Replacement Manuals from Nintendo

nullendingnullending
in Collector's Corner
So I was browsing the Nintendo warranty and support pages looking up information on my N64 consoles (manufacture dates) and I saw that you could purchase replacement manuals for select games for $2.00 plus shipping. I thought to myself, "hey not bad, that's what I'd pay for a used one.." So I went ahead and ordered manuals for Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Zelda: Majora's Mask.

A week later and these arrived! (see pictures below)

This is what the letter reads:

"Hello,

Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding Nintendo products. We appreciate this opportunity to fulfill your request.

Although the manual you requested is no longer available in its original form, we are able to provide you with a photocopy. Please find it enclosed. Due to the cost involved in making photocopies, we continue to charge for this manual.

Please be advised that no person or company is authorized to photocopy this manual without express written consent.

Thank you again for contacting Nintendo. We hope you continue to enjoy your Nintendo products.

Sincerely,

NINTENDO OF AMERICA INC.
Consumer Service Department"



First, on the website they implied that it was an original manual. Second, costs involved in making photocopies? I can go to Kinko's or the UPS Store and use their color copier for less than $2.00. Obviously not worth shipping back. I'm torn about the issue: on one hand I'm slightly upset about the waste, but on the other it is pretty funny.

Comments

  • the_wizard_666the_wizard_666
    I'd email their customer service department and bitch about it and how pissed off you are about it. Then proceed to say you're going to stop supporting Nintendo's products because of their dishonest practices and how you'd tell everyone you know that Nintendo ripped you off with this scam, or something to that effect. Maybe you'll get some free shit out of the deal image
  • nullendingnullending
    Update:

    I got this awhile ago but never posted it. I did complain to Nintendo about it--just the fact that it was misleading.


    They just said that I could ship it back for a refund. Shipping would be on my dime.



    Looks like they updated their website too:

    http://store.nintendo.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=382&currency=USD&catalogId=10001&tranId=0&lastAction=setCurr&storeId=10001&languageId=-1&categoryId=14754&ddkey=http:SetCurrencyPreference

    "This is the manual that was packaged with the game. The manual you receive may be a photocopy of the original manual."
  • the_wizard_666the_wizard_666
    Well shit, must've been because they had a ton of complaints about it.
  • nullendingnullending
    Or it was a CYA thing to prevent suites.



    Mostly posted this as a helpful hint for others on NA. Live and learn. It wasn't too much money, so I'll live.


    *starts to post a FO/FT thread..."Official photocopy of the Zelda manual...comes with letter of authenticity!*
  • NintendoholicNintendoholic
    HAHAHAH, damn, that's pretty funny Ethan. I'd put my money on Nintendo just going with "CYA" with thier website listing the change.



    The Force must be strong in you Ethan LOL!!!!!
  • NESHomebrewNESHomebrew
    I a while back that the replacements would likely be photocopies. Must have been about a year ago. You must have missed some fine print some where.
  • Darth VaderDarth Vader
    Originally posted by: nullending

    Update:
    I got this awhile ago but never posted it. I did complain to Nintendo about it--just the fact that it was misleading.

    They just said that I could ship it back for a refund. Shipping would be on my dime.


    Looks like they updated their website too:
    http://store.nintendo.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Pro...
    "This is the manual that was packaged with the game. The manual you receive may be a photocopy of the original manual."

    Tell them your going to send them back, but then don't.  Instead, send them a photocopy of your ass. Make sure you get a little sack in the shot too!
  • ulasamosaulasamosa
    this happened to me about a month ago as well. They still had NES and SNES manuals up and I was like "no F'n way!" I was about to order like $50 worth but instead ordered 1 Final Fantasy to be safe and yeap, while a nice color copy, a copy nonetheless. Nintendo's site was misleading tho as all it said was "This is the original manual that came with the game." Shady peeps. lol
  • MassiveDMGMassiveDMG
    What a douches! Least they could do is send it in a PDF on a Nintendo USB stick...
  • nullendingnullending
    Originally posted by: ulasamosa

    this happened to me about a month ago as well. They still had NES and SNES manuals up and I was like "no F'n way!" I was about to order like $50 worth but instead ordered 1 Final Fantasy to be safe and yeap, while a nice color copy, a copy nonetheless. Nintendo's site was misleading tho as all it said was "This is the original manual that came with the game." Shady peeps. lol


