Poll: Steam and your opinion

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

0_o You have a stalker? That's just creepy.

Here's hoping you can get this resolved. I'm actually really shocked that the guy can keep messaging you even when you blocked him. That sounds like a serious problem...

-
On my end, I'm pretty content with Steam. I had to deal with customer support only once, when I got locked out of my account. Steam refused to let me on unless I verified from my email address...which I was no longer able to access. With relative quickness, they changed my new verification email to my new email address and the situation was resolved.

 

[deathzero021]

there is not neutral response? i chose yes because i lean more on that, but i still have some problems with Steam, such as the issue with ownership of the games we purchase. If they can update their policy and allow us more control over whats ours, all my concerns would go away. also fixing the issues with moving your steam games around to different drives would be nice. the multiple library folders is completely broken, requiring you to uninstall and reinstall a game to work properly. that's ridiculous.

So right now, i like Steam but i still think it has some areas it needs to improve. The services Steam offers for players and game developers are great.

 

[DrOswald]

I personally enjoy steam a lot and use it to my full extend, and take full advantage of the sales.

But there is one thing I really don't like about steam is how their support team handles things.
See I am a victim of stalking, I am apart of the empires mod community and I have been targeted by a long time user who has been harassing this community because of bitterness hate.

I have reported this person so many times, and it frankly got scary to the point I have sent them an email and open a ticket regarding this user. It took them a week and a half to get back to me and all they said was.

"Hello Joshua,

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

We apologize for the delay.

Please use the "Report Violation" feature to report inappropriate behavior on the Steam Community.

Please do the following:

Go to the profile of the offending user.
Click the 'More' drop-down located at the top right of the page.
Choose "Report Violation"
Select the violation and hit "Submit Report"

All complaints are reviewed by the Steam Community team.

If you have any further questions, please let us know. "

Me and my friends have reported this person so many times, and this is all they tell me after dealing with another week of this person. He is thoroughly blocked but somehow manages to send chat invites, and its scary to see the first thing I login into steam when I get home from college is this guy sending me a chat invite. I had a nervous breakdown and it's just shocking to see how they just refuse to stop this person. I have sent in so much evidence via the support ticket and all I get is that standard response.

I have been a loyal user of steam for 7 years, and they just don't seem to help me when I really need it.

What is your opinion on steam, and are you content with how they run things?

What kind of messages does this guy actually send? Does he swear at you? Can you give us an example of what he has said in the past using steam?

I mean, banning someone is a pretty serious step and unless you have some real evidence to back up that he is harassing you they are not going to ban him. A chat invite every day is not harassment, it is a minor annoyance. Unless he is actually using their service to actually harass you (by, say, cussing up a storm) they have no reason to ban him and in fact should not ban him.

From their perspective you could just be some asshole with a grudge trying to hurt another person by getting him banned. They are not going to take your word for it and they really shouldn't.

 

[SadisticFire]

Snip

Get his IP. Invite him to a voice chat, netstat in console, grab his IP, and wave it at him. That typically scares off anyone. You now have enough information to get
His Name
His Phone Number
His ISP
His place of living
And of course you could(I HEAVILY DON'T ENDORSE IT) DoS/DDoS it, though that is illegal.
But it does also give away your IP to him if he goes through the same process.
If you're paranoid he could ruin your life, set up a VPN, or spoof your IP. Typically people don't know how to get passed that.
You could ask server owners he's been on, see if he has IP logs. Maybe watch what servers he's go on, befriend server owners and ask for IP. That's a pretty safe one-way IP catch.
But on a more personal note, I can empathize with this situation.
Some guy that was harrassing me and DDoS'ing me and DDoS'ing and server I go on. Eventually I decided it was time to change my IP and be done with it. It worked.
He can't grab your IP via steam chat, but via servers he controls/can get IP from, voice chat, and any other direct communication he can.
So, if you're in college, I don't know what you can do if it's shared dorm internet, but personal internet you can contact your ISP for an IP change.
He's haramless then, just annoying words and empty threats.

