Steam Support Frustration - Automated Replies

[hugh.roberts]

I recently paid for and downloaded Assassin's Creed: Origins via Steam. It quickly became clear that I was not going to be able to play the game because my system was not good enough for it. I was happy with this, or so I thought. As I had never played the game I was confident that I could get a refund.
I applied for a refund after rasing a ticket with both Steam Support and with Ubisoft and was told that my system did not meet requirements. This refunbd application was rejected because I was in breach of the 2 hours play rule. I checked in my Library and it shows that I have played the game for 4 hours even though I have not been able to play the game at all. I thought that is I re-submit a refunf request anjd put a note in to say that I have not played the game at all it might get reconsidered but I had the exact same response.
I am assuming that Steam Support queries are processed by some robotic process automation but it doesn't seem to have been programmed to check the content of the notes box. No other Steam Support Category seems to cover my query and there is no generic way to contact an actual person within Steam support.
Does anyone kbnow any other way to get in touch with Steam to get a humaqn response?

[Phantom]

Actual Valve employees do review these... In my case, they were.

[Meatbug]

Things like predefined text modules exist. It makes things faster/easier, especially when you deal with tenthousands of tickets.
So just because it reads the same, doesn't mean that no human looked over that request.

Apart from that, you've got twice the amount of time that's set as maximum to get a refund.
If you actually played the game, or left it open in the main menu and went for lunch is something no one can see.

Take this as a lesson and for future games, make sure to not leave them running and keep the 2 hours playtime in mind.

[hugh.roberts]

Robin3sk - I hope they read this :)
Meatbug - I think you are missing my points completely but thanks for taking the time to respond. I thought I had been clear that I had tried to paly the game but that it wouldn't play rather than I left it running so I could have my lunch! I'm not really sure taking one on the chin is a sound part of customer service (and I am sure not oen Steam would advocate)

[FMP]

The game was open, thus Valve consider that to be you playing it.

As such, you're over the limit for the refund.

[Phantom]

Originally posted by hugh.roberts:

Robin3sk - I hope they read this :)

This is a user forum, they are not available here.

As the game was open - it exceeded the time-limit that was to be kept.

For future reference - http://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/

[hugh.roberts]

OK - The main point of the post was to find out if there is a way to contact Steam other than the fixed catergries they have as none of them cover my query. I know that the game shoes that I played it for 4 hours, I said so in my original post, but I want to contact Steam to query that.

[Phantom]

Originally posted by hugh.roberts:

OK - The main point of the post was to find out if there is a way to contact Steam other than the fixed catergries they have as none of them cover my query. I know that the game shoes that I played it for 4 hours, I said so in my original post, but I want to contact Steam to query that.

As has been said, there is no other way to contact them rather than the community messages you receive by Steam support.

Originally posted by Meatbug:

Things like predefined text modules exist. It makes things faster/easier, especially when you deal with ten thousands of tickets.
So just because it reads the same, doesn't mean that no human looked over that request.

Apart from that, you've got twice the amount of time that's set as maximum to get a refund.
If you actually played the game, or left it open in the main menu and went for lunch is something no one can see.

Take this as a lesson and for future games, make sure to not leave them running and keep the 2 hours playtime in mind.

[Count_Dandyman]

Originally posted by hugh.roberts:

OK - The main point of the post was to find out if there is a way to contact Steam other than the fixed catergries they have as none of them cover my query. I know that the game shoes that I played it for 4 hours, I said so in my original post, but I want to contact Steam to query that.

Theres no real way you can query that your game was running for 4 hours and its that simple the refund system is based on the runtime not what you did in that time.

[Meatbug]

Originally posted by hugh.roberts:

Meatbug - I think you are missing my points completely but thanks for taking the time to respond. I thought I had been clear that I had tried to paly the game but that it wouldn't play rather than I left it running so I could have my lunch! I'm not really sure taking one on the chin is a sound part of customer service (and I am sure not oen Steam would advocate)

I didn't want to imply that you did, my point was rather that there is no way to check if you actually played the game, did troubleshooting, left your computer while the game was running or anything else.

Well, you might not like the outcome, but you've already been rejected twice for a refund, which was reviewd by actual humans, according to their support page:

My refund request was denied. Can I contest this decision?

If you feel that there has been an error in the handling of your refund inquiry, please submit another request at help.steampowered.com. The request will be reviewed by another Valve employee.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4873-QOSK-5126


I doubt that further refund request will change the outcome.

Checking system requirements is also something, that should be checked on the store page before buying.
But even if you would have thought it might run good enough, 2 hours should be enough time to test that out and get a feeling if it runs good enough, or if it is more like slideshow of 5 frames per second.

So yeah, learning from that experience is bascially the bottom line.