Nintendo Switch units that get cracking near the top of the hardware piece, either near the exhaust grill, or by the volume rocker, are sadly more common than should be acceptable. In fact, Nintendo Life reports that 20% of the users it polled (from a pool of 1,000 owners) reported the problem- so it’s an unusually common incidence of the problem, enough for it to be branded a hardware defect.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Nintendo UK agrees with that, since apparently, they are charging anywhere from £150 to £180 to repair cracked Switch units- which is a ridiculous amount to charge for a repair to begin with, even more so when you consider that this is too common a defect to be amounted to “user error”. It’s even worse since the Switch itself costs £280- a very steep price to begin with, but one that this repair fee meets almost two thirds of the way. Absurd.
Apparently, Nintendo of America does provide replacements for free, per Nintendo Life’s report, so there is that. Hopefully, Nintendo UK comes to its senses on this one, because seriously, what the heck, guys.