The unique handheld and home console design of the Nintendo Switch console has created a new peak for Nintendo in the current game console market. However, the detachable controller JopyCon has been prone to “drift” problems due to inherent design problems shortly following the launch of the console. That is, the direction of the controller will move on its own following a period of use. Of course, when consumers encounter JoyCon drift, they usually send it out for warranty repair. According to the interview between Kotaku and the former director of an outsourcing repair company from Nintendo of America, the other party said that due to the hot sale of Switch, the The repair center received a large number of JoyCons sent for repair, and almost all of the manpower was spent on repairing the JoyCons.
From 2017 to 2018, Nintendo of North America usually handled the JoyCon sent by consumers for repair by replacing it with a new one directly, but following that, it began to repair, and even required 90% of the JoyCon sent for repair to be repaired within 4 days. Nintendo’s outsourced repair company is called United Radio. The repair personnel are mainly responsible for the temporary personnel provided by the manpower dispatch company. According to the former head of the repair department interviewed by Kotabu, there are almost hundreds of faulty JoyCons sent to the repair center every day, and finally even Had to set up a dedicated maintenance workspace for the JoyCon.
▲As a result, the drift problem caused by the design of the JoyCon has not been solved, so that almost all the manpower of the outsourced repair center is spent on repairing the JoyCon
But to make matters worse, the temporary employees hired by the manpower dispatch center lacked relevant professional knowledge, resulting in frequent problems in the maintenance process. For example, a customer once sent the Switch for repair, and following receiving the repaired host, it was found that the internal information was from other consumers. Yes, his files on the personal computer, including the 90-hour “Zelda Breath of the Wild” file, have been overwritten.
It is worth noting that the former head of the maintenance department of United Radio who broke the news is the only member of the maintenance team who speaks English as a native language, although United Radio has stipulated that if he can stay for three months, he can be hired as a regular employee. Due to Aerotek’s strict conditions for contractors and subsequent non-recruitments, these temporary employees rarely stay for more than two and a half months. The main reason is because a lot of the temporary employees recruited by Aerotek are Vietnamese immigrants. Up to 2/3 of the maintenance team members are Vietnamese immigrants, and the rest are from Latin America or other Asian countries. Some people even lack fluent English communication skills. Communication through a third party is required, but these migrant workers are usually the longest on the maintenance team.