 

[rofltehcat]

I'm pretty happy with Steam. Getting games very cheap is great, although I got a far too big backlog but this in turn just means I can wait longer for the stuff I want to get cheaper.

I can't comment much on their customer service although the one time I needed it, it worked pretty well. I have had to contact it only once when I accidentally bought a game on the wrong account. I had secured two names and because I was completely confused that day I logged into the wrong (empty) one and bought a game there.
They gave me my money back so I could buy the game on the other account. They said this was a one time thing and I didn't really know why they couldn't simply move the game from one account to another but this is probably to prevent some form of scamming. Overall this was very uncomplicated so I'm pretty happy with it.

 

[Reaper195]

The problem I have with Steam is that I need the program to be running to play any of my games legally. I've been having massive problems with the program (Tried reinstalling it, formatted computer, a bunch of 'fixes' the internet recommended) for the last couple of months. Now I've got over three hundred bucks of games that I can't touch and have been forced to pirate (Because I'm not just going to sit here with my thumb up my ass and think "It won't work? Oh well, that's acceptable."), since Steam won't work.

 

[WeepingAngels]

I have never had to contact Steam support but the way I understand it, it's pretty crappy. The few times I have had to contact EA for support over Origin they have been fast (live chat), helpful and generous.

I can say that I hope I never need to contact Steam support.

 

[BigTeef]

What kind of messages does this guy actually send? Does he swear at you? Can you give us an example of what he has said in the past using steam?

I mean, banning someone is a pretty serious step and unless you have some real evidence to back up that he is harassing you they are not going to ban him. A chat invite every day is not harassment, it is a minor annoyance. Unless he is actually using their service to actually harass you (by, say, cussing up a storm) they have no reason to ban him and in fact should not ban him.

From their perspective you could just be some asshole with a grudge trying to hurt another person by getting him banned. They are not going to take your word for it and they really shouldn't.

He never talks or refers himself in first person, he says "we" for everything. He communicates like Legion does in mass effect. He talks about conspiracies involving the empires forum, talks a organization inside empires called Blackhole and something about deists.

I have heard stories from members who had dealt with him on how he managed to get a hold of medical records of someone on the forums, then posted them online. Then he framed somebody of being a pedophile and they had to spend overnight in a cell until he was cleared the next day. Then he spread a rumor about an admin being bulimic.

He has contacted everyone at-least one in our members database trying to talk to somebody. Now he is doing it to me, and frankly the timing could not be anymore worse.

Get his IP. Invite him to a voice chat, netstat in console, grab his IP, and wave it at him. That typically scares off anyone. You now have enough information to get
His Name
His Phone Number
His ISP
His place of living
And of course you could(I HEAVILY DON'T ENDORSE IT) DoS/DDoS it, though that is illegal.
But it does also give away your IP to him if he goes through the same process.
If you're paranoid he could ruin your life, set up a VPN, or spoof your IP. Typically people don't know how to get passed that.
You could ask server owners he's been on, see if he has IP logs. Maybe watch what servers he's go on, befriend server owners and ask for IP. That's a pretty safe one-way IP catch.
But on a more personal note, I can empathize with this situation.
Some guy that was harrassing me and DDoS'ing me and DDoS'ing and server I go on. Eventually I decided it was time to change my IP and be done with it. It worked.
He can't grab your IP via steam chat, but via servers he controls/can get IP from, voice chat, and any other direct communication he can.
So, if you're in college, I don't know what you can do if it's shared dorm internet, but personal internet you can contact your ISP for an IP change.
He's haramless then, just annoying words and empty threats.

I am better than that, I don't want to stoop to that level because then im no better than him if I did that.

 

[DrOswald]

What kind of messages does this guy actually send? Does he swear at you? Can you give us an example of what he has said in the past using steam?

I mean, banning someone is a pretty serious step and unless you have some real evidence to back up that he is harassing you they are not going to ban him. A chat invite every day is not harassment, it is a minor annoyance. Unless he is actually using their service to actually harass you (by, say, cussing up a storm) they have no reason to ban him and in fact should not ban him.

