Without wanting to depress you, Steam support is shockingly bad. You'll need to chase them up if you want to have any chance of getting your account back.
I disagree. Steam Support has always been helpful when I've contacted them (except in one case, when I asked for an explanation of the change in currency effectively making it more expensive). I got my account back as soon as they replied, all I had to do was provide proof it was mine.
You are the only person I have ever met who has said anything positive about steam support. It's got to be one of the most hated support networks in the world, up there with the likes of Comcast. Seriously, they're infamous for:
- stalling for weeks
- outright not responding
- refusing to answer your issue but stopping you from opening another ticket on the matter
- sending generic responses
- generally not giving you more than the bare minimum of help.
Account theft is the only thing they seem to take even remotely seriously and even then they have a pretty dire track record.
It's not nearly as bad as some will have it to be. It could be 10x worse than it is now and still way better than EA.
http://i.imgur.com/d19xUrS.png
"Better than EA" isn't really a compliment is it? The fact that Steam support is actually competing with them in terms of sheer shittiness should tell you all you need to know
It's a compliment if you take into consideration the amount of people employed by the two companies - EA have about 9000, Valve have 3-400.
"Sorry you're having to eat ****, but at least it's not rotten intenstines!" Yay?
Valve make immense profits from Steam, they could easily afford to have a helpful and communicative support team if they wished. They don't, and it's by far the company's biggest problem.
@Andras: glad to see they finally responded. Hope you get everything back ok!
If you want you can sign the online petition to influence Valve to improve their Support team. That would bring the number up to a whopping 481, and only 39,519 more needed!
Yep, let's just ignore the critical and public backlash against steam support because there's a worthless e-petition with a few signatures and you have one anecdotal piece of evidence where they fulfilled their purpose to the bare minimum standard required. It's not like Valve's system of decentralised job roles and limited employees really doesn't work when it comes to supporting the biggest digital games distribution in the world is it?
Seriously, you are still the ONLY person I have ever met that has said their support is good, and I'm yet to see any argument as to why that is bar a single piece of personal evidence.
It's worth pointing out that I love Valve and think that they're one of the best companies in this industry. Doesn't change the fact that their support has been consistently terrible since Steam's inception though.
Critical and public backlash? You mean the occasional picture posted on imgur about how terrible it is, and ragethreads on reddit from people who have gone a full day without a reply?
Furthermore, I've never said "Steam Support is good", I only said that they've been helpful the times I've had to deal with them. If you want to move into strawman arguments, I'm gonna pass on the opportunity to return the favour.
As for anecdotal evidence, that's exactly what you're referring to yourself.
I'm actually the only one who's brought any statistics into the debate, in the form of a failed petition. 480 people signed that petition. Steam has over 75 million users.
How bad can their Support really be when the only thing people seem to want to do about it, is rage on forums? It's obviously not bad enough for them to actually start even a minor online movement.
There's a number of fairly huge logical leaps in that statement. You're assuming that people will react with activism when they see something they don't like. You're assuming that the lack of any voice, positive or negative, from the majority of the userbase implies contentedness. You're assuming that there is any kind of reasonable alternative to Steam that people could join.And just for the record, I'm not saying Steam Support is perfect, excellent or even good. I'm just saying it's obviously not as bad as some people claim it is. If it were, I would imagine at least a fraction of those 75 million users would revolt.
Weird though, how this "general consensus" hasn't amounted to anything. And no, your example shouldn't give a fairly broad spectrum, it should bring the narrow spectrum of the people feeling inclined to even reply. Why do you think you don't see people posting anything about their positive experiences with Steam Support, or any other support team for that matter, except the odd one who somehow bewildered himself to into a bashthread? Spoiler: It's the same reason you see tons of threads here or on sigames about people complaining about injuries and bugs, and very rarely see a thread called "I haven't encountered any bugs and my training regime is proving really successful".I mean the general consensus from people and the numerous times it's been covered in articles over the years. I remember people bringing it up in pieces when the Steam machine was announced for example. There's a very simple way to settle this though: we'll take the 10 major games forums and split them in half, then each post 1 topic in each, asking what people think of Steam support. Should give a fairly broad spectrum of opinion.
