Returned Index Controllers - Still no refund given after two weeks

[Kjaye]

Hi there,

Last month I ordered the HTC Vive Pro 2 along with the base stations and Valve Index Controllers. I bought the controllers directly from Valve. The Pro 2 headset was really poor for the money and I decided to return it, along with the base stations and Index Controllers.

Valve gave me a returns address in the Netherlands to ship to, and I returned them at my own expense.

Both Box (headset) and Scan (base stations) received their products back on the 13th of June and refunded me a couple of days later.

Valve/Steam received their Index Controllers back on the 14 June but have still not yet confirmed receipt of them. I have contacted their support on multiple occasions who just keep responding that their shipping distributor has not confirmed the receipt of the items yet and they will update once they do.

But it's now been two weeks and they still can't tell me if they have been received and for the last three days haven't even responded to my messages.

As you can see from the tracking below they signed for them back on the 17 June, but are still saying they haven't received them back yet, or rather,they can't confirm that they have.

This is driving me mad and the support is absolutely useless, just thanking me for my patience each time and ignoring my questions about how we can escalate this, or how long the distributor has to report receipt of delivery.

I've now filed a Paypal dispute but Valve/Steam have not responded to Paypals attempts to contact them either. It's maddening, I can't understand how a major company can have such poor customer service support!

https://www.royalmail.com/track-your-item#/tracking-results/RN806491239GB

[crunchyfrog]

Kjaye eredeti hozzászólása:

Well you were quite right. They replied to me tonight again just repeating that they are waiting to hear back from their distributor and that they will lock my account if I don't cancel the Paypal dispute. Personally I take that as an attempt to cooerce and intimidate so I will certainly not cancel the dispute but will just contact trading standards instead.

If I keep access to my existing games I don't care if they ban me from future purchases as I won't buy from them again anyway.

Well, that's not how it works alt all.

They're asking you to reverse the chargeback because THEY get charged extra for it. This is pretty common banking procedure. If someone contests a payment, then the vendor that took the payment gets charged a nomial fee, plus a couplf of other things (iirc $35 or more).

So the reason they're telling you that is YOUR invalid chargeback is going to cost them money, and as a result YOU either fix it, or you will be in breach of the Steam Agreement you agreed to and they will lock your account.

it really is that simple. I know this is frustrating but don't cut off your nose to spite your face.

[Kjaye]

crunchyfrog eredeti hozzászólása:

Kjaye eredeti hozzászólása:

Well you were quite right. They replied to me tonight again just repeating that they are waiting to hear back from their distributor and that they will lock my account if I don't cancel the Paypal dispute. Personally I take that as an attempt to cooerce and intimidate so I will certainly not cancel the dispute but will just contact trading standards instead.

If I keep access to my existing games I don't care if they ban me from future purchases as I won't buy from them again anyway.

Well, that's not how it works alt all.

They're asking you to reverse the chargeback because THEY get charged extra for it. This is pretty common banking procedure. If someone contests a payment, then the vendor that took the payment gets charged a nomial fee, plus a couplf of other things (iirc $35 or more).

So the reason they're telling you that is YOUR invalid chargeback is going to cost them money, and as a result YOU either fix it, or you will be in breach of the Steam Agreement you agreed to and they will lock your account.

it really is that simple. I know this is frustrating but don't cut off your nose to spite your face.

Thanks for the advice. At present Paypal have just filed a dispute and are waiting for Steam to contact them. I was hoping that this would mean a different department from the steam support that I have to deal with getting involved and them sorting it out for me. I'm not expecting Paypal to do a chargeback, I'm expecting them to intervene on my behalf and contact a different department of Valve/Steam's customer support who will fix it.

If I contact Paypal to drop the dispute does that mean it would be marked as resolved and then I lose recourse to that option down the line?

What if Steam support never hears back from their distributor, do I just not get refunded?

[Zekiran]

You need to literally TELL PAYPAL TO STOP that dispute. This is not a "refund".

If steam support 'never hears back' that would be a cold day in hell. They will hear back. I don't know why on earth you think they won't.

