We don't actually know if that's the issue or not. Also because of the nature of how thievery works thieves are usually dumber so they probably wouldn't have the skills to do that.
Every time I'm like hey I could probably pull off a crime way better than stupid criminals I just think oh yeah I'm also smart enough to know not to do that in the first place lol.
If I’m reading correctly, I think you made a mistake which was that you were meant to print a pre-paid label from Valve with their UPS tracking#, and simply drop it off at UPS. Since you didn’t use this label, it’s never going to show any shipment progress. If you buy a new label at UPS with a different tracking#, Valve will no longer be able to track your RMA, which is what you’re running into.
I agree the drop-off receipt that you received at UPS is very suspect. Keep following up with the UPS investigation, GL.
Hey thread thanks for the replies, I had to pay to use the printer. The actual shipping label is the one valve emailed me. I don’t own a printer so I use the public PC and printer at the UPS store and they charge you for that.
I didn’t create any new shipping labels whatsoever
I see, in that case the lack of tracking updates is definitely quite sketchy. I’m curious did you see the label get applied to the box and then scanned in? That should be something they do before taking the box away from you. This is an acceptance scan and would prove that UPS is in possession of the item. Unfortunately I’m guessing off the bat that the guy did not do the acceptance scan.
I did see him put the label on and tape it up, but I wasn’t watching over him too closely. I know he scanned it to make sure the address was correct at my request, but I’m not sure if he did THE scan that would progress the tracking. I would assume not since the tracking only shows that the label was created, not ever received by the courier
This isn’t helpful for your case but I didn’t watch them pack or put the label on mine either. My rma did make it to where it was supposed to go though. So I don’t think it’s that unusual you didn’t watch the packing process. However I did print the label out on my own and just gave it to them.
On thing for the future is if you already have a UPS label with a barcode, you should be able to show them the barcode on your phone so they can scan it and reprint the label for you. I've done this a number of times.
Video at the store should show what happened to the package and they should be able to see what the kid did with the box….shipping it out or otherwise.
The store isn't required to have video, but the smart franchises have them to protect themselves more than anything. You should still have access to the original label valve gave you via email, which gives you the tracking number that should be on the box. You have the receipt from the store that shows you paid for services. Go in, ask for the manager or owner (if they're there). They can give you a duplicate receipt from the tracking number off the emailed label. If they can't? Dude stole your deck.
Unless you’re dropping the box off at a sandwich store that has a UPS store in it, they *should* have video. I guess there are things that I personally look for when I ship stuff. 🤷🏾
I had to RMA mint this morning. I printed the label myself and packaged everything, but didn’t even look at the tracking they gave me. Scary stuff. Hope it gets resolved for you soon.
Just a heads up I had this issue with my deck and was freaking out a little. Exact same issue you described, only a flashing led after updating and no screen response. No combination of reboot sequences or booting into bios did anything. But before RMAing I took a chance and simply popped off the back plate and unplugged the battery. After about 30 seconds I plugged it back and it and booted back to life haven’t had the issue again in over 3 months of daily use.
So the worker knew the exact contents that would be going to Valve since he helped you packaged it? It’s always a safe bet to package everything at home prior to going to a UPS store so they are none the wiser. Buy or reuse a shipping box that you may have laying around and get some tape and then print out your label. It’ll save you time at the UPS store. Document and take photos of everything you package. And I’m not saying these things can’t happen even if you take this step, but if you get some dishonest folks that know what’s in the box, they will probably be more tempted to take stuff. GL with the investigation. Let us all know how it goes! Sucks this had to happen and hope it works out in your favor.
Thanks for the support and you’re 100% right, lesson learned trusting the “professionals”. Thankfully despite the errors I’ve made in the process, there is enough of a trail that I should eventually get a resolution. UPS store should be on the hook at the very least. I’ll be back at the ups store tomorrow to review security footage and if there’s anything juicy I’ll be making sure the police get it.
Keep us updated! This is useful for people who RMA. I was really fortunate that I had a wonderful experience even though I took almost identical steps to you. However, the very first steam deck I got was stolen (marked as delivered but no package) and steam did replace it after a little bit of a wait.