My exact words: "Steam Support has always been helpful when I've contacted them" and "It's not nearly as bad as some will have it to be". Very far from "their support is good", which you argued I claimed.You did deny that they were bad though, and again you're the only person I've ever seen do that.
A pattern derived from anecdotes is still just a pattern of said anecdotes. Doesn't prove anything.Yes, except I could easily compile enough anecdotal evidence to indicate a pattern, whilst I doubt you could pull together even a third of that.
Did you ever stop to wonder why you haven't heard of it?A petition I had never heard of, and one that you no doubt hadn't heard of before this either. I could pull any number of underexposed petitions from the internet and use them as "statistics" but it's flimsy at best.
Really?How bad can corruption really be in when the only thing people seem to want to do about it, is rage on forums? It's obviously not bad enough for them to actually start even a minor online movement.
Not "when they see something they don't like". That statement could describe anything and is far too vague. We're talking about a specific here, that is very easy to identify, is based on online activity to begin with, and already brings people together (through the Steam community). I'm also not assuming it implies contendedness, I'm merely stating it implies not enough discontendedness to actively battle it. As for reasonable alternatives to Steam, I don't see the relevance due to the fact that if it were so bad, one could work towards improving it. It's like when the stereotypical americans of South Park say "if you don't like it, you can get out", when the whole point is that if there's **** on your doorstep, you try to clean it up - you don't start looking for a new house.There's a number of fairly huge logical leaps in that statement. You're assuming that people will react with activism when they see something they don't like. You're assuming that the lack of any voice, positive or negative, from the majority of the userbase implies contentedness. You're assuming that there is any kind of reasonable alternative to Steam that people could join.
Weird though, how this "general consensus" hasn't amounted to anything.
And no, your example shouldn't give a fairly broad spectrum, it should bring the narrow spectrum of the people feeling inclined to even reply.
Why do you think you don't see people posting anything about their positive experiences with Steam Support, or any other support team for that matter, except the odd one who somehow bewildered himself to into a bashthread? Spoiler: It's the same reason you see tons of threads here or on sigames about people complaining about injuries and bugs, and very rarely see a thread called "I haven't encountered any bugs and my training regime is proving really successful".
My exact words: "Steam Support has always been helpful when I've contacted them" and "It's not nearly as bad as some will have it to be". Very far from "their support is good", which you argued I claimed.
A pattern derived from anecdotes is still just a pattern of said anecdotes. Doesn't prove anything.
Did you ever stop to wonder why you haven't heard of it?
Really?
Million Voices Against Corruption, President Chen Must Go - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2011 Indian anti-corruption movement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Over 10,000 Hungarians in anti-corruption protest
Pressenza - Thousands at anti-corruption protest in Budapest
Demonstrators flood Brazilian streets in protest against corruption
You want more?
Not "when they see something they don't like". That statement could describe anything and is far too vague. We're talking about a specific here, that is very easy to identify, is based on online activity to begin with, and already brings people together (through the Steam community). I'm also not assuming it implies contendedness, I'm merely stating it implies not enough discontendedness to actively battle it. As for reasonable alternatives to Steam, I don't see the relevance due to the fact that if it were so bad, one could work towards improving it.It's like when the stereotypical americans of South Park say "if you don't like it, you can get out", when the whole point is that if there's **** on your doorstep, you try to clean it up - you don't start looking for a new house.
No. I'm assuming that a reaction is needed for it to change, and if there's no such reaction the whining is pointless.Again, you're assuming that a dislike of something has to lead to a reaction against it. Apathy, not activism, is default position for most.
How can one person provide a broad spectrum of opinions? I provide just as broad a spectrum as you do.Yet it would provide a far broader spectrum than yours. If you have a better suggestion, I would love to hear it.