[Kjaye]

Zekiran eredeti hozzászólása:

You need to literally TELL PAYPAL TO STOP that dispute. This is not a "refund".

If steam support 'never hears back' that would be a cold day in hell. They will hear back. I don't know why on earth you think they won't.

What I mean is, if the distributor says they didn't receive the parcel back, or they can never confirm it as returned. Does the fact that I have tracking proof that I have signed for it mean they will have to refund me, or will they just say they haven't received it and I can do nothing about it?

Ok, I will cancel the Paypal dispute, but now I just feel like I'm losing any protection I have...

[Kjaye]

Zekiran eredeti hozzászólása:

You need to literally TELL PAYPAL TO STOP that dispute. This is not a "refund".

If steam support 'never hears back' that would be a cold day in hell. They will hear back. I don't know why on earth you think they won't.

I've cancelled the Paypal dispute now. I don't want to end up creating further problems for myself.

Thanks everybody for trying to talk some sense into me. I get quite emotionally worked up by things like this and probably a little irrational treating it like they are personally trying to steal from me. I will try and calm down a bit, go play some Microsoft Flight Simulator or something

[Zekiran]

Did you do three different processes for the items you're talking about? You claim that they 'got' two of them and you 'got' your refunded money for those, yet now this is a third completely different thing? Why wouldn't you have ... returned the whole thing? I'm not understanding this.

And good, I hope that nothing bad happens for your account finances, we're so loud about this because the next thing you'd likely be posting is "why can't I buy anything on my account", if it continued! We just want you to have full access AND your refund proper :D

[Kjaye]

Zekiran eredeti hozzászólása:

Did you do three different processes for the items you're talking about? You claim that they 'got' two of them and you 'got' your refunded money for those, yet now this is a third completely different thing? Why wouldn't you have ... returned the whole thing? I'm not understanding this.

And good, I hope that nothing bad happens for your account finances, we're so loud about this because the next thing you'd likely be posting is "why can't I buy anything on my account", if it continued! We just want you to have full access AND your refund proper :D

I bought a Vive Pro 2 on preorder. That came headset only so I needed to buy the base stations 2.0 and Vive Index Controllers separately. I bought the Vive Pro 2 from Box, the base stations from Scan (Valve were out of stock) and the Valve Index controllers from Valve.

When I decided I didn't like the headset I returned all three pieces. Box sent a courier to collect from my house at no charge and refunded me the next day, brilliant service can't fault them at all.

Scan made me send the base stations back at my own expense (£27 next day recorded) which was fair enough as there wasn't anything wrong with them, I just didn't need them as I wasnt' keeping the Vive Pro 2. They refunded me a couple days after they received them back, again solid service.

Valve got the Index Controllers back at 9:00 am on June 17, a day after Box and Scan receieved their parcels back. But whereas they both refunded me instantly, Valve haven't even acknowledged return of the items saying that they haven't heard from the distributor.

[Zekiran]

If you purchased them straight from valve, you would have gotten specific instructions from valve of what to do with the products. but if you are saying you sent them without Valve already telling you to do so, that's ... probably why this is an issue? The other products being bought from other companies is not valve's problem, and would certainly never have had anything to do with this process either way.

[Kjaye]

Zekiran eredeti hozzászólása:

If you purchased them straight from valve, you would have gotten specific instructions from valve of what to do with the products. but if you are saying you sent them without Valve already telling you to do so, that's ... probably why this is an issue? The other products being bought from other companies is not valve's problem, and would certainly never have had anything to do with this process either way.

Obviously I RMA'd them and they gave me an address to send them to. That's the RMA below.

RMA # NA3GERQG5Z6TG

Of course I know the other products have nothing to do with Valve, I'm just highlighting that those two returns were perfectly smooth and hassle free as you'd expect returns to be.

[Zekiran]

Huh. Well I certainly do hope that things go smoothly but definitely just be patient.

[Kjaye]

Zekiran eredeti hozzászólása:

Huh. Well I certainly do hope that things go smoothly but definitely just be patient.

