EA support is still kinda worse, those people will go as far as to tell you to delete your programs folder...O_o.
Both seem pretty terrible though.
Comment has been collapsed.
Holy crap! Bobofatt you're on the support staff? Good for you! Congrats! But yes, I think that Steam runs through a list of send us images and do a MSINFO32 every time so I don't see why they can't just have a bot do that at the start. Which would be instant.
Comment has been collapsed.
At lease EA support reads your message, Steam support usually replies without reading.
Comment has been collapsed.
Did you ever wait for support form Bioware , it even MUCH MUCH worse, i play SWTOR and people consider the support of that game is a worst of it kind
Comment has been collapsed.
Just hijacking your comment to get on front.
Well Bluemonday, it is pretty much your own fault. Looks like you did not take your time to read the message which is located a bit below the "Buy" button: "Requires the base game Fallout: New Vegas on Steam in order to play."
Yes, the Steam support is horrible. But since it is your own fault, then you should not get angry at them because of your own mistake.
Comment has been collapsed.
OP has Fallout: New Vegas, just the dlc does not activate with the version he owns. And he bought it as a gift so the message did not show up.
Comment has been collapsed.
Seems like it, mate, still a traumatic experience.
Comment has been collapsed.
oh yeah btw I was already so in that case that i was only thinking "if he has the key". He doesnt have the key. He just had a copy of the game which he couldnt activate. Torrenting this would be totally not legal since then it really would be the aquisition of a new copy of the game.
Just because I have a game in the inventory it isnt in my possession ;). Otherwise there would be a nice workaround...you buy a game to inventory,you download it,you play it,once you are finished you trade for another game ;)
Comment has been collapsed.
But keeping it in the inventory wouldnt be the point. He wouldnt use the same license and if that would really work,just as a not,it would be so easily exploitable,except steam would somehow remove the "tradeable" and the "giftable",but then again it would just easier for them to swap the item to NA
Comment has been collapsed.
He has the Fallout DLC in his inventory,not in his library. He tries to activate it,he couldnt. So its still an item in the inventory that is tradeable and giftable. If he starts to download it now via torrent or whatever he simply gets himself a copy (cracked one obviously). And that is not legal. Now if he would just keep the DLC for lifetime in his inventory it wouldnt change the fact that he aquired a cracked license to play it. Also there is no guarantee that he just keeps it in his inventory all the time as inventory items are tradeable/giftable.
Comment has been collapsed.
If he has it in his inventory, he owns it. It becomes illegal only if he trades or gifts the item. And he doesn't have to keep it forever, only long enough for support to convert it. There's no sense in not downloading something that you own but can't access, only because support takes ages to respond.
Comment has been collapsed.
Is it suspendable to talk about torrenting, to have torrented, or to suggest torrenting? Because if its the second one we're all perma'd...
Comment has been collapsed.
Had the same problem when i ask about region blocked games. Long history short, i explained why my country now should be able to buy some games, and i receive an answer telling me that the game is not available on my country. You serious? I already know its not available on my country, thats why i wrote this pm. So, steam supports sucks really bad.
Comment has been collapsed.
What did you expect them to say? "Oh, you're right, your email made us realize we want to change our policy on which games are sold where!" Nope.
Also, generally it is the publishers that determine what games are sold where, NOT VALVE. If a certain publisher chooses not to sell in your country, or if a different distributor / publisher owns the rights for your region and this other publisher chooses not to deal with Valve then there is NOTHING Valve can do.
Comment has been collapsed.
And i still piss off because it not allow me to buy Darksoul. Hope that the samething will not happen with darksoul 2
Comment has been collapsed.
It does seem kind of ridiculous, though I can kind of see why they might ask for the details upfront, include msinfo. While you are 100% certain what your problem is, I can imagine the support guy wanting all possible evidence to look over before drawing a conclusion. It is a bit like going to a doctor and providing your family history, personal past conditions, allergies, etc before even talking to the doctor. While it might seem obvious to you that you have an ear infection, the doctor wants to rule out other potential causes, and to make the diagnosis as efficient as possible.
