13 ms·

We are unable to refund mistaken purchases, and/or if you don't like the game

132 points by meken 4y ago

Sakos 4y ago
It's because of anti-consumer behavior like this that I refuse to buy anything from Nintendo now. I used to own a Switch, but I eventually got tired of their ass-backward policies and sold it.
aaron695 4y ago
Do I get refunds on movies I don't like? What's the point here?
vore 4y ago
In some countries like Australia and New Zealand, Nintendo is bound by law to accept some types of returns: see https://www.nintendo.com.au/support/articles/refund-for-downloaded-game-or-dlc https://www.nintendo.com.au/support/articles/refund-for-down... which has an extra section at the bottom: We can provide a remedy if the game or DLC fails to meet a consumer guarantee under the Australian Consumer Law in Australia or the Consumer Guarantees Act in New Zealand. Details of Australian consumers’ rights under the Australian Consumer Law can be found at www.consumerlaw.gov.au. Details of New Zealand consumers’ rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act can be found at www.consumerprotection.govt.nz. These protections are actually quite broad, as Valve found itself in hot water for quite a few years back: https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-posts-a-notice-about-australian-consumer-rights-on-steam/ https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-posts-a-notice-about-australia... When you buy video games from Valve Corporation as a consumer located in Australia, the video games come with guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot be excluded, including a guarantee that the video games are of acceptable quality. You are entitled to a replacement or refund from the retail supplier of the video games for a major failure and for compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. You are also entitled to have the video games repaired or replaced by the retail supplier of the video games if the video games fail to be of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure. Certain other rights are available directly against manufacturers that cannot be excluded or limited.
- jay_kyburz 4y ago
  I don't think our guarantees extend to you just not liking it. The game has to be defective, or incomparable with your computer, or have been misrepresented before you bought it. IANAL Updated after your update: In this case I think we can assume "acceptable quality" has already been established by Nintendo's QA department. Its not an open store after all.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - izzydata 4y ago
    "Its not an open store after all." The Nintendo online market pretty much has no oversight anymore. They don't do any careful pruning of shovelware these days.
    - djur 4y ago
      At a bare minimum, you can buy games on the Switch with incomprehensible English translations: https://legendsoflocalization.com/this-be-bad-translation-19-refreshing-sideways-puzzle-ghost-hammer/ https://legendsoflocalization.com/this-be-bad-translation-19... NES games often had some pretty rough translations, but I can't think of a single game in that era that was this garbled.
      - bombcar 4y ago
        These are bad but seem to be at the level of "All your base are belong to us".
        boomboomsubban 4y ago
        Which comes from a Sega game. Not that the NES was really better, it still has classics like "a winner is you!"
  - selectodude 4y ago
NikolaNovak 4y ago
I don't understand this sentence; it must reference some context I'm unaware of: "When you purchase digital content in Nintendo eShop, at the time of your purchase, you consent to Nintendo beginning with the performance of its obligations immediately, before the cancellation period ends, and you acknowledge that you will thereby lose your right to cancel at that point."
- cbhl 4y ago
  This appears to be in reference to Article 7.3 of the applicable directive: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2011/83/2022-05-28 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2011/83/2022-05-28 Vague English summary here (the Sample story simply says "the 14 day cooling off period doesn't apply to concert ticket purchases" which seems insufficiently precise). https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/index_en.htm https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/gua...
- marlor 4y ago
  UK Consumer Contract law has a 14-day cancellation period. For digital goods, the legislation states: —— Under a contract for the supply of digital content not on a tangible medium, the trader must not begin supply of the digital content before the end of the cancellation period provided for in regulation 30(1), unless— (a)the consumer has given express consent, and (b)the consumer has acknowledged that the right to cancel the contract under regulation 29(1) will be lost. —— Therefore, Nintendo is stating that the 14-day cancellation period is to be waived, and digital goods are to be deemed as supplied immediately upon purchase.