From their perspective you could just be some asshole with a grudge trying to hurt another person by getting him banned. They are not going to take your word for it and they really shouldn't.

He never talks or refers himself in first person, he says "we" for everything. He communicates like Legion does in mass effect. He talks about conspiracies involving the empires forum, talks a organization inside empires called Blackhole and something about deists.

I have heard stories from members who had dealt with him on how he managed to get a hold of medical records of someone on the forums, then posted them online. Then he framed somebody of being a pedophile and they had to spend overnight in a cell until he was cleared the next day. Then he spread a rumor about an admin being bulimic.

He has contacted everyone at-least one in our members database trying to talk to somebody. Now he is doing it to me, and frankly the timing could not be anymore worse.

Ok, then 2 follow up questions:

First, if the claims of your forum friends are true then you guys certainly have cause for legal action against him. Have you talked to anyone about what can be done to deter a stalker like this?

Second, what has he actually done on Steam? Be specific, give quoted examples. Because your original post made it sound like he had just sent you chat invites which you refused. And if that is the case then Steam has no reason to ban him. They do not moderate based on actions that do not directly involve their service, nor should they - they cannot verify any claim you make against him that does not happen on Steam. You are probably looking in the wrong place for help with this problem.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

I don't understand why your story is 'scary.' It's the internet; calm down and exit out of the chat request. Eventually s/he will give up. It's not a big deal.

 

[Abomination]

He never talks or refers himself in first person, he says "we" for everything. He communicates like Legion does in mass effect. He talks about conspiracies involving the empires forum, talks a organization inside empires called Blackhole and something about deists.

I have heard stories from members who had dealt with him on how he managed to get a hold of medical records of someone on the forums, then posted them online. Then he framed somebody of being a pedophile and they had to spend overnight in a cell until he was cleared the next day. Then he spread a rumor about an admin being bulimic.

He has contacted everyone at-least one in our members database trying to talk to somebody. Now he is doing it to me, and frankly the timing could not be anymore worse.

You are probably looking in the wrong place for help with this problem.

This is it exactly. This has nothing to do with Steam and it isn't their responsibility to shield or protect you from someone saying, by all intents and purposes, "Hello" to you using their system.

 

[KungFuJazzHands]

Bottom Line: Steam is a minimalist service. They don't care about their products or customers beyond what seems to be the minimum legal requirements. They offer amazing prices and it's pretty much buyer beware from there.

That pretty much sums up Steam. I've never ever been able to identify with the people that claim "Valve truly care about their customers". They don't give a toss about their customers unless money is changing hands, and the fact that Steam has remained a largely untouched pile of mismatched code for years only highlights how unconcerned Valve are about the user experience.

Wandering outside the confines of the Steam Community, it's amazing how many complaints you can find about the service.

 

[BeanDelphiki]

The very first game I bought on Steam was in 2012, and it was a very old game that I had been looking for everywhere. I was so excited to start up my Steam account and buy it - especially for $9.99, which I thought was a very reasonable asking price.

I played five minutes of it. Past that point, the game has a horrible, game-breaking bug that makes the rest of the game past the intro few minutes utterly, utterly unplayable. When I went to the forums (which I severely regretted not checking before I bought the game), I found out that it had been that way since a Steam update to the game in 2010.

2010. This totally unplayable game had been available for sale for TWO YEARS, and never been fixed or taken down.

I was not impressed, needless to say.

I have used my account since, to buy games on sale, but always, always warily.

 

[Warachia]

I don't really like Steam, and their customer support is some of the worst I've ever seen, any time I have any problem, I had to solve the issue myself, and I never get a reply from them (they say that they'll contact you within twenty-four hours which is bullshit), and every time I figured out what the problem was, and post the solution, I get a message along these lines: "Sorry you had a problem, but we're glad we could help you solve it." I hate whoever writes those.