Support Tickets?

[D43D4LV5]

Has Steam's support system been reduced to just a FAQ site? I'm unable to find a way to contact support directly and interact with a representative.

[Cassidy]

What do you need help with?

Steam Support mostly deals with account and billing issues. If it is neither of those, chances are the FAQs can already help you, or they cannot help you with that particular issue.

[D43D4LV5]

I had a question regarding account privacy that isn't covered in the FAQ site. Would be nice if Steam still had their old ticket system.

[Zefar]

Steam support is for actual problems. Your question about privacy could easily be answered by most people here.

[Glimmer]

You could ask here and we might be able to answer.

[D43D4LV5]

Ok, cool. Is there a way to hide your previous game handle(s) from people viewing your profile?

[Cathulhu]

Yes, just change your nickname a few times.
See, no support needed for that.

[Teksura]

To put it very simple:


The open ticket system was abused and spammed with so much garbage, it used to take several weeks just to get a reply. When I say garbage, I mean stuff that ranges from basic questions anyone in the Help forum could answer, to stuff that Valve specifically says support will not help with, such as removing VAC bans. This was a serious problem because the more people spammed the system with garbage requests, the less support was able to actually support the users who needed their help. A simple search will find hundreds of old threads complaining about how slow support was.



The solution to that problem was the help wizard. The help wizard can answer things that are frequent questions, it can deal with issues such as account recovery and refunds. And for those few who actually need support's help on their issue it allows a ticket to be opened. If your answer isn't in the help wizard, you should try asking in this help forum.

[D43D4LV5]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

Yes, just change your nickname a few times.
See, no support needed for that.

Hmm.. nope.

[XBL Laberbacke]

Originally posted by D4ED4LVS:

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

Yes, just change your nickname a few times.
See, no support needed for that.

Hmm.. nope.

Hmm.. yes.

[D43D4LV5]

Originally posted by Teksura:

To put it very simple:


The open ticket system was abused and spammed with so much garbage, it used to take several weeks just to get a reply. When I say garbage, I mean stuff that ranges from basic questions anyone in the Help forum could answer, to stuff that Valve specifically says support will not help with, such as removing VAC bans. This was a serious problem because the more people spammed the system with garbage requests, the less support was able to actually support the users who needed their help. A simple search will find hundreds of old threads complaining about how slow support was.



The solution to that problem was the help wizard. The help wizard can answer things that are frequent questions, it can deal with issues such as account recovery and refunds. And for those few who actually need support's help on their issue it allows a ticket to be opened. If your answer isn't in the help wizard, you should try asking in this help forum.

Thanks, I'll be sure to ask in the forums if I can't find the answer with the help wizard. I'm going to presume you can't hide your previous gamer tags, which seems a little off for "private" accounts.

[D43D4LV5]

Originally posted by XBL Laberbacke:

Originally posted by D4ED4LVS:

Hmm.. nope.

Hmm.. yes.

How so? Wouldn't it be easier to just disable that setting for "private" accounts?

[ KARR™]

Originally posted by D4ED4LVS:

Originally posted by XBL Laberbacke:

Hmm.. yes.

How so? Wouldn't it be easier to just disable that setting for "private" accounts?

Private accounts hide the profile - the name you use is still public information.

Not to mention, even if it was able to remove it, it's still available on third party sites so everyone can see that you changed your name.

Eg:


Name Changed - 6 Sep @ 5:32am - D4ED4LVS
Name Changed - 2 Feb, 2016 @ 5:34pm - Daedalus
Name Changed - 8 Dec, 2012 @ 7:27pm - genz0d

[Teksura]

Originally posted by D4ED4LVS:

Originally posted by Teksura:

To put it very simple:


The open ticket system was abused and spammed with so much garbage, it used to take several weeks just to get a reply. When I say garbage, I mean stuff that ranges from basic questions anyone in the Help forum could answer, to stuff that Valve specifically says support will not help with, such as removing VAC bans. This was a serious problem because the more people spammed the system with garbage requests, the less support was able to actually support the users who needed their help. A simple search will find hundreds of old threads complaining about how slow support was.



The solution to that problem was the help wizard. The help wizard can answer things that are frequent questions, it can deal with issues such as account recovery and refunds. And for those few who actually need support's help on their issue it allows a ticket to be opened. If your answer isn't in the help wizard, you should try asking in this help forum.

Thanks, I'll be sure to ask in the forums if I can't find the answer with the help wizard. I'm going to presume you can't hide your previous gamer tags, which seems a little off for "private" accounts.

What makes you presume that the 100% correct answer you have already been given should be ignored? There is a limit to how many previous names are listed in that menu. The menu doesn't care if you ignore this fact or not.

[999999999]

Change it 10 times to bump it off the list.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by 999999999:

Change it 10 times to bump it off the list.

This...

Very simply stated, it only stores the last 10 names. So "spam" the names off the list and leave the one you want to keep as the last one. Problem solved.

EDIT...

And this exactly proves how the new support system with the self-help menu is working exactly as intended. It lessens needless tickets, so support can more focus on actual account isssues that one actually NEEDS support for.

Sometimes, support actually refers users to the forums here for help, according to what we have seen others claim. Often, we can help here in the community, and help posted here helps others that see it later, if they use the fourm search.

A win-win, if you will.