Just incase you don’t troll around digg or reddit, I wanted to share this excellent story of how Nintendo really is one of the best companies in the world. The woman titled her post “Customer service gone shockingly right“, and that is exactly what happened. She had noticed that the optical drive on her Wii (which she purchased on release day back in November) was always loud and didn’t sound quite right. One day she decided to call Nintendo’s customer service line and send it in to get fixed.
She asked for my phone number. I gave it to her. She did a bit of a verbal double-take and said, “Are you here in Washington?”
“I’m in Redmond, as a matter of fact [location of Nintendo of America’s campus],” I replied.
“Well then, let’s not bother with the RMA and the shipping labels and all of that. Just bring it on in to Nintendo,” she said.
Wh-what…?
That’s awesome. Correction, that is beyond awesome, it is one of the best things Nintendo could possibly do. It really makes sense, in a sickeningly obvious kind of way, that a company should easily be able to service people who live near their headquarters in person and with much less hassle. BUT when you consider the situation were you to call Sony and you happen to live, um, wherever the heck Sony is (looks like California is their Playstation headquarters…but it took a minute of digging through their sites to find that out) then I would be quite surprised if they tell you to come on in with your (very likely) malfunctioning PS3. Maybe I’m wrong, but nonetheless, everyone knows that Nintendo of America is in Washington state, most gamers could even narrow it down to Redmond without even looking it up. I’ve known that since I was 6. The larger the corporations have become the less-and-less they want to deal with customers on a personal basis, hell the customers don’t even want to deal with the corporations on a personal basis because of how crap their customer support and employees tend to be anyway.
The shining light on top of this ivory beacon of excellence really comes from the fact that the Nintendo sales woman actually said:
“It’s going to be about 30 minutes, though,” she went on. “I’m really sorry.”
I’ve waited more time then that on the phone with a company smaller then Nintendo, and gotten much less from it! I hope you all enjoy the story, and there are pictures to go along with it for the “sad, sad, cynical” people who don’t believe her. It could still be fake, obviously, but Nintendo doesn’t seem to be in the practice of lying.
“The shining light on top of this ivory beacon of excellence…”
Uh… [insert clever ‘your momma’ joke here – such as “I was a shining light on top of your mom’s ivory beacon of success last night,” or “your mom shines a light to lead the way for my ivory beacon of success”]
I dugg your mom last night. Your mom was the best company last night. Your mom serviced me shockingly right last night. I made your mom abnormally loud with my optical drive last night. Your mom called my customer service line last night. Your mom said “Awesome” last night because I did the best thing to her…last night. Since she was local, I serviced your mom last night. Your mom choked on my Sony situation last night. I looked all up your mom with my Redmond last night. Your mom liked that I wasn’t 6. I showed your mom my large corporation last night. Oh, and I definitely dealt with her on a personal basis. //Insert ivory tower jokes
Your mom got much less from a phone…last night. Your mom didn’t believe me last night. Your mom thought I was fake, but she realized I was not lying, last night.
Wow, that was awesome!