Steam account suspended: 100s of games and $$$ lost?

So it seems they have temporarily restored my account access, I just don't have the Company of Heroes pack in my library right now, which is understandable and fine with me until the bank does their part on my end.

Sounds like a positive resolution, thanks for keeping us in the loop. I'm impressed they took less than a day to get this (mostly) squared away for you.
 
Sounds like a positive resolution, thanks for keeping us in the loop. I'm impressed they took less than a day to get this (mostly) squared away for you.

Yes I'm satisfied for now, they did the right thing on their end and I'm satisfied with the timeframe of their actions. Once I can confirm that my bank rescinded the errant chargeback, I'll go back to bitching about getting my Company of Heroes back. :eek:
 
Yes I'm satisfied for now, they did the right thing on their end and I'm satisfied with the timeframe of their actions. Once I can confirm that my bank rescinded the errant chargeback, I'll go back to bitching about getting my Company of Heroes back. :eek:

:) Regardless of the steam vs. origin posturing (including me), I'm glad to hear your account's basically restored.
 
congrats on being able to play again, I would probably crazy if I didn't have access to any of my steam games lol.
 
congrats on being able to play again, I would probably crazy if I didn't have access to any of my steam games lol.

Well honestly I probably never even played any of them for more than a few minutes each, except to go into the settings and set the right graphics in hopes of one day touching them :eek: except BF:BC2 ...but it's the amount of money spent on them that would make me go crazy.
 
Oh please. This is no different than the EA shit you love to harp on. Heavy-handed and unnecessary account actions due to poor policy and poor technology.

Valve could easily design the system to lock out a single game and disable the ability to purchase further games on the account until the issue is resolved. A full account lockout is unnecessary and stupid.

This would be better. However it's also important to note that just about any kind of online service has harsh measures if you buy something and do a chargeback. WOW will do the same thing, as does just about any MMO. And apparently it's incredibly likely to happen eventually if you use PayPal for a lot of stuff, as I've just heard on another forum a member had his Steam account locked because PayPal reversed a 2 week old game purchase.
 
Again, Origin bans you from accessing ALL your games just for something you say on a forum.

Wasn't that found out to be untrue almost a week ago now? Still don't get why you have some personal hatred of one company for doing the exact same things as pretty much any other company? :p
 
Just an update on this situation: I am upset again. And here is why:

So I had contacted my credit card company/bank and told them to rescind the chargeback. Followed up with them again 3 days later to confirm that they had actually done it when I had called and told them to. It actually was processed by Chase with a transaction date on 12/18. I checked this online on 12/28.

So I send a reply email on the original email back to Steam/Valve explaining to them that the transaction was completed on my end and if they need any further information from me, and I want my Company Of Heroes Complete Pack back. This was on 12/28 , so no response for a day then on 12/29 I basically copy and pasted what ever I wrote on 12/28 and sent the email again and still no response at all.

Now bear in mind, I made the effort to go back and make sure that they got reimbursed for the original purchase instead of just taking the easy way out and repurchasing it for a similar price on the current winter sale that just passed.

So it's been 7 days and I have not received a response or acknowledgement aside from the automated crap they send after I made good on my end.
 
Yay Valve has decided to suspend my Steam account out of the blue. I have 100s of games tied to STEAM, Never cheated, the only gray area purchases I've ever made were purchasing a Skyrim key from Intkeys.com a few weeks ago, which Steam had removed from my games list without any notification and a
Sonic Generations key from Intkeys.com last week. I did buy 2 games off users here, one of which was a Batman:Arkham City Steam key and a Rage Steam key 2 days ago. Emailed support...anyone know how long it takes to get a response back?

That's what you get for being a cheap skate.
 
That's what you get for being a cheap skate.

:p It actually had nothing to do with those keys. It was neither my fault or Steam.

The original thing that caused this whole problem was some fraud purchases that were made on my credit card account totalling $900+ dollars of clothing. My credit card company erroneously marked this $9.99 charge as a fraud charge as well even though it was on a different date and I specifically told them what the actual fraud charges were.

On a sidenote they had marked the charge for BF3 LE as a fraud charge also and had done a chargeback on it too during this same ordeal. EA/Origin whatever never did anything to my account so I guess they never took notice. But nevertheless I told my bank that that was also a legit charge and had them rescind the chargeback and return the payment to EA/Origin.
 
I'm slightly annoyed at their customer service policy and have always been skeptical about the whole email customer service and we'll get back to you sometime. For a company that size, account-payment related issues should be dealt with over the phone, not email. I mean I'm not bothering them over a game that doesn't work or something but I guess EVERYTHING will eventually boil down to a payment issue on any purchase.

I know Steam/Valve is not the same size but they should have the foundation for similar resources if they are going to have a storefront of this magnitude-I mean can you imagine if Amazon or Newegg only had email customer service contact for payment issues?
 
for how big the company is , Valve should reallyhave phone support. I got my account hijacked cause some bozos installed shit on one of the PC i used. I have 90 games , at near 10$ a game its a good investment. I had to wait with the customer service on a WEB BASED ticket utility.

seriously valve, CUSTOMER SERVICE!
 
