Steam (Valve) and their "F" rating with the BBB

[Oldgamer]

So I have a number of games that I play through my Steam account. I have had some very bad experiences with their customer service over this past year. There is no way to call on a direct line for customer service help. The only way that you can is by using their submit form on their site and they usually take weeks to reply. Most of the time the reply is generic and utterly frustrating when you have issues trying to download a product you purchased. I finally had my last straw yesterday. I purchased a game on sale and the UI is glitched on Steam and I can't download the product at all. I have sent several emails, (this was yesterday morning) and I still haven't heard from anyone. I went on line and discovered they have an "F" rating with the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and have over 1000's of complaints of locking people out of their games and not dealing with major customer service issues. Here is the BBB report if anyone is interested: http://www.bbb.org/western-washingt...ers/valve-corporation-in-bellevue-wa-27030704

There seems to be a phone number in the BBB report, so I will try calling it today. I have quite a few games through Steam but I am considering just uninstalling the damn thing and calling it quits with their service.

Anyone else have issues with steam? I am curious as to how many other people here on ATOT have had hair pulling issues with them.

 

[Garou24]

I have been a steam user for 9 years now and have never once had an issue with any product through them. But I can understand your frustration when trying to get in touch with a live person for support!

 

[imaheadcase]

No one pays attention to the BBB, its a sham organization. You have to PAY them to get recognized. Its like my paying you to play my game and telling you better give it a good review or else I post bad things about you. But i've never heard of a gamer having problems with Steam.

Notice how it says "THIS BUSINESS IS NOT BBB ACCREDITED", its because the BBB wants you to pay fees to be "part" of it. The bigger the business, the bigger the fees. Its trying to be a Union in a sense. The funny part is they can't even respond to a complain on there without being accredited, so it just keeps going downhill. rofl.

You honestly might get a answer from Gabe directly from Reddit if you post on it.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I agree their customer service is extremely poor. I had an issue with logging in, and had to wait several days for an e-mail response. When it finally did come, it was a generic reply that had absolutely no bearing on the specific question that I asked.

In fairness to Steam though, this seems to be a pretty widespread problem with a lot of companies doing the same thing. I am not sure though, why you would uninstall steam and make all the games that are working unplayable. That seems counterproductive, since it doesnt really cost you anything to have Steam installed.

Overall, though, Steam is great for PC gaming, and I think is greatly responsible for its resurgence, but just like any other company, they have strengths and weaknesses, and customer service is certainly not one of their strengths at least in my experience.

 

[darkxshade]

It's called steam dude, it runs on steam... if you're not angry, then no steam... no steam, no games.

 

[marmasatt]

I have been a steam user for 9 years now and have never once had an issue with any product through them. But I can understand your frustration when trying to get in touch with a live person for support!

This. About 10 yrs as well.

 

[JEDIYoda]

So I have a number of games that I play through my Steam account. I have had some very bad experiences with their customer service over this past year. There is no way to call on a direct line for customer service help. The only way that you can is by using their submit form on their site and they usually take weeks to reply. Most of the time the reply is generic and utterly frustrating when you have issues trying to download a product you purchased. I finally had my last straw yesterday. I purchased a game on sale and the UI is glitched on Steam and I can't download the product at all. I have sent several emails, (this was yesterday morning) and I still haven't heard from anyone. I went on line and discovered they have an "F" rating with the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and have over 1000's of complaints of locking people out of their games and not dealing with major customer service issues. Here is the BBB report if anyone is interested: http://www.bbb.org/western-washingto...ue-wa-27030704

There seems to be a phone number in the BBB report, so I will try calling it today. I have quite a few games through Steam but I am considering just uninstalling the damn thing and calling it quits with their service.

Anyone else have issues with steam? I am curious as to how many other people here on ATOT have had hair pulling issues with them.

hahhahahaaaa.. the BBB is the biggest joke of an organization and let alone a scam organization in the world!! rolf...they will be trembling in their boots when you threaten to go to the BBB...hahahaaaa

 

[Oldgamer]

I agree their customer service is extremely poor. I had an issue with logging in, and had to wait several days for an e-mail response. When it finally did come, it was a generic reply that had absolutely no bearing on the specific question that I asked.

