Brief synopsis of their issues as someone who interviewed for, and was going to be offered, a Support Position there:
Valve currently has ~70 people that handle support tickets as their primary job function. They all sit in a semi-small area that was horribly lit while I was there. Everyone had headphones on and just typed away. Didn't strike me as a very welcoming environment (the rest of the floors sure as hell were though, my oh my). It was a small duration of time I was in that area, so that might not be the norm.
I believe the backlog I was quoted was 10,000 tickets on any given day. My interviewers indicated they could knock out around 1,000 on a good day. Numbers are kinda fuzzy at the moment.
They have one hell of a time with a lot of tickets where people can't provide any information with regards to ownership on accounts, and it's even more difficult in areas where credit cards aren't widely used and passed over for non-traceable cards (Russia).
Everyone in the group has some sort of specialty, whether that's payment and fraud, VAC, etc. (P.S. Valve also believes their VAC system is infallible, and I'm inclined to believe for the most part that when you're VAC banned it's because you did something you shouldn't have).
I spent a whole day interviewing and answering many questions that had nothing to do with my experience (save questions on how to turn things around, but I'm not going to show them my entire hand during the interview; gotta save something for on-the-job, right?). Something I heard repeated multiple times was, "Valve support is failing." Believe me, they know it's happening.
My experience? I've been leading a customer support/technical support team for 4 years, with 8 years of Technical Support experience and a BSEE under my belt. My group consistently ranks highest in satisfaction in our company, which is something for a support group. We have very low turnover, and a great family-like atmosphere. We work on a 9/80 schedule and have lots of flexibility.
They told me even before I left the room that they were going to make me an offer. I was ecstatic to get in there and help fix the problems that are holding them back. I was thinking grand ideas of incentive and motivation (up to and possibly including floating the idea for conversion of the company to a partial ESOP). I was told I would hear back in a few days.
Fast-forward 2 weeks. I finally hear from their HR person. When she asked for my salary, I happily complied. I live in a relatively small town in a crazy low-cost area of the US. My take-home pay is nothing near what I could even max out on in my area for the same skills. She thanked me and said she would call back soon.
A week later I receive a call that they are withdrawing the offer "Because it wouldn't make sense for my wife and I to move out there." and that it would "Be a risk." She couldn't give me any specifics or even throw an number out there. That tells me one of two possible things:
1) They had reservations during the interview process and decided they couldn't bring me on a little too late. Annoying, but understandable.
2) They couldn't pay enough to keep me there.
SO. You have three problems right now at Valve; lack of people, lack of pay, and lack of lasting incentive to deplete the backlog (I'm throwing short-term incentives such as cash bonuses right out the window because they DON'T motivate people over the long-term).
Would I go there if they made me another offer? Absolutely. In a heartbeat. The company as a whole seems super exciting and the people there are friendly and passionate about what they do. But you bet your ass I'd be pushing for some huge changes in how things are done in that cramped support room.
TL;DR: Valve support is kind of a mess and short of hiring a mess of well-paid people and people with good experience in leading these positions, they'll never fix it.
Edit: I realize some of this sounds like complaining. I'm still a little sore that they told me they'd make me an offer and withdrew it. My experience up to that point was fantastic. Wouldn't trade it for the world. My interviewers were all normal guys and were awesome to talk to.