  - Joker_vD 4y ago
    Wait, does that piece of law states that if you buy something as an Internet download, you then have to wait two weeks before you can actually download and use it unless you either a) ask the seller to not wait for two weeks; or b) give up on refunding?
    - Ekaros 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
rasz 4y ago
> lose your right yeah nah, that doesnt fly in countries with consumer protections, no EULA or TOS has power to void your rights
- wodenokoto 4y ago
  They actually do. You have a right to be able to return online purchases within 14 days in EU, but you can lose/waive that right for digital purchases, under the same law that gives you that right. Even though this is Nintendo UK, I'm pretty sure this is what they are referring to.
  - Handytinge 4y ago
    Thankfully, there are other countries outside the EU with sane consumer protections :).
jpgvm 4y ago
I hate usage of verbiage like "unable to" when it's very clearly "don't wish to". Abusing language to make it seem like there is some hard barrier to you performing some task really annoys me. They clearly are able (and in some jurisdictions will be compelled) to refund purchases, they are just expressing their desire for you to go fk yourself.
- anakaine 4y ago
  This is really the truth of the matter, isn't it. All major payment processors permit merchants to refund. Each merchant in this case can revoke licence keys, if only they were to connect refunds to revocations in their store. This isn't a "can't do", it's a "we don't want to do" situation.
- Diesel555 4y ago
  Even worse is when it is put into passive language to intentionally remove the subject - which is done in political speeches to address negative outcomes. It has the subtle effect of shifting blame from the subject. Examples [1]. "We are unable to provide refunds or exchanges for mistaken purchases" becomes "Refunds or exchanges for mistaken purchases are unable to be provided." [1] https://www.ranker.com/list/times-politicians-used-passive-voice-to-deflect-blame/ranker-news https://www.ranker.com/list/times-politicians-used-passive-v...
  - Thorrez 4y ago
    When police describe a shooting by a suspect, they use the active voice. When they describe a shooting by an officer, they use the passive voice. > The suspect produced a semi-automatic handgun and fired numerous times striking the victim in the torso. > The suspect then ran towards the officers still armed with the sword and an officer-involved-shooting occurred. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/07/14/the-curious-grammar-of-police-shootings/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/07/14/...
    - noptd 4y ago
      >Eschew flamebait. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Teever 4y ago
I wish statements like "We are unable to provide refunds or exchanges for mistaken purchases, and/or if you don't like the game" weren't legal. It's obvious that they don't want to provide refunds, not that they can't, and that they're trying to mislead consumers into believing that it is some technical issue preventing them not avarice.
jwmoz 4y ago
Always makes me laugh when a company says something like this and normies tend to believe it. You are able to refund it you just choose not to. Issue a chargeback. Cause them more problems.
- atemerev 4y ago
  Yeah, I once issued a chargeback in a European store (not Nintendo). Was banned for life.
  - Nextgrid 4y ago
    So you fight fire with fire and create a new account if it's that critical.
  - andrewnicolalde 4y ago
    Sounds like you lost nothing of value.
    - jollygoodshow 4y ago
      If they like buying stuff from that store then clearly they did, this is the problem: even when users exercise their rights they still get punished
      - Xylakant 4y ago
        Issueing a chargeback is not always as simple “exercising you right.” You get your money back, ok. But you may still owe the provider the amount that you have taken back - or the goods received. The credit card provider is not legally entitled to make a decision on that matter. So the store owner is entirely entitled to refrain from servicing you until you pay up.
        atemerev 4y ago
        Well I offered to pay up, but they told me that the ban cannot be reversed.
dusted 4y ago
There should be a law forcing companies to write "we don't want to" when they just don't want to. Of course Nintendo is able to, provided that their bank didn't lock them out.
- cube00 4y ago
  I suspect a bank that would get a share of the massive transaction volumes going through the Nintendo store would accommodate any return policy Nintendo wanted to offer. Look at Google and their 2 hour play store returns, it can be done they just don't want to (sorry they're unable to but I'm sure they really really want to if they could /s)
  - nicce 4y ago
    It is not even a question that they could not do it. Somehow it is funny, that they consider people believing it.