Even if I ignore the fact that posting links to trailers, "funny videos", news announcements and a dev diary have nothing to do with general acclamation, a random screenshot of a subreddit's front page proves - again - nothing. If you want it to mean anything, you'd have to count the total number of posts, and put the negative ones up against the positive ones. But even that would be futile, as threads are deleted all the time - especially rage threads.Except people provide positive responses all the time? Let's look at the front page of /R/ games for example.
View attachment 710601
Theres:
. A thread commending Blizzard for their vision and understanding of the WoW market.
. A thread praising Apple for stepping in over the FtP games furor.
. 2 trailers
. A news announcement
. Praise for an emu project
. A civil criticism of DA:I's party faults, which also acknowledges all the good things it's done.
. A funny video
. A thread talking about the new SSB, again full of praise for Nintendo, even in basic things people would expect like making it work fluidly and the online experience.
. A dev diary
Is it all rage and fury, with little appreciation for the work and talent that goes into things? No.
Problem is, all you have to back up that statement are anecdotes. I'm able to back up my standpoint on the basis of the lack of action taken to improve upon this socalled "worst in the industry" support. In other words, I'm refuting your assertion on the basis of lack of evidence.And that's what we're discussing. You stance is that it's not that bad and I'm asserting that it's among the worst in the industry.
Actually it isn't. Suggestions, however strong they may be, can never outweigh actual evidence. In addition, it wasn't actually a solitary petition - there were 2 of them, the other had only 2 signatures.Prove? No, of course not. Suggest? Yes. More importantly, it's considerably more than your single piece of evidence and a solitary E-Petition.
Largely ineffective in contrast to what? Or do you mean in general? If so, you're wrong. There are numerous examples of online petitions resulting in actual change. Even one such example would be enough to make a point out of it. Forumraging, on the other hand, has to my knowledge indeed been largely ineffective - I'm not aware of a single case where it has resulted in change. Which begs the question: If forumraging against Steam Support is so seemingly easy and widespread, wouldn't it be even easier to at least try to make a change through a petition? Yet it hasn't happened, unless you count the 2 petitions with a total amount of 482 signatures.Because E-Petitions have proven to be a largely ineffective means of change, the kind of half assed do-goodery that's likely to appear on a Facebook page? Being ignorant of an issue doesn't make that issue any less important, does it?
Extreme cases that make your argument utterly collapse upon itself. What's truly moronic here, is that people expect change without taking action against them. Sounds familiar?These are extreme cases. For every one of those countries that stood up, there are 10 more that will continue to go on in utter apathy. It also doesn't change the fact that your assertion is moronic: things being bad doesn't mean that people take action against them.
I assume that if there's a "general consensus" that Steam is "worst in the industry", it would inevitably lead to action. It's a perfectly logical conclusion.Again, you assume that people disliking Steam support will lead to any action and thus the majority must not be that discontent.
So in other words, people are deeming themselves helpless against the Borg Steam because their alleged first priority action of "voting with their wallets" is useless? So they immediately admit defeat against this superpower, and resort to bashposting on forums instead? If that's the case, I don't see how on earth that's an argument against anything but the people sitting on their *** bashposting.The reason why the absence of an alternative is relevant is because you base your argument on the supposed lack of efforts to change things. In most cases like this, people choose to vote with their wallets and leave, thus encouraging the company to make changes. With Steam, that just isn't possible because it's their way or nothing. You can argue that people should be making an effort to change things, but why would they when they see that previous complaints have been ignored? The crucial thing you seem to be missing here is that it's possible for the support to be an enormous pile of **** but for it to have such limited relevance that people aren't going to go out of their way and invest serious effort into changing things.
Another anecdote, no more valuable than my anecdote of a fast reply and solution.At the end of the day, you don't have to look much further than this thread. Steam support took days to get back to this guy and will apparently considerably more time to get his account back to him.