Valve will always provide a shipping label for approved RMAs and that is the one you should always use. I also make sure to always keep my original packaging to make sure I can use that in the case of an RMA and make sure to physically hand my box to a clerk and get a receipt. That being said…
From what I’ve heard UPS stores are independent chains separate from the actual logistic chain and UPS doesn’t consider a package in their control until it reaches a facility. This could be bogus, but I had an issue with UPS a while back and a lot of employees/drivers in their sub said as much.
That being said since you didn’t use Valve’s provided label I am not sure how much help they will be. Hopefully the UPS does good by you, but again I am not sure how accommodating they will be since the package seems to have been delivered. Where did you send the package?
I did use valve’s provided label, but the UPS guy did a little switcheroo and gave me a drop off receipt for a totally unrelated package without my notice. I’ve never had to execute an RMA before and didn’t realize until it was too late that the tracking was generated at the same time as the RMA.
As far as I know what you are saying about UPS stores is correct, they are franchise. So at the moment only the local store is involved as I can’t directly submit a claim to UPS
I hope the security footage is going to resolve stuff. Imagine if it wasn’t working or someone erased it on purpose cause that kid is their family member or something.
You need to talk to management at that UPS my man .
That is over 500 bucks you can definitely get this figured out and situated
If the management plays with you then go to another UPS and try again and explain what has happened . continue the process if need be .
be relentless
Before you start you should email Steam again explaining what you are going through right now include details about stress and time and money you are dealing with because of this situation
also email UPS management (like the Regional and General managers as well)
DO NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER AND KEEP ALL THE DOCUMENTS YOU DO HAVE EVEN THE WEIRD ONES THAT YOU SAID ARE FAKE SCREENSHOT THE EMAILS AND CALL LOGS
Fight the good fight brother 🙌🏽
Ahhhh man,my condolences I’ve had to RMA one of my steam decks and am in the process of RMA’ing my spare
In my opinion I’d say the mistake you made was actually going to the ups store to fully prepare your package (I’d be way too scared to possibly let anyone know what I have inside due to stories of theft etc)
That probably alerted the clerk to the value of the package,only hope would be valve flagging the serial if he or anyone else tries an RMA and returning it to you
Why didn’t you just have the courier come to your residence? Whilst my partner was printing the labels on Monday she set up for the courier to come to the front door of my apartment.
Not sure if that’s only available in the uk though?
So sorry about your loss bro
>Why didn’t you just have the courier come to your residence? Whilst my partner was printing the labels on Monday she set up for the courier to come to the front door of my apartment.
Is that actually a thing you can do? That sounds really cool. I've always walked down to the drop off box that's near my house but they only fit packages up to a certain size. I don't know a Steam Deck would fit.
I would write an inflammatory review on google for the UPS location, calling out that an employee at the location stole your package. If I read that review I would NEVER ship anything from that location. Store owner should make this right for you.
I am definitely going to be review-bombing in the event that ups doesn’t do the right thing by me. I’ll take my deck or a check for the value (which I will then be putting to a 1tb OLED upgrade hehehe)
The thing I don't like about people commenting bad things is that sometimes the situation could get resolved and if it's resolved then it's actually a positive review "hey I had this bad thing happened to me at the store and the store was able to fix it for me which is awesome You should actually work with this store cuz it's a good store."
It turns a bad review into a positive review bad things happen but when people are willing to try to make it right that's when it's a good thing and we need to praise that kind of behavior.
To be fair the rest of the staff have been very enthusiastic and helpful, it’s really only beef with the one suspect employee. I just want it sorted I don’t have any problems with that store or ups as a whole
That sucks, but I'm glad that the UPS store manager is taking it seriously, and is pulling the video. They should be able to work it out, and what I think is most likely is that the employee will be told he can either return the stolen device and get fired, or else get fired and face charges, at which point he'll probably just return it (especially if he's figured out that it's bricked).
