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Valve is great at many things, It brought us the Steam client, developed several fantastic games and has always worked to push PC gaming. However, many will agree that its customer service is often pretty bad and its policies aren't anywhere near as consumer friendly as its competitors, most notably Origin.
So it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to find that the Better Business Bureau gave Valve an F rating for its customer service. The BBB's investigation in to Valve begun once it noticed a pattern of complaints from consumers regarding customer service issues, the Steam client and games bought.
The BBB observed 718 complaints filed against Valve, there was a failure to respond to 503 of these complaints. A further 17 complaints were not resolved at all and so far, Valve has done absolutely nothing to improve its customer service or policies, despite consistent complaints from users.
Valve responded to its F by claiming that the BBB is not particularly high on its priority list. Valve has always been stubborn when it comes to its sales policies and its customer service but maybe with the surge in publicity bought on by this low rating, the company may finally do something about it.
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KitGuru Says: It is often too easy to give Valve a free pass, it has done a lot for PC gaming and Steam is a great service more often than not. However, the company has often displayed a complete disregard for consumer rights and no matter how much you might like Valve, that is simply not okay. EA's Origin service might not be all that popular but at least it has a team of people willing to provide you with a decent level of customer service when you face issues.
This is exactly why Steam needs good competition, otherwise they can treat their customers like crap and get away with it.
“The BBB observed 718 complaints filed against Valve, there was a failure to respond to 503 of these complaints.”
And Valve wants to release Steam Machines running SteamOS?! Good luck with those complaints…
#RIPSteamOS #RIPSteammachines
Who the hell needs the customer support of valve when there is a big community behind SteamOS (remember, SteamOS is just another ubuntu distro) that can take care of almost every os-related aspect?
hhhmmm i never have a problem with them i clearly get the game i want or send as a gift i double check all things fine so no need to complain a happy story here
I’m sure almost none of those complains are because of that. As part of a hosting’s company customer support I think that things like “i lost my password”, “I don’t remember my username”, “this game doesn’t work on my computer, want refund”, “someone hacked my account” could be the most common problems of the users.
And we all know how popular and user friendly Ubuntu is….
SteamOS is customized by Valve for Valve.
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/37255-why-linux-still-not-ready-for-desktop
#nicetrytho #getrekt
Ah, the blame game….
It’s more user-friendly than you think, unless you have some weird crap going on your system, everything can be done from the GUI. SteamOS is just an Ubuntu distro with slightly different VGA drivers and Steam installed and configured to run on os startup 😉
It’s so user friendly that no one uses it. Gotcha.
dat Windows market share and revenue doe!
Well, looks like you haven’t even tried Ubuntu 😉 have fun trolling, I’m just going to drop this:
In the country I live a lot of high schools have computers with Ubuntu installed on it, its free, faster and reliable that windows, and you can still do a lot of things the same way you would on Windows.
Oh, and read the first comment (by Enkidu Aruru) in the blog post you linked earlier, that should be everything I have to say about 😉
Read the link i posted. oh right, you can’t read.
Can you translate that to common English so I as an “gamer” that only wish to install my game… then play it… and then, end it when I like to.. and then Start all over the next day..
” it should be user friendly, so even a 10- year old, can manage…”
And old fart like me that never heard about ubunty,,,distro…VGA ( was not that something that they used in the 90´s ? )
– I wish it is easy… but it´s only easy… when you know it… / thats why Iphones is so great, even a monkey can handle that one…!
And so Forth…
And last of all, “” unless”… And If ?
I been trying for 2 months, to get someone in Valve /forum … to Answer Why 1 of my friends can´t join our server… 10-15 can.. but he Can´t… since we have an “password”… I got 2 USELESS links from … someone.. 15 complaint´s about my English and … how unnecessary my long and explaining text is… / funny part, that no one of those idiots, has manage to give me an Answer on my Question anyhow so.. why talk about what i write, how I write, when they ARE complete Idiots to start with ? ( and 5 of 6 threads that I had started, has been terminated, without any help, what so ever.. and ! I did not even curse.. once…! so, the Admins on that Forum, should get some education.. and so on… since they do not do their job…
So… yes.. We need a Good, serious Customer support, that can solve the Strange problems too… not only the easy ones… (through Q&A then ofc ) !
“In the country I live a lot of high schools have computers with Ubuntu installed on it”
They are trying to sell this thing world wide, not just your country for a start.
My school didn’t, in fact, in my country the vast majority of schools didn’t. Look at the news, we have only just begun to witness politicians and other leaders recognizing that we should all be more tech savvy than we are. They are trying to sell a world wide product to potentially everyone, and you think we should all tech savvy to make up for any shortcomings of theirs? Try to look at it from other people’s perspective. If I lack knowledge when their product doesn’t work and this isn’t because of my lack of knowledge…I’m to blame? What sort of logic is that?! There is no excuse for this extent of lacking customer service when you are selling something.
