“Buyer beware”

I’m not here to provide Valve with free advertising, but what do you want buyers to be wary of?

• Out of warranty

• Unwilling to pay someone for a job you can’t do

I’m sorry this is just being an adult, you said you were done with it why bother posting? It’s not like it’s an example of bad customer service. You’re just ranting you didn’t get your way. It’s not a great situation but I can’t think of many companies that would give you what you wanted in this situation.

I don’t think there’s many companies that I’ve heard of that are willing to repair or replace something that far out of warranty.

So let me get this straight you are upset that Valve is charging you for a repair 4 months after your warranty ended? Your warranty that lasted 12 months, so been out of warranty about a 1/3rd of the time it was in warranty. Yeah that is not just out of warranty, if it was a few days or even a week or two out of warranty you would have a point.

The cost doesn’t even seem all that unreasonable given a 3 hour repair time. Since Valve makes sure its employees are well taken care of and you have to cover the cost of the broken part(s).

This is just an unlucky issue that cropped up after your warranty ended. Not really on Valve to solve it for free and they gave you a quote on what it costs to have them fix it. You are free to ask 3rd party repair companies what they think the cost of the repair is. But I’d wager it’d be pretty similar given Valve has the parts easily available for purchase at fair prices.

Edit: Since OP edited their post to remove details here are some I remember:

• Device was bought in November 2023, roughly 16 months old according to OP
• 12 month warranty that ended
• Valve quoted them at $197 for the cost of the repair
• 3 month new warranty was offered after the repair was completed
• OP said they are not capable of doing the repair themself
• Said the repair would take 3 hours to complete
• Also said the battery needed to be drained for the repair and that isn’t easily doable given the device’s current condition

Edit 2: Electric Boogaloo Searched through OP’s post history to see if I could find any more details and here’s what I found

• In another comment they actually state the system is 18 months old and 6 months from warranty
• They also previously stated Valve quoted the repair at $185 and the parts at $80 before upping the total in this post
• And that they are an American, so sadly they don’t benefit from EU regulations

That’s very unfortunate. However, I’d like mention a few things about attempting a self-repair:

• You don’t need a heat gun to disassemble it. A simple Philips head screwdriver will do.
• Batteries are dangerous regardless of their charge. You should be careful handling them even when they are fully discharged.

This is why I always buy electronics on my Amex card. They add an additional year of warranty past the manufacturer’s expiration.

I’m sorry that you’re getting less than sympathetic replies here. I don’t know what the original was since you’ve edited the post and I don’t have anything constructive to add as I assume you’re in the US, but in the EU/UK goods have to last “a reasonable amount of time” regardless of the warranty term.

Some cheap plastic tat might reasonably be expected to last a few months, a washing machine maybe 10 years provided it’s not misused. The further out you get from the warranty period, the more the onus is on the customer to prove it’s a manufacturing defect, and the less you can expect in monetary compensation.

For a high value item like a computer, TV, or the Steam Deck no reasonable person would consider it a good run, shrug their shoulders, and rush out to buy a new one when it unceremoniously died 4 months outside of the warranty period. If that happened to me in the UK I’d be throwing the consumer rights book at them.

Sorry, I know none of that helps if you’re not in the EU/UK, but contrary to what other are saying I don’t think you’re being unreasonable in complaining at all.

@LettucePrey I usually try to stay away from posts like these, but this one is weird. 12 month warranty is a bit crap, but it’s standard. That’s at least one thing good about the EU. But it doesn’t really matter whether you’re four months outside of warranty or two years, you’re still out of warranty. I have my fair issues with Valve, but a lot of companies wouldn’t even bother offering you a repair in a scenario like this. Are there consumer laws in your country that dictate that you always should be offered that when you’re outside of warranty?

Secondly, why would you demand an additional 12 month “guarantee” on the repair, i.e. a new/extended warranty? For something that’s already out of warranty? Are there _any_ companies that would ever agree to that? I don’t know of any. That’s akin to buying a refurbished unit from them, and that unit would _not_ go for a measly $197 in that case.

My launch deck still runs fine, what did you do to it?

Ok, but what was the cause they diagnosed?

If you live in the US, your state may have an “implied warranty” law that extends the warranty of the device you bought. I think for most states that have such laws, the warranty period is 4 years. Many states have such laws but I can’t find a list online. If you have an implied warranty and valve doesn’t honor it, you can get the state involved.

Sorry your Steam deck broke. Devices like this should last many years, especially when the only moving parts are the buttons and the fan.

ah yah I have a launch steam deck that stopped booting or bootloops when it finally does. valve said $200 just to look at it. it is what it is. I like it too much to toss it but I put that $200 to an ipad mini and it’s a way better steam link than the steam deck.