That sounds really reasonable. Basically a bench charge plus a part, and according to the article that price also includes the shipping. Pretty much in line with what I'd expect at an independent repair depot.
this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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The price listed sounds fair. I don't think this journalist has considered the costs at all.
The journalist probably only paid for his AppleCare service and doesnt know they get substituted by a multitude of other users.
$8 part and 2 hours of time, if they decided to do it themselves.
And it’s much less intimidating than it seems
I'm somewhat surprised how much stuff has to come out to get at that shoulder button, it's a lot more involved than when I replaced my trigger - but still worth it I think. The ifixit guide is very good.
Yeah the disassembly for a lot of electronics can be mind numbing and get overwhelming. Ifixit is great for that and I like to take a lot of pictures as I’m removing things to keep everything documented so I can go back to those pictures if I get lost. That’s saved me a few times actually. It definitely takes time but I’ve saved a lot of money just learning how to solder and work with tiny components
First thing I did when I bought mine was to open up my Steam Deck and put in a new hard drive.
Most difficult thing was some of the screws felt over-tightened.
That was about it to be honest. I also heard the battery glue is really strong so I'm not looking forward to that in the future for me.
Yeah batteries with adhesive is so stressful to pull just cos you know you can’t puncture that thing. I haven’t done a battery for steam deck but some old phones I have with adhesive and a q tip with 91% isopropyl will help break the adhesive down and strip so you don’t have to use a heat gun or anything. Do so with care but it’ll help things along
150-ish is an easy fix, which is not unreasonable for a "simple" button replace or 220 if it's more complex, like replacing a controller IC, which is also not unreasonable.
If someone isn't happy with a honestly reasonable repair quote, they can go to ifix it and do it themselves. Hope you have a hot air soldering station of its a complex fix.
Ngl, when I do the occasional tablet or phone repair for someone that isn't family or a friend, that's around what I end up charging, with parts included, depending on the job. It's extremely rare I'm willing to, but fucking around inside tight fitting devices with tiny screws and easy to screw up parts just isn't something I'll do cheap if I'll do it at all.
Yeah, sounds pretty fair for a repair with parts and shipping.
It always takes longer than just the work on the device, as they have to open the package, put it in their system, repair and clean it, pack it up and send to the customer.
I like that they told him it's an easy repair and showed him a tutorial on how to fix it themselves.
Word. A company that says "hey, you own it, if you want to do the work" is a good thing
That's not really that expensive, to be honest. You are shipping it across the world to have it professionally repaired.
But honestly, while it's scary to take your Deck apart, they made it pretty cheap to repair if you want to do it yourself. The button in question is less than US$10 for a pair, so you can replace both while you're in there. And while you're at it, you might as well upgrade the joysticks to those fancy ones the enthusiasts are always going on about.
What fancy joysticks pray tell?
The electromagnetic ones that have no drifting and 3D Hall effect. Last time I looked, they were $30 and the people who have switched to them swear by them.
I guess I should maybe look into them, since one of my sticks has drifted a bit, to the point I had to recalibrate once.
Hmm, interesting 🤔
Imagine how great tech could be if the rich made competitive tech instead of spending their money on smear articles
Or... The low rent blogger could do it themselves.
They must have raised the repair price. I sent mine in for repair for my R1 button (I had dropped it and it had actually broke the micro switch off completely). It was $120 +$30 shipping. They basically had a single fee for minor repairs and one for major repairs.
They only considerd mine a minor repair for me at the time though, not sure why this users got called a major.
The quote is with taxes and other fees included according to the article, and since they're not in the US, I would have to guess much of that price is in shipping it both to Valve for the repairs and back to the user.
I'm going to need this statement in the article explained to me in detail. How the fuck would they possibly "force a repair"?
The agent doesn't force the repair, though, giving the option to simply walk away if the quote isn't appealing.
The agent doesn't force the repair, though, giving the option to simply walk away if the quote isn't appealing. They even state that you can perform your own repairs, with a link to a guide with more information, if you feel confident.
They have them an Option to do it themselves and linked a tutorial.
Meaning they're not doing the Apple thing and forcing you to either let it repair by a contractor, because they brick the device if you don't. Display replacements on Apple devices for example.
Thanks, I guess "they even" threw me off, because it sounded like a side note, instead of the main reason. Like the other option was the agent booking the repair and automatically charging their card.
No worries, it took me way too long to figure it out myself. It definitely feels like some context is missing that this sentence relates to.
People "justify" Valve, I don't think there's need for that (justify a big corpo, I mean); Valve don't want to deal with the hardware business side of repairing stuff; yeah, it's their right to do so: but this also tell us Valve isn't mature enough as hardware company, and you can't expect them to mature in this direction if they (also) don't get serious into providing affordable repair service.
This tells me: Steam Deck 2? Maybe... Steam Deck 3? Unlikely. They will push for an "alternative OS".. and will lose for lack of focus (Microsoft can easily kick them out with the Windows industrial's weight). As far I can see, they are not committed to hardware, no other OEM will do this for them.
(Look at how Google has been consistent with their 'Google Phone' throughout the entire history of Android: they know it’s foolish to rely only on 'OEM goodwill' and stop there. Google Pixel devices were better than Windows Mobile and the 'DualBoot' Android/Windows... that’s how Google beat Microsoft in the race)