Nintendo hinges

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

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.

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!