Ugh. I hate this timeline.
My 8bitdo story, back when they’re we’re just starting to put joysticks on their SNES style controllers, I used mine to the point that the joysticks were falling apart. I sent them a support email, and even though it wasn’t covered by any warranty or anything, a very nice Chinese person working there sent me a spare set of joysticks in the mail, plus words of encouragement (in somewhat broken English) since I wasn’t shy about fixing the thing myself.
Can’t imagine that today, but it was a nice gesture and I’m glad they’re still making stuff today.
The worst part about growing companies are the almost impossible ways for those small interactions.
Yep. I just bought an 8bitdo controller a few weeks ago with a defective RB button. I asked support if there was anything I could do to reseat it or replace a membrane to fix it. Support said either take it back to where I bought it or ship it to them in China to get fixed on my dime. That left a bad taste in my mouth for their products.
My joystick broke on my Ultimate controller. It could have been my fault or it could’ve been when I was traveling for work or the two year-old. Either way, I managed to take the front cover off and look at the joysticks and order a new set from AliExpress. Less than four dollars later and 20 minutes of work it was all fixed up. It wasn’t due to contacting customer support, but replacement parts were readily available.
To be fair: They are probably not working with a lot of margin and shipping it bavk to china is costly for them.
If I buy on AliExpress I am under the impression of it either fits or needs to be trashed. But returning is very unlikely.
And 8bitdo is (when not being sold by a 3rd party like for example microcenter) just another chinese seller/manufacturer on AliExpress or Amazon^(which is just a chinese shipping proxy with some local sellers nowadays)
