Normally I'd expect so, but I didn't see it earlier anywhere obvious, certainly not where Raymond mentioned it would be; and the box was a complete mess with some pretty big rips, broken internal padding, and a pretty great corner bash, and both seals broken. All in I'm a little concerned its been tampered with; but I need to check its not managed to work its way into the outer box somehow, given some of the internal cardboard padding had broken off.
I actually just got off the phone with John Lewis, they're investigating; as they agreed from pictures the damage to the box was pretty egregious.
I'm actually amazed the dock, joycons and Switch itself look and seem to touch wood work fine; they've told me they'll get back to me tomorrow or Monday about a replacement, or if they cannot replace the unit, due to the stock situation, they may look to see if they can simply provide me a replacement copy of the game.
Either way I'm sure it'll get sorted; John Lewis have always been pretty decent with this sort of stuff, plus there's 2 years warranty on the thing if anything does turn out to be wrong.
Edit: Just remembered - after this, I really need to unbox and check the wife's one when I finish work, even if it is at midnight. After the state of mine want to check hers is fine!
Well, had a bit of a weekend with JL!
Someone tried to contact me on Saturday, but I missed the call; rang back and they basically said they were having to wait until Monday.
Then today, I had a conversation with them, who said that basically they couldnt do anything as based on pictures from the depot and DPD (and note the DPD driver wasn't a normal DPD driver, he looked like a temp), the package was 'intact' so they couldn't do anything but maybe if I reached out to Nintendo they'd replace the missing code(!) Whilst I was on the phone to them, I also got an email to this effect, that it wasn't thier problem, and no refund or replacement could be provided; probably from the main person who'd been dealing with my case.
This was laughable to me, as I not only had the pictures of the condition of the switch box, but I have a decent video doorbell, and CCTV and was pretty sure some of the damage would have been captured on at least one of them.
Low and behold it had, so contrary to thier accuasation the package was 'intact' I had a nice clear image of the package with a pretty big bash/dent on one corner. Guessing the DPD temp did a good job of hiding that when he took his official photo!
Sent that across to them, and rang them back, the next person I spoke to was both somewhat bemused they'd even written the email as they had (it came across as quite accusatory); and when he looked at both sets of photos in the system, he was like...errr...no...that's not right, as picture I sent across quite clearly showed that bash before I'd even opened the door; so he quickly overruled the previous statement they'd made. (and to be fair to this guy, he's also noted this in thier system so I can have some time to think, and also put it in writing by email to me)
He has therefore offered me 3 options, but unfortunately due to stock, one of them isnt going to work right now
1) If I can find a store with stock and get there whilst they do (as they're completely out of stock in the online systems); I could have a complete replacement, but unfortunately they couldnt organise that online as there's literally no stock showing, and unfortunately no way to reserve.
2) I can send the package back for a complete refund (which I don't want to do as the entire point of buying there is extended warranty which other places don't have).
3) If I decided to keep the package, they'd refund me 20% as good will; and I'd still have 2 year warranty so if anything DID turn out to be wrong; I'd be able to get the machine replaced/repaired later anyway.
Looking online, the Mario Kart code is available a decent chunk less than that 20% refund (and I'll maybe see if Nintendo can help me directly), so I will have to have a proper look over the unit and other components later; and maybe go with that, and put that goodwill towards Bananza or other bits for the unit; as realistically much as the box is damaged, its not worth THAT much once opened. If the units hadn't been out of stock all over the place, replacement would have been my preference, but its not really an option right now.
Lesson learnt - CCTV and good quality video doorbells are amazing evidence lol (and customer service advisors shouldn't put things in writing when the customer might just have evidence otherwise...)
FWIW Wife's was fine out the box, much better condition and came with the code where Raymond Lin described, so my code definately went walkies...somehow.
