Steam has the worst customer service

Been really mad about my recent communication with steam over the past few months. They just never seem to want to help me.

Please just help me one time. Long term custromer.

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1 Message by you on Wed, 2nd Jul 2014 4:03 am

I have spent over $2500 on my steam account and i have been using steam since i was a little kid. I owned steam back when it just supported counter strike and half life..I have never asked you for help before. I find it very disrespectful that you constantly respond to me with the same statement "That is against the terms of service"..

Here is my problem.

I have purchased 460 games on steam without any issues before. And only this one single time i have i made an honest mistake. I purchased arma 3 without realizing that my steam client was signed into a friends account logged into my computer. It was an honest mistake that i laughed off at first because i was sure that steam customer support would help me. you can even see that the purchase made on that account was from my own credit card. My friend has also sent steam a customer service ticket to confirm that it really was a mistake. You can even see on his account that he has not installed the game or played it for a single minute.

Now i can't even play the game i paid for.

Please just help me for once. It was an honest mistake. This is my third support ticket regarding this issue, Please do not force me to send any more future emails.

My primary account name is ****** password ********* and i paid $60 for arma3. I would like to play it on my primary account. The account i accidentally purchased arma3 on is ********* and he will confirm it was a mistake, you can see he has not even played it for a single minute.

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2 Message by you on Mon, 7th Jul 2014 9:52 pm

Please just help me just this once, this is my first time out of nearly 500 steam game purchases that i made an honest mistake.

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3 Message by Support Tech Dru on Wed, 9th Jul 2014 9:05 am

Hello Daniel,

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

We apologize for the delay.

While games cannot be moved between accounts and accounts cannot be merged, Steam’s Family Library Sharing allows family members and their guests to share access to their games. This feature can also be used to access your own games which were purchased or activated on a different Steam account. Please click the link below for more details on how Family Sharing works:

Family Library Sharing User Guide

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3784-QLBM-5731Note: If you are VAC banned, you will be unable to share any VAC protected games.

If you have any further questions, please let us know - we will be happy to assist you.

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5 Message by you on Wed, 9th Jul 2014 10:28 pm

I have never used sharing service and i do not plan to share my own game with myself.

I paid for the game arma3. You can even see on the account in question that i purchased arma3 with the same payment method as the payment method i have used for my 450+ steam games.

And you say cant switch games between accounts? One time i called origin (They actually have a phone number with real people on the other line) and i had a similar issue with crysis2 being redeemed to a wrong account. Guess what they did for me? They added an ADDITIONAL crysis2 copy to my other account without even removing the old one. They went above and beyond the call of duty to satisfy a loyal customers needs.

What have you ever done for me? Nothing. I've literally spend thousands of dollars.

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6 Message by Support Tech Dru on Fri, 11th Jul 2014 8:00 am

Hello Daniel,

Steam Support has provided you with all of the relevant information regarding this issue. You can log into your account at support.steampowered.com to review your Steam Support tickets.

You will receive no further correspondence regarding this matter.

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7 Message by you on Sun, 20th Jul 2014 3:04 pm

Do you see what you are making your customers do? Do you think i enjoy writing these e-mails to you on my day off?

"You will receive no further correspondence regarding this matter" Who says that to a customer? Wow.

I have been using steam since you could download custom interface skins for it, back when the only games were half life and counterstrike. I own a shirt with a steam logo on it that i would wear every day to school. I am 24 now. I still have the shirt.

How many thousands of dollars do i have to spend before you help me once? You have never helped me before.

You are suggesting that i enable family sharing? That is the most unprofessional and insulting thing i have ever heard.

As a software developer myself i am well aware that you have the capabilities of correcting this situation in a number of ways.. Please make this right

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This question is closed, to reply you need to reopen the question.

Sucks for you but can you see that from their point of view you are just trying to scam a free copy?

Maybe they've had this issue with people before. I'm NOT saying you are scamming but you can see how it looks.

How? My friend even sent them an email confirming that it was a mistake. He has played the game zero minutes. If they look they can see the purchase was made with MY credit card.

How am i scamming a free game that i paid 60 dollars for? All i am asking is that they remove it from the wrong account and put it on the correct one.

yeah it looks like that, not saying he his trying to scam another copy but I can see why Steam would think that. I dont understand why they cant de-activate one game on one account (with the permission of that account holder which the OP has) and enable it on another.

