Trouble with my Wii Counsole

Last week we had our young niece and nephew over for a visit and were informed that our Wii wasn't working so well. Regardless of which game disc the kids tried to use, they got a "Unable to Read Disc" message. So on Tuesday I went online and found a suggestion to use the Wii Lens Cleaner to fix my problem.

I bought the cleaner - it had simple instructions and the cleaning pad came out more than a little dirty when I finished, but unfortunately the disc error did not go away. Our Wii is three years old so we are definitely past the warranty coverage, but as the machine didn't work I decided to give the folks at Nintendo Customer Service a try.

After a 15 minute phone call, we had a solution. The very helpful customer service guy I chatted to explained that while the Wii Lens Cleaner is a great preventative tool, in my console's case it was a little too late. I would have to send the machine away for a repair.

The charge broke down as follows:

$75 for the repair

$10 for shipping (there and back), and

$5 for tax (all in Canadian funds)

In return they promise to have my console back to me within 12 business days of them receiving it (they should get it in Vancouver around Wednesday), and if the machine is irreparable they will replace my console. Either way I'll have a new machine with another year of warranty by the end of this month.

I'm hoping that this post will begin my very positive experience of how the good folks at Nintendo care for their customers, but we'll see - either way I'll keep you posted.