    That's all I saw too. They must have just added the sentence after: The manual you receive may be a photocopy of the original manual.
  • arch_8ngelarch_8ngel
    If they're reproducing the whole manual in color for $2, that is cheaper than anything you could do yourself.
  • jonebonejonebone
    Yeah just chalk it up as a lesson learned. I don't think you can really fault Nintendo for $2, after all, they are probably under the assumption that manuals are being used to assist in playing the game rather than as a collectible. Remember us collectors are just an extremely tiny subset of the gaming population.
  • ulasamosaulasamosa
    Originally posted by: arch_8ngel

    If they're reproducing the whole manual in color for $2, that is cheaper than anything you could do yourself.



    yea i mean the FF one I got was nice.  They are color laser copies but are double side printed in order so if you cut and bind them it will be just like an original manual.  I also got a copy of the maps and you can see scotch tape on the original they copied it from lol.
  • arch_8ngelarch_8ngel
    Originally posted by: ulasamosa

    Originally posted by: arch_8ngel

    If they're reproducing the whole manual in color for $2, that is cheaper than anything you could do yourself.



    yea i mean the FF one I got was nice.  They are color laser copies but are double side printed in order so if you cut and bind them it will be just like an original manual.  I also got a copy of the maps and you can see scotch tape on the original they copied it from lol.

    If you had a page folding machine, and a good cutter, it might be neat to see how one of them turns out all stapled together.

  • darcotriggerdarcotrigger
    I can understand how that would piss someone off, but at least you have a strange little Nintendo nick-nack that not many others have. Don't cut it! Leave it mint, lol.
  • nes_kingnes_king
    i don't think you can expect Nintendo to have a ton of old manuals laying around (or any for that matter), so i would have just assumed they were photo copies.. i mean come on did you think they could just print one? im sure there not set up to print manuals they stopped making 10 or 20 years ago.
  • pats1717pats1717
    You missed the fine print dude. It has been up on the site forever. They are pretty cool, and it was only $2



  • Nostalgizoid!Nostalgizoid!
    And another thing, do you think Nintendo would really have stock of manuals from the NES/SNES/N64 era and sell from the $2 each when some of those manuals sell for way more on Ebay? If you could buy OoT and Majora's Mask manuals from Nintendo for $2, resellers would've cleaned them out years ago.
  • nullendingnullending
    They print manuals for current games. I'm sure they have the digital formats saved for previous games, so why can't they reprint them?
  • arch_8ngelarch_8ngel
    Originally posted by: nullending

    They print manuals for current games. I'm sure they have the digital formats saved for previous games, so why can't they reprint them?


    Digitally formatted stuff like what you're talking about didn't exist in the 80's.

    What they printed for you were based on photocopies.  The original manuals were printed in the old-fashioned way, and "the best" thing they might still have are the original production slides for the masters.
  • dangevindangevin
    ^ Also there's a big difference between putting something through a full press 4-color offset process, and just "printing out from the digital copy." They're not going to trim, fold and staple your manual, even if they have the digital original.
  • dave2236dave2236
    As far as I remeber they ran out about 5 years ago. They had a limit of 5 each for manuals. They only had 3 different NES manuals for pick from. One was Ultima Avatar where I bought 20 of them, still have a handfull left. I also got 1 or 2 final fantasy's with the map before they started the photocopies, and I can't rmember the last one but they only had a couple of those left.



    The ones I got the most of were 5 Cutthroat Islands and I cleaned them out of Mega Man X3 manuals when I ordered like 20 or 25 of them. I found 5 of them a few months ago and sold them to members on here. They also had a couple of EVO's and only 3 or 4 SNES manuals. I hit up their N64 about that time and bought probably 40 manuals for all the Mario Party's, Paper Mario, Mario Kart, Zeldas.



    The photocopies used to be in black and white, its nice to see they upgraded to color.



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