Nintendo hinges

[tims]

Hi everyone - I've been scouring the internet for advice and fell upon 'whatconsumer' which looks exactly what I need! So here goes ...

My daughter bought a Nintendo DS lite 8 months ago (along with a protective case) and now one of the hinges has broken off. I tried to get a warranty repair, but Nintendo has said that any hinge damage HAS to be due to misuse. I asked them if they found evidence of misuse or mishandling, but they stuck to their policy that hange damage MUST be due to misuse.

A google search for damaged hinges throws up hundreds of stories of broken hinges - does this, then, constitute a known manufacturing problem? Are they allowed to assume misuse because that is the repair policy? I phoned consumer direct (number in the top corner!) and they said the burden is on the customer to show it was not mistreated - how can I do that??

Thanks for looking - I hate to pay Nintendo £50 to repair something that I think they should be repairing under warranty!

Tim

[Tony]

Hi Tim,

Welcome to the forum. There are two different things here - a warranty claim and a cliam under the Sale of Goods Act i.e. your statutory rights.

For a claim under your statutory rights, if an item is more than six months old the burden of proof lies with you the consumer. Consumer Direct are correct.

The good news is that if it proves to be a faulty hinge then the retailer will repay the cost of this. The problem is who would be qualified to determine this - you might need to do some Googling. Let us know what you find.

Who did you buy it from? Do you have proof of purchase? Did you pay with a credit card - I think a DS is more than £100? Are you sure it is not a fake - there are a lot of these around and you or I might not be able to tell the difference?

Tony

[tims]

Thanks Tony,

it was bought from Argos so is the real thing! - I think I'm going to get it back from Nintendo unrepaired and take it to a second hand retailer like Game and see if they'd be willing to give me an opinion on whether they think it has been mistreated or if the damage is a fault and see where we can go from there,

Thanks again - I'll keep this thread updated of any developments.

[Tony]

This is old, but does it look like this:

Nintendo fesses up to DS Lite hinge defect, will fix for free

Tony

[tims]

Nintendo customer services were very quick to tell me that this was a fault with the original moulding back in 2006 and that's all fixed now! Funny how there's still people complaining about it in the various forums!