Quick vent, just need to get off my chest!
Got the email earlier in the week to get my reserved Steam Controller, placed the order and watched the tracking. Of course it got delivered just as I left my apartment to visit family. I tried repeatedly to set the UPS shipping for pickup, but the option wasn’t available. Asked a friend to swing by, they couldn’t make it on Friday but went yesterday…
Of course there is no package, someone clearly nabbed it and now I’m $100 down. Can’t refuse the charge because it’s tied to my Steam account and UPS will tell me to check with my neighbors and open a case with them!
Feels like Valve created this scarcity with the stupid ordering process, if it’s anything like my Steam Deck, the packaging wasn’t discrete and they wouldn’t allow me to adjust the shipping.
Feels like I have no options and just need to accept that I’ve lost the money.
Rant over
wr2623@midwest.social 1 hour ago
UPS asking you to open a case with Valve is normal. You didn’t pay to ship it, Valve did. Even if it is a line item on your invoice it was a contract between Valve and UPS, so you can’t call up UPS demanding investigation/money because it is Valve that gets the money not you (who in turn refunds it to you).
If Valve gives you the money back they are likely taking a loss on it to keep you happy. As far as UPS is concerned they delivered it (presumably with photographic evidence), so why would they pay up on insurance. Unless Valve pays for the higher level of insurance UPS won’t cover for porch pirates.
It is unlikely that Valve paid to have that level of coverage, but that is because they know only a small number of packages will be stolen. It ends up being cheaper to just give a few refunds than it is to pay for the higher level coverage on thousands of packages.
Hopefully that is the case on how Valve handles this and you get a replacement or at least your money back. Good luck!
rtxn@lemmy.world 48 minutes ago
Valve is also the only party that has the size to put pressure on the logistics companies. A couple hundred dissatisfied individual customers hardly amount to a rounding error for the likes of UPS and GLS. Pissing off Valve, especially before the major release of hardware, is not something they can afford to do.