Steam Support: Any Luck?

[Rinaun]

Hi all,

My steam account somehow ended up being hijacked. Probably my little brother or something trivial. That isn't an issue; stuff happens, and I was just glad for my first time getting hijacked it was steam and not my bank account or something worse. Upon logging into my account, he changed my steam email address (you can do that without a confirmation email being sent to the original email, fyi) so I was no longer able to recall a password or really do anything. At this point to get my steam account back I need to contact support. I use the separate support system called "Steam Support".

Have any of you actually used steam support? It has been 6 days and not one reply to my original message. I am now on day 6 and 12 hours of watching some Russian scrim on my account and I cannot do anything but wait for a "ticket reply". This is extremely aggravating. On top of this, I used a product key linked to my account to freeze the account. My account says it is suspended when I try to log into the account with any password, but I can see the guy scrimming in a russian CS:S server. Why does it tell me the account is suspended but he is actively accessing all my games online?

I have heard many horror stories of customers not getting replies for up to 2 weeks. For a company as large and consumer-friendly as valve this whole ordeal has caused me to rethink every purchase I do for steam now. Origin has many downsides but at least when I do have account troubles I can contact a live rep within an hour and have it handled. In my current experience with steam, I'd assume a weather balloon to valve HQ would be faster than the current form of "steam support".

Sorry if it sounds a bit whiny, but it is stressing to see my account with over 800$ of games being used for hacking etc. It is even more stressful putting money into a company and not getting the support you are entitled to. Has anyone else had any major issues with Steam Support? I'd love to hear them. Maybe we can send a collection of horror stories to Mr. Newell and see if we can help him fix Steam Support.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

You didn't have steam guard activated?

Support is probably looking at IP logs. Also, I'd imagine it depends on how much info you provided when you opened your heat ticket.

A friend of mine opened a heat ticket during cs 1.6 days and it took about 2 weeks so I'd imagine it should be a little bit faster by now.

Gabe apparently does read all of his emails and does respond to a number of them.

http://www.reddit.com/r/gabenewellemails/

 

[BrightCandle]

Steam just like any other software retailer couldn't give a rats ass about your problem. Since they have all your games at ransom you'll wait for weeks and then thank them when they fix it.

I hate Steam, I have had so many arguments with their support team they just don't get that they are a retailer responsible for the products they sell.

Its a real shame to see Direct2Drive die, they were my favourite retailer as they never held my products to ransom. Now we need Good old games to start getting more modern games that the Witcher so we can get some real competition going to challenge these at gun point services.

 

[Martimus]

Steam has had poor customer support since its inception. I had an issue for years where I could not open the store within Steam, and opened I think three seperate tickets to get it resolved over maybe 5 years. None of those tickets ever got resolved, and that was something where I was unable to give the company more money. I couldn't imagine how bad their support would be for something that didn't give them a direct financial benefit.

 

[Martimus]

Steam just like any other software retailer couldn't give a rats ass about your problem. Since they have all your games at ransom you'll wait for weeks and then thank them when they fix it.

I hate Steam, I have had so many arguments with their support team they just don't get that they are a retailer responsible for the products they sell.

Its a real shame to see Direct2Drive die, they were my favourite retailer as they never held my products to ransom. Now we need Good old games to start getting more modern games that the Witcher so we can get some real competition going to challenge these at gun point services.

Impulse had excelent customer support, so I would buy from them whenever possible when Stardock owned them. They had some technical issues, but the support was always great. Now that Gamestop owns it, I heard the support has gone downhill though.

 

[Rinaun]

You didn't have steam guard activated?

Support is probably looking at IP logs. Also, I'd imagine it depends on how much info you provided when you opened your heat ticket.

A friend of mine opened a heat ticket during cs 1.6 days and it took about 2 weeks so I'd imagine it should be a little bit faster by now.

Gabe apparently does read all of his emails and does respond to a number of them.

http://www.reddit.com/r/gabenewellemails/

I did not have SteamGuard active, because it got fairly annoying logging in and out when I would go to other (clean) PCs. I understand I didn't use the appropriate tool to AVOID getting hijacked but that does not give them the right to have appalling customer service. The length of time it takes for the issue to be resolved isn't an issue to me. He has played more than me in a day than I did in 4 weeks on steam, and currently I play BF3 (Origin). What irritates me is that Steam and Gabe preach being all about the consumer, then offer this shoddy service. This, and the fact that my account is suspended but still being used.

 

[Via]

My only contact with Steam support:

1) buy a few Splinter Cell games on sale

2) go to play them a few weeks later and they're not there.

3) contact support 3 times before getting reply. They wanted a screenshot of my account or something.

4) tried hard to give them what they wanted, but nothing was satisfactory

5) (this is the best part) I get an e-mail essentially saying "Look in your games list, doofus. They've been there all along".

6) Check games list and, sure enough, the missing games have suddenly appeared.

lol at least I got my games, but it was a pain in the ass.

 

[Rinaun]

My only contact with Steam support:

1) buy a few Splinter Cell games on sale

2) go to play them a few weeks later and they're not there.

3) contact support 3 times before getting reply. They wanted a screenshot of my account or something.

4) tried hard to give them what they wanted, but nothing was satisfactory

5) (this is the best part) I get an e-mail essentially saying "Look in your games list, doofus. They've been there all along".

6) Check games list and, sure enough, the missing games have suddenly appeared.

lol at least I got my games, but it was a pain in the ass.

