How to complain Steam to Authorities? List of all places to complain Steam

[Built-in Wardrobe Led Light]

Hi can you guys put a list of all authorities that we can systematically complain steam? It looks like there is a post-modern keep them in the loop style avoidance is in place. I have this game AOE4 that keeps crashing every 15 minutes. Did the entire tech guide to fix it nothing works. Complained to them separately.

See now I'm filing a complaint to Australian Consumer Affairs, but was just curious if someone has a hand list of all places that we can possibly complain them to. Including PC gamer kind of journals or some news sites that cares about consumer issues?

Can't believe how disgusting steam's attitude is when it comes to refunds these days. Won't even refund for a game that simply does not work.

[B-o-B]

Google. Local Police Office. Local Government Office. And throw in a Lawyer.
Disgusting innit !!

[Haruspex]

Steam has a very good refund policy. Within two weeks, with less than two hours of play, and a requested refund is basically automatic.

Since the game crashes "every 15 minutes", as you say, maybe after two of those crashes you might tell yourself, "Hmm. Perhaps this game isn't going to work out?", and you would request a refund. Even then, four crashes and you would still only be 1 hour in. Surely it wouldn't take eight crashes for you to figure out you should probably refund the thing.

Something tells me there's a lot more to it than that though. There's always more to it.

Also...

Publicado originalmente por Built-in Wardrobe Led Light:

Can't believe how disgusting steam's attitude is when it comes to refunds these days.

What do you mean "these days". Before 2015, they didn't even have a refund policy. Before that, the best you could hope for was to ask nicely, and maybe they would refund you as a "one time courtesy".

All these past 7 years since they've had a refund policy at all it's always been within 2 weeks, under 2 hours. There was a big brouhaha about it when it happened too. Developers were worried people would take advantage.

[KalGimpa]

how long did you have the game? how long did you spend trying to fix it? did you attempt a manual refund with


account details
view purchase history
"game"
i have a question about this purchase

or just the standard?

if you went past the 2 and 2, what chances have you given and attempted to give whomever made the game to help you fix it?

important questions the authorities will ask as well

as for whom to contact, the only ones i think that would be able to do anything for you ar those you have already gotten ahold of

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

Actually scratch that. You go right ahead OP. I've already got my popcorn.

[Haruspex]

Publicado originalmente por Judgmental Amaterasu:

Explain how Steam is supposed to "fix" a game they did not make?

Not to mention how are the developers supposed to "fix" a game that isn't broken.

36,160 reviews, 86.49% of which are positive. That's not how a "broken" game gets reviewed. OP's personal issues with his system don't make for a broken game, and even if though they were personal problems, he still could have refunded within the normal refund period.

Steam DB estimates between 721.4 thousand and 1.98 million owners on Steam. A quick search for "crash" under the AOE4 discussion boards nets me... 63 total hits. So it's not that nobody is experiencing crashes. It's that the number of people experiencing crashes are so minute, so infinitesimally tiny, that it's not really worth pursuing. Particularly if those experiencing crashes are below the recommended system requirements.

[Satoru]

AOE4 has 15 thousand people playing it today

Its obviously working fine

https://forums.ageofempires.com/c/age-of-empires-iv/age-of-empires-iv-support/186

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1466860/discussions/3/3158705742073789414/

[Valeriya]

I had and I have the same problem on this game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/283640/Salt_and_Sanctuary/

that since I switched to Window 10 does not want to know that it works in any way, but until then I was able to play about 14 hours after which it no longer worked, the bug and reports section is full of users mentioning various crashes and the game has not been supported for years.
I had also tried to ask for a refund in the past, but I knew immediately it was not possible because I exceeded the time limit of 2 hours a lot, so I did not get any refund even explaining why, the pc is always updated and clean.
Oddly, the Epic Games version I wanted to try works perfectly, there is a difference in the folder structure of the game files compared to the Steam version.
However, these are limited cases, you cannot think of making a stupid complaint just because the game does not work for you and above all for a stupid videogames, there is no mention of a scam in which millions of users have been scammed and where a class action would start, you're saying nonsense.

[Criss-Cross]

Publicado originalmente por B-o-B:

Google. Local Police Office. Local Government Office. And throw in a Lawyer.
Disgusting innit !!

