OP is the hero who persevered in dark times of oppression

I like the latest twist. That's just brilliant. Nintendo's refund policy still sucks, but they really do seem to honour the 'faulty' part.

You the man @AkimboCurly. You got your money back, and took the shots fired at you on this thread in stride.

@AkimboCurly, maybe your perseverance didn't take you to Mars, but landing on the mysterious planet of Ninty digital refunds is quite an achievement anyway. 

Can't believe you lied to Chloe and defrauded Nintendo like that. It'd be a real shame if Nintendo permabanned your account. You should go buy MK8D now to atone for what you did.

Poor enough, bored enough and stubborn enough :)

Technically wasn't a lie. Those bugs are in the game... I just didnt experience them myself haha.

Interestingly, they actually make no stipulations about what "faulty" means. So in the T&C's it reads only

Please note that, unless faulty, physical copies of games software cannot be returned once the seal has been removed from their packaging and, unless faulty, orders for digital products cannot be cancelled once the relevant digital redemption has been completed if, during the payment process, you consented to Nintendo providing the digital content as soon as your order was accepted and acknowledged that your right to cancel would be lost once you redeemed your digital content.

So although I went for the quite plausible route of suggesting that having bugs meant it was faulty, the lack of stipulation means that it is the role of your jurisdiction to resolve the dispute. 

Any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with these terms and conditions or your use of the Website shall be governed by English law and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

That's why I'm confident that this "faulty" route is watertight and this result can be replicated. For if somebody did in fact notify Nintendo of their intent to dispute this in the courts, or through the ADR, and it actually made it there without being settled, there is every chance that the courts would rule that "faulty" means "containing bugs". In the UK, the "faulty" clause comes from legislation, the Consumer Rights Act (2015) subsection 34(3)b which defines faulty in the digital sense as being (among other things) "free from minor defects". So, in my view, pick whatever "minor defect" you want and roll with it. 

This sure was a tale for the ages.

Imo if consoles are going to be pushing for digital editions next gen, they really need to have an easy refund system instead of needing to jump through hoops and hoops. One of the main reasons I feel confident pre-ordering games on steam is that if I don't like it or if there's any problems and it's I played it for less than 2 hours or under 14 days, I can get a no questions asked refund. And there's other similar refund policies on many other store fronts on PC. It's about time for consoles to start implementing something similar.