Well I am still glad they fixed your issue I am still waiting for a response! I have been suggested by others to contact the BBB, but I would rather not. I doubt they want to deal with that type of drama over one person. If however they do not respond within 2 weeks I might sadly have to do that .

edit: Added to the steam forums. My account finally got activated there. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=28643725#post28643725

 

[you2]

Wow posting to the forum helped! THey fixed your problem and the entire interaction both ways was very civil.

 

[frozentundra123456]

My one experience with Steam Customer support was also a bad one. For some reason my log-in credentials got messed up and I could no longer log in. And yes, I had the user name and password written down.
I could log into customer support and gave them a detailed description of the problem. I got no response at all for several days, and when I did get a response, it was some obvious quote from a manual of some sort that had nothing to do with my particular problem. Clearly the person that recieved the ticket either did not read it carefully or had no clue how to solve the problem and just sent some pre-written FAQ response that had no relation to my problem.

 

[Rinaun]

Wow posting to the forum helped! THey fixed your problem and the entire interaction both ways was very civil.

Which is depressing actually. It took all this to get my issue solved like a normal user. Hopefully the Valve associate is right and this was a one-time occurrence.

 

[thujone]

lol there was a lot of hyperbole used on the part of the OP


good job blaming it all on your little brother.

 

[IonusX]

TC this has happened to me before. at any rate fixing it take like max a week. you need to make a bogus steam community ID and file a complaint over it and mkae sure you chekc the email you sue regularly
they got back to me in 3 days time

 

[thujone]

in case no one saw it... a mod on the steam forums got back to him almost immediately after he created a thread there. his ticket was in the queue of a tech in washington who was stuck at home with no electricity (due to the major winter storm there) which was why he got no immediate reply.


also he started a thread on reddit saying it had been 4 weeks since he put in a ticket... which the steam mod disproved. he actually only had to wait like 4 days.


also... he was upset he hadn't yet received a reply from support SEVEN MINUTES after submitting a ticket:

http://i.imgur.com/fQzwy.jpg




while i'm all for calling out businesses for bad business practices... i don't think this is a case of that.

 

[Rinaun]

in case no one saw it... a mod on the steam forums got back to him almost immediately after he created a thread there. his ticket was in the queue of a tech in washington who was stuck at home with no electricity (due to the major winter storm there) which was why he got no immediate reply.


also he started a thread on reddit saying it had been 4 weeks since he put in a ticket... which the steam mod disproved. he actually only had to wait like 4 days.


also... he was upset he hadn't yet received a reply from support SEVEN MINUTES after submitting a ticket:

http://i.imgur.com/fQzwy.jpg


while i'm all for calling out businesses for bad business practices... i don't think this is a case of that.

First off if I have to make posts on several forums to get a response from a steam employee and my issue solved, then I think my point is proved; people aren't getting the service they requested or deserve as paying customers. They did mention this was a ONE time delay that was caused by weather issues. However, I have heard of delays longer than a week on multiple occasions prior to this. If you read the thread that you are mentioning, other users even mention their horror stories. I guess it is easier for you to just cherry pick information, though.

As for the title of the post, I never created the reddit thread. the only reason I posted in the reddit thread was because my issue wasn't being solved in an appropriate time. The best part is within 30 minutes of the reddit and steam post building speed, I had a personal response apologizing for the delay. You cannot tell me this would of happened on its own course. Also realize that not only did I not have control over the name of the thread and could not change it. Does this still give them the right to treat other users besides me with horrendous wait times in support queue? If you even read the steam thread you would know I made sure I cleared up the date discrepancy in the Steam Forum post to explain everything in full detail.

I could link the multiple posts of different users from various internet sources from this month alone that show that my 4-day delay in responses happens often. Obviously people are posting though that in the past they have had their issue solved quite hastily so I can't really tell what to make of it. I might just use one of my various accounts to ticket in with a billing complaint in the future and record the response time.

 

[JujuFish]

First off if I have to make posts on several forums to get a response from a steam employee and my issue solved, then I think my point is proved; people aren't getting the service they requested or deserve as paying customers.

Except you didn't have to make posts on several forums. You only needed to post on one forum, and when you did, you received help and an explanation rather promptly. Furthermore, even with the "snowbacco" (WTF? Snow tobacco? Maybe they meant snowbacle?), you still received help less than 4 days from the start of your ticket, not the embellished 6.5 days you posted here.

PS: would have

 

[dampyfish]

hello,

I know this conversation is a few months old now. but i have the same problem with my account as the OP did. I am trying to write on the steam forums as he did, but I dont have "permission to access the page" to make a post on it. I think I have to link the forum account to my steam account but i am unable to do so because it is hijacked. so my question is how do I post on the forums in an attempt to get supports attention. Thanks!

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

hello,

I know this conversation is a few months old now. but i have the same problem with my account as the OP did. I am trying to write on the steam forums as he did, but I dont have "permission to access the page" to make a post on it. I think I have to link the forum account to my steam account but i am unable to do so because it is hijacked. so my question is how do I post on the forums in an attempt to get supports attention. Thanks!

You don't use the forums to contact support. Use their ticket system.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1223-QROC-4460

 

[dampyfish]

Ya i put in a ticket on saturday. But i wanted to post on the forums to help "get the word out." Thats the main reason i wanted to get on steams forums.

 

[Raincity]

I am also in the process of reclaming lost keys from a hijacked account. It took 5 days for a response and support ticket #. I submitted the proof of ownership steam requested on monday and still waiting for a response at this time. They are painfully slow.

 

[Phynaz]

Ya i put in a ticket on saturday. But i wanted to post on the forums to help "get the word out." Thats the main reason i wanted to get on steams forums.

Get the word out to who? Support doesn't read the forums. Nowhere does it say the forums are for support.