Steam issue with Titan quest gold

[Ryland]

I had purchased it for my nephew over a year ago and played it for quite awhile but it was suddenly gone from his account. From going back and forth with steam they say that it was redeemed by an account name that is the same as his but is missing the last character. His screen name is 17 characters long so I wonder if they had a glitch at some point. Has anybody else with a steam screen name of more than 16 characters had this issue?

Thanks.

 

[shortylickens]

Cant help ya. I kept my name short and sweet. No issues.
Why so long anyway? 17 characters is overkill.

 

[tk149]

Did your nephew change his screen name? Maybe he forgot his old name/password and created a new account without telling you?

 

[Ryland]

No he didn't. The screen name he is using matches the screen name which shows up in my accounts "Gifts" screen as the screen that redeemed the game but the Steam rep says it was redeemed by a screen name that is one character shorter.

 

[kalrith]

No he didn't. The screen name he is using matches the screen name which shows up in my accounts "Gifts" screen as the screen that redeemed the game but the Steam rep says it was redeemed by a screen name that is one character shorter.

You could try taking a screen shot of your gifts screen and forwarding it on to the Steam rep. I would think it would be hard for them to refute that.

Edit: Obligatory, this is why I like to have games in hard-copy format.

 

[Ryland]

I have sent them screenshots of my gifts screen but they insist that cd-keys are non-moveable (although obviously they are since my nephews did move). Its like their "tech support" just don't get the obvious evidence in front of their faces. To me, as a programmer, it looks like they had a glitch where at the very least TQG would only support a 4-bits for the length of the screen name....seems stupid to me but maybe they were trying to consolidate data in their database.

 

[tk149]

Sounds like Steam screwed your nephew out of a game, and their customer support sucks.

Stories like this make me very nervous about my own Steam games, and very hesitant to buy any more. Steam can basically steal from you, and you can't do a darn thing about it.

 

[Ryland]

I am hoping that they make it right in the end but it is dragging on with their support staff not being particularly bright on this issue since I have proof that they are wrong...

 

[MStele]

Sounds like Steam screwed your nephew out of a game, and their customer support sucks.

Stories like this make me very nervous about my own Steam games, and very hesitant to buy any more. Steam can basically steal from you, and you can't do a darn thing about it.

I've been doing business with Steam and long time and have found that while not perfect, Steam continues to improve their systems and the way they do business. I hope the OP gets his/her game back if it was in fact removed accidently, but in truth we only know the story as told to use from one side so their may be more to it.

The unfortunately thing is that often times a bug is discovered in a very inconvienent way, such as this. Good luck!

 

[Ryland]

but in truth we only know the story as told to use from one side so their may be more to it.

I wouldn't be entirely surprised if the game was revoked from his account by steam but if so then I would expect them to say that. What I have on my side is a screenshot of my steam account (as the buyer) showing that the game was redeemed by his steam account name yet the game doesn't show up in his account with the same exact name yet it used to. Im trying to find out what the "other side" has to say that's more than basic Steam rhetoric...

 

[minmaster]

yea steam seems to act unnecessarily strict when it comes to issues like this. they are unwilling to budge on seemingly user-not-at-fault problems due to their hardline rules.

 

[Ryland]

One thing I am going to check tonight is to see whether the account that supposedly redeemed the game, according to Steam, even exists.

Edit: Ugh, I went through the "lost password" routine, entered in the account name they say redeemed the game and it says it sent an email out. I wonder if that means the account actually exists or if its a generic message.

 

[Ryland]

yea steam seems to act unnecessarily strict when it comes to issues like this. they are unwilling to budge on seemingly user-not-at-fault problems due to their hardline rules.

Hardline rules are fine even up to the point where they say they don't move keys around but this is a situation where I have proof that they don't even follow their own rules because the key got moved to an almost the same named account...

 

[jlchoi]

Did you pay with a credit card? It may be a long shot since it was over a year ago, but you might want to try to get them involved. If they do, Steam would probably be more willing to work with you on the situation.

 

[Ryland]

The final outcome is that I had never heard of personas on Steam. My account which shows one username is a persona of the shortened username which I was able to log into and see all of the games. Has anybody else ever heard of personas on steam and have any idea how to change it?

 

[Martimus]

I am suprised to hear this, since I know that Stardock bends over backwards to fix issues with their D/L service when you call them. I have to say that stories like this make me think twice about purchasing anything from Steam.

 

[igloo15]

The final outcome is that I had never heard of personas on Steam. My account which shows one username is a persona of the shortened username which I was able to log into and see all of the games. Has anybody else ever heard of personas on steam and have any idea how to change it?

Oh so that was the problem. Yup persona changing is easy usually I do it by hitting shift tab in game and going to settings and changing my name there. Its good for adding tags on your name when you are in a clan or changing your name so people don't know its you in a server you frequent.

What your name shows up as in game and on friends list is not your account name so if you put that in and sent a game to that person it won't go to the person you intend.

 

[Ryland]

I am suprised to hear this, since I know that Stardock bends over backwards to fix issues with their D/L service when you call them. I have to say that stories like this make me think twice about purchasing anything from Steam.

On one side it seems he assumed that I knew about personas and that accounts can have different names (which I didn't) and never explained it until I got pissy with the rep after a week of back and forth with nothing useful forthcoming from Steam. It wasn't until then that he explained what had happened. If he had done that after I posted the first screenshot and explained what was going on this would have been resolved on day one.

I tried searching in support.steampowered.com for "persona" and found nothing useful. Does anybody have a link showing info about it?

 

[Ryland]

Oh so that was the problem. Yup persona changing is easy usually I do it by hitting shift tab in game and going to settings and changing my name there. Its good for adding tags on your name when you are in a clan or changing your name so people don't know its you in a server you frequent.

What your name shows up as in game and on friends list is not your account name so if you put that in and sent a game to that person it won't go to the person you intend.

Thanks for the info. Hopefully my SIL will have a nice talk with my nephew about this whole thing that it seems he caused by forgetting his real account name or even mentioning to me that he had to create a new one.