Hardware Shipping 3DS XL to Nintendo for Repair?

[Fulcaire]

Hey everyone,
I dropped my 3ds XL and it unfortunately landed right on the L trigger and it is completely stuck... Tried blowing in it, cleaning with tooth brush, and pricking it out and putting it back in.. Sucks that one drop on carpet completely ruined the button and the spring doesn't work on it..
Anyway, I called Nintendo and they will repair it this one time for free and gave me a prepaid packing label.
Before I ship it out I have a couple questions to anyone that has any experience sending in their 3ds for repair;

1) How long was turn around time and did it work well?)

2)Did you remove the Gateway crack on it before sending it in? (Nintendo told me that I must send the SD card inside of it with it so I was gonna backup the SD card to my computer and clear it but NOT format the 3DS itself)

3)Also do they update your firmware when sending it in? Mine is on 4.5 and it would suck to receive it and they updated it to the latest firmware.

Thanks!

 

[Joe88]

they are going to update the firmware so I would look for into repairing it yourself instead
http://www.ebay.com/itm/L-R-Left-Ri...g_Replacement_Parts_Tools&hash=item3a904a8361

 

[Ryukouki]

If you submit the unit the turnaround from drop off at the post office to getting it back is approximately two weeks. Good luck.

 

[cearp]

for normal size 3ds the L/R button replacement is probably one of the easiest replacements you can do, i expect the xl is the same... good luck

 

[Fulcaire]

Damn... I'm not too savvy on fixing things. Anyone in SoCal that can help fix it? And is it confirmed that they will update the firmware? Damn.