Nintendo Japan has been the recipient of much praise recently after establishing a policy that protects its staff from harassment by customers. However, an update to its product repair service and warranty rules, made on October 19, 2022, allows Nintendo Japan to deny a customer repair services if they deem the customer’s behavior to be socially unacceptable or if the request made is unreasonable.
Here’s what the updated page says:
When making an inquiry about a repaired product, please refrain from using any actions (including but not limited to those listed below) that go beyond what is socially acceptable as a means of fulfilling your request.
If we deem that any of these actions have taken place, we may refuse to replace or repair the product. Furthermore, if the Company deems the conduct to be malicious, it will contact the police, a lawyer, etc., and take the appropriate action.
Nintendo Japan has also created a checklist of behaviors deemed unacceptable under the rules section of the repairs page, which includes:
- Intimidation or threats
- Insulting or denigrating remarks
- Invasion of privacy
- Excessive demands, such as for a free repair when the warranty has expired
- Demanding an apology from Nintendo or its staff without reasonable cause
- Excessively repeating the same request or complained
- Defamatory comments on social networks or websites
Nintendo Japan reserves the right to refuse service if it suspects that repair applications are for commercial purposes, such as multiple repair applications for multiple products within a short period of time. A PR representative of the company told Kyodo News, “We made the decision after concluding our customers would understand because of the reputation we have built of faithfully responding to them.”
Japan has laws that protect employees within the workplace but these laws don’t extend to harassment from customers. Many have welcomed this move, such as the Kansai University social psychology professor Hiromi Ikeuchi, who said:
In recent years, posts on social media have made visible the harassment various industries are exposed to, and consumer attitudes are also changing. As a result, Nintendo has successfully kept with the times by making a decision that society was ready to accept.
Speaking of, Nintendo recently talked about new hardware for the first time. Unfortunately, it came with a caveat that Nintendo has zero plans to make future consoles backwards compatible.
