Nintendo has long been known for its stellar customer service, and a story making the rounds on Twitter this week serves only to further cement the company’s golden reputation.
Kuniko Tsusaka, a 70-year-old Japanese woman, recently sent a letter to newspaper Asahi Shimbun and recounted the story of her then 95-year-old mother who, as a lifelong fan of Tetris, had owned three Nintendo Game Boys over the past 30 years. As with most electronic devices, the woman’s beloved handheld gaming device began to lose functionality as it aged until it finally broke down completely.
At the same time that the Game Boy went kaput, the health of Tsusaka’s 95-year-old mother also began to decline. The family went on the hunt for a fix for the broken handheld. But the classic Game Boy console was discontinued in 2003 and it proved impossible for the family to find anyone who had the parts to fix the device, let alone get their hands on a replacement.
One day, the elderly woman’s grandson mentioned Nintendo’s “divine customer service,” or kami taiou. But due to the double meaning of the Japanese word kami, which can mean both “divine” and “paper,” the 95-year-old woman misunderstood and thought her grandson had said “paper customer service.” She then took it upon herself to handwrite a letter and snail mail it along with her broken Game Boy to Nintendo.
Within a week, Nintendo responded to the elderly woman’s letter, saying that unfortunately the company could not repair the device but had come across a brand new Game Boy in one of its warehouses. With compliments, Nintendo sent the new console to the woman at no cost, wishing her a long life. Tsusaka repaid Nintendo by sending a photo of her happy elderly mother with the new Game Boy.
Nintendo taking the time to not only notice and respond to the woman’s plea for assistance but also search through a warehouse and gift her with a free replacement is laudable and heartwarming. Tsusaka’s letter was printed in Asahi Shimbun on February 21, and a Twitter user soon shared an image of the story on their Twitter account. The post quickly went viral and garnered 198,000 likes and 67,000 retweets as of this writing.
The newspaper story ended with the woman sharing that her mother had passed away at the age of 99, four years after receiving the generous gift from Nintendo, but that she retained all of her mental faculties until the very end. Tsusaka stated that she believes her mother is still thankful, even in heaven, for Nintendo’s divine customer service. Hopefully, she’s still playing Tetris too.
Source: Sora News 24