STEAM Support ?

[Ian C]

Bought Star Trek Bridge Crew in sale. Had previously bought it months back but it didn't work and kept crashing so I got a refund. This time I thought I'd give it a try again since I assumed it had been patched.

It is still unplayable for me. Sent refund request which STEAM declined saying 'I'd spent over 2 hours playing' (not playing actually, trying to fix it). They calculated 'playing' time as the total for both purchases, so, 4 hours.

Tried refund again, this time sending them an extensive explanation that I'd not played it but was trying to get it to work and they sent the same standard decline "You've played more than two hours" etc.  I can't reach them by phone. Is this the worst customer service ever?

What to do.

[Zulu1966]

Bought Star Trek Bridge Crew in sale. Had previously bought it months back but it didn't work and kept crashing sop I got a refund. This time I thought I'd give it a try again since I assumed it had been patched.

It is still unplayable for me. Sent refund request which STEAM declined saying 'I'd spent over 2 hours playing' (not playing actually, trying to fix it). They calculated 'playing' time as the total for both purchases, so, 4 hours.

Tried refund again, this time sending them an extensive explanation that I'd not played it but was trying to get it to work and they sent the same standard decline "You've played more than two hours" etc.  I can't reach them by phone. Is this the worst customer service ever?

What to do.

They are obviously very big so I guess a lot of the decision making may be automated to an extent. So I guess the point is that their policy on refunds is a playtime of 2 hours. I believe it to be perfectly reasonable that time extends over all recorded purchases as what would stop someone just refunding buying every time for less than two hours.

They obviously need to account for that to stop it and granted it may be unlikely someone persists in that ... but there is likely just a lime of code at the end of your request not an actual person.

Persist I guess but pretty sure they won't budge on it from the point of view of the possible consequences of doing so.

They likely made it a binary decision purely because they then didn't need a person making it at the other end.

[Ian C]

Yeah, I sent more requests and sure enough, all declined with same wording in the replies.

Caveat Emptor, I guess, with gravy on.

[Pete Dero]

They calculated 'playing' time as the total for both purchases, so, 4 hours.

This I can understand.  Like Zulu1966 said otherwise this would lead to nonstop buying and refunding by many users.

In this case (as you can't mail them) you could try using https://help.steampowered.com again but use another option (I have a technical problem, ...).
Maybe this could get you into contact with a 'real' person so you can explain your situation.

Not much else you can do I guess ...

[Jarhead0331]

As frustrating as that situation sounds, it is a unique set of facts. While some human interaction and personal attention would be nice, I wouldn't hold this one issue against Steam too heavily. The reality of the system, for me at least, is that it functions nearly flawlessly. Technical issues, licensing issues, etc. are nearly non-existent for me and I spend literally hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of gaming time on Steam. No other system has given me such a resolutely and reliably smooth experience. 

But, yes, when it doesn't work as intended, it is definitely extremely frustrating. If it really bugs you, I would keep trying to get someone's attention over there...or better yet, try to get the game working on your system. It is a great game and worth playing. I think Pete's advice is good. Make it a technical issue and see if you can get the assistance of a live body.

[Ian C]

In their T&C for refunds there's this:

but even if you fall outside of the refund rules we've described, you can ask for a refund anyway and we'll take a look.

The question is - how to get past automation to a human.

[DennisS]

In their T&C for refunds there's this:

but even if you fall outside of the refund rules we've described, you can ask for a refund anyway and we'll take a look.

The question is - how to get past automation to a human.

I have been in your position before. I learned, the hard way, that the two hour cutoff is MY personal two hour cutoff to be 100% satisfied with keeping the game. Hell..at one hour, if I can't get the performance where I need it to be, I will refund...especially if I paid full price for a game.

[OJsDad]

In their T&C for refunds there's this:

but even if you fall outside of the refund rules we've described, you can ask for a refund anyway and we'll take a look.

The question is - how to get past automation to a human.

Now may be a bad time with the summer sale going on.


Also, have you checked with the developer/publisher, see if they can help. 

[mbar]

They calculated 'playing' time as the total for both purchases, so, 4 hours.

This I can understand.  Like Zulu1966 said otherwise this would lead to nonstop buying and refunding by many users.

In this case (as you can't mail them) you could try using https://help.steampowered.com again but use another option (I have a technical problem, ...).
Maybe this could get you into contact with a 'real' person so you can explain your situation.

Not much else you can do I guess ...

You will probably be referred by Steam to contact the developer/publisher for technical issues running the game.

[Ian C]

Well hell, the game just updated with a 59MB patch and now it's running perfectly.

[Barthheart]

 O0

[Pete Dero]

Steam support is great  ;).

[jamus34]

Sometimes it's not steam either.

I had an issue a couple months back where a large portion of my games stopped running. Turns out it was MSI Afterburner causing a conflict due to a software update somewhere.

[Zulu1966]

As frustrating as that situation sounds, it is a unique set of facts. While some human interaction and personal attention would be nice, I wouldn't hold this one issue against Steam too heavily. The reality of the system, for me at least, is that it functions nearly flawlessly. Technical issues, licensing issues, etc. are nearly non-existent for me and I spend literally hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of gaming time on Steam. No other system has given me such a resolutely and reliably smooth experience. 

But, yes, when it doesn't work as intended, it is definitely extremely frustrating. If it really bugs you, I would keep trying to get someone's attention over there...or better yet, try to get the game working on your system. It is a great game and worth playing. I think Pete's advice is good. Make it a technical issue and see if you can get the assistance of a live body.

Yes I agree fully with this. As a gaming platform for ease of use. Stability and simply convenience it is an unrivalled success. I love steam.

[Pete Dero]

Stability and simply convenience it is an unrivalled success. I love steam.

No other place to collect games without ever having the need to play them all  .