Bottom line, you know what the issue is, but in many other cases the "patient" does not know correctly the issue involved and its just simple if the technician has all possibly relevant data before addressing your problem. You are fighting the process Valve has put into place (like quibbling with an admitting nurse over having to fill out a questionnaire). You are partly to blame for that part of the poor customer service.
This all said, their response does seem quite slow for a major company. As you say, I think you should have gotten at least an automated response within a day, and a human within 48-72 hours, assuming you provided the requested data.
Comment has been collapsed.
^this. I had ppl on my server telling me that they know quite well that certain problems are on my end and it always turned out something else was the problem after I got some information. Steam support is really slow though,a week is pretty normal. Writing a second post or bumping your ticket without an answer often leads to a drop in the queue,you shouldnt do that.
Next time in such a case directly demand a refund and then explain why or directly ask for a change from RoW to NA. If you explain the problems first and then make a slight request about what else can be done they want to "solve" your problem before they actually act with changing the items.
Comment has been collapsed.
Umm, dude. This is entirely an issue on Steam's end. It's an issue of flags in a database on their end. It literally has 0%, nothing, zilch, nada, to do with anything taking place on his PC. He could log on to Steam from any PC around the world, and he would still have this issue. Or do you think that somehow, which games are in your game library is stored on your PC? Or that your inventory is stored on your PC? -_-
Other than that, I get your point about wanting base info. on a "patient" - but that only applies to system automated messages as part of a standard protocol taken with all tickets. That doesn't happen here, at all. There is no standard protocol on any tickets, as evidenced by often very disparate responses to very similarly worded issues. There might be some form of intelligent software scanning tickets for key words, combinations of words, topics, etc (there most probably is) to attribute priority automatically, but every ticket is looked at and read by a human, who in this case chose to copy-paste a blurb of text from some random text file probably stored on his desktop. "Jace". One that had, again, 0%, nada, zilch to do with the issue of the customer.
From seeing some of these moronic mistakes and fuck-ups Steam support makes, I get a pretty clear picture of what's most probably going on there - Valve's outsourced their first-line support some place where they hire cheapy employees for minimum wage, where people are hired and fired daily, where entry requirements are very low. These "techs" (who 90% of the time are just students, people coming back from a burnout, people who got fired and are stuck living back home - people looking for a job, quick, that takes no real skill) don't get privileges to actually modify stuff in any database, maybe only query some for data, before they forward any actual needed fixes to a smaller second line support, who probably still is a part of Valve itself. This is a setup many companies use - I've worked for multiple IT related companies who do precisely this. It saves money, in the long run quite large sums of money, and saves your own support maybe anywhere from 30 - 50% tickets, as most tickets are stupid, small problems fixed by simple user action, which almost anyone with a week-long course can instruct people to do.
The evidence for this comes in the fact that again, there seems to be no default protocol they take for tickets, the general haphazardness of responses I've read, and how many of these kinds of useless copy-pasted responses I've seen in ticket woes I've read about. I've even recognised bits and parts of copy-pasta replies they use, in other copy-pasted replies I've read, like some Frankenstein's monster of a reply.
Bottom line - when there's an actual human reading a ticket like this, which clearly is entirely an issue on your DB's end, (an issue activating an inventory item [stored in your DB] which gives a default Steam error message [where you can check to see what the users' library actually contains in, again, your DB; and thus identify the reason for the error]) and can in no way be related to the users' PC, a reply like this means 1 thing - bad (usually underpaid and underskilled thus often lazy and careless) support.
Comment has been collapsed.
I entirely understand that in this case that the OP is being misunderstood or is being asked for superfluous information. However, the point I was trying to get across was that while there is room for improvement (the length of time taken for a response, and, as you pointed out, increasing uniformity among first responses) some of his complaints may be a result of refusing to go through the process.
