Nope.  Nobody has said that.  It's his fault for knowingly doing the wrong thing with the dud.

If that were the case, then there would be no such thing as console repairs.  If no one sends their system to be repaired, and they only return to the retailer, then why do all three of the console companies have full console repair teams and systems in place to do just that?  That doesn't add up to me.

It's because of things like this I'm holding back on getting a Wii U. Primarily I game on the Playstation, but I like Nintendo's games as well and if I bought a Wii U I'd get some N64 and NGC games from the Virtual Console. Unless the issue is addressed in the future I'll continue to hold out.

In what world do some of you people live in where its "automatically known" that you send the console to the manufacturer and not the store.

Its 2013, your Average Joe is not going to package up and then ship a product to the manufacturer, they are going to bring it back to the store where they bought it.

I think what is getting lost in this discussion is that Nintendo is offering piss poor customer service, and worse still they obviously expect their customers to service them rather then the other way around. Jon didn't do anything that was unreasonable, and something that wouldn't be a issue with just about any other product, or any company on the planet. Nintendo is basically in the business of customer service, and their priority should be helping customers. Not hampering them with unrealistic expectations.

If I buy a console, and it breaks less then a week later. I return it to where I bought it for a replacement. That doesn't make me some kind of imbecile. It means I have basic expectations, and it shouldn't be incumbent upon me to convenience the company that should be providing me with quality service. Jon did what most consumers would do. He demanded basic satisfaction with his purchase. This needs to be said it shouldn't be Jon's job to inconvenience himself to convenience Nintendo. That isn't how the world should work, and frankly it isn't the way the world works.

Nintendo can keep playing these games, but eventually their bad habits, and bad behavior will catch up to them. Jon sounds like the kind of Customer you want to keep. If he is buying four hundred dollars in digital games, and who knows how many retail games. Then discouraging his patronage, or the patronage of others like him. In the end will lose Nintendo a lot of sales, and a lot of money that they probably need to stay in business.

Jon didn't read a warranty on a game book in the age of intuitive design, and that is hardly uncommon. It is something that should be expected by the company, and obviously it was seeing as Nintendo included the warning in the packaging. That said Nintendo should have worked out a solution. Rather then having a altogether bad excuse. A poorly contrived system for troubleshooting the problems of customers isn't a actual excuse for not rectifying the problem. Especially when the problem is understood, thoroughly documented, and has actual time tested resolutions.

In all honesty Nintendo should be ashamed of itself. Locking accounts to content is basically off the shelf software now, and the expertise to run said systems is also easy enough to find. Not having such systems in place is either incompetent, sloppy, or just plain apathetic. The money this would have cost is truly a drop in the bucket. For all the good will it would create, and the negative word of mouth in would suppress. I really don't get where Nintendo is coming from with all of this, because it just seems to be the act of lunatics.

I would say the same about Microsoft or Sony at this point if they were doing the same. All of this is should be common sense by now. Locking content to accounts doesn't just make life easier for consumers. It actually cements a relationship between the provider and the user. That actually increases the likelihood of future interactions. Even if they don't give a rats ass about their own consumers. They should at least care about the commerce that they are missing out on by not doing this.

I agree with you there JOKA.  If I buy something that is broken, or breaks immediately, I go to the retailer to exchange it for a good product.  And I am quite sure thats the norm.  Outside of consoles, I've never know someone who's instead shipped the product to the manufacturer.

For the most part, I have heard the opposite, people getting full credit plus bonus credit for inconvenience.