Thanks, I've cancelled the Paypal dispute as I certainly don't want to have to deal with more problems like being locked out of playing MSFS, but dealing with their support is so frustrating as they really don't seem to care at all. :-(

[Zekiran]

Kjaye eredeti hozzászólása:

Zekiran eredeti hozzászólása:

Huh. Well I certainly do hope that things go smoothly but definitely just be patient.

Thanks, I've cancelled the Paypal dispute as I certainly don't want to have to deal with more problems like being locked out of playing MSFS, but dealing with their support is so frustrating as they really don't seem to care at all. :-(

They do care. But there's literally tens of thousands of people likely ahead of you in line for help. It's a sale, people come out of the woodwork in order to return or spam the support system with requests.

[crunchyfrog]

Kjaye eredeti hozzászólása:

Zekiran eredeti hozzászólása:

You need to literally TELL PAYPAL TO STOP that dispute. This is not a "refund".

If steam support 'never hears back' that would be a cold day in hell. They will hear back. I don't know why on earth you think they won't.

What I mean is, if the distributor says they didn't receive the parcel back, or they can never confirm it as returned. Does the fact that I have tracking proof that I have signed for it mean they will have to refund me, or will they just say they haven't received it and I can do nothing about it?

Ok, I will cancel the Paypal dispute, but now I just feel like I'm losing any protection I have...

They are not the same thing. That's parcels, not monetary transaction.

As I said to you earlier, when you make a dispute, the vendor gets CHARGED extra fees. You need to make sure that you reverse that dispute so the charges are REMOVED from the vendor.

If you just leave it and hope it'll turn out, it will not. Valve only give you a limited time before you'll be frozen.

[Kjaye]

crunchyfrog eredeti hozzászólása:

Kjaye eredeti hozzászólása:

What I mean is, if the distributor says they didn't receive the parcel back, or they can never confirm it as returned. Does the fact that I have tracking proof that I have signed for it mean they will have to refund me, or will they just say they haven't received it and I can do nothing about it?

Ok, I will cancel the Paypal dispute, but now I just feel like I'm losing any protection I have...

They are not the same thing. That's parcels, not monetary transaction.

As I said to you earlier, when you make a dispute, the vendor gets CHARGED extra fees. You need to make sure that you reverse that dispute so the charges are REMOVED from the vendor.

If you just leave it and hope it'll turn out, it will not. Valve only give you a limited time before you'll be frozen.

I have cancelled the dispute. I don't seem to have any recourse for getting my money back now though. I have emailed them and linked them to the tracking confirmation that shows they have signed for the item on 17 June. I've also sent them photographs of the items packaged with the correct address and RMA slip and barcode.

I don't know what else I can do but they continue to ignore me. It's now 15 days since they signed for the Index controllers and they still haven't confirmed that they have them back yet.

It's maddeningly frustrating. They just keep reiterating that they will update my ticket when the distributor confirms that they have the items. When I ask them how long this usually takes, or what happens if they don't confirm receipt they simply ignore me and don't reply.

I've never experienced service like this anywhere before.

[Kjaye]

Zekiran eredeti hozzászólása:

Kjaye eredeti hozzászólása:

Thanks, I've cancelled the Paypal dispute as I certainly don't want to have to deal with more problems like being locked out of playing MSFS, but dealing with their support is so frustrating as they really don't seem to care at all. :-(

They do care. But there's literally tens of thousands of people likely ahead of you in line for help. It's a sale, people come out of the woodwork in order to return or spam the support system with requests.

I'm not asking for software support, it's to process a return for Valve Index controllers that I sent back. There can't be thousands of people ahead of me, Valve don't sell that many Indexes and as far as I'm aware aside from Steam controllers don't sell any other hardware?
It's not like Amazon processing hundreds of thousands of items daily, and who still provide instant refunds.

I don't know what is happening now but I'm assuming at this point they just will never process the return as the shipping distributor has misplaced it or something. How long does it take to confirm that an item you signed for has arrived back in the depot?

I don't mean to sound irritable towards you guys btw I know you are trying to help, it's just the situation. It feels like they are stealing £259 of my money and I'm not allowed to pursue any means to get it back :-(