Comment Re:Creating FUD (Score 1) 79
DOA returns don't work that way. As a vendor, Nintendo has two choices: refund the money and pay for return shipping back to Nintendo or refund the money and let Amazon scrap the product
Nintendo can refuse the DOA as fraudulent after identifying serial numbers. These are working units which are not refundable, even if the customer caused a problem with them.
There is nothing that would require Nintendo to compensate the retailer for accepting a return from the customer which does not qualify under the manufacturer's warranty. Goods are working at the time of sale, and the customer commits a Terms of Service violation causing their unit to be restricted. There is no defect in the unit, and any return as such is a fraud no different than a customer accidentally dropping their unit and attempting to claim warranty.
Actually, there's a huge difference. It's called the "reasonable person test". In law, that means that if a reasonable person would not expect a hardware purchase to suddenly get massively reduced in functionality for buying a used game, then Nintendo generally speaking will be hard pressed to prove that their terms of service (being a contract of adhesion) are not unconscionable. In the absence of such determination, Nintendo disabling the device at least arguably has no legitimate basis in the law, and could be considered fraudulent.
Add to that the presumption that Nintendo has incentive to make used copies of games scary for consumers because they will make more money selling directly to the consumers, and this starts to rapidly fall into the "attempt to monopolize" section of the Sherman Act, which makes the behavior legally actionable federally.
I could go on, but it suffices to say that this is highly questionable on Nintendo's part from a legal perspective, and is a really great way to get their company nailed to the wall on multiple federal charges.
That said, none of the questionable legality of their behavior, their terms of service, or their warranty policy negates the fact that Amazon's vendor contracts determine whether or not Nintendo has to take the return, not any agreement between the customer and Nintendo.
I have a colleague who ordered a thousand dollar CPU and other parts, then when the shipment came from Amazon it was just an empty CPU package. Someone opened the manufacturer's package, removed the actual CPU, and shipped them an empty package that had the number of the part they ordered on it. Amazon absolutely refused to help them. That would be the first time they needed a return with Amazon. Amazon would not take the return or make it good for them in any way whatsoever.
That's where you go to your credit card company and issue a chargeback. Amazon really doesn't have a choice in the matter unless you give them one. As someone who has used this process successfully, it is absolutely better than getting screwed by a sleazy vendor.
I understand your view that playing with copied games doesn't fit the criteria, but Nintendo obviously disagrees.
Nintendo's perspective is moot. What matters is whether a contract of adhesion is so draconian that it would be held unconscionable by the courts. I would argue that it almost certainly would be held unconscionable under those circumstances or anything remotely similar to those circumstances.
Nintendo does not even give room to argue against them on this, however. The Warranty terms on their product specifically cite "Unreasonable" use as a condition that will disqualify the unit from warranty coverage and specifically includes "usage with game copier devices".
THIS WARRANTY SHALL NOT APPLY TO DAMAGES TO THE PRODUCT CAUSED BY PARTS OR REPAIRS THAT ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH OR AUTHORIZED BY NINTENDO (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ADAPTERS, SOFTWARE, AND POWER SUPPLIES).
And again, you're still talking about warranties. None of that matters. The return policy is dictated by a standard Amazon vendor contract, not by whatever pile of legal vomit Nintendo wants to put down on paper.
That said, installing a game presumptively manufactured by Nintendo or one of its licensees does not, at least to a reasonable person standard, meet the criteria you're mentioning here, which means installing a game that to the best of your knowledge is a legitimate copy of the game resulting in Nintendo choosing to brick your online access is fraud, and absolutely is grounds for warranty service, were you not returning the product through the original retail channel, which makes the warranty moot.
WARRANTY SHALL NOT APPLY IF THIS PRODUCT (a) IS USED FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES (INCLUDING RENTAL); (b) IS DAMAGED BY ANY UNAUTHORIZED MODIFICATIONS OR TAMPERING; (c) IS DAMAGED BY NEGLIGENCE, ACCIDENT, UNREASONABLE USE, OR BY OTHER CAUSES UNRELATED TO DEFECTIVE MATERIALS OR WORKMANSHIP (INCLUDING USE WITH GAME ENHANCEMENT AND COPIER DEVICES)
Nor does installing a game appear to meet the criteria here. The user did not use any game enhancement or copier device. The possibility that someone else may have sold a game that was so copied is moot. Nintendo still doesn't have any legal right to brick the device, even under a strict reading of those warranty terms.
And the fact that Nintendo has to do something to make the Switch 2 not work — that it is not the fault of the enhancement/copying device actually breaking the Switch 2, but rather Nintendo deliberately doing something in response to someone having used such a device — means that this warranty, if interpreted the way you interpret it, is likely not legally a warranty under Magnusson Moss, and therefore, sale of the product with such a fraudulent warranty would be per se illegal in the United States.
You can't just write a bunch of contract terms down on a piece of paper and claim that because someone appears to have violated them, that person has no rights. The law doesn't work that way. A company can disclaim a warranty only for things that were actually damaged by the use of third-party hardware, software, etc., not merely because of the use of third-party hardware, software, etc. The law is very clear on this. Their warranty terms do not give Nintendo any right to disable a device, nor to return a device so disabled, merely because Nintendo *knows* that someone has done so, much less merely because Nintendo *thinks* someone has done so. The legal bar is far higher than that.