitted there’s anything wrong, but reports from all over the internet show it to be a pretty widespread problem for Switch owners.
Now, according to a report on Vice, Nintendo has told its customer service representatives to stop charging customers who are sending their Joy-Cons in for repair and to issue refunds to anyone who’s paid for previous repairs. This comes from internal Nintendo documentation provided to Vice by a source “familiar with Nintendo’s updated customer support documentation”.
“Customers will no longer be requested to provide proof of purchase for Joy-Con repairs,” it reads. “Additionally it is not necessary to confirm warranty status. If a customer requests a refund for a previously paid Joy-Con repair […] confirm the prior repair and then issue a refund.”
It has been speculated that the issue is caused by communication issues between the detach-able Joy-Cons and the Switch itself, so with the two new models on the way, let’s see if Nintendo figured out a lasting solution.