- mproud 4y ago
  No company would ever admit to that! They just come up with excuses as to the reason why.
kwatsonafter 4y ago
Nintendo + Neoliberalism looks like a really bad trip man. Whatever happened to the wonderful company Yokoi Gunpei made toys at?
- datavirtue 4y ago
  Same company, only recently engaged in direct sales to consumers.
  - kwatsonafter 4y ago
    Respectfully I disagree; Nintendo fell apart after he was willfully assassinated by Nintendo executives. (cough, cough). I think despite what is perceived as a recent renaissance (it isn't) The Big N (god do I hate myself) has never reclaimed it's pre-Lost Generation magic. There aren't people to replace that, "manga and computer games" generation in Japan. Hideaki Anno made comment on this a few years back: https://kotaku.com/evangelion-creator-predicts-the-death-of-anime-1706738732 https://kotaku.com/evangelion-creator-predicts-the-death-of-... I'm sincerely hoping the kids are still alright!
  - kwatsonafter 4y ago
    I think it's worth noting too (now that we're all in the same room) that despite a kind of mythology from people my age (31) that it really wasn't Shigeru Miyamoto and the 80's Star Fox brigade that made Nintendo what it was; Nintendo has and I hope always be a kind of weird ass toy company that happens to sell, "home computers." http://blog.beforemario.com/p/nintendo-before-mario.html http://blog.beforemario.com/p/nintendo-before-mario.html I would fight in bloody wars for a competent, "modern Famicom" with a sort of Mario Paint Forever built in.
cm2187 4y ago
To be honest would you do that with a movie?
- bob1029 4y ago
  I think it depends. A movie theater or a streaming multimedia platform? Blu ray in hand or Netflix? I feel the business model and format are factors in this equation. In this particular case, the cost to the vendor of expensing merchandise is negligible because it is digital. If it was physical, or time & place, the conversation would be a little different.
  - cm2187 4y ago
    Well even streaming. I watch a movie, then I claim it’s a bad movie and want my money back.
    - MikeSchurman 4y ago
      I think if you watched 10% of a movie (which streaming platforms can track) and decided you didn't want to watch it, yeah. A good service provider would give you your money back. Would 1% of people take advantage of this and watch 10% of a movie and ask for a refund? Probably, but the good will to the other 99% would pay for that, IMO.
- qikInNdOutReply 4y ago
  Stand up right in the middle, walk to the entrance, demand my money back if it sucked to bad. Turns out, there is a too low for quality and a too much to riddle a product with exploitive "features" - people have a right to walk out on that and demand their money back from the scammers.
- jpambrun 4y ago
  It would be appropriate to refund movies purchased by mistake or by a child using a parent's account, yes.
joeman1000 4y ago
Unwilling, not unable.
molszanski 4y ago
This is where we need governments to create laws. Und magically Nintendo will become able
tasubotadas 4y ago
Got bitten by this. That's why I am waiting for steam deck to be available. Nintendo's ecosystem is the most closed down and money mongering machine I had a pleasure to use.
- no_time 4y ago
  Unless you own one of their devices that accidentally respect the owner's wish to run arbitrary code :^)
5350-uiop-1130 4y ago
I see Nintendon't and Apple as very similar companies. Deeply anti-consumer with a fanbase that will defend them regardless. Some kind of stockholm affect. Just look at the joycon debacle which they refused to acknowledge or honour, very much Apple way of it's your fault. (not to say they don't make good products)
- bzzzt 4y ago
  I believe it's more an image/marketing issue. If you made -in your opinion- the best product or the most fun game you could make, it's difficult to stand by that statement and also acknowledge there could be something wrong with it. Publicly apologising takes away some of the brand value so that's something you only do as a last resort. Nintendo replaced my out of warranty broken Joycons for free btw.
- m-s 4y ago
  Getting refunds for App Store/in-app purchases has been a breeze for me though.
- thejammahimself 4y ago
  > (not to say they don't make good products) I think that's the key point there. They have a history of making some amazing games, and still continue to do so to some extent. But their business practices in recent years have been, quite simply, abysmal. Stuff like not doing refunds at all (unless they're forced to by law), and also them guarding their intellectual property like their lives depend on it even when this is detrimental to their own business model (remember when they took a cut out of YouTubers making videos of their games leading to many just not bothering, and Nintendo losing out on publicity?) I'm not much of a gamer anymore but I still enjoy playing them from time to time. I just feel like the gaming industry has being getting worse, and worse. Games are so monetized now that some are now borderline (or ought to be considered) gambling. At least there is still some amazing creativity coming from independent development studios.