Eh? It’s called business basics 101….If you have no competition and your service is in demand, you can charge/do whatever you want….
Sounds about right. However none of the contenders are anywhere near as good. Origin, Uplay etc all suck.
And treat ppl how you want? Nice logic there. If you are the only player in the game, that mistreatment will only last so long….
Go look up the word “monopoly” because clearly you think it’s just a boardgame…
I nor anyone else wants to try it.
#dat1%linuxdesktopmarketsharedoe
And so the ignorance goes on for you… Have fun 😉
It’s not something they’re trying to sell us, It’s something I’ve seen in a lot of High Schools I’ve visited, of course It’ll be different in other countries.
What I’m trying to say is that Ubuntu, or any Linux distro, is not that hard to use. I’ve installed it to some of my family members and all of them could go on with Ubuntu without problems. When they have any question about it they google a bit or ask me.
Maybe you are, Ubuntu as is works flawless, fast and reliable, easy to use and understand if you give it some time (and dont have a crap or incompatible hardware). Install SteamOS, login to your account and play, if you met the recommended requirements of the games you’re installing you’ll have zero issues as long as the game is not like BF4 first version XD
*sigh*
I’m going to put it easy and should be like this on most computers:
1- Download SteamOS, burn to a CD and install it (a next->next->next->install->reboot->done process unless you want some special config)
2- Open Steam
3- Login to your account, update graphic drivers if needed (steam just does it for you) and download some games
4- Play
5- Profit ???
(VGA as in video graphics adapter, not the VGA connection port itself)
If you have some weird crap going on your computer maybe you should consider re-installing your OS and try not to screw it up next time, things like “I cannot join a server but everyone else can” are just the things that show if someone’s OS is behaving correctly or just a mess in config and setup (or your router is a mess or missconfigured too).
Don’t expect a forum that no serious gamer uses to be helpful, there are far better gaming-dedicated forums on the net that can help you with your issues (even googling your problem could help you way faster than the customer support of any company), specially those that talk about the game you are having problems with.
Of course a good customer support is needed, and Steam or Origin need probably a better than average customer support as there are a lot of different combinations in hardware and software, but sometimes instead of sticking to the platform’s customer support you’ll be better off asking in a forum or two, and that will prove true over the time if you use them 😉 (you see, a problem that only your friend and probably 1%-2% of the userbase of that game has is not what customer support could help you with, and something you’ll be better asking in a forum dedicated to that game)
Glad I have had zero issues that required Valve customer support. Still, where else can you get an A list title for $10-15 6-12 months after release typically?
And it’s your choice to speak with your wallets when/if that happens.
They don’t have a monopoly. They are just the 300 pound Gorilla because they are the only ones who have had real success. People use Steam because it’s convenient and most of the games eventually become extremely cheap.
They probably aren’t helping because 99% of the time it’s user error. If other people can join except for him, it is almost certainly either his PC or user error. Valve isn’t in the business of troubleshooting people’s PC’s.
They do have a monopoly because there isn’t a platform that actually rivals them. Yes Steam has a lot of good points, but it’s customer service, and attitude towards the customers is appauling.
Yes you’re thick as shit. Next point please.
yes that is the most common “( ignorant) replay… OFC its a user or Pc related problem… that is one of the points and reasons Support are need. since When and IF people do as they should and stuff still do not work, Who are you suppose to ask then ??? someones friends mum ?
– Info, the dude, have been playing this game for 10 years from 5 Different Computers… all working.. ( including this machine, that once it worked on too… )
The computer is Wiped out, /format c/; New OS, All programs and Steam /Cs go installed.. and so forth, the Server owner and him (Client ) has experimented with 50 Different setups.. And upon that he had Swapped place and computer within he´s home, the ” problem Follows him around ! BUT and here´s a big BUTT,,,
When a friend of ours “borrowed, he´s account and started it from another place… it worked… and a) yes he know how to spell… b) No its not the FUKKKing caps lock… c) yes we have read 1000 pages of Forum problems… and we have got 100 bad Answers… And it does not help ” and lastly d) No he is Not VAC banned…
So If this “ghost problem… is so easy… to Solve.. why ain´t it ?
And how come it follow him around in he´s home… but not on another location.. AND as one desperate way of Do everything you as an Common user can do…. ( or be expected to do.. ) he bought a new Router/ modem… so ” it was not in the Cache or “” something strange and obscure thing we yet has not think of…””
– since he /we are kind of out of Solutions… and “common problem/reasons Why it is like this.. so he has done more then the most, beginners, semi-pros and Experts “usually do…
– as an Answer to someone that probably are really good in solving things…
usually….. but I think know as little as we do in this matter…
or can you tell whats wrong ?
