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A Nintendo US repair shop ‘saw thousands of Joy-Con drift cases each week’

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

While Nintendo of America handles customer repair requests, it contracts the repair work to third party companies like Syracuse, New York-based United Radio.

An ex-employee told Kotaku that at one point, “easily thousands of Joy-Cons were coming through each week.” They added: “We ended up having to set up an entire new workspace just for Joy-Con repair.”

Customers who sent in faulty Joy-Cons from 2017-2018 were reportedly sent new replacements, but after the first year, it’s claimed United Radio was required to repair every set of controllers.

The ex-supervisor claimed United Radio was heavily reliant on agency workers, most of whom didn’t speak English natively, leading to communications issues, a high turnover of staff, and a “very stressful,” environment resulting in “lots of” repair mistakes.
 

daveonezero

Banned
how many consoles? How many total joy cons?

Whoa is me who is now a victim because I can’t bandle the amount of work I’ve contractually agreed to do.

Gtfo

Also minimum wage ruining entry level jobs for teens could have solved this. A $60 ifixit kit and a 12 year old could be taught to repair joycons.
 
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Deerock71

Member
apocalypse now horror GIF by Maudit
 

Dream-Knife

Banned
I had to send a pair in. Replacement was fine for the 80 hours I put into SMTV.

The only other controller that I have had stick drift is PS2.
 

TLZ

Banned
how many consoles? How many total joy cons?

Whoa is me who is now a victim because I can’t bandle the amount of work I’ve contractually agreed to do.

Gtfo

Also minimum wage ruining entry level jobs for teens could have solved this. A $60 ifixit kit and a 12 year old could be taught to repair joycons.

That's a really weird article. Why would anybody complain about getting too much business?
Are you guys being thick or purposefully ignorant?

The point of the article is that the joycons are horrible because of the very well known and documented joycon drift issue. I even fixed mine with that little cardboard cutout trick.
 
I haven't even taken my joycon's out of the box, but every one of the wife's joycon's have some sort of issue and two of them drift. When she bought another pair I asked why did you buy that crap lol. Nintendo really should be sued over this since they refuse to up the quality.

Should see about sending them in for repairs but I've never done that with anything
 

BigBooper

Member
Are you guys being thick or purposefully ignorant?

The point of the article is that the joycons are horrible because of the very well known and documented joycon drift issue. I even fixed mine with that little cardboard cutout trick.
You most definitely didn't read the Kotaku source article because over half the article is about complaints this one guy had who worked at the repair company.

What does... "The ex-supervisor claimed United Radio was heavily reliant on agency workers, most of whom didn’t speak English natively, leading to communications issues, a high turnover of staff, and a “very stressful,” environment resulting in “lots of” repair mistakes."
... have to do with how bad the joycons are?

It's just more filler for the trash heap that is Kotaku. Of course the joycon drift sucks.
 
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Hendrick's

If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
You most definitely didn't read the Kotaku source article because over half the article is about complaints this one guy had who worked at the repair company.

What does... "The ex-supervisor claimed United Radio was heavily reliant on agency workers, most of whom didn’t speak English natively, leading to communications issues, a high turnover of staff, and a “very stressful,” environment resulting in “lots of” repair mistakes."
... have to do with how bad the joycons are?

It's just more filler for the trash heap that is Kotaku. Of course the joycon drift sucks.
Kotaku loves its crunch stories. Even repair shop crunch.
 

Lusal

Neo Member
Objectively, I think the build quality and tech in the Switch joycons are well above average. Especially when compared to some controllers from Microsoft and Sony. Possibly anecdotal, but I've had several Elite controllers and older Dual Shock controllers with drift.

Obviously, analog stick drift is the main concern with joycons and it's pricey to replace them. This may be well known, but this seemingly easy fix (with explanation) helped me remedy my problems with a couple sets of joycons I had laying around.



Now, whenever I'm reshelling or replacing analog sticks I always make it a point to include the above mentioned fix - placing a small square of thicker stock paper underneath the backside of the analog stick assembly. It creates enough passive upward pressure to maintain contact inside of the analog assembly.

Hopefully this helps someone.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
An ex-employee told Kotaku
Really this is all you need to know. Someone got fired and thought they would get back at Nintendo by giving tabloid journalist groundbreaking insider revelations. Except we already know joycon quality is shit snd Nintendo has fixed a ton for free so it's not exactly a revelation.
 
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TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
Ur mom saw thousands of joy con drift cases a week know what I'm saying kek poggers ayyyy lmao


On topic: That means she's promiscuous.

Also on topic: Nintendo uses inexpensive parts for their peripherals; customers unsatisfied, claim they will still buy games, anyway. More at 11.
 

ManaByte

Member
Really this is all you need to know. Someone got fired and thought they would get back at Nintendo by giving tabloid journalist groundbreaking insider revelations. Except we already know joycon quality is shit snd Nintendo has fixed a ton for free so it's not exactly a revelation.

