The curse of Steam

[Dave]

I have bought almost all my games on Steam over the last couple of years. I like the fact they are automatically patched and that I can install them wherever I am and on whatever system I am using without having to worry about having a DVD with me.

But now it's all gone tits up. I bought the New Vegas Dead Money expansion on Steam for £7.49 a while ago and played it through. No issues. I tried to load Civ5 on Friday and was greeted with a message from Steam informing me my account was suspended due to 'suspect activity' and I should contact Steam support. I did so immediately and awaited a response. I had no information as to why my account was suspended and all I could do was wait for a response. In the meantime, I happened to check my Paypal account and noticed the payment for Dead money was 'disputed' and they were awaiting a response from Steam.

Anyway to cut a long story short, Paypal had reversed the payment to Steam because it had automatically been flagged as 'suspect' despite the fact I had used the account to buy from Steam on a number of occasions. I called Paypal and they said they couldn't 'unreverse' a payment and I should make it again. In the meantime I received a reply from Steam, 4 days after submitting the enquiry. It confirmed that the payment was the issue and told me that my account would be suspended until the matter was resolved. Further, it said that it HAD to be resolved by ensuring the Paypal dispute was settled and BEFORE any payment was reversed otherwise my account would be locked and I would no longer be able to access ANY of my games (we are talking about £500-£700 worth of software). The payment was reversed before my account was suspended and before I was even aware of it and Steam are not prepared to accept any other kind of payment.

So anyway I have made the payment again, emailed Steam and said 'I trust this resolves the matter.' hoping that it will sort it. There's so many things that piss me off about this:

a) None of this is my fault
b) I have been a loyal customer for ages
c) I have spent a small fortune on Steam
d) I have always used my software in a legitimate fashion: never attempted piracy or never cheated in games or anything
e) They hold ALL my Steam games hostage and threaten to permanently revoke access if a dispute over one expansion isn't settled
f) They take ages to respond and (very suspect if you ask me) only provide an enquiry service via a ticketing system. There is no phone number, direct email or address available
g) They state they refuse to accept any other form of payment
h) They say they will steal all my games if the payment is reversed by Paypal despite me being willing to pay by card or any other payment form. This, I am pretty certain is downright illegal in the EU and if they DO go ahead with this, I will be going to the Trading Standards Office.
i) The Steam forum is staffed by wankers who patronise and insult anyone who goes on there to voice any legitimate concerns about Steam
j) I am not alone. A quick Google reveals identical and similar horror stories

So I don't know how this is all going to pan out but, even if it is resolved in my favour, they have lost a previously loyal customer. Either way I will be demanding a direct contact email or address and telling them what a bunch of fuckheads they are and that their 'policy' is tantamount to a threat of theft. It's been a long long time since I have come across such appalling customer support. I thought that kind of crap was a thing of the past.

So my advice is NEVER EVER BUY FROM STEAM.

[Schumacat]

This is really bad. So what happens if you no longer want to be a customer of Steam? Do you no longer have access to the games that you bought in the past?
I'm sure it must be illegal that they hold all your previous games hostage for just one payment issue. If anything, they should have just withheld the game for which the payment problem occurred.
And taking 4 days to respond to a customer complaint is so last century. It is not acceptable even in 3rd world countries. I think even if your issue is solved amicably, you should still rake them over the coals for what they did.

[Dave]

This is really bad. So what happens if you no longer want to be a customer of Steam? Do you no longer have access to the games that you bought in the past?
I'm sure it must be illegal that they hold all your previous games hostage for just one payment issue. If anything, they should have just withheld the game for which the payment problem occurred.
And taking 4 days to respond to a customer complaint is so last century. It is not acceptable even in 3rd world countries. I think even if your issue is solved amicably, you should still rake them over the coals for what they did.

If you no longer want to be a customer of Steam, yep, you lose everything you paid for. I knew this already but it never concerned me until this issue. Oh yes I am going to be blasting them from every angle once it's resolved. I've already done a domain search for 'Steamsucks'. Unfortunately .com is unavailable but is not an existing site. My bet is that Steam have already bought it to prevent it being used. Plenty of others for me to get hold of though!