And do you still think its bad user handling “error” ?
And If someone sell a product that suddenly start to behave strange, Who´s is the problem then.. ? or are you one of those that then give the nice advice ” if you cant play ? don´t play ?.. ” and then you move on ? since there is always one more Buying customer out there, and those are damn so more intressting then struggling “old customers”… and so on.. ?
“” Valve isn’t in the business of troubleshooting people’s PC’s. “” – no, this is what this text is all about… no they are not… a lot of things… and where are you putting you programs and games… ? in your pocket, and ? do Valve solve the problem there then ? ( since I doubt the´ll work there, at all…. )
Since what I can tell, VALVE is a company name… Not a Vault ! were you put you money and trust, and you, never ever after that, see it again…
and the CEO´s / Board / investors all laugh at the Stupid needy gamers… that give them money… and then expect something in return… right ? stupid me.. !
no, I do not Agree with you, is the short Version… but thats me… If you love them and never ever had /gonna have problem with them.. lucky you…
me ? I expected more… thats all…
When your points go further than the Monopoly defense, get back to me.
If there was one shop in the world that sold lemonade, that shop can sell lemonade for 100 bucks a pop. This is what steam is doing. They can get away with overcharging and poor customer service because there is no other equal in their field of market. If you can’t realise that then.. well. You can’t argue the religion out of a priest.
Origin has both a refund policy and also very good customer support
these are the oposite of steam, crappy service overall, great costumer service
718 complaints out of millions of customers? I would deem that steam is excellent then. I work in retail as long as the ratio of complaints is less then 1/8th we consider that very good.
In our industry we discovered that roughly 1/8th of all customers will complain for no reason other then to complain or to score freebies when you ask them whats wrong or try to follow up often they have nothing to say, you give them a survey they will give you 10s even though there complaining your perfect but I’m going to complain anyway. This was based on an ongoing 30 year ongoing study across our industry.
The BBB probually needs to learn this
No they FOLLOWED 718 complaints, no where it said that there were 778 complaints…… in the world we read before we post stuff.
from that list of 778, 503 were not handled at all thats alot, i am bad at math but i am sure its more then 75% ………..
in our industry we call that pretty bad
but when the users cant help you you want customer service, and it is lazy to rely on the users to help each other……
Why don’t you read before you post stuff. You didn’t even read my post clearly.
This is a different industry it’s likely that there complaints are more along the lines of this dose not work or I’m getting an error something like that. Think of it as more technical support or billing support rather then someone trying to get something for free or complaining for the sake of it. Usually people with software issues are legitimate.
I do understand where your coming from though I’ve seen my fair share of dodgy complaints that just don’t match up to reality but I think your industry cannot be compared to mine or anyone elses. Our customers have different support needs to yours. If you get a dodgy complaint there’s not a whole lot you can do about it, it just happens but you do need to make certain that it is dodgy first & not someone who is legitimately in need of assistance. If it is dodgy you also need to be tactful you can’t let on that you suspect something is odd it’s best just to agree with them rather then arguing which would make it worse.
/r/pcmasterrace had it right all along, Gaben Newell IS like god: he’s directly responsible for everything you enjoy, and you can try to contact him all you want and you’ll never get a response.
had an item taken from my account valued at 4000-4500 USD with screenshots to prove it.. in short valve replied with basically and ” oh well not our problem.”
I wasn’t referring to their customer service. The first thing I wrote was in agreement with mazty. “Good” being a subjective term, I used it to mean that the Steam experience in general is much better. More streamlined and much more palatable at least for my tastes. I prefer the entire thing as a whole over the rest.
Just check out his comment history, no point in trying to argue with this guy. 😛 He’ll drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
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Steam is overcharging? Is this some kind of joke? It’s a free service that offers some of the lowest prices legally (ie. not dodgy Indian keys) possible and hold big sales every other month. People are such cheapskates nowadays, this is ridiculous.
I Use Steam not because it’s convinient or easier to use than competitors.. I Use it cause nowadays im FORCED to use it, I’d still rather play games the old fashioned way, Any of the older PC gamers remember Unreal Tournament as an example? A Game you didnt have to install excess Crap to play, A Game you can just install off a disk, and click the shortcut on your desktop to play.. I Hate Valve and Steam, Sure it makes it easier to get games as you can just download them straight away, but their policies suck, they give 0% of damns about their customers, and as it’s still highly believed they are using their dominance to Ban players from games using their VAC system to force them to spend more money to buy the games back, And don’t just try to tell me that i’m probably mad cause VAC banned me and im a cheater bla bla, I’ve never cheated, I’ve never been banned, but I know people who have been banned who I know would not cheat, I Know people who have come home from the armed forced and have ended up with VAC banned accounts because they have been away from their games.. obviously steam thinks you are a cheater if you don’t play games for months upon months at a time…
I Would much rather see steam die off and have to go down to the store and buy my games from a trusted retailer, have GOOD anti-cheat software that actually bans the real cheaters and makes life better for the REAL legit players.