Why does a thread based around an issue with Steam have to devolve into a thread about how Origin sucks.

Really? :rolleyes: I don't mind seeing it discussed in a thread about Origin and there policies but come on guys.
 

Mike is eloquent and professional as always, but that post doesn't really address why they don't offer any sort of phone support for urgent/billing issues. I know they offer phone support for the customers that earn them the most money (game publishers). If I worked at Bethesda, I could probably call up Valve right now and be on the phone with someone who would help me in just a few minutes. The problem is that a regular customer can't even call up and complain to someone who has the authority to reverse charges, refund money, unlock a flagged fraudulent account, etc. A ticketing system works fine for "why is my new vegas dlc no work" but not for "WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MONEY"
 

He knows how to spin thing really well. However his statement doesn't address that email only support is a piss-poor way to handle customer support. Customers have been telling Valve for YEARS that they need to get a phone system or live chat system in place to help customers more directly. Valve is a powerful force in the retail world and one that likes to claim that it listens to customers and in most cases it seems like they do, however they have yet to provide a single logical argument for why they don't have some kind of direct contact support system in place that does not rely on hoping and praying some support tech feels like/is able to respond to an email in a semi-decent time frame.
 

I'll say this, and I'm a huge supporter of steam, support time has not improved since the first steam sale several years ago. It takes a minimum of 24 hours to get a response from steam support. Even then the first response is always an automated list of "did you try this" completely ignoring the original question or that you already answered the list in your original response.

Now I do not blame Valve 100% on this. If anyone has been to the forums lately 90% of people on there are assholes and complete fucktards so I can't imagine what their idiot ticket queue must be like. Kind of the goes with the territory of having the largest Digital Download store in the world though.
 
This is a little side topic but I see alot of people concerned and you should be. Now days you have hundreds to thousands of dollars tied up in virtual goods. So you better make sure you protect that. DO NOT under any circumstance log into the admin account on windows. Make a separate account that is an admin, then log into a standard account. Any idiot who happens to be in your house having a beer should not have the chance to put a trojan on your computer. And yes most of them do it on accident. I see so many people making this mistake it scares me. I know that for alot of you no one should ever be touching your computer but things happen. A girl friend, family member, I mean unless you live in a vacuum anything can happen. It is only a minor inconvienience for you to type in the admin password to a UAC promt to save you hours of working trying to recover accounts or fix problems.

In this thread we already see people with stolen steam accounts and stolen credit card info.
 
They can defend themselves to whatever extent they feel necessary but I don't recall seeing many people jumping to their defense. The people who have the best customer experience with Steam are the ones who never have to contact them.
 
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They can defend themselves to whatever extent they feel necessary but I don't recall seeing many people jumping to their defense. The people who have the best customer experience with Steam are the ones who never have to contact them.

truth.
 
The people who have the best customer experience with Steam are the ones who never have to contact them.

Well ofcourse that goes without saying.

I don't think Steam has the capacity to handle the percentage of problems that may arise given the volume of transactions they deal with. The whole contact support thru email and we'll get back to you is bush league and probably worked well for a mom and pop shop like Steam used to be originally when it was just a few Valve games back in 2004.

Sorry but in my mind I see like 5 of Gabe's extended family members sitting at workstations in their slippers with mugs of hot chocolate going thru the queue of problems and not a professional customer service department.
 
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This is a little side topic but I see alot of people concerned and you should be. Now days you have hundreds to thousands of dollars tied up in virtual goods. So you better make sure you protect that. DO NOT under any circumstance log into the admin account on windows. Make a separate account that is an admin, then log into a standard account. Any idiot who happens to be in your house having a beer should not have the chance to put a trojan on your computer. And yes most of them do it on accident. I see so many people making this mistake it scares me. I know that for alot of you no one should ever be touching your computer but things happen. A girl friend, family member, I mean unless you live in a vacuum anything can happen. It is only a minor inconvienience for you to type in the admin password to a UAC promt to save you hours of working trying to recover accounts or fix problems.

In this thread we already see people with stolen steam accounts and stolen credit card info.

How did you get UAC to require a password? Ive never seen this done before.
 
How did you get UAC to require a password? Ive never seen this done before.

If you run as an administrator account, you will not be prompted for passwords. If you run as a standard account UAC will prompt you to verify yourself as an administrator, prompting you for an account and password (the account is saved as last used I believe, you won't need to type in the name every time).
 
OMFG this wasn't even related to any questionable purchases I made recently. My bank issued a chargeback a few days ago regarding a few unauthorized purchases that had happen on my card a few months ago and for some reason they included this game transaction on it because it happened the same day, which was a LEGIT Steam purchase and authorized.

anyone else loling @ this? Not trying to be rude but you have a lot going on here man. Questionable purchases from sites, and now the card gets stolen. It happens to everyone bust still... :confused:
 
anyone else loling @ this? Not trying to be rude but you have a lot going on here man. Questionable purchases from sites, and now the card gets stolen. It happens to everyone bust still... :confused:

lol... it was not related at all though. The website was Intkeys and I paid them thru paypal, my paypal account was not compromised. It was my credit card directly.
 
