Nintendo 64 struck by lightning

Posted 29 Aug 2014 by Squid

I came across a post in NintendoAge in which a user was talking about his experience when his N64 was struck by lightning. Well not exactly, but let’s get to the story, shall we?

User bencoffeehall describes his story like this. When he was younger (supposedly when the N64 was still the latest console) his house was struck by lightning. Being that it was plugged in, the console got fried and stopped working. Since the console was a bit old and out of warranty, they were afraid that this would mean no more N64 goodness for years to come.

However, a call to the Nintendo customer service proved fruitful. They sent over their N64 to them and they said that they would replace the PSU free of charge ad have a look at the rest of the system for any other damage. Not only that, but they also offered to take in all the other hardware (games, controllers, etc) to give it a thorough cleaning.

After a couple of weeks, he got it back all in pristine working condition. For free. Because of this, he now has an unwavering loyalty to Nintendo, for going above and beyond to make sure that the customer is happy.

I must say that this has happened with me a couple of times; but with the 3DS. I own 3 3DSs, the first two broke (not completely, but some buttons stopped working) and as long as the console was still in warranty, they fixed it and covered the postage costs for me.

My Aqua Blue 3DS holds a lot of sentimental value for me because it was the first thing I bought with my very first official salary. I was doing a one-week freelance project for a company and they gave me enough to get a 3DS with some accessories and games. It lasted about a year and a half before the B-button broke down, and since it was out of warranty I had to repair it myself. After failing to fix it with replacement parts, I eventually broke the SD card slot as well. I went to a repair shop and they told me that it would cost upwards of £100 to get it fixed, so it would be more worthwhile to get a brand new one. So I did.

Eventually, the same thing happened to my Metallic Red 3DS. However, I bought a Zelda: ALBW special edition 3DS beforehand (for collecting purposes) so I started using that one and sent the Red and Blue 3DSs out for repair. The old Blue one cost me £50 to get fixed and the Red one was free of charge. £50 is nothing when you consider the full price of a console along with the sentimental value it holds.

So as someone who has had to deal with customer service assholes being extremely unhelpful and trying to wring me out of every penny in the past, I must say that Nintendo has some of the best customer service I have ever come across.

Also their ‘please hold’ telephone music is the Kokiri Forest theme. How cool is that?