Received a Dead Deck

I returned mine too because it was super loud. I'd never be able to get used to that horrible buzzing sound.
 
ZodaEX said:
I returned mine too because it was super loud. I'd never be able to get used to that horrible buzzing sound.
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The last patch changed the fan settings. I haven't really noticed anything different, but I work around a lot of white noise.
 
SPARTAN VI said:
Wife and I got our Decks today. Mine booted up instantly, no issues. However, wife's Steam Deck refuses to boot. When I tap the power button, I hear a subtle audible beep, fans spin up, and can feel the haptics in the touch pads, but no display.
Valve's support page recommends holding the power button for 3 seconds to reboot, or holding it for 10 seconds to reboot if there's an OS issue. I've tried:

1. Holding the power button for 3 seconds. Multiple attempts.
2. Holding the power button for 10 seconds. Multiple attempts.
3. Holding the power button for 30 seconds. Multiple attempts.
4. Charged the Deck for over an hour.

Redditors recommend opening up the device and fucking around with the battery. I'm not that desperate yet and I don't want to risk Valve blaming the issue on me tampering with it. So I felt it was a reasonable time to contact Valve support, and here's the chat log thus far:
View attachment 461135

Record a goddamn video? FFS. Been doing tech support for over 15 years, and nearly half of my career was devoted to remotely troubleshooting a range of remote capture scanners on a broad spectrum of desktop and mobile devices. "Record a video" was/is never an option.

TL;DR Pretty disappointed with Valve's service so far. Uploading their damn video now, hopefully they don't waste much more of my time.
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I had a Ledger (crypto cold wallet) that has a small screen. Didn't work. Had another unit that worked perfect. They needed an unloaded YT video showing it didn't work! What? I added a sise by side comparison that they didn't know I could do. Sent a new unit. It appears this un-nessasary video upload BS is the new test. Jump through the hoops for them so you can get you deserving warranty.
 
My overly cynical theory is that the show a video requirement significantly reduces the number of returns "because the power button doesn't work" when the user was mashing a volume button or non-functional part of the chassis not the power button and similar forms of luser error.
 
DanNeely said:
My overly cynical theory is that the show a video requirement significantly reduces the number of returns "because the power button doesn't work" when the user was mashing a volume button or non-functional part of the chassis not the power button and similar forms of luser error.
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Which would be okay-ish if I hadn't told them I have 2 Steam Decks and the other works fine. Should be pretty obvious that if I've figured out where the power button is on one of them, that I'd know how to operate the 2nd one. Most of their troubleshooting suggestions didn't really match up with the symptoms I've reported. The overall service experience was relatively disjointed and chaotic.
 
bigbluefe said:
Yeah but that isn't the point. The point is that Valve's customer service blows and shills here were defending it.
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Valve has a pretty generous return policy with Steam and they're selling these Decks at a serious loss. Asking for video is a pretty low bar now, and if anyone thinks Valve is a bad company to work with, they've clearly never bought anything from Samsung.

Could they be better? Sure. Will I pre-order the Deck 2? Absolutely.
 
Axman said:
Valve has a pretty generous return policy with Steam and they're selling these Decks at a serious loss. Asking for video is a pretty low bar now, and if anyone thinks Valve is a bad company to work with, they've clearly never bought anything from Samsung.

Could they be better? Sure. Will I pre-order the Deck 2? Absolutely.
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Industry standard policy, only after getting sued in Europe. Who says they're selling the Deck at a loss? Valve cs is atrocious from personal experience.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Who says they're selling the Deck at a loss?
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Gabe Newell said the BOM cost compared to the retail price was "painful," and that they're in it "for the long haul." I think, and other people have said as much, that they're not going to break even on the hardware and software for the entire generation. They won't be profitable until they roll out the next-gen Deck.
 
So I sent my Steam Deck back because of a faulty fan. It was signed for on June 1st. As of today I've heard nothing from the RMA department so it seems that Valve is still struggling to action returns. I'm planning to open a support ticket to ask for an update (if there is any).
 
StryderxX said:
So I sent my Steam Deck back because of a faulty fan. It was signed for on June 1st. As of today I've heard nothing from the RMA department so it seems that Valve is still struggling to action returns. I'm planning to open a support ticket to ask for an update (if there is any).
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I sent them an RMA request with a variety of issues with my Deck (both my trackpad and left joystick have issues), along with videos depicting each issue, and they are really fighting me on this. They keep sidestepping me and pretending not to read the many pertinent details which should be a guaranteed RMA. I'm sure if I go back and forth with them for another week they'll open my ticket but I'm beginning to think it's not worth it.

On Reddit I'm seeing that people are sharing the experience that the RMA process is a "lottery".

My initial suspicions proved correct and sounds like some people are having a a hard time getting a Deck that isn't suffering at least one or two issues. Valve is clearly struggling in the QC department. Hopefully it will clear up in time.
 
Confused how you guys managed to get an RMA and/or even speak to service without having a ticket opened on the spot. The simple act of contacting them instantly opened a ticket for me, which functionally looks almost exactly like a Steam community forum thread (see OP). Kinda speaks to my observations earlier that they don't really have or enforce a SOP for customer service.
 
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I wonder if they have a labor/parts availability. They are maybe trying to stall? When one of my index towers went bad they quickly approved it I had a new one after a week. They didn't even make me trouble shoot anything. They just sent me a new one with a return label.
 
SPARTAN VI said:
Confused how you guys managed to get an RMA and/or even speak to service without having a ticket opened on the spot. The simple act of contacting them instantly opened a ticket for me, which functionally looks almost exactly like a Steam community forum thread (see OP). Kinda speaks to my observations earlier that they don't really have or enforce a SOP for customer service.
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I had a support ticket opened but closed it once I was issued an RMA. That was probably a mistake on my part. I opened a new support ticket to inquire about the RMA and got a response saying that I should be getting shipping details in 24hrs. I'll bet my first born that's not going to happen! :banghead:
 
I don't have any specific details, but a friend of mine just recently got a Steam Deck, and he said the left shoulder button only works a small fraction of the time. Valve already approved an RMA for him.
 
DrezKill said:
I don't have any specific details, but a friend of mine just recently got a Steam Deck, and he said the left shoulder button only works a small fraction of the time. Valve already approved an RMA for him.
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One of the things that took me a while to get my head around is that some of the buttons, the touchpads, and the joysticks don't function all the time in the same way. They have different default modes depending on what you're doing.

Not saying he doesn't have a bad shoulder button at all, just letting people know that what may seem like intermittent is actually a set default.
 
Humm I wonder how the Ayn loki compares I am kinda thinking I might be able to get one of them before a deck.
 
StryderxX said:
I ended up having to return my Steam Deck because the fan was making a grinding noise. Based on your experience I'm going to be waiting a while.
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The fan is for sale on ifixit, and good fans are out there. I can barely hear mine unless I'm outside in the Arkansas sun and there's nothing else going on around me (almost never).
 
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