As you and I both agree I believe, the process is there for a reason. It gathers hopefully all the information a tech might need, weeds out small (easily solvable) or stupid (the customer is not always right) tickets, and saves the company money. It may not be the best thing for the individual, especially an individual who knows what he is talking about, but the processes serve a purpose in the larger picture.
Comment has been collapsed.
Copy/pasting really makes your life a lot easier though when you deal with the same dozen issues over and over and over.
Ask me how I know :)
Sorry to everyone here that doesn't get a personalized message, but we're able to close a lot more tickets that way!
Comment has been collapsed.
The problem isn't the copying and pasting (which I also use for answering questions I'm constantly asked at my job), but that the copying and pasting that Steam Support does is so often entirely irrelevant to the question. The problem is that they don't read the question (or have difficulty reading English sentences.)
Comment has been collapsed.
That's my problem indeed. Took some time? Too bad, but finally they should give a proper answer. Customer got angry and wasn't polite? Okay, but still, where's the relevant answer?
Comment has been collapsed.
Copy-paste is even easier when you don't deal with the issue, and thus keep getting the same support tickets week after week.
Which, unfortunately, also seems to be a too standard Steam response to an issue, ignoring it. I've run into issues that turned out to have been known/experienced by users for months or even years.
Comment has been collapsed.
support? steam have so-called "support"? hell no
maybe gaben love bots
Comment has been collapsed.
"I bought a region locked DLC for a US version of the game and all I would like to know is whether it is possible to receive a refund. Already got the working DLC, so there is no need for changing my game version." - There's your problem. You told him that the situation was resolved and now you're just stuck with an extra item that you wanted refunded. The rest was just ranting on the end note that "no matter what you do, you have lost a customer." Ergo closed ticket. I'm sure you'll ponder this deeply as you purchase more Steam games while continuing to hold your grudge.
Comment has been collapsed.
Well, partially you are right, I got pissed of because of being treated like some copypaste mass instead of being treated like a live person and a customer, but still, the refund question was up to date.
Furthermore, didn't expect to receive the refund after telling the guy off. My point is: even if I wasn't a polite customer, the guy should at least provide me with a reasonable answer, not just close the ticket after pasting 2 random irrelevant responses. "+1, another ticket solved, though I didn't do shit." It's his goddamn job, isn't it?
Comment has been collapsed.
Rules for running a business today:
LOL.....
Comment has been collapsed.
Having been a manager in a retail setting it has been my experience that at least 90% of the time the customer is very wrong, and if I had simply accepted that worn out "the customer is always right" mantra I would have lost quite a lot of money.
Comment has been collapsed.
I agree what you said. But I mean that support didn't even read a customer's ticket and presume if a customer has a problem then the problem is on the customer's end, copy & paste irrelevant answers impatiently, ignores how long the customer had been waiting for and how patient the customer already are, this kind of behavior even becomes the norm and allowed by many companies today. There's something wrong with these companies.
Comment has been collapsed.
you should just provide the screenshot OP, I think that's the problem. Patience and being cool headed is always the best way, but you raged on them immediately.
I haven't experience anything bad from steam support yet. Anything where money is involved, they are generally fast in my experience. The longest answer I've had is 3 business days and it was a purchase query for don't starve if I will get 2 copies if I buy another one even though I already own it.
Remember "business days"
Comment has been collapsed.
There were four business days until I sent the first not-so-polite message and it still wasn't much of a rage. My problem is not the lack of refund, but lack of relevant response. I waited so much time and didn't receive anything rational, that's what irritated me.
Comment has been collapsed.
Never had a problem with steam support. Granted there was a long wait time but that sorta comes with the territory of being a huge company. The person was nice in their responses and I just needed to do a little cajoling to get a refund on a preorder.
Comment has been collapsed.