  - everforward 4y ago
    > Games are so monetized now that some are now borderline (or ought to be considered) gambling. At least there is still some amazing creativity coming from independent development studios. In their defense, games have gotten an incredible amount larger and more complicated without adjusting the price of the games since the 90's. We're effectively paying half the price we would have in the 90's due to inflation. I don't know that people would buy them at inflation-adjusted prices. Adjusted from the early 90s, a game would now cost ~$120. And that's discounting the difference in development costs. The latest Call of Duty had a budget of $250M; Ocarina of Time had a budget of $12M, which is ~$21M after adjusting for inflation. I don't love the direction either, but they have to make money somewhere.
mproud 4y ago
Waiting for attorneys general to put some pressure on Nintendo.
epolanski 4y ago
That would be illegal in Europe / Italy. I think consumer's advocacy groups should look into that.
icu 4y ago
I thought this might break distance selling rules in the UK but it seems like you can "contract out" for streaming and download products as long as you get the customer to accept a no refund policy prior to purchase. Source: https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesses https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesse... Imho this is sharp business practice and one of the reasons I still buy physical video games. If there are any lawyers lurking, can this refund policy be circumvented if purchasing with a Credit Card under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act? I'm assuming you'd need to somehow prove it wasn't what you expected (accidental purchase)?
- xnorswap 4y ago
  It looks like it still falls foul of this outlined on this page: https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesses/online-selling https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesse... > [You must] take reasonable steps to let customers correct errors in their order That should cover accidental purchases at the very least.
  - d1sxeyes 4y ago
    I think that “reasonable steps” here could be: “we asked the user to review their basket before checking out, and displayed a final list of everything in the order directly above the payment options at the last stage of the check out process.
wly_cdgr 4y ago
So fuckin baller I love that the kid game company is the one with the biggest nuts on this
ConstantVigil 4y ago
Nintendo does stuff like this, and then wonders why people give almost literally zero fucks about pirating their games via emulation. It's to the point where I would not be surprised if there are lawyers and judges who play emulated Nintendo games.
_nalply 4y ago
Haha. In many european countries a child can only buy something if the parents agree. I as a father just would tell Nintendo to reimburse because I didn't agree with my child's purchase, give them some time then start a charge-back.
ericraio 4y ago
A better way to phrase this would have been “Abuse to returns is why we do not offer a refund” If they are upfront to the why, people would be more understanding.
lynndotpy 4y ago
I once purchased a subscription for a game, and only then learned that it required an additional ToS (which I did not agree to) and external Ubisoft account to use. Believe it or not, I was actually able to get a refund!
teleforce 4y ago
Wait, what? You guys can buy and download Nintendo games? In my region they don't even allow buying any games online, you insensitive clod!
- stewx 4y ago
  Where?
MrYellowP 4y ago
Nintendo isn't customer friendly. More News at 11.
reset-password 4y ago
I wonder how this shakes out compared to having a consumer-friendly policy where refunds are issued liberally. I assume that over a long period of time Nintendo customers will become conditioned to be less likely to take a chance on something and lead to less impulse buys. It's not exactly apples to apples but I've experienced the opposite effect with Costco where due to their refund policies I'm much more willing to make impulse purchases and to try things I'm unsure of.
- spiffytech 4y ago
  The rationale I've heard for this is that there's a small but material portion of customers who would return every game after they finish playing it. This is less of a problem with physical goods (like your Costco example), where someone usually wants longer-term use out of the durable goods they buy. It's interesting to wonder what the net outcome would be if they ate that cost in exchange for making customers feel safe taking a chance on more games.
kderbyma 4y ago
Nintendo has become a failure in a lot ways. it used to be a leader....but I have little respect for them ... they have some nice IP...that's it

