Lost in Shipping

[ObviousBasis]

Good morning all,

Background:
I ordered my Steam Deck and live in the DC area.
My friend ordered his the same time as me, and it arrived within five business days.

Issue:
My package however, said to expect at least three weeks to arrive.
It has since sent me repeated notices that my package has had issues in transit and shuffled between the same distribution centers over and over.

This is frustrating on it's own, but even worse as I am moving soon. I didn't anticipate the continental U.S. package taking over three weeks, but now it may arrive at an address I won't even be near.

Next Steps(?):
FED EX and USPS support have not been helpful at all and said they don't understand what's happening with the package.

I reached out to Valve but they have been completely hands off.
They said I should post on this forum, which doesn't seem like a solution of any kind, but I figured I'd try.

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?

This is my first time buying Valve hardware, and despite my initial hype, it has turned into a very stressful slog.

[Xamurai]

i dont know about the us, but in eu the seller is 100% resposible you recieve it. but even so, strange valve does not blink at all. is quite suprising.

[DeathCat4Cutie]

That’s ridiculous and sounds like a real mess. I hope Valve can do something about this. I’m sorry this thing that should be exciting has become so frustrating! I hope things get sorted and you finally get the product you paid and have been waiting a year for

[ObviousBasis]

The package went from Chicago to Des Moines, so pretty far away and getting farther...
If it does get closer to me I will definitely try to pick it up in person.

I have also been pretty surprised about Valve's response, since I'd heard good stuff about their customer support in the past.
I know some of my messages were within the initial 8 days, but I've tried to let them know that the 3 week minimum is not a "tentative date" and all of the shipment problems have been going on since the start.

Very disappointing but going to keep updating them to see if they can step up.

I am curious, has anyone else's shipment switched from Fed Ex to UPS?

A few of my local friends paid for theirs the same time as me and got them within four days, so not sure if mine is an exception.

[Man's Best Friend]

Originally posted by ObviousBasis:

I have also been pretty surprised about Valve's response, since I'd heard good stuff about their customer support in the past.
I know some of my messages were within the initial 8 days, but I've tried to let them know that the 3 week minimum is not a "tentative date" and all of the shipment problems have been going on since the start.

Very disappointing but going to keep updating them to see if they can step up.

I suspect the reason for the hands off nature of this one is because as long as the package is still moving around the shipping company's system, there's little they can do. The package isn't technically lost yet. Not the answer anyone wants to hear, but just the sad reality of the situation. The package has to not get updated for a certain length of time, then they can open an investigation, then officially declare it lost, then go from there. The fact that it seemingly keeps getting misrouted is just handled by "it'll eventually get sorted out."

[Mahjik]

FWIW, not with my Steam Deck but I have had a shipping company goof up in sorting and my package ended up leaving the city rather than going out for delivery. It happens.

[ObviousBasis]

Definitely fair that this stuff can happen with shipping.

But to pay $600+ with no shipping options except what was decided by the vendor, and then to be told to expect a minimum 3 week continental shipping with daily "Shipping Issue Delay" texts and very little context... is very strange.

Even more strange when my neighbor who ordered theirs the same day as me got it shipped with zero issues. They never had a "Scheduled 3 Week Shipment" notice either.

Hope that when it's farther into late delivery I can check into some more options with Fed Ex / USPS.

Otherwise will look into cancellation and refund options with Valve, since I wont be at the delivery address for much longer.

[infamousdevil]

Originally posted by ObviousBasis:

Definitely fair that this stuff can happen with shipping.

But to pay $600+ with no shipping options except what was decided by the vendor, and then to be told to expect a minimum 3 week continental shipping with daily "Shipping Issue Delay" texts and very little context... is very strange.

Even more strange when my neighbor who ordered theirs the same day as me got it shipped with zero issues. They never had a "Scheduled 3 Week Shipment" notice either.

Hope that when it's farther into late delivery I can check into some more options with Fed Ex / USPS.

Otherwise will look into cancellation and refund options with Valve, since I wont be at the delivery address for much longer.

Did you ever receive it? FedEx is doing something similar with me. I live in Oklahoma but it was picked up in Illinois, sent to Nevada, and from there apparently sent back across the country to Pennsylvania?!? Now there haven't been any updates in 3 days. It's maddening!

[versesZero]

I'm worried something like this will happen with mine. It shipped over the weekend. I got an alert that it was scheduled to arrive early "by end of day today" and stayed "arriving today" all day until just now it says "no expected delivery date" Meanwhile the package hasn't moved from the original fedex facility its being shipped from. Worried that "no expected delivery date" means "you're never getting this package"

[EzyDee]

I find FedEx to be hilarious in their tracking. I got my number on Sept 10. I just checked tracking and get this:

"Unfortunately we are unable to retrieve your tracking results at this time. Please try again later."

They did the same thing to me last month when I ordered a new guitar. It was 5 days late and finally found it was sitting 50 miles away and had been there for the entire 5 days. I missed a gig with it. Oh Well !! :)

[ObviousBasis]

Follow-Up:

After telling me everything was normal for weeks, Valve blamed me and said I must have put the wrong address. Namely that I left the "Dr." for "Drive" out of my address.

I confirmed with Fed Ex that this wasn't the case and that the address was complete and correct in their system.

Looks more likely that Valve / Fed Ex messed up the shipment before handing it off to USPS.
After calling USPS, they confirmed that they had no visual confirmation of the package and told me, over the phone, that it was very, very likely stolen.

Eventually Valve shipped me a replacement, which arrived in two days and did not have any weird "three weeks expected delivery" notices.

However, the replacement had a broken right bumper, which I had to RMA.
I got my replacement two weeks later.

In all, it took about two months since the start of this fiasco to actually get my Steam Deck. Really terrible customer service from Valve and pretty awful experience overall.

[-Forest-]

Originally posted by EzyDee:

I find FedEx to be hilarious in their tracking. I got my number on Sept 10. I just checked tracking and get this:

"Unfortunately we are unable to retrieve your tracking results at this time. Please try again later."

Ya, I have their farce of a Package Manager and get the same thing. They also say that Valve is the one that won't let me Hold at Location.

Originally posted by ObviousBasis:

But to pay $600+ with no shipping options except what was decided by the vendor,

Totally agree, Valve needs to offer options and if it is them not allowing Hold at Location they need to stop.

I'm done buying Valve hardware if they are the ones not allowing me to Hold at Location and don't start offering shipping choices. Hopefully mine doesn't need RMA and have to deal with FedEx again.

Update: Got FedEx to deliver after 4pm, but couple hours later they say tried to at 10:41am (my camera caught nothing), they lied about delivery attempt and after 4pm.. Finally got them to call the depot and take it off the truck. Picked up the next day at the depot. Feel so relieved it is OUT of THEIR hands. Still never got an answer from support if Valve is saying can't hold for pickup. They just said they reached out to the shipper. Luckily after several days of testing, won't have to RMA either. What a relief to not have to deal with FedEx.

[76561198084343563]

Yesterday I received a box from steam, empty was supposed to have both our decks. Took pictures and videos of me opening the bizarrely light box. Filled with packing bubbles. Steam support is unresponsive

[Mahjik]

Originally posted by $$$:

Yesterday I received a box from steam, empty was supposed to have both our decks. Took pictures and videos of me opening the bizarrely light box. Filled with packing bubbles. Steam support is unresponsive

How long have you given support? They aren't like a 2hr SLA.