Valve's RMA Process, DO NOT BUY HARDWARE FROM THEM

[Tóní Hraunar]

Before reading this, if anyone doubts the validity of this i have screenshots of it all.

I bought the steam deck OLED 1TB around 9 months ago. I was super happy with the purchase and I loved the deck and how versatile it was. Around a month ago it refused to start up. It would start the fan which spun fast and it would crash. I tried numerous solutions including the ones steam support offered and none of them worked. So support offered to do an RMA since my warranty was still in effect. We went back and forth, since I live in an unsupported country (Iceland) they offered that I could send the deck back from here to their warehouse Valve Return in Czech Republic, and then could send the replacement to an address in another country that I was going to visit soon.
I’m currently writing halfway through the process, my package is currently held by customs in Czech Republic who demand some information from the company, which they refuse to fill out. The customs even called valve where he told me they refused the package.
I have filed numerous support tickets trying to reach some help but getting responses takes several days and doesn’t provide any help at all. Unlike when I initiated the RMA where responses were rapid and full of information .
The few responses I received were that I had to fill in this information but the support would be happy to inform me some information In case I did not have it. Czech customs told me that the company is responsible for this. So asked valve about this company information so I could do it myself, and it has been 5 days still no response.
I’m very disappointed with this customer service. If from the start they had told me ‘’ you cannot return it since you are in an unsupported country’’ It would have been a totally different case. But I got the green light, I went through with it spending my own money for the package and now having it all cancelled because valve refuses to do their part. Besides not even talking about the steam deck purchase is under a year so still in warranty.
For anyone wanting to buy a steam deck, I cannot recommend it enough, it is an amazing piece of technology, but keep in mind if anything happens to it, getting it fixed or replaced might end up like my case.
Now I am 667 euro’s down and really disappointed with all of this. If I ever will get a response from valve I would just demand my money back, as much as I want a new steam deck it is not worth all the time, stress and money for this.

[AirDrifter]

From reading this, this sounds like it's just your problem, no offence, since you said "unsupported country". There lies the main issue, anyone who has a country that is supported isn't gonna have a hard time like this.

I may be wrong but I'd imagine places where it is supported are gonna have a much easier time then what you had.

[Haruspex]

A better title might be:
Valve's RMA Process: You are taking a risk if you live in an unsupported country.

Sounds like Valve was cool and tried to take care of you anyway. Since you are in an unsupported country, they could have told you to kick rocks, and that would have been their right. It's not their fault the shipment got tied up in customs.

[Tóní Hraunar]

Have you read the whole thing? I already said i would have prefered the kick rocks answer. And customs told me that they had to provide company information.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Tóní Hraunar:

Have you read the whole thing? I already said i would have prefered the kick rocks answer. And customs told me that they had to provide company information.

... which they won't because "unsupported country". Like, what in the everloving ♥♥♥♥ did you expect? Pro tip: if you venture into unsupported territory, expect things to go wrong in exciting ways and what you've described isn't out of the ordinary.

Anyway, living in a supported country, I had a rather pleasant RMA experience with the Deck. I mean, not THAT nice for me to get to my third Deck through RMAs (before upgrading to OLED) but they did handle it well.

[Tóní Hraunar]

even the czech customs wrote me an email that i shluld get a refund and that it is bad customer service

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Tóní Hraunar:

even the czech customs wrote me an email that i shluld get a refund and that it is bad customer service

... which you signed up for yourself. Don't act surprised things went wrong when you knew exactly what you were signing up for.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not disagreeing that your situation sucks. It most certainly does. It's just that the conclusion you're drawing is rather off.

[Luneville]

why don't you go to a repair shop or somethin

[Mahjik]

If Valve has a hardware location in the Czech Republic, it's odd there is a problem shipping issue to it. To be fair for the OP, if Valve said send it back to us, the expectation is that they can handle what's needed to receive it.

[Aepoh]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Originally posted by Tóní Hraunar:

even the czech customs wrote me an email that i shluld get a refund and that it is bad customer service

... which you signed up for yourself. Don't act surprised things went wrong when you knew exactly what you were signing up for.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not disagreeing that your situation sucks. It most certainly does. It's just that the conclusion you're drawing is rather off.

If Valve said they were going to do something they should make a reasonable good faith attempt to honor their word which they did not. I trust the Czech authorities more than the corporation Valve in this case. OP should get a refund.

[Tóní Hraunar]

Originally posted by Luneville:

why don't you go to a repair shop or somethin

Im planning to tinker a bit with it, dee id anything works, so there is still hope

[Tóní Hraunar]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Originally posted by Tóní Hraunar:

Have you read the whole thing? I already said i would have prefered the kick rocks answer. And customs told me that they had to provide company information.

... which they won't because "unsupported country". Like, what in the everloving ♥♥♥♥ did you expect? Pro tip: if you venture into unsupported territory, expect things to go wrong in exciting ways and what you've described isn't out of the ordinary.

Anyway, living in a supported country, I had a rather pleasant RMA experience with the Deck. I mean, not THAT nice for me to get to my third Deck through RMAs (before upgrading to OLED) but they did handle it well.

You are clearly missing the point here. Even the authorities at the customs sent me an email that he found it ♥♥♥♥♥♥ that a company would do that. If that does not speak volumes about something, i do not know what does. But thanks for the feedback, i get what you mean about the importance about risk assesment being in an unsupported country

[Tóní Hraunar]

Originally posted by Luneville:

why don't you go to a repair shop or somethin

But if that doesn't work, ill look if there are any repair shops in Iceland, maybe i have one in mind

[Luneville]

Originally posted by Tóní Hraunar:

Originally posted by ReBoot:

... which they won't because "unsupported country". Like, what in the everloving ♥♥♥♥ did you expect? Pro tip: if you venture into unsupported territory, expect things to go wrong in exciting ways and what you've described isn't out of the ordinary.

Anyway, living in a supported country, I had a rather pleasant RMA experience with the Deck. I mean, not THAT nice for me to get to my third Deck through RMAs (before upgrading to OLED) but they did handle it well.

You are clearly missing the point here. Even the authorities at the customs sent me an email that he found it ♥♥♥♥♥♥ that a company would do that. If that does not speak volumes about something, i do not know what does. But thanks for the feedback, i get what you mean about the importance about risk assesment being in an unsupported country

You keep returning to this point but I had issues with delivery company that delivered the steam deck to me and one person told me something different from another person within the company just because one person said something to you does not mean it is true. and steam is able to make its own decisions. They usually want to help customers though.

[Luneville]

Originally posted by Tóní Hraunar:

Originally posted by Luneville:

why don't you go to a repair shop or somethin

But if that doesn't work, ill look if there are any repair shops in Iceland, maybe i have one in mind

60 euros to send the package and not get it back or 60 euros to try and fix it and not work is the same thing

[Aepoh]

I will say you might be able to get somewhere if you start threatening litigation in your Steam Support tickets. Stuff off that nature usually gets whoever is behind the screen to wake the ♥♥♥♥ up and stop sending copypasted responses.