Just had a pretty negative experience with Steam support and just wanted to post about it here to inform others of my experience. What you do with this information is up to you!
- I bought a Steam Deck OLED 1TB in November 2023 for $723 USD
- I take really good care of it (still looks brand new)
- Last week I ordered an official Steam Deck Dock because I use the Deck so much.
- After disconnecting the Steam Deck dock one night, the Steam Deck completely dies.
- The Steam Deck is 16 months old (4 months out of warranty)
- I contact support, and after doing some cursory troubleshooting, they let me know that it needs repairs and the quote is $197 USD
- I reply saying that’s quite a bit of money for a product just out of warranty, but if they can guarantee the repairs for 12 months I would do it
- They dodge the question for a while, but after several messages finally say that they can only guarantee up to 90 days after repair
At this point, I’m no longer interested in being a Steam Deck owner nor am I planning on using any Valve service in the future. I will pay the repair fee†, but I intend on selling it immediately after to recoup some of my losses.
†I’m sure that some of you are going to say repair it yourself! However, the issue is that the repair is a 3 hour long process that needs the battery to be drained first. Due to the current state of the Steam Deck, it is impossible to drain the battery. If I had access to a garage that I could have a metal bucket full of sand in case things go bad, I would consider doing it myself, but hitting a fully charged Li Ion battery with a heat gun in a small carpeted apartment is just too risky for my risk tolerance.
This is not correct, it was a 3 month guarantee on repairs. (A 3 month extended warranty would be far more generous, but not what I was asking for).
Whatever the repair was, the battery doesn’t need drained for it anyway. You disconnect the battery when upgrading or repairing the Deck. Even a dead battery has some charge.