132 points by meken 4y ago

It's because of anti-consumer behavior like this that I refuse to buy anything from Nintendo now. I used to own a Switch, but I eventually got tired of their ass-backward policies and sold it.

aaron695 4y ago

Do I get refunds on movies I don't like? What's the point here?

vore 4y ago

In some countries like Australia and New Zealand, Nintendo is bound by law to accept some types of returns: see https://www.nintendo.com.au/support/articles/refund-for-downloaded-game-or-dlc https://www.nintendo.com.au/support/articles/refund-for-down... which has an extra section at the bottom: We can provide a remedy if the game or DLC fails to meet a consumer guarantee under the Australian Consumer Law in Australia or the Consumer Guarantees Act in New Zealand. Details of Australian consumers’ rights under the Australian Consumer Law can be found at www.consumerlaw.gov.au. Details of New Zealand consumers’ rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act can be found at www.consumerprotection.govt.nz. These protections are actually quite broad, as Valve found itself in hot water for quite a few years back: https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-posts-a-notice-about-australian-consumer-rights-on-steam/ https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-posts-a-notice-about-australia... When you buy video games from Valve Corporation as a consumer located in Australia, the video games come with guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot be excluded, including a guarantee that the video games are of acceptable quality. You are entitled to a replacement or refund from the retail supplier of the video games for a major failure and for compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. You are also entitled to have the video games repaired or replaced by the retail supplier of the video games if the video games fail to be of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure. Certain other rights are available directly against manufacturers that cannot be excluded or limited.

jay_kyburz 4y ago
I don't think our guarantees extend to you just not liking it. The game has to be defective, or incomparable with your computer, or have been misrepresented before you bought it. IANAL Updated after your update: In this case I think we can assume "acceptable quality" has already been established by Nintendo's QA department. Its not an open store after all.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- izzydata 4y ago
  "Its not an open store after all." The Nintendo online market pretty much has no oversight anymore. They don't do any careful pruning of shovelware these days.
  - djur 4y ago
    At a bare minimum, you can buy games on the Switch with incomprehensible English translations: https://legendsoflocalization.com/this-be-bad-translation-19-refreshing-sideways-puzzle-ghost-hammer/ https://legendsoflocalization.com/this-be-bad-translation-19... NES games often had some pretty rough translations, but I can't think of a single game in that era that was this garbled.
    - bombcar 4y ago
      These are bad but seem to be at the level of "All your base are belong to us".
      - boomboomsubban 4y ago
        Which comes from a Sega game. Not that the NES was really better, it still has classics like "a winner is you!"
- selectodude 4y ago

NikolaNovak 4y ago

I don't understand this sentence; it must reference some context I'm unaware of: "When you purchase digital content in Nintendo eShop, at the time of your purchase, you consent to Nintendo beginning with the performance of its obligations immediately, before the cancellation period ends, and you acknowledge that you will thereby lose your right to cancel at that point."

cbhl 4y ago
This appears to be in reference to Article 7.3 of the applicable directive: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2011/83/2022-05-28 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2011/83/2022-05-28 Vague English summary here (the Sample story simply says "the 14 day cooling off period doesn't apply to concert ticket purchases" which seems insufficiently precise). https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/index_en.htm https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/gua...
marlor 4y ago
UK Consumer Contract law has a 14-day cancellation period. For digital goods, the legislation states: —— Under a contract for the supply of digital content not on a tangible medium, the trader must not begin supply of the digital content before the end of the cancellation period provided for in regulation 30(1), unless— (a)the consumer has given express consent, and (b)the consumer has acknowledged that the right to cancel the contract under regulation 29(1) will be lost. —— Therefore, Nintendo is stating that the 14-day cancellation period is to be waived, and digital goods are to be deemed as supplied immediately upon purchase.
- Joker_vD 4y ago
  Wait, does that piece of law states that if you buy something as an Internet download, you then have to wait two weeks before you can actually download and use it unless you either a) ask the seller to not wait for two weeks; or b) give up on refunding?
  - Ekaros 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

rasz 4y ago

> lose your right yeah nah, that doesnt fly in countries with consumer protections, no EULA or TOS has power to void your rights

wodenokoto 4y ago
They actually do. You have a right to be able to return online purchases within 14 days in EU, but you can lose/waive that right for digital purchases, under the same law that gives you that right. Even though this is Nintendo UK, I'm pretty sure this is what they are referring to.
- Handytinge 4y ago
  Thankfully, there are other countries outside the EU with sane consumer protections :).