Ah yes steam support. I submitted a ticket and after a month be for sending a conformation message I get sent to some customer support site that doesnt exist anymore. I sent a few more messages but steam support A****d didnt give a shit and closed the ticket and nothing since.
Comment has been collapsed.
Well from what I have seen with my tickets and these they dont care none of it is related they just copy the pre set message and then dont respond and close tickets. I gave up on them a long time ago.
Comment has been collapsed.
Yeah because its a good idea to pay employees to close tickets without helping...
Sorry,to me its just seems like the problem was not Steam related and you didnt follow their instructions. I never had a problem with them and yeah ofc you usually start with copy and paste messages just to make sure the problem isnt one of the standard errors.
Comment has been collapsed.
Umm ok im glad you havent had any problems. I have and thats why I posted sorry if it doesnt seem right to you, I cant really do anything about that. And before i submit anything i do look up related topics and anything that my help me so i dont have to waste their time or at least them wasting mine.
Comment has been collapsed.
So you did something stupid, then hoped steam would fix it for you, but instead of doing what the tech asks of you, you be a sarcastic jackass, and now complain that their service sucks? Also you cry about 5 days with no response from a business that has around 3 million users? I am sure there are hundreds if not thousands or tens of thousands of support tickets ahead of you, and they clearly aren't using bots otherwise as soon as you sent your ticket you would get an email telling you "thank you for your support ticket, we will get to it as soon as possible, estimated wait time, blah blah blah"
It makes me sick how people think just because they are a customer of a business they can talk down to and insult their employees because they don't get what they want when they want. Businesses are large, complicated, and busy, so speak plainly, simply, politely, and do what they ask and your problem will be addressed.
Comment has been collapsed.
Well, a friend of mine gifted me a New Vegas key. Wanted to buy a DLC, had no idea the game was region locked. This is indeed VERY VERY STUPID and I should be ashamed to ask Steam for help.
Agreed with the sarcastic part, didn't expect them to kiss my hands and get on their knees, but they should at least respond in a relevant ways after THREE WEEKS, don't you think?
Comment has been collapsed.
lol steam support is bot automated msg.
i have problem whit my steam account it las locked.
part of my msg
Account is locked and not allowed to perform this action.
steam support
Your account may be locked due to the reversal, if this happens please reply to this ticket and we will resolve the issue.
Thank you again for your patience.
i wrote that my account was locked and then they write. Your account may be locked due to the reversal
Comment has been collapsed.
Well, 50 Million "active user accounts" but that's not necessarily 50 million users. It's like EA claiming 40 million Origin users when it's simply 40 million Origin accounts (I had three separate EA accounts all converted to separate Origin accounts, only one of which I use). They don't take into account users with multiple accounts.
People do seem to just see the concurrent user stat as the total number of users instead of realising it's just the peak number of users online at once in a 48 hour period.
Comment has been collapsed.
this is one of the many reasons why i still don't understand why people blindly love steam and hate origin.
Comment has been collapsed.
EA pulls the same crap mate. Customer service in general is all located in india in my experience and they are FORCED to read from a script. Really, they have these flow charts sitting right next to their desk that they are unable to deviate from, even if they KNOW they could and be done with the problem. Its sad really.
Comment has been collapsed.
Yea and? they atleast help you... i buyed a copy of Battlefield 3 and it was not able to redeem in the "Redeem box" so i sended them the problem and woala i got the answer after 3 hours saying what i needed to do and hey it worked... it also happened for me on steam... got a answer 1 month later with the same text as this guy got so yea Origin is better
Comment has been collapsed.
Ive had quite the inverse experience with EA trying to get answer about their DRM and the implications about certain older games being tied to my account. I find live chat to be "more" helpful, but still rather pathetic. As with any support service, it depends on who you get, time of day, and so on. Ive only contacted steam once and I was left rather neutral. Across the board though, whenever I contact a support service I typically get a copy+paste response.
Also,
Buyed=bought
Sended=sent
Periods are your friend, ellipses (...) are not.