In fairness to Steam though, this seems to be a pretty widespread problem with a lot of companies doing the same thing. I am not sure though, why you would uninstall steam and make all the games that are working unplayable. That seems counterproductive, since it doesnt really cost you anything to have Steam installed.

Overall, though, Steam is great for PC gaming, and I think is greatly responsible for its resurgence, but just like any other company, they have strengths and weaknesses, and customer service is certainly not one of their strengths at least in my experience.

Most of the games I have on there are really not that great of importance to me anymore as I have played them for so long. But I have encountered so many problems over this past year with Valve concerning being charged for a game yet the account says your card is denied. When the bank clearly shows a charge. Then I had issues with UI glitching, games not functioning, and then purchasing a game that doesn't download at all.

The number I called from the BBB just went straight to someone's voicemail. So I just left a message. At this point I am going to have my bank dispute the charge on a game that I could never download. I will be showing them all my correspondence with Valve. I may just make a complaint with the BBB.

I know once the bank reverses the charge that Valve will lock me out of all my games so at this point it wouldn't make much sense to keep the program on my computer.

Edit: The BBB can't enforce anything it is simply a rating tool that allows consumers to post public complaints and it gives a rating of the customer resolution of such complaints. Usually the BBB tries to arbitrate in some cases and help to find a resolution. That is all it is.

 

[Oldgamer]

hahhahahaaaa.. the BBB is the biggest joke of an organization and let alone a scam organization in the world!! rolf...they will be trembling in their boots when you threaten to go to the BBB...hahahaaaa

Dude grow up, the BBB is a rating of organizations and companies. I never said I was going to have them "trembling" in their boots.. jesus. BBB can't enforce anything they just arbitrate or try to help with resolutions and give ratings.

 

[justin4pack]

This. About 10 yrs as well.

Same.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

valve support is pretty slow. also i hate how they only announce service maintenance in one thread on their forums. why not just broadcast that out or include it in the motd since it's only every so often?

 

[werepossum]

It's called steam dude, it runs on steam... if you're not angry, then no steam... no steam, no games.

LMAO! Steampowered.com!

That's the best one I've seen in awhile, thanks!

Most of the games I have on there are really not that great of importance to me anymore as I have played them for so long. But I have encountered so many problems over this past year with Valve concerning being charged for a game yet the account says your card is denied. When the bank clearly shows a charge. Then I had issues with UI glitching, games not functioning, and then purchasing a game that doesn't download at all.

The number I called from the BBB just went straight to someone's voicemail. So I just left a message. At this point I am going to have my bank dispute the charge on a game that I could never download. I will be showing them all my correspondence with Valve. I may just make a complaint with the BBB.

I know once the bank reverses the charge that Valve will lock me out of all my games so at this point it wouldn't make much sense to keep the program on my computer.

Edit: The BBB can't enforce anything it is simply a rating tool that allows consumers to post public complaints and it gives a rating of the customer resolution of such complaints. Usually the BBB tries to arbitrate in some cases and help to find a resolution. That is all it is.

Before you try reversing the charges you may want to try totally uninstalling Steam, doing a defrag and then a registry cleaning with CCleaner from Piri, then reinstalling Steam. Personally I've used Steam and had almost no problem with it since the first year or two.

 

[Wardawg1001]

I've never had a problem with Steam. Been a user for quite a few years, 200+ games in library. Never once had an issue purchasing or accessing my Steam games (none that were caused by Steam at least). They may have poor customer service when you have an issue, but I'll take that any day over great customer service on a buggy product.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. Conversely, imagine the level of support that you'd receive if you bought the game directly from the developer and experienced a glitch that stopped you from installing it. Most of the time, you'd be left to scour the Internet looking for a fix.