jpgvm 4y ago

I hate usage of verbiage like "unable to" when it's very clearly "don't wish to". Abusing language to make it seem like there is some hard barrier to you performing some task really annoys me. They clearly are able (and in some jurisdictions will be compelled) to refund purchases, they are just expressing their desire for you to go fk yourself.

anakaine 4y ago
This is really the truth of the matter, isn't it. All major payment processors permit merchants to refund. Each merchant in this case can revoke licence keys, if only they were to connect refunds to revocations in their store. This isn't a "can't do", it's a "we don't want to do" situation.
Diesel555 4y ago
Even worse is when it is put into passive language to intentionally remove the subject - which is done in political speeches to address negative outcomes. It has the subtle effect of shifting blame from the subject. Examples [1]. "We are unable to provide refunds or exchanges for mistaken purchases" becomes "Refunds or exchanges for mistaken purchases are unable to be provided." [1] https://www.ranker.com/list/times-politicians-used-passive-voice-to-deflect-blame/ranker-news https://www.ranker.com/list/times-politicians-used-passive-v...
- Thorrez 4y ago
  When police describe a shooting by a suspect, they use the active voice. When they describe a shooting by an officer, they use the passive voice. > The suspect produced a semi-automatic handgun and fired numerous times striking the victim in the torso. > The suspect then ran towards the officers still armed with the sword and an officer-involved-shooting occurred. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/07/14/the-curious-grammar-of-police-shootings/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/07/14/...
  - noptd 4y ago
    >Eschew flamebait. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Teever 4y ago

I wish statements like "We are unable to provide refunds or exchanges for mistaken purchases, and/or if you don't like the game" weren't legal. It's obvious that they don't want to provide refunds, not that they can't, and that they're trying to mislead consumers into believing that it is some technical issue preventing them not avarice.

jwmoz 4y ago

Always makes me laugh when a company says something like this and normies tend to believe it. You are able to refund it you just choose not to. Issue a chargeback. Cause them more problems.

atemerev 4y ago
Yeah, I once issued a chargeback in a European store (not Nintendo). Was banned for life.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  So you fight fire with fire and create a new account if it's that critical.
- andrewnicolalde 4y ago
  Sounds like you lost nothing of value.
  - jollygoodshow 4y ago
    If they like buying stuff from that store then clearly they did, this is the problem: even when users exercise their rights they still get punished
    - Xylakant 4y ago
      Issueing a chargeback is not always as simple “exercising you right.” You get your money back, ok. But you may still owe the provider the amount that you have taken back - or the goods received. The credit card provider is not legally entitled to make a decision on that matter. So the store owner is entirely entitled to refrain from servicing you until you pay up.
      - atemerev 4y ago
        Well I offered to pay up, but they told me that the ban cannot be reversed.

dusted 4y ago

There should be a law forcing companies to write "we don't want to" when they just don't want to. Of course Nintendo is able to, provided that their bank didn't lock them out.

cube00 4y ago
I suspect a bank that would get a share of the massive transaction volumes going through the Nintendo store would accommodate any return policy Nintendo wanted to offer. Look at Google and their 2 hour play store returns, it can be done they just don't want to (sorry they're unable to but I'm sure they really really want to if they could /s)
- nicce 4y ago
  It is not even a question that they could not do it. Somehow it is funny, that they consider people believing it.
mproud 4y ago
No company would ever admit to that! They just come up with excuses as to the reason why.