Comment has been collapsed.
never said origin was better per se .. just that they were both basically the same thing. but any time i say that 10 people will jump down my throat defending steam. for every reason people say they hate origin, steam does the same thing.
Comment has been collapsed.
Well, steam has been around longer and has built up quite the amount of positive vibes just because of the additional service tied to their DRM, sales, games they made/published. Not to mention the charismatic Newell I dont dig the fetish but whatever floats your boat. Personally, if other services had the same prices/availability and my collection wasnt already tied to steam, Id have no trouble going another route.
But yes, everything has pros and cons and fanaticism is seldom, if ever, enjoyed outside its own boarders.
Comment has been collapsed.
I feel you on that man. In 2009 my account was hacked. I contacted support and a gave proof it was my account. Took them from March to September to give it back to me. I was so freaking pissed...
Comment has been collapsed.
Yeah, you need to compose yourself better to support, but really, their copy and paste system sucks, because they skim and then send you what they think is relevant, even though it doesnt apply at all. First email they should at least comprehend the issue.
Comment has been collapsed.
Holy crap, finally a thread where complaining about Steam's terrible customer service won't get you drowned in a sea of sycophantic fanboy drool!
I've played the runaround game with Steam's CS so often that I now follow a specific checklist each time I need to contact them:
This is why I no longer buy games directly from Steam. Their customer service is second only to Ubisoft's in its boneheadedness.
Comment has been collapsed.
Obviously someone did read the ticket, otherwise you're dealing with one hell of a smart bot.
Steam support take a long time to respond for some reason, I'm not sure if they're busy or just thorough in their responses. It's not like they gain anything from being lazy.
Comment has been collapsed.
With any business, every customer has to be valued. As soon as one bad customer starts spreading the news about how lazy Steam support is, Steam will lose 10 more customers. Or at least, ridiculous rumours about how terrible their service is, will start to spread. It does more damage than you think, I'm sure of it.
Comment has been collapsed.
It's not laziness I am pretty sure, because they want you to keep buying games from them instead of go to the competitor. I think it's more due the fact that there are to many tickets in which the amount of employees at service can't handle. Ofc they won't tell you this..
Comment has been collapsed.
Buy steam games... not. Very simple solution to any potential problem.
Comment has been collapsed.
I feel your pain. I have been trying to get Titan Quest and Warhammer Dawn of War (from THQ bundle) working since December. I have been going around in circles with the same support guy. He only decided to help me a week ago when I was blunt with him, after about 16 emails of him asking for screenshots and telling me to contact Humble Bundle support (when the problem is with the game not launching on Steam).
Comment has been collapsed.
72 Comments - Last post 20 seconds ago by rufioh
19 Comments - Last post 36 minutes ago by hallak65
858 Comments - Last post 47 minutes ago by sensualshakti
502 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by Zumax
82 Comments - Last post 5 hours ago by AkulahArjuna
212 Comments - Last post 7 hours ago by DVDVD
372 Comments - Last post 7 hours ago by CeleryMan727
2,713 Comments - Last post 1 second ago by Chris76de
2 Comments - Last post 48 seconds ago by Swordoffury
70 Comments - Last post 1 minute ago by reigifts
28 Comments - Last post 9 minutes ago by Frijo
15,157 Comments - Last post 20 minutes ago by cpj128
43 Comments - Last post 33 minutes ago by Myrsan
641 Comments - Last post 46 minutes ago by FoxMulder
Long story short, sometime ago I bought a game DLC, but unfortunately I wasn't aware my version wasn't compatible with the DLC. Therefore I got pretty pissed of, because I spent money and ended up with a useless item in my inventory. After googling, I found out that there was a solution: write a ticket to the Steam support. Some people said that refunds aren't provided in general, but Steam support sometimes makes a one-time exception. Other guys said that you can get your game version changed after asking the support. Therefore I made a ticket, here goes:
Greetings,
I am writing in order to ask about a problem with a DLC for Fallout: New Vegas. I already own the base game and 3 DLCs and today I bought another one - Honest Hearts. While trying to redeem the DLC in my equipment, I found myself unable to do this, the error message was: This item requires you own the base game "Fallout: New Vegas" before it can be added to your library.