Yup this is 100% a political hit job by Kotaku against Nintendo over those union busting allegations, when in reality the employee was probably fired for secretly being a hooker.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Yup this is 100% a political hit job by Kotaku against Nintendo over those union busting allegations, when in reality the employee was probably fired for secretly being a hooker.
It was actually Nintendo's fault she was secretly a hooker because they didn't pay her as much as she was making secretly being an expensive hooker.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
I’ve never had drift with any of my controllers in my entire life
*shrug*
Dreamcast controllers were lousy with drift and I replaced so many. I had drift issues a lot with PS2 controllers. I haven't experienced it much in the past 15 years or so, but I don't spend 10 hours a day playing games any more, either.

I do most of my Switch gaming in docked mode with a pro controller so I don't use joycons enough for them to break.
 

RafterXL

Member
Joycons are the worst made controllers in the history of gaming. I bought my sisters kids Switches and all four of the original joycons are fucked and two sets of replacements are fucked as well. The only reason mine still work is because I never use my Switch and even when I did I used a real controller and my tv. They cost more than a Dualsense and last about as long as the flavor in a piece of gum. Total trash and Nintendo should be sued into the ground over them.
 
I’ve never had drift with any of my controllers in my entire life
*shrug*
I finally got the drift on my original launch joycons. It genuinely sucks. On the bright side though I got like a little over 3 years out of them before having to buy a new pair.
 

MrA

Banned
Joycons are the worst made controllers in the history of gaming. I bought my sisters kids Switches and all four of the original joycons are fucked and two sets of replacements are fucked as well. The only reason mine still work is because I never use my Switch and even when I did I used a real controller and my tv. They cost more than a Dualsense and last about as long as the flavor in a piece of gum. Total trash and Nintendo should be sued into the ground over them.
Someones never used a colecivision or 5200 controller
 

Shin Quaver

Neo Member
I had a dualsense I bought for PC stuff start drifting about 6 months in, past that and Joy-Cons I've never had a problem with analogue sticks before, don't doubt they occoured though. I heard something anecdotally about it being to do with or at least sped up by pressing the sticks in.
 
Objectively, I think the build quality and tech in the Switch joycons are well above average. Especially when compared to some controllers from Microsoft and Sony. Possibly anecdotal, but I've had several Elite controllers and older Dual Shock controllers with drift.

Obviously, analog stick drift is the main concern with joycons and it's pricey to replace them. This may be well known, but this seemingly easy fix (with explanation) helped me remedy my problems with a couple sets of joycons I had laying around.



Now, whenever I'm reshelling or replacing analog sticks I always make it a point to include the above mentioned fix - placing a small square of thicker stock paper underneath the backside of the analog stick assembly. It creates enough passive upward pressure to maintain contact inside of the analog assembly.

Hopefully this helps someone.

I'm going to try this if and when drift ever happens.
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

UK group Which? conducted a survey of 919 Switch owners and found that 40% of those surveyed experienced issues with Joy-Con drift, Sky News reports. However, only 73% of those who experienced drift contacted Nintendo about it.

“Our research shows that drift problems continue to plague Nintendo Switch owners, yet too often they can be left footing the bill themselves to replace faulty controllers or face a lottery when they contact Nintendo for support,” said Which? director of policy and advocacy Rocio Concha.

“Nintendo needs to commission an urgent independent investigation into why this problem occurs and make the findings public.

“The video game giant must also commit to completely free-of-charge repairs or replacements for those affected by the problem and must promote this scheme so that consumers know that support is available.”
 

01011001

Banned
I barely use my Switch and I have drift in 2 joy cons. a black launch day Joycon and one of the yellow ones
 

Rykan

Member
how many consoles? How many total joy cons?

Whoa is me who is now a victim because I can’t bandle the amount of work I’ve contractually agreed to do.

Gtfo

Also minimum wage ruining entry level jobs for teens could have solved this. A $60 ifixit kit and a 12 year old could be taught to repair joycons.
This is from the perspective of a supervisor. I doubt he's the one making or negotiating the contracts.
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

The Nintendo Switch joy-con drift issue is reportedly due to fundamental design flaws rather than player usage over time, according to a new report from the UK-based consumer group Which?

As reported by Eurogamer, the new study from Which? found evidence that the joy-con's plastic circuit boards showed the joystick slider contact points after only several months of usage. Although Nintendo has been trying to address the issue that results in drifting for years, it is still reducing the player experience. The report claimed that dust and other contaminants were found in the Switch's internal components, which does not help Nintendo solve the issue for customers.

In addition to revealing that joy-con's drift issue is caused by technical flaws, not by overuse of analogue sticks, Which? called on Nintendo to offer compensation or refund for UK customers who have purchased a replacement Joy-Con due to drift since 2017. It also criticizes Nintendo for not having a plan to address the issue, as well as the company's refund policy. In response to the study, Nintendo said that only a small fraction of customers have been experiencing issues with analogue sticks.

“The percentage of Joy-Con controllers that have been reported as experiencing issues with the analogue stick in the past is small, and we have been making continuous improvements to the Joy-Con analogue stick since its launch in 2017," Nintendo replied with a statement. "We expect all our hardware to perform as designed, and, if anything falls short of this goal, we always encourage consumers to contact Nintendo customer support, who will be happy to openly and leniently resolve any consumer issues related to the Joy-Con controllers’ analogue sticks, including in cases where the warranty may no longer apply."
 
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