Its either lazyness why they cant, or a complicated technical reason I probably wouldn't understand

Yeah but i am very long term customer that has never asked for help before. I just feel insulted by steam

I would too, It does seem there being a bit pissy

it's probably harder for them than you think, you owning that much games has nothing do to with it.

It's like asking my power provider to give me some free power because i let the heating on in the winter with the windows open while I was on travel.

If they had to do it for everyone, this would cost way to much money, this is still a business.Not to mention people would find loopholes to get free stuff.

WELCOME TO REALITY

And you thought they would just fix that for you because you have 400+ games and.. a steam t-shirt, the irony lol. The comment about wearing the steam t-shirt to shool is just priceless.

That's not reality. If this was a company like amazon they would fix things right up. Steam has horrible support and service quality. I've had steam go down several times when playing AOM EE and everyone playing gets booted in the middle of the game and everyone loses elo. It goes down every Tuesday... lol

I just would like to play the game i spent 60 dollars on, I don't usually spend 60 dollars on video games and that is a pretty big deal for me to do that

i really don't care about steams business practices, history, or morals. And i really couldn't care less about them losing money.

Its called "customer service" to service customers. Not "profit defense squad"

They can't move games from one account to another. They pay for CD keys which are tied to whatever account redeems them. You're asking them to take a $60 hit for your mistake. Yes it sucks but let it be a hard lesson learned. Once in a while they will give a one time refund if you explain and ask nicely but it's rare.

Man you guys sound just as thick headed as the steam customer service reps.

I know you guys are SO concerned about steam having to break into their billions of profit dollars to make things right. But there are ways they could have resolved this without losing anything.

One thing steam has the power to do (i have seen it done multiple times before) is release the game from the players game list and transfer it to their "inventory" which it can then be traded.

Steam is not like wal-mart or bestbuy who has to submit an "annual product loss" sheet marking down all the products that were lost due to accidents, misplacement, or theft. Steam is the guy in charge or everything. They have complete 100% control over digital distribution. They simply provide the developers the money they made. In fact, steam is not even legally obligated to inform the developers of how many copies they have sold (but they usually do anyways)

So if steam can deem that a product is deemed worthy of being replaced, they have full jurisdiction to do that without even needing the developers consent. Steam is the boss.

And even if they did have to pay money out of their pocket would that be so outrageous? The customer is supposed to always be right and they would lose a lot more than 60 dollars if they lost me as a customer

Thanks for your support guys, i am so glad you would rather see me out 60 dollars than steam

blog it. dont let the door hit you on the way out.

So in other words you expect Steam to pay for your mistake. Do you not see how ridiculous that is? Steam doesn't owe you anything. They gave you exactly what you asked for, it's your mistake that caused this and they don't have any obligation to fix your screw up. Sure it would be great if they would help out, but it's not like they're doing something outrageous here. Sure I'm not a big fan of steam support, but I've seen much better cases of poor steam support than this one. Stop being so entitled and just move on.

"I have purchased 460 games on steam without any issues before. And only this one single time i have i made an honest mistake. I purchased arma 3 without realizing that my steam client was signed into a friends account logged into my computer."

Yeah, you can forget about that.

Do you know how many mails they get like that? tons

Best thing to do is to ask your friend a favor and he'll gift you a copy of the game.

You should have gone down the refund route as in some very rare cases, they will give you a refund, which is a one time only affair. It does take some serious convincing though. I experienced this myself a few years back with Ghost Recon.

Family sharing is actually pretty fucking badass m8! I recently hooked up my little bro's 2 accounts through family sharing and it's like Christmas. Before I had 200 games but now I have over 500 :)

And all the achievements are account locked so that's a bonus. Too bad I can't get double the cards eh.

What little sympathy I had is gone. Now you just sound like a whining, entitled prat. Get over yourself; you're not special.

Ha you pay 60 bucks for a game and we will see how much you cry.

I can't believe you guys side with a commercial multi billion dollar corporation than a fellow gamer.

You guys would be perfect steam customer service agents, you are exactly the type of people they are looking for.

And i am special, i am the main character in this life thing so **** you

It doesn't matter how much money a company has, it's your mistake so deal with it.

They have policy against scams and I'm sorry to say but this sounds like a scam, now why would you even have your friends' login information? they clearly state many times that you DO NOT share that kind of info, so in other case this is also your and your friends' mistake.

