Nintendo Switch OLED Warranty?

[Toofy Spooder]

Hey Everyone,

 

My son (8) is buying himself a Nintendo Switch OLED tomorrow, saved all him birthday money and everything for it. Very proud of him for the work he’s put in to earn this.

 

Anyway, we will be purchasing it at either GameStop or BestBuy (we are in Canada). I have been out of console gaming for a while, are warranties a thing that is recommended now a days? I keep seeing arguments for both sides of them, but am undecided if it is needed.

[si1enze]

I don't know about those stores coverage policies in Canada, but you should get 12 months from Nintendo no matter what.  (Keep the receipt..)

[Birblover12]

Many companies & retail stores like to make customers forget that they're legally entitled to warranties by default (in most countries anyways). You often just have to go looking for them, (I.E going to their website and contacting customer support, finding the relevant form, etc.). What you'd most likely be paying for is additional warranty coverage through a 3rd party, which can be helpful for extremely expensive items (like TVs for example) but in your case the standard warranty should be fine unless you want additional time to be covered under warranty or want additional coverage, such as user damage (something that's not normally covered under most warranties).

 

Just make sure you keep your receipt, if something happens customer support will likely ask for proof of purchase before sending out replacements  

[B16CXHatch]

I would say for an 8 year old child and a portable game console like that, I kinda would recommend buying extended coverage that covers accidental damage if the price isn't obnoxious. I avoid buying them myself for the vast majority of things I buy because I'm generally very careful with my stuff and I'm also a bit on the handy side.

 

I used to work at a job that I would sell replacement plans and extended warranties on some items. They weren't all scams. For certain items at certain price points for certain people, they were well worth it. Usually anything portable being bought for a kid, they were worth it. Tablets, mid-range laptops, backpacks, and binders being bought for kids were usually the most worthwhile. Office chairs too. Don't know why, but the plans for chairs were stupidly cheap. They were ALWAYS worth it for any chair over $100.

 

There were also things they were NOT worth getting on. Cheaper laptops and inkjet printers, desktops, monitors, keyboards, mice, and laser printers were usually worth skipping the plans.

[dalekphalm]

As noted, given the age of the child and the relative portable-ness of the Switch, getting Accidental Damage coverage may be worthy. Getting just an extended warranty (one that only covers factory defects) is not likely to be worth it.

[GoodBytes]

Switch cones with 1 year warranty. And my personal experience is that Nintendo is really has problem accepting to repair your system for free if it is out if warranty by a few months or you, say, never had a chance to use  a feature before or only a few times.. say the micorSD card slot, for example. For out of warranty repair, you'll need to pay shipping thaugth, but that is like... 25-30$, so whatever. Just be nice on the phone, and they'll close their eyes.

 

Joycons drift issue, Nintendo will repair free, out of warranty, any time, no problem in Canada.

 

That said, accident damages won't be covered by Nintendo. If the price is not ridiculous, I would consider getting it, due to the age of the child. Drops, or accident stepping on it (potentially crack the screen) can happen. Screen is expensive to replace, especially the OLED model, even if if you have the know how and time to replace it yourself (often times replacement screens are rejects or crap production, so finding a good replacement screen will be difficult, let alone genuine ones).