Sorry but in my mind I see like 5 of Gabe's extended family members sitting at workstations in their slippers with mugs of hot chocolate going thru the queue of problems and not a professional customer service department.

At first I chuckled, then I imagined 5 tiny Gabes answering support emails and then there was coffee all over my keyboard.
 
At first I chuckled, then I imagined 5 tiny Gabes answering support emails and then there was coffee all over my keyboard.

I see wut u did there...oxymoron... :eek:

Back on topic:

I don't think Steam has the capacity to handle the percentage of problems that may arise given the volume of transactions they deal with. The whole contact support thru email and we'll get back to you is bush league and probably worked well for a mom and pop shop like Steam used to be originally when it was just a few Valve games back in 2004.

Anyone else agree with this?
 
I do not think steam wants to deal with phone support. Yes they may be forced to at some point but it makes for a massive increase of costs. Personally I could care less. What is so great about phone support anyway? A guy talks to you in a heavy accent. He steps you through the same exact questions the email will. However now you will feel uncomfortable because you must get it all done in the time he is there and you will need to read him ticket numbers if you have to call back.

I think valve and any company should focus on making their email support faster and more effective and skip phone support. Their email support does need some work though.
 
I do not think steam wants to deal with phone support. Yes they may be forced to at some point but it makes for a massive increase of costs. Personally I could care less. What is so great about phone support anyway? A guy talks to you in a heavy accent. He steps you through the same exact questions the email will. However now you will feel uncomfortable because you must get it all done in the time he is there and you will need to read him ticket numbers if you have to call back.

I think valve and any company should focus on making their email support faster and more effective and skip phone support. Their email support does need some work though.

Phone support gives customers direct access to support people that can help. PROPERLY done phone support would be entirely based in the country they are supporting, even if it was only during office hours. CSRs with good training can solve issues quickly and easily. There is no reason for them to not have phone support. Email support will never be as good.
 
I do not think steam wants to deal with phone support. Yes they may be forced to at some point but it makes for a massive increase of costs. Personally I could care less. What is so great about phone support anyway? A guy talks to you in a heavy accent. He steps you through the same exact questions the email will. However now you will feel uncomfortable because you must get it all done in the time he is there and you will need to read him ticket numbers if you have to call back.

I think valve and any company should focus on making their email support faster and more effective and skip phone support. Their email support does need some work though.

Nah, phone support is cheap, you hire a bunch of Indians to do it for you. My cousin in India works the night shift in a call center and makes a whopping 11,000 rupees a month, the equivalent of about $220 a month. :p You may hate Indian call centers (I do, even though I have had several relatives and friends working in them) but they're cheap.
 
I think valve and any company should focus on making their email support faster and more effective and skip phone support. Their email support does need some work though.
Just imagine how much time they have to devote to answering annoying 12 year olds pestering them about why their Steam achievements aren't registering :rolleyes:. I can barely spend more than a few minutes reading the posts on SPUF before I get the urge to go in there and smack them all upside the head.
 
I like phone support simply because I'm old fashioned and if I have a problem I like to know someone is doing something about it, now, while I speak to them... not in the next 2 to 5 days or whenever they get around to reading my email that hopefully hasn't been blocked by a spam filter ;)
 
I like phone support simply because I'm old fashioned and if I have a problem I like to know someone is doing something about it, now, while I speak to them... not in the next 2 to 5 days or whenever they get around to reading my email that hopefully hasn't been blocked by a spam filter ;)

EXACTLY!!!! You can always camp on the phone for 7 hours straight and eventually get threw like when I have to call verizon, but waiting for a reply from steam support takes multiple days i'm my experience over 3 days to get any kind of human response..... Steam not having a phone number proves how problematic the service is. When I have a problem with there service, all they have to do is shoot me an email that doesn't make any sense and problem solved for them! However i'm not sure how they will succeed long term burning bridges like they do with there customers.
 
I do not think steam wants to deal with phone support. Yes they may be forced to at some point but it makes for a massive increase of costs. Personally I could care less. What is so great about phone support anyway? A guy talks to you in a heavy accent. He steps you through the same exact questions the email will. However now you will feel uncomfortable because you must get it all done in the time he is there and you will need to read him ticket numbers if you have to call back.

I think valve and any company should focus on making their email support faster and more effective and skip phone support. Their email support does need some work though.



I hate talking on the phone or waiting on hold. I agree I'd prefer better online support considering its a 100% online service.
 
I hate talking on the phone or waiting on hold. I agree I'd prefer better online support considering its a 100% online service.

And I hate waiting on hold too but it's better than not having that option at all in the first place. I've never had to wait 72 hours on hold over the phone before. Email/support forums on the other hand......................
 
I hate talking on the phone or waiting on hold. I agree I'd prefer better online support considering its a 100% online service.

I don't really understand how waiting for an email response is better than waiting on hold. Sure, they both suck, but I've never been put on hold for multiple days before.
 
I don't really understand how waiting for an email response is better than waiting on hold. Sure, they both suck, but I've never been put on hold for multiple days before.

Haven't called a mortgage company lately have you?
 
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