I had Steam transfer Half Life 2 (retail copy) from my old account to my new one. They asked for a digital photo of the receipt and activation key. Once they received it, they went through with the transfer. They also deleted my old account after I requested them to do so.

In my case, they're okay.

From Valve's point of view you have too see that aspect to them it can be a scam. Even with him contacting them, go the refund route and if they dont refund your credit.... share the damn game , you realize that sheer amount of people using steam they cant always help everyone, nor do it in a timely fashion.

How can it be a scam you idiots.

1. The game was purchased with my credit card information

2. My friend even submitted a customer support ticket FROM HIS ACCOUNT, CONFIRMING that it really was a mistake.

3. The game has ZERO minutes played on his account.

4. I am asking that they remove the game from him account and put it on mine

WHERE DO ANY OF YOU IDIOTS SEE SOMEONE GETTING A FREE COPY OF ARMA3??

You guys don't need to provide reasoning why steam should or should not think something is a scam or not. Because even if steam knew my inquiries were 100% genuine. THEY STILL WOULD NOT HELP ANYWAYS. They have the worst customer service which is the moral of the story, just look at steam customer support ratings, its a 2/10

Thats your problem right there transferring the game from his account to your account. just skip that whole thought process and ask for a refund through his account with your card info. And again your not seeing the aspect of it looking like a possible scam....

Finally someone with advice to help me out rather than tell me how i should be better at life

You must of missed my earlier post and a few others posts actually telling to refund and or just share the game.

Yeah like you guys have never cried alone in your bed over a game before.. please

ROFL HAHAHAHAHA IN UR FACE OP!!!!! I HOPE UR ENJOY UR FRIENDS GAME! AND IN UR FACE!

No... No, can't say that I have. I didn't think adults did such things.

@dannydopamine8: Get it?

Well this was an amusing thread. I'm surprised you didn't think of either trying to get a refund, or just having your friend purchase you a copy of the game so you can play together. That would be the way to do it. Now you know. Other than that simple suggestion, there is absolutely nothing else we can do but tease. :P Hope you get your money back and the game on the right account either way!

That....was quite lame. Even for a troll post.

I was a regular on the Steam forums for years, and...they don't move games between accounts. It just doesn't happen.
Maybe they don't do it because it'd be too prone to scamming, or it'd be a nightmare to keep track of, or there are licensing issues, or that function simply doesn't exist in their bag of support tools.Who knows. But they don't (and if they did for Half-Life, as someone suggested, then that would be a unique thing for their own flagship title).

So...you should have just asked for a refund. If the game hasn't been played and it was an honest mistake, then they *might* be able to fix it.

Also, does your 'friend' actually exist? From the way you talked about wanting to play it on your main account, it sounds like you simply bought the game on one of your alts. That also seems a lot more likely than someone else logging into your PC. If so...why not just chalk it up to bad luck, and play it on that account?

@Planeforger: No i do not have any friends, i accidentally purchased arma3 while steam was logged into one of my alt accounts that i NEVER use. And it pisses me off that i have to switch back and fourth between the two accounts to play arma3. But the friend story conjures up more sympathy and understanding.

Regardless of which story i went with steam would have denied to help me regardless. So moral of the story is that steam customer support sucks ass.

And you guys suck a little bit too

Wow, you are exceptionally stupid. I'd like to go all ad hominem on you, but I doubt you'd understand any of my words considering how blatantly dumb you are.

Steam stopped doing the sort of thing you're asking years ago, after the who fiasco with used game sales. I was even a victim of this myself. I purchased Sin: Episodes at a used game shop without realizing it was a Steam game. Eventually I was able to get the game by way of taking pictures of the receipt, game box, game code, and my ID, whereby they killed the game off the seller's account and gave it to me.

But they sent out a press release years ago saying they weren't doing this any longer because of scams. You obviously aren't scamming, you're just an idiot. Steam doesn't know that. It's called a zero-tolerance policy; there are no exceptions. Whine and bitch all you want, you aren't going to win this argument. Any by the way, e-shouting at people mocking your stupidity only confirms how retarded you actually are. Your only chance to win this was to submit a refund request, but you fucked that up by being a little whiny asshole. While you're busy crying via SMS to your mother, why don't you stop posting itt before you run out of tears.

