OMFG Wii Controller Broken Already

[WiseSalesman]

So when I bought my Wii on launch, the blue-shirted Best Buy "game adviser" that they assigned me tried to sell me an extended warranty on my system. I scoffed. "Sir," I said flippantly, "I'm holding a Nintendo system. I really don't think I'm going to need it." He begrudgingly agreed, offering that he was required to suggest it to every customer.

Shit, maybe I should have listened.

I'm less than three weeks into owning this console, and the controller that came with it is already broken. The pointing system still works fine. I can design Miis and what not with the greatest of ease. But the accelerometer is completely shot. I can't even swing in Wii baseball, and as a pitcher I just throw 65MPH fastballs over and over.

To clarify, I am not one of these idiots you've heard about breaking their TVs with their controller. I'm a collector, too. I'm an adult. I'm careful with my shit. I've never let go of the controller or hit anything with it. Yet, it's already broken. This is supposed to be Sony's territory, not Nintendo's.

I guess I'll try taking it back to Best Buy and, if they won't accept it, I'll resort to sending it back to Nintendo under my system warranty. A word to the wise: Nintendo's era of being known as the maker of "tough-like-a-rock" gaming systems may be over. Be gentle with your Wii controller, because I can't even figure out what happened to mine.

[s1lence]

Doh, that sucks. I worry about mine breaking in that way as well as that seems to be the one area that seems like it could be weak.

Hopefully that doesn't hold to be true.

[NE146]

Pretty much 100% sure Nintendo will replace it. It's just the mailing and waiting that blows.

[WiseSalesman]

Pretty much 100% sure Nintendo will replace it. It's just the mailing and waiting that blows.

Yeah, same. They were ultra-helpful when my roommate's GC got the Metroid Prime bug. Luckily, I had picked up a second controller on launch, so I can still play ... just no two-player Wii sports for awhile.

[77punk]

hmm.. this is the reason why i dont like buying launch systems. I hope the best for you and its a system i really want to get myself since its different gameplay and thats whats needed in todays world. I hate the fact that PS3 just threw a PS2 controller with it, morrons. Ewww graphics.. beautiful graphics.. its funner to have fun playing the games and accually having some money to buy the games..

[NinjaJoey23]

I'm sorry to hear that your remote isn't working properly. On a larger scale, I do hope this is an isolated incident, because as you said, I'm used to Nintendo systems being durable as hell. I'm still using my SNES which has had milk spilled inside of the cartridge slot and has fallen from a moving car.

As a pleading request to other Wii-motes: Don't die on us, plzplzlplz

[Nature Boy]

Nintendo's era of being known as the maker of "tough-like-a-rock" gaming systems may be over.

Yup. Welcome to the era where everybody rushes stuff out to market in order to recover R&D costs back as soon as possible, then fixes stuff with firmware updates and the like.

Scoffing at extended warranties for brand spanking new stuff is *starting* to make sense. Which means the price will likely jack up as soon as all the extra replacements catch up with the retailers...

[Slate]

Looks like i'll be buying the extended warranty after all.

[JJNova]

I would like to point out, that if you have online access (which apparently all you dickheads do) then you can register your Wii online and get an extended 90 day warranty, making your products Warranty 6 months long. Studies show that most electronics that make it past the 6 month range will last the rest of the year (which is generally how long a Store warranty lasts).

With Nintendo's record for excellent customer care, I don't see how any problems would go unattended. Especailly since the system isn't even a month old, you are gauranteed to still be under the initial warranty.

[zektor]

I would not worry ONE BIT about Nintendo replacing the defective controller. On Black Friday, I took advantage of the $40 GB Micro deal at Walmart, and bought two of them (both 20th Anniversary models!). I gave one to my brother and kept the other, Wouldn't you believe that with my absolutely horrible electronic luck that I ended up with one bad pixel dead center of that tiny screen!

I do not have the time or patience to go back to Walmart, and called Nintendo. After about a 2 minute conversation that basically consisted of giving serial number info and a brief description of the problem, they promptly sent a replacement Micro to me for $5 shipping. Yeah, I paid $5 more for the replacement, but who cares. I'd rather do that than spend 20 minutes on line at Walmart's return counter.

The point is that regardless of whether Nintendo's "rock solid" reputation has declined (and I believe this is only due to the fact that we are dealing with more delicate electronics nowadays), they STILL support the customer bigtime. If it were a PSP, I would imagine I'd have a phone battle with Sony trying to get it replaced.

You have no worries. Call them and they will promptly (it took mine 2 days) send you that replacement.

[Lord_Magus]

It sucks that your wiimote broke, but I'd say you probably just got unlucky... The wiimotes seem to be very solid, and this is actually the first time I've heard of one actually breaking - all the other reports I've come across have shown wiimotes flying into TVs and walls, and they all seem to work perfectly fine afterwards (the wiimotes, not the TVs ).

Check out this video of a guy throwing the wiimote into a wall at Mach 1 speed. If the wiimote can stiil work after taking such punishment, then I wouldn't really worry about Nintendo losing its indestructible reputation any time soon

[WiseSalesman]

Believe me Zek, I've never been worried at all about Nintendo replacing it. Like I said, they've always been awesome to their customers. I was just disappointed in how little durability the controller showed. As I've hear no other reports of this, though, perhaps mine is an isolated incident. At least, we can all hope so.

Anyway, I tried to take it back to Best Buy today and, surprisingly, they were willing to replace it. Unfortunately, they had no Wiimotes in stock, so I guess I will be calling Nintendo tomorrow and having them replace it.