SteamPoweredReviews 100

Love steam. Its simple and easy to use. Always have my games ready to download to a new machine. My saved games are always backed up. And they have often, some good sales / discounts. And how they recently added download servers in my city, makes my downloads even faster.

If you use Steam and you have no problems. Good.
But if you run across a problem... like trying to get a refund... now you get to see the REAL Steam.
Bots will tell you that your request is declined. No humans to talk to, no humans to challenge the decision.
They got your money.
If you want help, go to the Steam community and try another user, because Steam couldn't be bothered.

I received an e-mail stating that I bought two games at Steam. When I replied a hacker used my reply to gain access to my Steam Account and bought two games. After reporting this to Steam, Steam found the hacker and charged the hacker for the games. Steam then said they will give me credit for the $55.00 amount the hacker charged but I must pay $55.00 to continue to use my account. Steam says that they cannot remove the fraudulent charges from my account. Huh? Steam says I must pay the $55.00 in order to continue using their company, download games, etc. I have purchased dozens of games and I have basically been locked out from being able to play the dozens of games that I have purchased because a hacker got into my account. This is not right. It sounds to me like Steam is doing the "hacking".

If it weren't for the poor customer service experience, Steam would be worth a 3-4 star rating. With a few exceptions their launcher and library management structure works quite well for the most part. Their payment processing and account management system though is probably worth a zero to one star rating. Case in point: My account was recently locked for 4 weeks (just in time to miss the summer sale) due to a $2.50 payment for some discounted DLC that didn't go through. This, according to my bank was due to the recipient (i. E. Steam) not taking receipt of the payment. The deduction for the amount was duly made to my credit card account by my bank, but the items I purchased nevertheless promptly removed by Steam from my Steam library. This whole process took less than 3 days. I sent them a bank authorization number in the meantime which probably now is moot due to the fact that they've already cancelled the transaction. Steam will be seeing much less of me in the future no doubt.

This review requires context.

I intended to buy a gift with the remaining money from my Steam Wallet. I was about $8 short of the gift, so I figured it would charge the $8 I was short on my credit card. After about 3 minutes, I realized that the transaction hadn't charged my Steam Wallet at all, and the entire balance was charged to my card. I attempted to refund this, but was declined twice, and told that my purchase did not meet the requirements of their refund policy. They did not explain to me why. I wanted to speak with someone with support, but was unable to do so after sending multiple requests to. Eventually, my gift was refunded, but as credit to my Steam wallet, and not to my bank account as I originally wanted. This entire process lasted 2 days. Now I am currently trying to get the balance I originally had on my Steam Wallet (which is still there) and just transfer that to my bank account which would effectively accomplish what I was trying to do in the first place.

I believe that all of this trouble could have been avoided by just speaking with a support rep either by phone or live chat. Unfortunately, Steam Support doesn't appear to have an option to request a chat with support reps which I think is a monumental disgrace. I've been using the Steam service for over 8 years and will continue to do so. I have been largely satisfied with my time using the service, but this has really made me dissatisfied with Steam as a whole.

Once upon a time I bought a gift card for steam ($100), when I went to foolishly peel the sticker covering the code (by the way NEVER do this, always scratch the thing like a lotto ticket) and I ripped the code!

Alas struck with grief I went to steam support, thinking I had effectively just shoved $100 in a blender, but I had forgot I was being helped by *Ta Daaa* STEAM SUPPORT! As I slept and dreamt horrors of never being able to own Cyberpunk2077 due to my own foolishness, the steam support crew worked tirelessly to isolate my problem and resolve my query.

I awoke to a well written and polite inquiry from them as to whether or not I had the receipt from my purchase remaining, After a cursory search, tragedy struck! I had misplaced my receipt! After several hours upturning every possible location and sifting through garbage cans, I had no choice but to conclude my quarry was lost.

This is the point when most support services would declare yours a helpless case, resigning you to endless transfers and "we're working on it, we'll get back to you" emails. But not steam support! Oh no! They ramped it up a notch, assigning only the best of the best to my conundrum (Anne).

And so just as I was proceeding to analyze the ripped off sticker under a microscope to possibly glean some sort of clue, I got THE message (and just a few hours after I had informed them of the missing receipt to boot), stating that the issue was resolved!

With only the scantest of information the steam support crew had managed to track down my missing $100 and reunite me with my once-lost funds, clearly proving their absolute dominance over all competitors.

5/5 service 10/10 service 100/100 service there is not a number high enough to express my gratitude!

TL: DR In just over a day they not only managed to identify the problem but also rectify it. I am now reunited with my once lost steam funds and am off to become the proud owner of Cyperbunk2077! 5/5 service! Scratch your gift cards like a lotto ticket, never peel them & always keep your receipts.

I purchased X-Plane 11, downloaded it, and tried to play it, but was unable to since my device is obsolete. For the record, I have an advanced performance ASUS laptop from 2018; I thought X-Plane might be usable since it was release in 2017. I requested a refund from Steam because I was unable to use the simulator without a laggy flight experience. But instead of being treated in good faith, I was denied a refund for using the simulator for more than a very small 2 hours (which by the way I used trying to throttle the performance settings of the simulator to make it playable, all with no luck). I even wrote them a second time saying they were being inconsistent by not refunding my for X-Plane though they had refunded me for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which I had "played" for 18 hours according to Steam. I hadn't--those 18 hours were used just trying to download the files! Why refund me for 18 hours, but not 2? I don't like being taken advantage of. Especially considering it costs them absolutely nothing to refund a game purchase since they're entirely digital and there is no added inventory or logistics cost. Their lack of ethics also strikes a nerve because all I wanted with the simulator was to use something healthy to cope with my weakened mental health/increased anxiety due to COVID, and this is how I'm treated. Thanks Steam.

I purchased a jackbox party pack on steam and found out that the game can't run on my Mac's current version. Steam's website says they would gladly refund a customer if the games are unsupported. Well... good luck trying to even find an email address or phone number to request a refund. The instructions they offer for a refund on their website leads you to a wild chase, ending in nothing. Terrible customer service. Never buying another game from Steam, even when I do update my computer. Just counting my losses and moving on to a platform that has more integrity.

I haven't used my account in a few years and Steam have upgraded their security system, so even though I know my username and password, they won't let me access my account because I can't remember the email address that I used. I've spent days emailing back and forth with their support and they just make stupid excuses. They can see nobody has accessed the account in years back still claim to be "protecting the owner", no you're just angering the owner and making sure they don't spend any more money with you.

I bought a game (ESO) from Steam but it never worked. I opened up 17 refund requests but each one was declined - despite having never played a single minute of the game. I only ever got a copy/ paste reply and never had the feeling that anyone actually read my request.

I think it is safe to say that Steam does not actually have any support, just bots. It is disgraceful that this company can take people's money and not provide the product paid for.