Your icon pic is a man in womans clothing tho, and you are right, i do not know what a hominem is and frankly i am glad that i don't out of fear it may result in some sort of transgender complications that i am not prepared for

Imagine you wanted to sell your car and some asshole prick walks out of the woods and says "oh sorry no you can't sell your car because its against our policy" And you turn to him and and say im sorry who the **** are you again? That is steam in a nutshell for you.

Steam used to be a fair service that was OPTIONAL. And you could launch your games with and without it. You were also allowed to sell your games regardless.

But steam got cocky and powerful and gained their power by fuckwads like you who just blindly accepted their polciies and spread your cheeks for steam to come along and **** you relentlessly.

Now we need to write them letters signed in blood just to gain acess to what is rightfully ours.

And even today you guys are defending them saying they can't move games among different accounts because its something that they JUST DONT DO.

Cool so next time a cop tries to pull me over im just going to say "Sorry officer pulling over is something that i JUST DONT DO" and just step on the gas pedal until i plow full speed through a guardrail of a fucking cliff

Why would you say you bought it on a friends account when it was an alt account? Steam would likely know it's an alt account based on IP access for that account. They are probably scratching their heads wondering why he wants it moved from his own account. Can't you just log into the other account and play it?

I didn't lie to steam support, i lied to you guys. I wrote "my alt" to steam customer service but replace it with "friend" for you guys..

But i knew if i wrote "i bought the game when i was accidentally logged into my alt" than nobody here would feel bad for me and give me thumbs up and cry with me and stuff. Friend story just sounded more sensible.

Kinda like when you go to the doctor and you are like "Hey doctor, a close friend of mine has erectile dysfunction".. Just don't want to be embarrased

But besides that i said friend or alternate account steam still refused to help me out regardless. So the fact that i am full of shit doesn't change the fact that steam sucks balls.

You could always ask your friend to pay you the amount of the game. problem solved.

*cough* Read up a bit. :P

My avatar is Russell Brand shopped onto Katy Perry, but I assume along with a lack of brains you also lack eyes. Not shocking.

And I also assume at this point you're trolling. I'd give it a 5/10 because you made me respond. If you aren't trolling, I'd suggest driving your mom's car into concrete wall at 200mph, because that's the only way you're going to solve your intelligence deficiencies.

Steam is a billion-dollar company. They have things called "policies," and no matter how idiotic their customers are, they aren't going to change them. Having alt accounts is stupid anyway and I'm certain you're only using it to farm items or troll, in which case you deserve to lose both accounts. BRB, sending a nice email to Steam.

lol 24 Years i have been awesome and the senseless ramblings of some stranger is not going to change that.

But If you feel the need to let strangers over the internet know that you are superior to them than i WILL say a prayer for you. That must be a terrible ailment to live with and my heart goes out to you. Perhaps one day you can find self-confidence in ways other than bad-mouthing those you suspect are inferior to you.

Perhaps you are smarter than me, perhaps not. But that is no business of mine young grasshopper. And will not alter the tides of virtue

I could just as easily say "No you are stupid" but i have never met you before so i wouldn't dare to come to such a conclusion.

you dumb asshole

This was you're mistake, why let friends log into there steam account on your computer? What exactly do you expect steam to do for something that was clearly you're fault? It was you're mistake, period.

Amazon has sent me another copy of things if they arrive messed up or something is broken, AKA they made the mistake or if it was messedup while in delivery, but not if I made some mistake like buying some digital movies or games and by mistake did it while my friend was logged in with his account.

Sucks but sometimes you just gotta learn from you're mistakes (Don't let friends log in to there steam while on your comp and if you do then MAKE SURE they log out after using it).

Steam truly does have horrible customer support. I mean, Amazon gave me a FULL refund on my 780ti after it broke six months after I purchased it. Technically it was outside the return window but they did it anyway. Steam has never helped me with any ticket I've ever sent them.

Well now that you lied to us I've got no sympathy for you.

Steam has excellent customer service, you just have to communicate with them as a patient adult and not "GIME MUH FREI SHYT I PAYD FER." Saying please and thank you would help, as would not acting like an ignorant dickbag. My account got jacked and I got it back less than eight hours later. 10/10 will continue to support an amazing company.

Aww fiddlesticks, now you done got me tearin up

It wasn't a lie, it was my alt account, which was my friend.. Cuz i have schizofrenia. My real name is dan, but i log into my alt account when i am steve

Plus it makes no difference to the main point, steam still would still refuse to help me

And RUSSEL BRAND photoshopepd onto katy peryy?? Hahahha wait till steve hears about this