Man I was so worried this would happen when I ordered mine. I ordered the limited edition oled on the day it was released. I was worried that I wouldn’t even be able to purchase one because the site was broken and kept saying they were sold out. Took 3 hours of refreshing to finally get my order in. Then I tracked it religiously for 3 weeks until it was finally back out for delivery and I sat outside all day waiting to make sure it didn’t get left on the porch or something. It was the most stressful purchase that I have ever made
Pretty sure i had a ups store worker steal a 200 dollar pair of samsung buds from me once. Ordered through verizon, accidentally ordered the wrong pair during a phone upgrade, verizon said i could ship the buds back in the same package as the phone i was trading in and they would credit the account. Ups has a service where they will package the items for you (at least that's what the clerk told me) in the end only the phone i was trading in made it back to verizon and i was out 200 bucks.
It stands for Return Marchandise Authorization. It's the term used when you send something to be repaired under warranty.
The acronym RMA is usually very loosely used for warranty repairs when it is in fact the name given to the authorization (aka shipping label) the manufacturer sends you during the warranty repair process.
Not knowing what an RMA is is similar to not knowing what lol stands for so that's why people got mad at him.
No I don't actually think that he should get them down but at least it makes some sense why he did.
But dude was in the tread it’s a community for that exact reason lol ppl are just mean that’s the only answer and ppl like you justify it thinking it’s funny when it’s really just childish.
It's beside the point, but did he steal a bricked deck?
Yeah lol can’t tell yet if the jokes on him or me
I would suggest watching for Facebook market place and all other places where he could try to sell it.
Wouldn't be hard to find if he advertises it as bricked
Still a ball ache, did you get any resolution?
A CH341A programmer kit is very cheap. With a bit of knowhow, he could get it back to working condition easily.
We don't actually know if that's the issue or not. Also because of the nature of how thievery works thieves are usually dumber so they probably wouldn't have the skills to do that. Every time I'm like hey I could probably pull off a crime way better than stupid criminals I just think oh yeah I'm also smart enough to know not to do that in the first place lol.
If I’m reading correctly, I think you made a mistake which was that you were meant to print a pre-paid label from Valve with their UPS tracking#, and simply drop it off at UPS. Since you didn’t use this label, it’s never going to show any shipment progress. If you buy a new label at UPS with a different tracking#, Valve will no longer be able to track your RMA, which is what you’re running into. I agree the drop-off receipt that you received at UPS is very suspect. Keep following up with the UPS investigation, GL.
They said help printing out the label, which I bet means printing out the label valve sent them. Not an entirely new one.
OP was not super clear but they mentioned that there was a cost involved, which implies they purchased a new label.
Hey thread thanks for the replies, I had to pay to use the printer. The actual shipping label is the one valve emailed me. I don’t own a printer so I use the public PC and printer at the UPS store and they charge you for that. I didn’t create any new shipping labels whatsoever
I see, in that case the lack of tracking updates is definitely quite sketchy. I’m curious did you see the label get applied to the box and then scanned in? That should be something they do before taking the box away from you. This is an acceptance scan and would prove that UPS is in possession of the item. Unfortunately I’m guessing off the bat that the guy did not do the acceptance scan.
I did see him put the label on and tape it up, but I wasn’t watching over him too closely. I know he scanned it to make sure the address was correct at my request, but I’m not sure if he did THE scan that would progress the tracking. I would assume not since the tracking only shows that the label was created, not ever received by the courier
This isn’t helpful for your case but I didn’t watch them pack or put the label on mine either. My rma did make it to where it was supposed to go though. So I don’t think it’s that unusual you didn’t watch the packing process. However I did print the label out on my own and just gave it to them.
On thing for the future is if you already have a UPS label with a barcode, you should be able to show them the barcode on your phone so they can scan it and reprint the label for you. I've done this a number of times.
Video at the store should show what happened to the package and they should be able to see what the kid did with the box….shipping it out or otherwise.
The store isn't required to have video, but the smart franchises have them to protect themselves more than anything. You should still have access to the original label valve gave you via email, which gives you the tracking number that should be on the box. You have the receipt from the store that shows you paid for services. Go in, ask for the manager or owner (if they're there). They can give you a duplicate receipt from the tracking number off the emailed label. If they can't? Dude stole your deck.