This is the mail they sent me if anyone is interested:

Hello David, Thank you for contacting Steam Support. The purchase of Fallout: New Vegas has been disputed by Paypal. The Paypal account holder will need to close the dispute and have the funds returned to Steam. If the account holder is unable or unwilling to drop the dispute and let the PayPal know that the purchase is valid, and in turn have the funds returned to Steam, we will not be able to reactivate the account. All games on your account are locked to the account and can not be transferred to a different account. A different payment method can not be used for this game; the money must be returned by the PayPal account that made the original purchase. If the dispute is closed and the funds are released back to Steam, the account will be reactivated. However if PayPal closes the dispute by “Reversing the Payment”, meaning they send the funds for the purchase back to you, the Steam account will remain locked and you will lose access to all of the games on the account. There are no options to resolve a dispute once PayPal has closed the case, so we suggest that you contact them immediately. PayPal Help Center https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_help-ext Please let us know if you have any further questions. We are not able to do anything further with your account while a PayPal dispute is still pending, please remedy this issue with PayPal before asking for the account to be reactivated.

[Rus-Evo]

Welcome to the "Steam is Evil" club.

I hate that it is forced on me, and (for example) I cant play Civ 5 when the net is down (or I am away from it).

[Pixx]

i keep reading the title: "The curse of Satan"

[WebHead]

Welcome to the "Steam is Evil" club.

I hate that it is forced on me, and (for example) I cant play Civ 5 when the net is down (or I am away from it).

This is the crux for me. I hate how the steam service boots at startup hogging my precious resources. I hate how 'big brother' is watching. I actually hate that I can't patch the games myself.

Steam for me was an unfortunate accident. I bought a copy of orange box for PC expecting to find cds inside. but instead it was a steam install. I wanted to play portal pretty badly so i installed it anyway.

[Dave]

Well I have always liked the platform itself but that can't outweigh the shocking customer support.

I still haven't received any reply to my mail telling them I had paid again. Meanwhile my account remains suspended.

[Rus-Evo]

Report them to consumer affairs.

[Dave]

Report them to consumer affairs.

I will report them to Trading Standards if they don't reactivate my account. The reason I haven't done so already is because, explaining what happened to people like you guys is easy because you're familiar with all this stuff but to someone who isn't, it's actually a whole complex load of unfamiliar events.

[Rus-Evo]

A steam hater is easy to convince lols. The only good thing is autopatching. Which civ 5 super needed

[Dave]

They've reactivated my account, told me I can't pay the way I did (via their email address and paypal) and told me I need to repurchase the expansion within 5 days or lose my account. I have, of course, done so. I emailed them back, told them I had, asked them how to reclaim the money I already sent via Paypal and demanded a direct email or postal address for whoever is responsible for their policies and wording of automated emails because it's all been utterly disgraceful.

This is definitely the worst customer support I have experienced for well over a decade. I still think the Steam platform is great but some jerk or jerks at Steam have guaranteed I will never buy from them again.

[aussieracer]

Worst of all I hear PS3 will be getting a steam service in the future. I'm avoiding it like the plague. And they wonder why piracy is so rampant. It's a big middle finger up at their corrupt DRM policies. I will always want a hard copy of my games. How rediculous to have to be online to play single player campaigns.

[aussieracer]

You should send an email to Valve, straight to the big cheese himself.

[WebHead]

At least steam is in US dollars, and doesn't rip off Aussies with 'Microsoft Points' or the AU Playstation store, where everything is more expensive no matter what the exchange rate.

[Dave]

You should send an email to Valve, straight to the big cheese himself.

Yeah... I bet there'd be no reply though.

I have had no reply from Steam asking about my refund and asking for direct contact details. Cowboys.

[Rus-Evo]

My friend just did a fresh reinstall of windows 7.

Now he tries his password (or what he thinks it is) in steam and cant get in.

He emails for his password but the email NEVER ARRIVES. So he must wait days for a support response.

Lucky as hell he only plays Civ 5 via steam.

I would feel quite justified using a cracked version until they fixed it (we both payed top dollar when it came out on release day).

Steam is very likely to make me AVOID games.

[WebHead]

But all these solutions are flawed. My PS3 could blow up tomorrow and I have lost most of my saved files, etc. Or blurays get scratched.

[Rus-Evo]

with steam its like ALL your blu rays get scratched

[Dave]

Yep AND if your discs get scratched most software houses will replace them if you ask. Steam just threaten to steal everything.