kwatsonafter 4y ago

Nintendo + Neoliberalism looks like a really bad trip man. Whatever happened to the wonderful company Yokoi Gunpei made toys at?

datavirtue 4y ago
Same company, only recently engaged in direct sales to consumers.
- kwatsonafter 4y ago
  Respectfully I disagree; Nintendo fell apart after he was willfully assassinated by Nintendo executives. (cough, cough). I think despite what is perceived as a recent renaissance (it isn't) The Big N (god do I hate myself) has never reclaimed it's pre-Lost Generation magic. There aren't people to replace that, "manga and computer games" generation in Japan. Hideaki Anno made comment on this a few years back: https://kotaku.com/evangelion-creator-predicts-the-death-of-anime-1706738732 https://kotaku.com/evangelion-creator-predicts-the-death-of-... I'm sincerely hoping the kids are still alright!
- kwatsonafter 4y ago
  I think it's worth noting too (now that we're all in the same room) that despite a kind of mythology from people my age (31) that it really wasn't Shigeru Miyamoto and the 80's Star Fox brigade that made Nintendo what it was; Nintendo has and I hope always be a kind of weird ass toy company that happens to sell, "home computers." http://blog.beforemario.com/p/nintendo-before-mario.html http://blog.beforemario.com/p/nintendo-before-mario.html I would fight in bloody wars for a competent, "modern Famicom" with a sort of Mario Paint Forever built in.

cm2187 4y ago

To be honest would you do that with a movie?

bob1029 4y ago
I think it depends. A movie theater or a streaming multimedia platform? Blu ray in hand or Netflix? I feel the business model and format are factors in this equation. In this particular case, the cost to the vendor of expensing merchandise is negligible because it is digital. If it was physical, or time & place, the conversation would be a little different.
- cm2187 4y ago
  Well even streaming. I watch a movie, then I claim it’s a bad movie and want my money back.
  - MikeSchurman 4y ago
    I think if you watched 10% of a movie (which streaming platforms can track) and decided you didn't want to watch it, yeah. A good service provider would give you your money back. Would 1% of people take advantage of this and watch 10% of a movie and ask for a refund? Probably, but the good will to the other 99% would pay for that, IMO.
qikInNdOutReply 4y ago
Stand up right in the middle, walk to the entrance, demand my money back if it sucked to bad. Turns out, there is a too low for quality and a too much to riddle a product with exploitive "features" - people have a right to walk out on that and demand their money back from the scammers.
jpambrun 4y ago
It would be appropriate to refund movies purchased by mistake or by a child using a parent's account, yes.

joeman1000 4y ago

Unwilling, not unable.

molszanski 4y ago

This is where we need governments to create laws. Und magically Nintendo will become able

tasubotadas 4y ago

Got bitten by this. That's why I am waiting for steam deck to be available. Nintendo's ecosystem is the most closed down and money mongering machine I had a pleasure to use.

no_time 4y ago
Unless you own one of their devices that accidentally respect the owner's wish to run arbitrary code :^)

5350-uiop-1130 4y ago

I see Nintendon't and Apple as very similar companies. Deeply anti-consumer with a fanbase that will defend them regardless. Some kind of stockholm affect. Just look at the joycon debacle which they refused to acknowledge or honour, very much Apple way of it's your fault. (not to say they don't make good products)