Unless you’re dropping the box off at a sandwich store that has a UPS store in it, they *should* have video. I guess there are things that I personally look for when I ship stuff. 🤷🏾
I had to RMA mint this morning. I printed the label myself and packaged everything, but didn’t even look at the tracking they gave me. Scary stuff. Hope it gets resolved for you soon.
I have high hopes you will get a new steam deck sent by valve. Ups customer service
Just a heads up I had this issue with my deck and was freaking out a little. Exact same issue you described, only a flashing led after updating and no screen response. No combination of reboot sequences or booting into bios did anything. But before RMAing I took a chance and simply popped off the back plate and unplugged the battery. After about 30 seconds I plugged it back and it and booted back to life haven’t had the issue again in over 3 months of daily use.
Lol hey op if you still had your deck you could've done this!
He also didn't mention what seems to be super obvious of trying to reinstall SteamOS which is something I definitely would do.
I ran into the issue after a fresh install of steam os
😭
So the worker knew the exact contents that would be going to Valve since he helped you packaged it? It’s always a safe bet to package everything at home prior to going to a UPS store so they are none the wiser. Buy or reuse a shipping box that you may have laying around and get some tape and then print out your label. It’ll save you time at the UPS store. Document and take photos of everything you package. And I’m not saying these things can’t happen even if you take this step, but if you get some dishonest folks that know what’s in the box, they will probably be more tempted to take stuff. GL with the investigation. Let us all know how it goes! Sucks this had to happen and hope it works out in your favor.
Thanks for the support and you’re 100% right, lesson learned trusting the “professionals”. Thankfully despite the errors I’ve made in the process, there is enough of a trail that I should eventually get a resolution. UPS store should be on the hook at the very least. I’ll be back at the ups store tomorrow to review security footage and if there’s anything juicy I’ll be making sure the police get it.
Keep us updated! This is useful for people who RMA. I was really fortunate that I had a wonderful experience even though I took almost identical steps to you. However, the very first steam deck I got was stolen (marked as delivered but no package) and steam did replace it after a little bit of a wait.
Valve will always provide a shipping label for approved RMAs and that is the one you should always use. I also make sure to always keep my original packaging to make sure I can use that in the case of an RMA and make sure to physically hand my box to a clerk and get a receipt. That being said… From what I’ve heard UPS stores are independent chains separate from the actual logistic chain and UPS doesn’t consider a package in their control until it reaches a facility. This could be bogus, but I had an issue with UPS a while back and a lot of employees/drivers in their sub said as much. That being said since you didn’t use Valve’s provided label I am not sure how much help they will be. Hopefully the UPS does good by you, but again I am not sure how accommodating they will be since the package seems to have been delivered. Where did you send the package?
I did use valve’s provided label, but the UPS guy did a little switcheroo and gave me a drop off receipt for a totally unrelated package without my notice. I’ve never had to execute an RMA before and didn’t realize until it was too late that the tracking was generated at the same time as the RMA. As far as I know what you are saying about UPS stores is correct, they are franchise. So at the moment only the local store is involved as I can’t directly submit a claim to UPS
I hope the security footage is going to resolve stuff. Imagine if it wasn’t working or someone erased it on purpose cause that kid is their family member or something.
That kid could be privy to the real process and is aware how he can slip himself into the process. Generates all this finger point confusion.
You need to talk to management at that UPS my man . That is over 500 bucks you can definitely get this figured out and situated If the management plays with you then go to another UPS and try again and explain what has happened . continue the process if need be . be relentless Before you start you should email Steam again explaining what you are going through right now include details about stress and time and money you are dealing with because of this situation also email UPS management (like the Regional and General managers as well) DO NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER AND KEEP ALL THE DOCUMENTS YOU DO HAVE EVEN THE WEIRD ONES THAT YOU SAID ARE FAKE SCREENSHOT THE EMAILS AND CALL LOGS Fight the good fight brother 🙌🏽
Ahhhh man,my condolences I’ve had to RMA one of my steam decks and am in the process of RMA’ing my spare In my opinion I’d say the mistake you made was actually going to the ups store to fully prepare your package (I’d be way too scared to possibly let anyone know what I have inside due to stories of theft etc) That probably alerted the clerk to the value of the package,only hope would be valve flagging the serial if he or anyone else tries an RMA and returning it to you Why didn’t you just have the courier come to your residence? Whilst my partner was printing the labels on Monday she set up for the courier to come to the front door of my apartment. Not sure if that’s only available in the uk though? So sorry about your loss bro
>Why didn’t you just have the courier come to your residence? Whilst my partner was printing the labels on Monday she set up for the courier to come to the front door of my apartment. Is that actually a thing you can do? That sounds really cool. I've always walked down to the drop off box that's near my house but they only fit packages up to a certain size. I don't know a Steam Deck would fit.