Once again, Unreal tournament comes into play.. A Game that was truly PC Based, when released, it didn’t have anti cheat, but because Epic Games knew how to make their game, they allowed full Modding of the game for PC, which again is rare on PC nowadays excluding things like Gmod. UT Allowed its consumer base to create their own anti-cheat mods that server admins (yes these actually existed once, you could create your own server on your own PC, how amazing is that?), Could actually add into their servers and the software would ban you automatically, otherwise server admins could ban players as they see fit, the game also featured an amazing spectate system which helped to identify cheaters.
I Just wish games could go back to the old fashioned way they were, where the PC player had alot of control over how they placed, this is why PC Is dying as a gaming system these days, gamers are morons and/or children who think consoles are good value for money and since the PC offers no real benefit against them anymore, they blindly rush to store and buy one (not trying to start a console vs PC war here just saying it how it is).
But if we once again start to go backwards, which in this case is the better direction for PC gaming, we might start to see more people on the PC again.
But then what do I know.. I’m just one of Valve’s blind consumers whose forced to play his games through Steam.
yes they overcharge …it is treu …. when i can get a key cheaper on a diffrent site then ons team one can say they over charge .
when looking at the numbers of the research you will have to take the 718 as a 100% thing . 1/8th of that is about 90 , so one could argue 90 would be the number of complaints people will use to get freebies, but they ignored 503 of them. thats way more then 1/8th .
and besides blatantly ignoring complaints is bad buisness modeling. even if you suspect that some one is full of shit you reply to them.
In the store where iw ork , when someone claims to have gotten not enough money back , we dont just ignore him, no we tell them to give us their number, and as soon as the cashier has a cashregister diffrence that is possitive we will give them a call.
that is customer support, if you ignore people just becuas you think they are out to get a freebie you will enfuriate the people who dont.
SO this is not good practice.
ohw and you said 718 complaints out of millions of customers? I would deem that steam is excellent then.” indicating you thought that there were only 718 complaints ……… i read it , you seemingly did not
The only reason this key is cheaper is because the TAXES in the country the key was supposed to be sold in are lower. This isn’t Steam’s responsibility and it’s a legal gray area that’ll surely be taken care of in the next few years.
What about the fact i can find cheaper physical copies of fames they sell digital ? And no not during a sale for the physical copies normsl store prices…
I was refering to Steam dawg, although yeah I didn’t make that very clear, sorry. I hear tell of the BF4 launch, I luckilly missed it as I was a late comer to the game 😉 now I just need to find some proper team players on there and I can actually start enjoying it! :p
Stores are free to price however they want, if you found one that offers game at a lower price then good for you, but this is far from the majority of them.
Had an issue with Origin and a BF4 map pack. Called their CS, they “reset” my account, and I was able to download the add on pack about an hour later. Took about three hours total and I was playing the game, and… I received a follow up email the next day asking me if it was all good.
Had a similar issue with Steam when I bought a game and couldn’t get it to download without an error/crash. Never could get ahold of anyone at Steam, no one ever emailed or called me back, and I finally just blew it off – losing $30.
Steam’s Customer Service is non existent.
Well, if your competition consists of Origin and Uplay, it’s not like you have to work hard to be the best. Especially Uplay is just terrible and is more DRM than consumer service.
Just because one shop is more expensive than another shop for product X, that does not mean that shop is overcharging you. If you can buy a PS4 for 350 dollars/euros, that does not mean that all the stores that charge you 400 are ripping you of, it just means you get a great deal at the cheap store.
It’s called being a smart consumer in a world where companies compete on price. Sometimes, especially during sales, Steam is a hell of a lot cheaper than the competition. And sometimes they’re more expensive. But they are certainly not overcharging you.
When you’re not a fuckwit, get back to me 🙂
#themonopolydefense #hasnothingelseasadefence #justrepeatswhathehearsonline #aparrotatbest
#blatanttroll
#truth
I totally agree with this article. As great as Steam is toward the PC gaming community, it needs to care more for the people who bring in their income.
As much as I dislike EA for one reason or another (Although I’m still a sucker who uses Origin occasionally), I could not fault their level of customer service when I recently had to enter a live chat with a problem. The CS agent that I dealt with was actually pretty damn helpful and friendly!
and i still feel they are overpricing a lot of their games, when i still have to pay full price for a game that is 4 years old is over priced for me , just becuas they are one of the only ones does not make it better, hell even GOG (which i love more then i do steam) has overpriced games.