How can I contact Steam Support Directly?

[Vargas78]

The Help options do not address my specific issue, and i keep getting declined a refund from an obvious bot barrier that just triggers because its been over 14 days. But I am a victim of an unscrupulous developer on the storefront, who took my money but cut and run. After releasing a final update that stopped the game i bought from working.

[Aachen]

Publicado originalmente por Vargas78:

That sucks, steam should do more to police it's storefront. One day, an unscrupulous developer will release a 60 dollar game and do this same kind of thing and people will get stung hard.

And Valve quite possibly would mass-refund if it was a large enough problem.

If you found you’d received stolen goods, would you demand you ought to be allowed to keep them?

[Vargas78]

@Aachen If i unknowingly paid for stolen goods, in a legal respected store-front may i add, i would not expect to keep the product. But i would expect to get my money back in a just, not anarchic society. At the expense of he/she who commited the crime.

[Brian9824]

Publicado originalmente por Vargas78:

@Aachen If i unknowingly paid for stolen goods, i would not expect to keep the product. But i would expect to get my money back in a just, not anarchic society. At the expense of he/she who commited the crime.

Not how it works in real life. If you buy something stolen, even unknowingly you lose the item and the money. Anyways it has nothing to do with Steam, its not their product. Its no different if you bought it from best buy for instance.

Talk to the developer/publisher of the game

[Reggaejunkiedrew]

Publicado originalmente por Vargas78:

Publicado originalmente por Hennix:

few month!!

no chance even with manuell ticket

But what i bought has been taken away with no explanation. That sets a dangerous precedence, does it mean any game you buy can just be taken away with no explanation? The game was cheap but imagine if you spent £60 on a single player game that doesnt require servers to be maintained, for that to happen. And with no legal angle to stand on? That can't be right.

It's not really any different then if you bought a game at Walmart, and then 2 months later it was broken by some patch, you wouldn't expect Walmart to take the game back.

Did this update just happen? I noticed the posts about this on the games forum are all in the last 24 hours, I'd give it atleast a week to see if it gets fixed or atleast addressed before jumping to conclusions, but if they did deliberately break the game thats a pretty scummy thing to do though. Best you can do is be sure to not purchase anything from that publisher/dev again if that is the case.

[Vargas78]

This was not some back alley deal but a purchase from one of the most respected store-fronts in the industry brian! To me it's a really ugly situation that such a thing can happen.

And if you can get away with it so easy, whats to stop others from not doing the same thing? There is a market for remasters of classic games, someone could release a well loved old title, neglected by the owner of the IP, say for example Dune 2. And make practically the same game bar a few minor differences, pocket the money then cut and run!

[Start_Running]

Publicado originalmente por Vargas78:

Publicado originalmente por J4MESOX4D:

I bet you're over the two hour mark also which is another requirement you have to meet.

I've only played it about 18 minutes but it has been a few months since the purchase.

When you say a few months are we talkinfg 2, 3, 6? This is rather important.

Instead it made the game unplayable, deliberately. The game was also withdrawn from store, perhaps prior to that.

And you're sure no one can play it. Kinda hard to hjduge based on the SteamDB ratings.

[Brian9824]

Publicado originalmente por Vargas78:

This was not some back alley deal but a purchase from one of the most respected store-fronts in the industry brian! To me it's a really ugly situation that such a thing can happen.

And if you can get away with it so easy, whats to stop others from not doing the same thing? There is a market for remasters of classic games, someone could release a well loved old title, neglected by the owner of the IP, say for example Dune 2. And make practically the same game bar a few minor differences, pocket the money then cut and run!

Again no different then buying it from any store. The store has no control over the product being changed AFTER its sold.

Jail time, lawsuits, etc stop people from doing the same thing and doing what you describe.

Whining about it on the forums isn't going to magically make steam able to take the money out of the publishers pockets.

[Vargas78]

Yeah i'm just letting off steam but it's good to know points of view. The purchase was cheap and the money for this purchase at least doesn't bother me but what sends a shiver down my spine is what if it were something expensive i bought? Are other games in my library at risk? But i'm going to leave things at that, i don't want to spam up the steam discussion like a broken record.

[Drab]

"Are other games in my library at risk?"

Yes, all of them are; and not just on Steam.

[LowJack_VA1]

These licenses can be removed at any time on any platform. There won't be refunds or anything, if and when the platforms fail.

[Zaskar]

Publicado originalmente por Vargas78:

This was not some back alley deal but a purchase from one of the most respected store-fronts in the industry brian! To me it's a really ugly situation that such a thing can happen.

It doesn't change that your issue is with the game's developpers/publisher. If you bought the game from Walmart, would you go to them 6 months after saying that the developpers changed the game and you want a refund ? I'm pretty sure you wouldn't and if you would, they would simply laugh at you.

[Vargas78]

@LowJack_VA1 Looks like i'm going to veer more towards gog from now. More chance of keeping what you paid for.

@Zaskar but it's not just a case that they changed it, they literally took the product away. Imagine if the corporation that made the product sent an agent to your house and took it away or deliberately damaged it so it no longer works?

Still, i understand that complaining is pretty futile, I accept the situation. I just wanted to answer that (to my eyes) weak allegory.

[LowJack_VA1]

Publicado originalmente por Vargas78:

^ Looks like i'm going to veer more towards gog from now. More chance of keeping what you paid for.

I suggest GOG highly, GOG has a built-in game backup! And it's DRM free!

[Zaskar]

Publicado originalmente por Vargas78:

@LowJack_VA1 Looks like i'm going to veer more towards gog from now. More chance of keeping what you paid for.

@Zaskar but it's not just a case that they changed it, they literally took the product away. Imagine if the corporation that made the product sent an agent to your house and took it away?

Still, i understand that complaining is pretty futile, I accept the situation. I just wanted to answer that allegory.

If the publisher sent an agent to steal the game from your house, would you blame the store that sold it to you ?

Again, your issue is with the game's developpers/publisher.

[nullable]

Publicado originalmente por Zaskar:

Again, your issue is with the game's developpers/publisher.

Unless you truly believe in your heart of hearts that the store should do more to police the products and businesses they deal with and convince yourself as a matter of convenience that whatever name you pick out of a hat is ultimately responsible for any unhappiness you feel.