shop gave cable that takes 30 hours to charge device

triade

Hi,

I purchased a SteamDeck from cash converters yesterday. I had a lot of bother getting it to work, and it seems that something went wrong when it first turned on. it seems the issues were caused by insufficient power. The cable that was given was like a generic USB-C cable like the one you get with a cheap smartphone. I looked for the official cable online and it states that the specs of the cable need to be 45W and PowerDelivery3.0. (edit: with a mains plug attached)   I am quite confident i can't get 45W through this cable, my PC doesn't output 45W through the USB ports and the adapter plug for my phone only gives 12W. The cable is so flimsy I really doubt it could handle 45W.

The system was on charge all night and is only at 41%. I did some maths and figured that it will take around 30 hours to charge it with this cable. The system itself will only run for 3 hours on a modern game.

I believe this is unfit for purpose. It wasn't communicated to me when I purchased it, and on the receipt it simply says "VALVE STEAM DECK 64GB WITH CHARGER".  I phoned them and told them the case, he replied that it was a reduced price because it's not the official charger. I don't mind it not being official but I do want it to do it's job in a reasonable time frame. He said I can return the steamdeck for a refund, but I don't want a refund, I want an appropriate charger/power cable. He started getting argumentative, which I felt was rather unfair. I bought with confidence that it would work as intended. All I want is for them to provide an appropriate cable with plug.

How should I approach this?

elsien

You can’t force them to supply the appropriate cable if they don’t have it. They’ve offered you a refund so your options are take it or leave it.

Jumblebumble

triade said:

Hi,

I purchased a SteamDeck from cash converters yesterday. I had a lot of bother getting it to work, and it seems that something went wrong when it first turned on. it seems the issues were caused by insufficient power. The cable that was given was like a generic USB-C cable like the one you get with a cheap smartphone. I looked for the official cable online and it states that the specs of the cable need to be 45W and PowerDelivery3.0.  I am quite confident i can't get 45W through this cable, my PC doesn't output 45W through the USB ports and the adapter plug for my phone only gives 12W. The cable is so flimsy I really doubt it could handle 45W.

The system was on charge all night and is only at 41%. I did some maths and figured that it will take around 30 hours to charge it with this cable. The system itself will only run for 3 hours on a modern game.

I believe this is unfit for purpose. It wasn't communicated to me when I purchased it, and on the receipt it simply says "VALVE STEAM DECK 64GB WITH CHARGER".  I phoned them and told them the case, he replied that it was a reduced price because it's not the official charger. I don't mind it not being official but I do want it to do it's job in a reasonable time frame. He said I can return the steamdeck for a refund, but I don't want a refund, I want an appropriate charger/power cable. He started getting argumentative, which I felt was rather unfair. I bought with confidence that it would work as intended. All I want is for them to provide an appropriate cable with plug.

How should I approach this?

I am confused
suppose the shop gave you a 45 watt usb cable 
If you can only get 12w out of your charger/pc then that will be the limiting factor

triade

Jumblebumble said:

I am confused
suppose the shop gave you a 45 watt usb cable 
If you can only get 12w out of your charger/pc then that will be the limiting factor

Oh sorry,  the official cable is complete with a mains plug.

elsien said:

You can’t force them to supply the appropriate cable if they don’t have it. They’ve offered you a refund so your options are take it or leave it.

I understand, yes that makes sense. 

Under normal circumstances, a refund would be acceptable to me, but I traded in my laptop and Xbox and switch, for the steam deck which is an equivalent item in terms of functionality. In the case that they have already sold on the items I traded, I would be left in a worse situation, as no other shops nearby have an equivalent item.

Perhaps consumer law does not protect me in this scenario. Whilst I recognise that a refund would be right and proper, I was hoping to find a solution where I am not materially worse off than I was led to believe I would be at the time of the transaction.

sonearandyetsofa

A new steam deck charger of the correct wattage apparently costs about £22. Was the deck you bought cheaper than their usual price for the same spec? If it wasn't, it would be reasonable to ask them for a partial refund to cover the cost of purchasing the correct cable. You can't make them supply something they don't have, you need to decide whether you want your exchanges back, a refund or the cable to make it work.

