Faulty Nintendo DS Argos Repair - Anyone else paying for warranty work?

carl555

Hi there, I have a Nintendo DS Lite which I bought from Argos under 12 months ago. I returned it to my local store for repair due to the top LCD screen having a line of dead pixels and they sent it away to their repairers.

I had a phone call about the repair from my local store and I went in to discuss.
They have been told by the repairers that its not covered under warranty and will cost £53 to fix.
I got the store to phone and find out why its not covered and at first the repairers claimed its down to a cracked screen, which it hasn’t got and I immediately disputed this, then they changed their mind and claimed it was down to pressure damage (I.E. been dropped).

Now I’ve had this scenario before with a mobile phone and let it lie, where you send the item away and you gat a vague fault diagnosis and an ultimatum of just pay up, but a friend of ours had exactly the same script from Argos and their repairers and although they maintain they did not damage their DS they had to pay up a similar amount to get it repaired whilst under warranty.

I am adamant that I have not damaged my DS in any way and I have seen the pixels fade over time and not just in one go as a drop would suggest.
So, where do I stand?
The shop phoned their office who informed them that they had to abide by the repairers diagnosis but asked me to write in to Argos Customer Relations explaining the situation.

Anyone else had a similar experience and know how to seek a successful outcome?

Thanks, Carl.

dawnydee73

I can't advise you about the Argos warranty, but you can log a repair here with Nintendo, as its under 12 months old they should fix it for free as it is still under warranty.

I recently sent my Wii to be fixed, it was out of the 12 month warrenty but they still fixed it for no charge, they even pay for the postage.

robers7

How long did your Wii repair take? Are nintendo prompt?

dawnydee73

robers7 wrote: »

How long did your Wii repair take? Are nintendo prompt?

It was gone for 3 long weeks :eek: but at least its now working again

OlliesDad

If their engineers are advising it is damaged due to being dropped the only thing you would be able to do is get an independant engineer to examine the unit and then if he disagrees with the originals engineer report, you can then dispute it with Argos. If of course he agrees with the original report, there is nothing that can be done!

Takoda

I don't buy electrical stuff from Argos. A friend whose son worked there one Christmas said when they are busy they throw stuff on the conveyor!!! I only buy soft squashy unbreakable things from there now.

Colliefrog

Argos send them off to Nintendo to be repaired, so you'll probably get the the same response again

carl555

Thanks for the replies.
Yes I think they do go to Nintendo for the repair so cant send it there direct and I guess to get an independent engineer to evaluate will cost just as much as the repair!

Its just too much of a coincidence for me that this charging for the repair scenario has already happened to the friends of ours when we are both adamant the console hasn’t suffered damage.

I guess I’ll just have to appeal to Argos Customer Service's better side by letter!
Or does anyone know of any Nintendo forums or Games experts, which may be able to say whether the LCD fault is a common one, which may not be caused by damage?

Thanks again, Carl.

mollypoppy

A friend of mine has a DS which she had to sent away for repair (brought from Currys) as it was only 7 months old and the hinge was very worn and loose she can only keep it open by using her hand! She was told by the repairers that she must have dropped it - she hasn't! She does use it alot every day for several hours - nothing better to do. She phoned the repairers who where extremely unhelpful and blamed her for it. Surely if the product is within the 12 months it should be repaired free of charge no query unless obvious damage has been done. She won't be buying a DS again. Rubbish customer service

carl555

Just thought I would post up the outcome of this:

I rejected the offer of £53 to fix the DS, which the repairers claimed was down to my damaging the DS and I asked for it to be returned un-repaired.
When I went to pick it up from the Argos store I was just about to sign for it when I asked to inspect it.

When I handed it in to Argos it just had a few dead horizontal pixels on the top screen. Now it had several full lines of missing pixels horizontally across and whopping great black line running vertically across the screen, basically now rendering the top screen useless – obviously nothing at all like what I had handed in.
It was pretty apparent now why the Nintendo repairers claimed it had been dropped.

I took it up with the manager, who had originally booked it in, and whilst there was a bit of stand off where he claimed he couldn’t remember how it previously looked and refused to do anything, I pressed home the issue that even if he couldn’t remember, this now resembled nothing like HIS actual fault description on the repair booking in sheet of “a few dead pixels at the top of the upper screen”.


I wouldn’t like to speculate what happened to the DS after it left my possession but despite the initial stand off, the Manager came round and did remember the condition of it when booked in and after a few phone calls the outcome is I have a brand new replacement DS.



I guess the advice I would give when handing something over at Argos for repair is: Make sure the fault description as filled in by the store on the booking in sheet is as accurate as possible (don’t just put up with faulty, etc, get it detailed) and maybe even take a photo of the damage or fault if possible.



If I hadn’t had the decent fault description as above I would now be left with a DS in an un-useable condition through no fault of my own. Happily resolved now though.:)