Valve Glitch Causes Steam Controller Price Drop for Early Adopters

If you missed out on securing a Steam Controller at launch, there is no need to fret. While opportunistic resellers are listing the $99.99 device for heavily inflated prices on platforms like eBay, Valve has confirmed that restocks are underway. Furthermore, this hardware appears immune to the supply chain disruptions affecting other sectors, so availability should stabilize soon. That said, some buyers are still regretting missing the initial launch window, though not for the reasons you might expect.

Shortly after the controller became available, eagle-eyed customers noticed discrepancies in their invoices. It seems a segment of buyers were not charged the mandatory sales tax on their orders. While this might seem trivial relative to the device’s total cost, it resulted in a notable savings—exceeding $7 in states with higher tax rates, such as California.

This quirk came to light via a viral thread on the Steam subreddit, where one customer shared their interaction with Valve support. In an act of unprompted honesty, the user reached out to the company to report the missing tax charge.

“Valve would figure it out eventually, and I’d rather resolve this now than face potential issues down the road,” the user reasoned.

Valve confirmed they were aware of the technical glitch and had already implemented a fix. More importantly, they assured the customer that no additional charges would be levied, allowing them to effectively keep the discount. You can probably imagine the sarcastic “Happy For You” reactions that followed.

While paying the standard retail price is expected, the community’s reaction to the user’s self-reporting has been rather humorous. “Peak teacher’s pet behavior,” one commenter quipped.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen someone go out of their way to complain about *not* being charged sales tax,” another remarked. “What is actually wrong with you?”

Source: Polygon