Is there a possible solution to the problem? I paid for the DLC which I am unable to use, therefore it's not really well spent money, frankly speaking. Thus, if it is impossible to make the DLC compatible with my game, could I receive a refund?
Regards,
[my name]
I was aware that I wouldnt receive a response immediately, so I thought that I would have to wait a day or two, as usually it takes up to 48 hours to get an answer. There was no answer though, so after a few days I got pissed and wrote another message. Not as politely as I did earlier, but still...
5 days and still no response? Patience is one thing, but this is simple ignoring your customers. Guess I have to ask some friend from USA to buy me the 2 DLCs I still don't own, but this will be the last time I'm spending money.
Thank you for nothing.
Finally, after almost 2 weeks I got a response.
Hello,
Thank you for contacting Steam Support.
Please describe the issue you are experiencing in more detail.
Also, provide a screenshot of any error(s) you are seeing.
Then, follow the instructions linked below to provide a diagnostic report for your system.
For a PC:
Title: Saving a Screenshot on a PC
Link: http://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9943-WOLN-6452
Title: How to run and submit MSINFO32 Info reports
URL: http://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1376-WTZN-9132
Note: Please make sure your operating system is updated fully before running the report.
http://update.microsoft.com/
For a Mac:
Title: Saving a Screenshot on a Mac
Link: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4545-SDXV-0334
Title: System Profiler Reports
Link: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4840-QWJX-0408
Note: Please make sure your operating system is updated fully before running the report.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1244-WEJN-0804
All I got was a goddamn copypaste message, the guy didn't even bother to read my ticked and just sent an automated response. I got pretty pissed. Sending some system reports has nothing to do with DLC compatibility problems. Still, hoping that the refund could be granted, I sent another message.
Wow, it took you so much time to send me an automated response? Yeah, I bet updating my operating system will make the DLC magically change its version and resolve the compatibility issues. Is this a joke?
After 4 days, yeah, was REALLY quick this time, there's another one from our beloved mr Support Tech Jace:
*Message by Support Tech Jace on Sun, 10th Feb 2013 2:15 pm
Hello,
Please submit an msinfo from your PC.
If you have any further questions, please let us know - we will be happy to assist you.
WHAT. THE. HELL. Is this guy a bot or just plain ignorant? This had nothing to do with my problem. I got very very pissed and decided to send the bot his msinfo-whatever.
First of all, I already bought the missing DLC, actually I traded with a friend from the US, because I knew it would take ages to receive a response from you.
Secondly, why are you asking me for this msinfo? Have you read my ticket at all? Or is this another automated copypaste response? It has nothing to do with the problem, as I've already diagnosed it 100 % accurately - I bought a region locked DLC for a US version of the game and all I would like to know is whether it is possible to receive a refund. Already got the working DLC, so there is no need for changing my game version.
Finally, I'm attaching this msinfo file, knowing that it has nothing to do with the problem. This has only assured me that you haven't read my ticket and that not only does it take ages to receive a simple response from you, but also that you treat your customers like idiots. I've already given you a proper diagnose and after two weeks there is still no solution, but useless questions that lead nowhere.
I'm very disappointed and now I'm sure this was the last time I've ever spent money buying Steam games.
No response for two weeks, was checking my mail frequently, so I decided to write another ticket and basically tell the guy off. After logging into my Steam support acc, all I saw was: TICKET CLOSED. Christ, this guy is being paid money for such shitty work? Can't believe it.
TL;DR: Steam support is disappointing as hell. Full of bots that can only send copypaste answers and don't even bother to read tickets.
Comment has been collapsed.