Valve Index availability rumour

Ravenger · 4 Mar 2020 at 14:24

There's a rumour going around that the Valve Index will be back in stock next week, on Monday 9th. March, at 10am PST / 6pm GMT.

Stock is expected to sell out the same day.

Bad timing for me as I normally leave work at 6pm in a car share. I'll have to hope my colleagues don't mind waiting a few mins to see if I can get an order in!

Source: https://twitter.com/SteamDB/status/1234972759337230336?s=20

lego · 5 Mar 2020 at 12:04

Had an e-mail from valve this morning confirming this

Trox · 5 Mar 2020 at 12:54

Yep same and the store page has changed to Coming Soon...

Ravenger · 5 Mar 2020 at 13:25

Note that due to American Daylight Savings time starting on Sunday, it'll be on sale at 5pm GMT. Normally it'd be 6pm due to the time difference - I was confused why Valve said 5pm instead of 6 and this explains it.

jonchaz · 5 Mar 2020 at 13:51

That's odd, I put myself on the mailing list for an Index but haven't had an email. I guess I'll be waiting to hit "buy" with everyone else at 5 pm on Monday. An internet lottery like this seems like a crazy way to run a business though....

kevman · 7 Mar 2020 at 19:29

Unavailability does drive up demand though. Could be a valve marketing strategy

jonchaz · 9 Mar 2020 at 17:53

Tried to buy it but:- "An unexpected error has occurred. Your purchase has not been completed. Please contact Steam Support." Of course by the time they reply all the stock will have gone again.

Skiprat · 9 Mar 2020 at 18:12

8 week delivery when I checked earlier.

aoaaron · 9 Mar 2020 at 19:18

yeah 8-9 week delivery time.

basically its sold out again but they seem to have some lead-time on manufacturing estimates which is good and reassuring for users.

Sad for those who were hyped for Alyx and wanted to play it on launch. I'm still working through Black mesa, then HL2. Hopefully I'll be up to speed by the time Alyx lands.

Its basically going to be one of the best gaming experiences ever made. I can comfortably predict that and anyone who is serious about gaming is seeing the next revolution and evolution of gaming as we see it. Whether VR hits mainstream adoptability or not, I don't think its going to take away from the fact that Half Life Alyx for most people will go down as one of the best games ever made. Whether it paves the way for a Vr revolution is a slightly different case basis.

Ravenger · 9 Mar 2020 at 20:15

I managed to get one, and I think it's one of the first batch

At least there's no shipping delay shown.

It was very nerve wracking, as I was getting the 'An unexpected error has occurred. Your purchase has not been completed. Please contact Steam Support.' error every time I tried to confirm the shipping address.

In the end the payment went through and I got confirmation and a copy of Alyx in my Steam account.

The only niggling issue is I realised there was a typo in my billing address, as my house number was wrong! :eek:

I've messaged Valve support to let them know, and updated my card details with the correct billing address. Fingers crossed.

Skiprat · 9 Mar 2020 at 20:34

Ravenger said:
I managed to get one, and I think it's one of the first batch At least there's no shipping delay shown.

It was very nerve wracking, as I was getting the 'An unexpected error has occurred. Your purchase has not been completed. Please contact Steam Support.' error every time I tried to confirm the shipping address.

In the end the payment went through and I got confirmation and a copy of Alyx in my Steam account.

The only niggling issue is I realised there was a typo in my billing address, as my house number was wrong! I've messaged Valve support to let them know, and updated my card details with the correct billing address. Fingers crossed.

Lucky you. I opted for an HP reverb as I will only use it for DCS world. I can't understand why supply seems so tight (this is even before coronavirus). Anyhow enjoy!

jonchaz · 9 Mar 2020 at 21:26

Well to be fair Steam mailed me back fairly quickly and said the problem was due to high demand and I should now be able to complete the purchase. There is an Index saved for me so long as I buy it before 5 pm tomorrow. Trouble is the "An unexpected error has occurred" problem persists so I still can't buy it. I messaged them back and can only hope they sort this out before the time limit expires.

Ravenger · 10 Mar 2020 at 11:34

jonchaz said:
Well to be fair Steam mailed me back fairly quickly and said the problem was due to high demand and I should now be able to complete the purchase. There is an Index saved for me so long as I buy it before 5 pm tomorrow. Trouble is the "An unexpected error has occurred" problem persists so I still can't buy it. I messaged them back and can only hope they sort this out before the time limit expires.

Any luck buying it this morning? I see Valve have given another day for people to get their payment through.

jonchaz · 10 Mar 2020 at 13:52

No, it hasn't changed since yesterday. I sent another message explaining the problem and requesting they hold my Index past the 5 pm deadline if they can't sort the issue before then. By my reckoning Valve in the USA should open for business at 2 pm our time. This is 10 minutes from now as I post this, so I am hoping to get a reply some time soon.

Ravenger · 10 Mar 2020 at 15:37

Some Reddit users are reporting that changing the way they format their addresses on the shipping form fixed that 'unexpected error' messages. Seems that it's super picky about addresses being in the correct format, e.g. spaces in postcodes.

jonchaz · 10 Mar 2020 at 16:13

I've been trying all sorts of formats for my address and phone details; spaces, no spaces, adding part or all of an international dialling code to the phone number etc. Part of the problem here is that I can't access the phone and address details from my Steam account to see exactly how I originally typed them in. Unlike most other such order forms I have used Steam's does not highlight the specific problem so its just a question of trial and error trying to find out what it is it does not like.

Lost count of how many times I have tried to order this thing. Since 2 pm today the order form now requires me to enter all my details each time rather than remembering my last attempt and it gives an error after the second page rather than the third which are backwards steps. On the other hand my deadline has moved back another day.

No direct response from Valve to my last two messages. So I looked on the Steam forums and there is a 250 post thread on there about this issue but again with no input from them.

jonchaz · 10 Mar 2020 at 17:04

Well I just had a reply from Steam Support apologising and suggesting I should not have any further problems going forward. I'm still having the same issue though so following their suggestion I sent them a couple of screenshots of my filled out order form pages to see if they can tell me if there is something wrong with them.

jonchaz · 10 Mar 2020 at 18:45

The order details screenshots to support seem to have done the trick, I was just able to order my Index.

Ravenger · 11 Mar 2020 at 10:04

jonchaz said:
The order details screenshots to support seem to have done the trick, I was just able to order my Index.

That's excellent news!

Mine has just shipped.

Gazanimal · 11 Mar 2020 at 14:55

Mine too