Steam has greatly simplified the distribution and installation of games. Occasionally something doesn't work flawlessly, but it really is a big step up from 10 years ago.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Been using for 10+ years. No issues so far.

No issues with uPlay or Origin either. It all just 'works' for me.

 

[Miklebud]

10+ years without a single issue.

 

[DeadFred]

I was locked out of all my steam games for a couple of months about 6 years ago. I went round and round with them in emails with them telling me it was something on my end while hundreds of others were complaining online about the same problem. They eventually put out an update that fixed the issue, but even afterwards they wouldn't cop to it being a foul up with their shitty software. I am no fan of steam and try my best to avoid any games that require it, but sometimes I have no choice when I really want to play a certain title. Having zero phone support is absolutely inexcusable for such a large business.

 

[rivethead]

Don't know if it works, but it took me less than 30 seconds to find this on google:

Valve (Steam) Customer Support phone number: Telephone: 425-889-9642

 

[BrightCandle]

I have had problems with individual games, that in multiple cases have made them unplayable. Steam has never once allowed a refund despite the incredibly broken nature of the products they are selling. So yeah Steam support is atrocious, bordering on illegal in most of Europe. Europe got very close to putting legislation in place to ensure that Steam complied with the law by specifically targeting digital goods, but so far its being held up.

When it all works Steam is fine, but they have some bad policies and customer support and frankly I can't wait for the law to bite them properly and hard, the behaviour has overall been disgusting and I am kind of sick of games installing in steam and would rather they didn't.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I've never (*knocks on digital wood) had problems with Steam, but I also take it for what it's worth. I won't pay retail and usually only buy games when they are uber cheap. There are just too many unknowns that can screw you with a forced all digital account. At the end of the day they hold all the rights and unless you feel like wasting thousands taking them to court, they know they have the power.

 

[Snock514]

8 years no issues

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3134-TIAL-4638

Why you may need to refresh your Steam files

Refreshing your Steam files can resolve many issues that can be encountered in the Steam application, store, or games. Performing this operation will ensure that there are no issues that could be resolved with a new installation of Steam, and is a good place to start any troubleshooting process.


Note:

This process will not affect your currently installed games.


Windows XP/Vista/7

Completely exit the Steam client.
Open the run dialogue by pressing windows key + r (you can also navigate here from the start menu by typing run).
Type steam://flushconfig then press enter. (If asked to allow this website to open a program, please click Allow or OK).
Restart your computer.
Now, launch Steam directly from the installation folder, not from a pre-existing shortcut (~C:\program files (x86)\Steam).
The Steam application will either appear as Steam or Steam.exe depending on whether your settings show file extensions.

 

[Sohaltang]

No one pays attention to the BBB, its a sham organization. You have to PAY them to get recognized. Its like my paying you to play my game and telling you better give it a good review or else I post bad things about you. But i've never heard of a gamer having problems with Steam.

Notice how it says "THIS BUSINESS IS NOT BBB ACCREDITED", its because the BBB wants you to pay fees to be "part" of it. The bigger the business, the bigger the fees. Its trying to be a Union in a sense. The funny part is they can't even respond to a complain on there without being accredited, so it just keeps going downhill. rofl.

You honestly might get a answer from Gabe directly from Reddit if you post on it.

And to get a good BBB rating you only have to prove you "replied" to the complaint to get a bad mark removed. You dont actually have to do anything about, just reply. Dr Mr. So&So, Im sorry you had a problem. Regards, Randon A+ BB rated Business

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

As long as you don't have problems with steam, it's pretty good... but yea their customer service is pretty shitty when you actually need something done. The one time I had to; it wasn't absolutely awful but it wasn't great either (got locked out of my account for a couple of days), but I've heard some real horror stories.

 

[Bateluer]

Granted, I only skimmed this thread, but did I miss where the OP detailed what game he'd purchased and what trouble shooting steps were performed?

With the size of digital app stores now, Steam, iTunes, Google Play, etc, these companies better get a real customer service team in place to handle support issues.