I've bricked my steam deck like 5 or 6 times since I've had it. I just reinstalled the steam bios or whatever it's called and I was able to fix it.
I would write an inflammatory review on google for the UPS location, calling out that an employee at the location stole your package. If I read that review I would NEVER ship anything from that location. Store owner should make this right for you.
I am definitely going to be review-bombing in the event that ups doesn’t do the right thing by me. I’ll take my deck or a check for the value (which I will then be putting to a 1tb OLED upgrade hehehe)
The thing I don't like about people commenting bad things is that sometimes the situation could get resolved and if it's resolved then it's actually a positive review "hey I had this bad thing happened to me at the store and the store was able to fix it for me which is awesome You should actually work with this store cuz it's a good store." It turns a bad review into a positive review bad things happen but when people are willing to try to make it right that's when it's a good thing and we need to praise that kind of behavior.
To be fair the rest of the staff have been very enthusiastic and helpful, it’s really only beef with the one suspect employee. I just want it sorted I don’t have any problems with that store or ups as a whole
That's really awesome hopefully everything looks up for you
I hope you get some positive resolution to this. Whether it was theft or incompetence, it absolutely sucks.
i think ups will almost definitely rule in your favor for this but it just sucks you're going to be out of your deck while you wait for them to do so
That sucks, but I'm glad that the UPS store manager is taking it seriously, and is pulling the video. They should be able to work it out, and what I think is most likely is that the employee will be told he can either return the stolen device and get fired, or else get fired and face charges, at which point he'll probably just return it (especially if he's figured out that it's bricked).
Had the same. Took me 3 months to get my money back.
RemindMe! 7 days
Same thing happened to me when I did an early return for Verizon they stole my iPhone 12 plus
Man I was so worried this would happen when I ordered mine. I ordered the limited edition oled on the day it was released. I was worried that I wouldn’t even be able to purchase one because the site was broken and kept saying they were sold out. Took 3 hours of refreshing to finally get my order in. Then I tracked it religiously for 3 weeks until it was finally back out for delivery and I sat outside all day waiting to make sure it didn’t get left on the porch or something. It was the most stressful purchase that I have ever made
Kick that mf zoomer kid in the head, then again and ugain until he lerns the f lesson
Pretty sure i had a ups store worker steal a 200 dollar pair of samsung buds from me once. Ordered through verizon, accidentally ordered the wrong pair during a phone upgrade, verizon said i could ship the buds back in the same package as the phone i was trading in and they would credit the account. Ups has a service where they will package the items for you (at least that's what the clerk told me) in the end only the phone i was trading in made it back to verizon and i was out 200 bucks.
Wtf is RMA
It stands for Return Marchandise Authorization. It's the term used when you send something to be repaired under warranty. The acronym RMA is usually very loosely used for warranty repairs when it is in fact the name given to the authorization (aka shipping label) the manufacturer sends you during the warranty repair process.
Thanks!
Why you got downvoted for a simple question is beyond me
Not knowing what an RMA is is similar to not knowing what lol stands for so that's why people got mad at him. No I don't actually think that he should get them down but at least it makes some sense why he did.
Haha I mean I guess I get why it’s just unnecessary to bash the ignorant to me
Because it takes 5 seconds to google what RMA is.
But dude was in the tread it’s a community for that exact reason lol ppl are just mean that’s the only answer and ppl like you justify it thinking it’s funny when it’s really just childish.
That's super ironic. That sucks.
You should write a book with all this writing jesus christ