bzzzt 4y ago
I believe it's more an image/marketing issue. If you made -in your opinion- the best product or the most fun game you could make, it's difficult to stand by that statement and also acknowledge there could be something wrong with it. Publicly apologising takes away some of the brand value so that's something you only do as a last resort. Nintendo replaced my out of warranty broken Joycons for free btw.
m-s 4y ago
Getting refunds for App Store/in-app purchases has been a breeze for me though.
thejammahimself 4y ago
> (not to say they don't make good products) I think that's the key point there. They have a history of making some amazing games, and still continue to do so to some extent. But their business practices in recent years have been, quite simply, abysmal. Stuff like not doing refunds at all (unless they're forced to by law), and also them guarding their intellectual property like their lives depend on it even when this is detrimental to their own business model (remember when they took a cut out of YouTubers making videos of their games leading to many just not bothering, and Nintendo losing out on publicity?) I'm not much of a gamer anymore but I still enjoy playing them from time to time. I just feel like the gaming industry has being getting worse, and worse. Games are so monetized now that some are now borderline (or ought to be considered) gambling. At least there is still some amazing creativity coming from independent development studios.
- everforward 4y ago
  > Games are so monetized now that some are now borderline (or ought to be considered) gambling. At least there is still some amazing creativity coming from independent development studios. In their defense, games have gotten an incredible amount larger and more complicated without adjusting the price of the games since the 90's. We're effectively paying half the price we would have in the 90's due to inflation. I don't know that people would buy them at inflation-adjusted prices. Adjusted from the early 90s, a game would now cost ~$120. And that's discounting the difference in development costs. The latest Call of Duty had a budget of $250M; Ocarina of Time had a budget of $12M, which is ~$21M after adjusting for inflation. I don't love the direction either, but they have to make money somewhere.

mproud 4y ago

Waiting for attorneys general to put some pressure on Nintendo.

epolanski 4y ago

That would be illegal in Europe / Italy. I think consumer's advocacy groups should look into that.

icu 4y ago

I thought this might break distance selling rules in the UK but it seems like you can "contract out" for streaming and download products as long as you get the customer to accept a no refund policy prior to purchase. Source: https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesses https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesse... Imho this is sharp business practice and one of the reasons I still buy physical video games. If there are any lawyers lurking, can this refund policy be circumvented if purchasing with a Credit Card under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act? I'm assuming you'd need to somehow prove it wasn't what you expected (accidental purchase)?

xnorswap 4y ago
It looks like it still falls foul of this outlined on this page: https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesses/online-selling https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesse... > [You must] take reasonable steps to let customers correct errors in their order That should cover accidental purchases at the very least.
- d1sxeyes 4y ago
  I think that “reasonable steps” here could be: “we asked the user to review their basket before checking out, and displayed a final list of everything in the order directly above the payment options at the last stage of the check out process.

wly_cdgr 4y ago

So fuckin baller I love that the kid game company is the one with the biggest nuts on this

ConstantVigil 4y ago

Nintendo does stuff like this, and then wonders why people give almost literally zero fucks about pirating their games via emulation. It's to the point where I would not be surprised if there are lawyers and judges who play emulated Nintendo games.

_nalply 4y ago

Haha. In many european countries a child can only buy something if the parents agree. I as a father just would tell Nintendo to reimburse because I didn't agree with my child's purchase, give them some time then start a charge-back.

ericraio 4y ago

A better way to phrase this would have been “Abuse to returns is why we do not offer a refund” If they are upfront to the why, people would be more understanding.

lynndotpy 4y ago

I once purchased a subscription for a game, and only then learned that it required an additional ToS (which I did not agree to) and external Ubisoft account to use. Believe it or not, I was actually able to get a refund!

teleforce 4y ago

Wait, what? You guys can buy and download Nintendo games? In my region they don't even allow buying any games online, you insensitive clod!

stewx 4y ago
Where?

MrYellowP 4y ago

Nintendo isn't customer friendly. More News at 11.

reset-password 4y ago

I wonder how this shakes out compared to having a consumer-friendly policy where refunds are issued liberally. I assume that over a long period of time Nintendo customers will become conditioned to be less likely to take a chance on something and lead to less impulse buys. It's not exactly apples to apples but I've experienced the opposite effect with Costco where due to their refund policies I'm much more willing to make impulse purchases and to try things I'm unsure of.

spiffytech 4y ago
The rationale I've heard for this is that there's a small but material portion of customers who would return every game after they finish playing it. This is less of a problem with physical goods (like your Costco example), where someone usually wants longer-term use out of the durable goods they buy. It's interesting to wonder what the net outcome would be if they ate that cost in exchange for making customers feel safe taking a chance on more games.

kderbyma 4y ago

Nintendo has become a failure in a lot ways. it used to be a leader....but I have little respect for them ... they have some nice IP...that's it