Gillian's DS

For Christmas 2007, we splurged and got Chris & Rae each a Nintendo DS, and Gillian a Leapster. We figured it was more her age, and similar to the DS with it's wide build, it's screen, and the use of a stylus on it. Unfortunately, she didn't agree, and hardly played with it, while sneaking off with one of the DS's occasionally.

This year, we wound up getting her one for Christmas. Somewhere in the 3 weeks after Christmas, we realized that it was making a crunching sound when you put a game in. We looked, and could clearly see pins damaged- whether from sticking other things in there, or shoving the games in wrong, I don't know.

We packaged it up, and sent out for a shipping label from Nintendo, and sent it away about 2 weeks ago. Yesterday, we received it back. We knew when we sent it that the problem was not covered by the warrenty, but we sent it anyway. I waited for a phone call or email telling us what the problem was, and how much it would cost to replace it.

Imagine my surprise when it arrived yesterday, completely fixed! There was a note accompanying it that stated it was physical damage, not covered by warrenty, and that they fixed it for us, and that this time, there was no charge. They did say if it happened again, they would have to charge us.

In the mean time, we gave Gillian a rule- she can't swap out games. She has to have someone else do it for her. If we catch her swapping out a game, she gets it taken away.

I was really impressed with Nintendo, though. The place that fixed it was in New York. They got the package, and fixed it and returned it very fast, and all without a charge, even though there should have been one! They even re-stuck the Princess Peach cover sticker she had on the front. It came with the DS kit she got for Christmas.

The edge was peeling up, but it was stuck back down nice and tight when we got it back. Not that it mattered- the day we discovered the DS was having troubles, was the day we took the kids shopping with their Christmas and Birthday money, and Gilly bought a nerf armor to go on the DS (we require all 3 kids to have one- it protects the DS from bumps, and accidental droppings), and it didn't fit with the sticker, so she removed it and stuck the armor on it yesterday.

She's excited to have her DS back.