For £22, I'd personally just buy the cable.

electriccactus

If they cannot undo the entire transaction then all they can do is refund you the purchase price of the Steam Deck.

This doesn't really leave you worse off, you have an amount in cash that you felt was acceptable when you took the items in to the shop and they made you an offer.

triade

sonearandyetsofa said:

A new steam deck charger of the correct wattage apparently costs about £22. Was the deck you bought cheaper than their usual price for the same spec? If it wasn't, it would be reasonable to ask them for a partial refund to cover the cost of purchasing the correct cable. You can't make them supply something they don't have, you need to decide whether you want your exchanges back, a refund or the cable to make it work.

For £22, I'd personally just buy the cable.

I was thinking this. I did go through my reasoning and the reply from @electriccactus is correct, I accepted the trade in value in exchange for store credit and that transaction is not effected by the steam deck purchase.

So I have to decide if I am prepared to try and choose something else that will fit my needs for the same value (£280).

I don't know if the price is different than it would be for another instance of the item , as they only had the one in stock. I don't have any evidence to show they priced it different or the same, and their pricing is at their discretion.  Since I want to keep the steam deck, it's down to their discretion whether they offer a different cable or a refund. I know the manager so I'd like to think so, but I've had arguments with him in the past when trying to return an item, so I don't have much confidence. I think I just don't want to go back there, and maybe ask my brother to just mention it to the manager next time he sees him.

I think your solution could be my best option right now. Purchase a plug. I don't like it, but it seems to be the best option to end up where I want to be.

MattMattMattUK

triade said:

Jumblebumble said:

I am confused
suppose the shop gave you a 45 watt usb cable 
If you can only get 12w out of your charger/pc then that will be the limiting factor

Oh sorry,  the official cable is complete with a mains plug.

elsien said:

You can’t force them to supply the appropriate cable if they don’t have it. They’ve offered you a refund so your options are take it or leave it.

I understand, yes that makes sense. 

Under normal circumstances, a refund would be acceptable to me, but I traded in my laptop and Xbox and switch, for the steam deck which is an equivalent item in terms of functionality. In the case that they have already sold on the items I traded, I would be left in a worse situation, as no other shops nearby have an equivalent item.

Perhaps consumer law does not protect me in this scenario. Whilst I recognise that a refund would be right and proper, I was hoping to find a solution where I am not materially worse off than I was led to believe I would be at the time of the transaction.

It does not as you were sold a charger. Did it specific specifics? 

You can buy a 60w or 100w charging cable from Amazon (I would buy the Anker ones) for £6.99 and a 45w charger for £18.00, or a 100w charger for £39.99. 

Depending on the laptop and which XBox I really cannot see the trading in of those plus a Switch being anywhere close in either value or utility for a Steam Deck, but I agree, you will find it almost impossible to get them back now as they will likely have ben sold on. 

MattMattMattUK

triade said:

So I have to decide if I am prepared to try and choose something else that will fit my needs for the same value (£280).

Can I ask what your needs are? The Steam Deck is great for playing older games and can be reasonable for modern games depending on the game, but it does not do much else.

triade said:

I don't know if the price is different than it would be for another instance of the item , as they only had the one in stock. I don't have any evidence to show they priced it different or the same, and their pricing is at their discretion.  Since I want to keep the steam deck, it's down to their discretion whether they offer a different cable or a refund. I know the manager so I'd like to think so, but I've had arguments with him in the past when trying to return an item, so I don't have much confidence. I think I just don't want to go back there, and maybe ask my brother to just mention it to the manager next time he sees him.

The cheapest Steam Deck new is £349 and can be had for £249 though Valve's certified refurbished program that comes with a one year warranty.

triade

MattMattMattUK said:

Can I ask what your needs are? The Steam Deck is great for playing older games and can be reasonable for modern games depending on the game, but it does not do much else.

it's for gaming when away from home, and a backup device for if my pc has an issue. It can do web browsing and play movies, so I can do my everyday browsing and can watch my stories and can play some games. It's a linux operating system and I believe many linux software apps can be loaded to it, so technicaly should be possible to do stuff like photo editing, video editing, coding, etc.

elsien

Have you done an online CEX stock search as that might be another alternative for you?