Steam account and locked out

[JudgeDredd]

Not me - but someone at Matrix Forums (Warspite1) has a problem where he's been locked out of his Steam account because of a potential hijacking.

He's apparently tried contacting Steam but that was more than a week ago.

So - just thought I'd spread the word, see if it's happened to anyone else and how they got it resolved - not only to help him but others (in case it happens to us)...anyone have this happen to them and if so - how did it get resolved?

[undercovergeek]

All the lock outs I've ever read about have either been restored or there was a very good reason for it been done - game swapping in the wrong regions where the prices differ been the most common - in all the cases tho steam have been on the ball with the comms - I'm not sure what potential hijacking means either - someone else is in the account?

[MikeGER]

never had any problems or heard of it in person from friends near or far 

...would be interesting to know what generic customer action he had done to trigger their security-procedures.
Did he had locked-in from a different region/city of his country or abroad while on travel ....or got his Steam games installed en masse on a new rig? Changed his account details? ...

One week responce time from support to unlock his account is very bad  >:( 

[JudgeDredd]

Don't know - don't post over there - became a lurker sometime ago and mainly just to keep abreast of new games.

As for Steam being on the ball - I've only ever had one instance of having to contact them, and their response was piss poor tbh.

It's as well their client is so "convenient" - because I certainly don't use them for their customer facing regime.

It makes me a little worried though as I dive down into the world of Steam - more and more games are bought on there (or have to link to a Steam account)...they need to sort their customer side out me thinks. The few posts I've seen relating to Steam customer service have been, in the vast majority of cases, negative - and my own experience did nothing to challenge that feeling.

[spelk]

I had my Steam account locked out for a few days, without any explanation from Steam. Basically the whole stock of my Steam games were unavailable, and I didn't know why.

I pursued my issue with Steam Support, but it took a few days of back and forth to get them to open the account again. It wasn't an account compromise neither, it was a transaction with Paypal that had gone awry. Paypal's end was all hunky dory, but the connection with Steam must've gone bad during the processing, and subsequently they locked the Steam account down!

I was grateful to get back, without having anyone filching through my account details, but it did highlight a massive downside to throwing a lot of investment into a single online game distributor that relies on an online connection to check authorisation. They can do what they want at their end, and shut you out, without a single notification.

Remember, I lost my ability to play the games, without any word of warning from Steam, and I had to actively pursue getting the account unlocked, or it would still be that way to this day no doubt. And it was a fault of their payment system that caused the shutdown!! Bit silly.

Since then, I think running games offline is easier than it used to be.

You need a Steam support account, separate to your actual Steam account, and then they spend the time trying to make sure you are who you are.

But then again, I've had other online distribution channels go completely tits up, like Direct2Drive and Stardock's Implulse. I think the moral of the story is, don't plough too much investment into them, or if you do, make sure your account is as secure as it can be, and hound their support relentlessly if needs be.

[Nefaro]

I had my Steam account locked out for a few days, without any explanation from Steam. Basically the whole stock of my Steam games were unavailable, and I didn't know why.

I pursued my issue with Steam Support, but it took a few days of back and forth to get them to open the account again. It wasn't an account compromise neither, it was a transaction with Paypal that had gone awry. Paypal's end was all hunky dory, but the connection with Steam must've gone bad during the processing, and subsequently they locked the Steam account down!

I was grateful to get back, without having anyone filching through my account details, but it did highlight a massive downside to throwing a lot of investment into a single online game distributor that relies on an online connection to check authorisation. They can do what they want at their end, and shut you out, without a single notification.

Remember, I lost my ability to play the games, without any word of warning from Steam, and I had to actively pursue getting the account unlocked, or it would still be that way to this day no doubt. And it was a fault of their payment system that caused the shutdown!! Bit silly.

Since then, I think running games offline is easier than it used to be.

You need a Steam support account, separate to your actual Steam account, and then they spend the time trying to make sure you are who you are.

But then again, I've had other online distribution channels go completely tits up, like Direct2Drive and Stardock's Implulse. I think the moral of the story is, don't plough too much investment into them, or if you do, make sure your account is as secure as it can be, and hound their support relentlessly if needs be.

This is terrible!

Doubly so since Steam's customer service is shit.  I'm surprised you even got them to do something within a week or two. 

While I had heard they will shut it down for things such as using cheats in multiplayer, I didn't realize they just do that by default if you happen to plug in an activation code for something outside your designated region.  I've actually received a couple games from the UK, ordering from Amazon, without originally realizing they were British versions.  To think they would cut my whole library off because of that, or a screwy Paypal transaction that didn't finish properly, is downright alarming.

I've gone through the bullshit that is submitting a Steam issue via creating the separate CS login and all that.  It was automated responses that had little to do with the reported issue for two weeks.  ::)

[JudgeDredd]

^ It does seem a bit concerning - and draconian!

If Steam was around 70 years ago, Britain and the US would be fighting them!  :D

A case of "too big for their boots" maybe?

Anyway - I've got my fingers and toes crossed nothing bad happens to my account - because the general feeling is - you're screwed...at least for a few weeks!

