Considering Valve's track record with the Index and its build quality issues I'm not sure I fully trust them to build something that's lasting either. It's only been a year, guess I will see if my Deck spontaneously falls apart eventually.
My only gripe is that they chose not to put the USB-C connector on a separate, easily exchangeable PCB. but other than that, best gadget in a looong time. And the advantages it gives to Linux gaming in general is very nice (I have gamed exclusively on Linux for 5 years, and it has never been better).
At least Valve has excellent support, I've had 4 hardware issues with my Index and Steam Support has always gone above and beyond to replace the hardware for me despite the one year warranty and the purchase being made 4 years ago.
Whether or not they got it all technically right, I expect them to stand by their product and make things right eventually, at least moreso than the typical hardware vendor. I've personally had several very positive experiences with their customer support department.
My initial steam deck battery wasn’t lasting very long, reporting charge state strangley. After initially trying some things I contacted their support. We tried a bunch of things (reinstalling the OS even). Nothing worked so it was swapped out and got a new one.
Things go wrong sometimes but their support was excellent.
I bought someone's HTC Vive Pro gear on eBay. It was a sketchy listing with very few pictures and details, but I had a good feeling. Delightfully, it came with four v2 lighthouses. One of them didn't work, though, and had chew marks from someone trying to pry it open.
The unit being Valve branded, I messaged Valve's customer support. I asked if I could mail the broken lighthouse to them to make sure it got recycled properly. I made it very clear that it was a sketchy eBay purchase that I essentially got for free, and I really just wanted to make sure it got e-wasted responsibly, rather than float around in my garage for the next decade.
They had no record of its serial number, and explained that it was most likely HTC's inventory rather than Valve's. Despite that, they insisted on RMA'ing it and mailed me a functioning unit! They even sent me a prepaid mailing label, but I printed my own to save them the $5.
That's not my only story where I politely made a modest request of their customer support team, and they significantly over-delivered.
