Nintendo of America is outsourcing its customer support services, causing hundreds of contract employees to lose their jobs, IGN reports. The report is based on communications with multiple sources, "who chose to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation." The media also mentioned that "the United States once had a strict customer support service training and maintenance system, but this system has been severely affected by language barriers, poor communication, and Nintendo's overall decision-making on how to transition from domestic support in the United States to outsourced support in South America."
A source said that Nintendo of America has mainly signed contracts with two local organizations in the United States to fill vacancies in back-end customer support positions, covering "back-end team, fraud prevention, finance, refund appeals, customer service, chat history processing, customer phone and email support, refund operations, account ban processing, remote data transmission, repair support and other customer support related work. Some personnel will remain to oversee matters, but essentially all (local support) operations will disappear."
IGN pointed out that although these employees are contractors, many are "highly skilled and experienced, and are particularly familiar with Nintendo of America's systems and processes." Additionally, they have been with the company for many years. Nintendo usually signs 11-month contracts with these employees. When the contract is about to expire, they will be "laid off" for a few months in order to "collect unemployment benefits, and then the contract will continue to be renewed, and the salary will often increase with each renewal."
The situation appeared to have changed in March, when "employees were informed that their contracts would be terminated and fully phased out this month". IGN reports that about 200 employees are affected and will not receive severance packages. Nintendo of America has always remained silent, and contract workers only learned about the matter through their respective agencies. Meanwhile, those contract workers who stayed on until September "now have to help train their replacements."
Nintendo of America is currently outsourcing these jobs to employees in South America. Brazil has undertaken the largest workload, but other countries such as Argentina and Nicaragua are also involved. IGN said that while U.S. employees will provide assistance, employees in these outsourced countries "are taking on a more comprehensive role in handling customer support cases." Apparently, hiring criteria for new employees are no longer as stringent, there are language barriers, and the quality of customer support may have declined overall.
Regarding this matter, Nintendo has responded to IGN, saying that some of the claims "contain inaccurate information." However, it's unclear what exactly this refers to as the company didn't elaborate.
The full response statement is as follows:
"While we have no information to release regarding internal business activities, some of the statements provided to IGN contained inaccuracies. At Nintendo of America, we are grateful to have partnered with multiple companies and their talented contractors over the years to deliver a high-quality customer service experience. Together with our external partners who have deep experience in all markets served in the Americas, we are continuously improving and Expanded customer service model. This model allows us to provide comprehensive customer service support for the North American market and the growing Latin American market, and better adjust the service scale according to seasonal needs to ensure the stability of support. As always, our first priority is to provide excellent customer support and we are also pleased that the service provided by all partners continues to maintain high customer satisfaction."