[Staggerwing]

Now I'm getting worried about some of the keys that were given away in our Grogheads Game Donation Thread. What if Steam gets a hair up it's sigmoid about keys given away across the pond or between hemispheres?

At least Gamersgate has a gifting option for games you already have (but have not cashed in).

[Boggit]

Don't know - don't post over there - became a lurker sometime ago and mainly just to keep abreast of new games.

As for Steam being on the ball - I've only ever had one instance of having to contact them, and their response was piss poor tbh.

It's as well their client is so "convenient" - because I certainly don't use them for their customer facing regime.

It makes me a little worried though as I dive down into the world of Steam - more and more games are bought on there (or have to link to a Steam account)...they need to sort their customer side out me thinks. The few posts I've seen relating to Steam customer service have been, in the vast majority of cases, negative - and my own experience did nothing to challenge that feeling.

+1

[Boggit]

I had my Steam account locked out for a few days, without any explanation from Steam. Basically the whole stock of my Steam games were unavailable, and I didn't know why.

I pursued my issue with Steam Support, but it took a few days of back and forth to get them to open the account again. It wasn't an account compromise neither, it was a transaction with Paypal that had gone awry. Paypal's end was all hunky dory, but the connection with Steam must've gone bad during the processing, and subsequently they locked the Steam account down!

I was grateful to get back, without having anyone filching through my account details, but it did highlight a massive downside to throwing a lot of investment into a single online game distributor that relies on an online connection to check authorisation. They can do what they want at their end, and shut you out, without a single notification.

Remember, I lost my ability to play the games, without any word of warning from Steam, and I had to actively pursue getting the account unlocked, or it would still be that way to this day no doubt. And it was a fault of their payment system that caused the shutdown!! Bit silly.

Since then, I think running games offline is easier than it used to be.

You need a Steam support account, separate to your actual Steam account, and then they spend the time trying to make sure you are who you are.

But then again, I've had other online distribution channels go completely tits up, like Direct2Drive and Stardock's Implulse. I think the moral of the story is, don't plough too much investment into them, or if you do, make sure your account is as secure as it can be, and hound their support relentlessly if needs be.

I had a problem with my Steam account a while back. Their support was IMHO, hopeless. The matter was resolved by my contacting SEGA, and putting my case. They bypassed what appeared to me as Steam's intransigent do nothing policy, and resolved matters for me. Steam is OK in many ways, but IMO they do not seem to want to help genuine customers if it requires more than a minimum of effort.

[Nefaro]

I had a problem with my Steam account a while back. Their support was IMHO, hopeless. The matter was resolved by my contacting SEGA, and putting my case. They bypassed what appeared to me as Steam's intransigent do nothing policy, and resolved matters for me. Steam is OK in many ways, but IMO they do not seem to want to help genuine customers if it requires more than a minimum of effort.

Amazing.

It's a pretty sad state when you must contact a publisher and get them to step on a retailer to get their customer service's ass in gear.

I really hope Steam improves their CS, but they don't seem to be suffering from their "do nothing" policy much since they're the big storefront on the block, and publishers are regularly moving to require it.  ::)

[CptHowdy]

All the lock outs I've ever read about have either been restored or there was a very good reason for it been done - game swapping in the wrong regions where the prices differ been the most common - in all the cases tho steam have been on the ball with the comms - I'm not sure what potential hijacking means either - someone else is in the account?

ive installed steam on two different computers and have logged in from different IP's. steam always wants me to verify that it is my account if I do this. they send a code to your email and you have to verify it. perhaps this fella didn't verify his account and it got locked?

[Nefaro]

All the lock outs I've ever read about have either been restored or there was a very good reason for it been done - game swapping in the wrong regions where the prices differ been the most common - in all the cases tho steam have been on the ball with the comms - I'm not sure what potential hijacking means either - someone else is in the account?

ive installed steam on two different computers and have logged in from different IP's. steam always wants me to verify that it is my account if I do this. they send a code to your email and you have to verify it. perhaps this fella didn't verify his account and it got locked?

I turned that bullshit off as soon as they implemented it.  Luckily it actually stays off, unlike some of the other buggy options in their client.  It also cuts me out of some of their extras, like that "playing card collection" crap which I don't really care about anyway (even though some people have said they were able to sell theirs  :o ).

After I turned it off, the damn thing pestered me about turning it back on a few times.  Kinda like the webmail hosts constantly bugging your for your cell phone number as "account protection" or YouTube always harassing me to use my real name. F'ers, all.  Thankfully the Steam client stopped pushing.

[republic]

Now I'm getting worried about some of the keys that were given away in our Grogheads Game Donation Thread. What if Steam gets a hair up it's sigmoid about keys given away across the pond or between hemispheres?

0.o  I didn't think of that.  My keys were all from humble bundle's or bundle stars so they should be fine for others to use.  But keys from other sites from differing regions could be a problem.

[JudgeDredd]

Well - lets not panic eh?

I only mentioned it because ONE person I "know" out of hundreds online has suffered it.