What will local police do about a gaming issue other than laugh at you?, His best bet is go to paypal and file a complaint about it and get his money back.

Here is [e-mail]
Or you can do the below.


If the support articles aren't able to help you, you can send a message to Steam support. Most support articles have a link at the bottom of the page that says "Contact Steam Support." Click that link and send a message describing your problem, including a screenshot or other attachment if necessary

[rawWwRrr]

Publicado originalmente por Scream 4 Me:

Here is [e-mail]

Support does not answer emails.

Publicado originalmente por Scream 4 Me:

If the support articles aren't able to help you, you can send a message to Steam support. Most support articles have a link at the bottom of the page that says "Contact Steam Support." Click that link and send a message describing your problem, including a screenshot or other attachment if necessary

It's not a Valve game. Support would simply direct OP to contact the developer.

[Satoru]

Publicado originalmente por 𝓑𝓵𝓾𝓮𝓫𝓲𝓻𝓭:

I had and I have the same problem on this game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/283640/Salt_and_Sanctuary/

that since I switched to Window 10 does not want to know that it works in any way, but until then I was able to play about 14 hours after which it no longer worked, the bug and reports section is full of users mentioning various crashes and the game has not been supported for years.
I had also tried to ask for a refund in the past, but I knew immediately it was not possible because I exceeded the time limit of 2 hours a lot, so I did not get any refund even explaining why, the pc is always updated and clean.
Oddly, the Epic Games version I wanted to try works perfectly, there is a difference in the folder structure of the game files compared to the Steam version.
However, these are limited cases, you cannot think of making a stupid complaint just because the game does not work for you and above all for a stupid videogames, there is no mention of a scam in which millions of users have been scammed and where a class action would start, you're saying nonsense.

Salt and Sanctuary is still getting updates years later. They just released a public beta last month

If it didn't work on Windows 10, it would be obvious. And as you said the Epic version runs fine

It sounds more like you need XNA

[Anonymous Helper]

Publicado originalmente por JaneDoe:

His best bet is go to paypal and file a complaint about it and get his money back.

If they do a chargeback, Steam will permanently lock their account and the payment method used will be permanently blacklisted so it can never be used on Steam.

Correct way to request: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/784C-923B-A4A1-C825

If above refund request is refused due to purchase being made over 14 years ago or game having being played over 2 hours, they can try to make manual refund request:

go to recent Purchases, find the purchase, I have a question about this purchase and here fill in your problems and why you want a refund. got accepted after a couple hours

Publicado originalmente por JaneDoe:

Or you can do the below.


If the support articles aren't able to help you, you can send a message to Steam support. Most support articles have a link at the bottom of the page that says "Contact Steam Support." Click that link and send a message describing your problem, including a screenshot or other attachment if necessary

Steam does not provide support for 3rd party games. They'll will simply ask them to either ask in games forum or to contact game's developer.

[Valeriya]

Publicado originalmente por Satoru:

Publicado originalmente por 𝓑𝓵𝓾𝓮𝓫𝓲𝓻𝓭:

I had and I have the same problem on this game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/283640/Salt_and_Sanctuary/

that since I switched to Window 10 does not want to know that it works in any way, but until then I was able to play about 14 hours after which it no longer worked, the bug and reports section is full of users mentioning various crashes and the game has not been supported for years.
I had also tried to ask for a refund in the past, but I knew immediately it was not possible because I exceeded the time limit of 2 hours a lot, so I did not get any refund even explaining why, the pc is always updated and clean.
Oddly, the Epic Games version I wanted to try works perfectly, there is a difference in the folder structure of the game files compared to the Steam version.
However, these are limited cases, you cannot think of making a stupid complaint just because the game does not work for you and above all for a stupid videogames, there is no mention of a scam in which millions of users have been scammed and where a class action would start, you're saying nonsense.

Salt and Sanctuary is still getting updates years later. They just released a public beta last month

If it didn't work on Windows 10, it would be obvious. And as you said the Epic version runs fine

It sounds more like you need XNA

The difference stay in the fact that the XNA files are present in the game folder in the Epic version and it works, but they are not present in the Steam version although I had already tried to reinstall them, but soon they will release a new update this august for the Steam version.

[Mad Scientist]

Publicado originalmente por JaneDoe:

What will local police do about a gaming issue other than laugh at you?, His best bet is go to paypal and file a complaint about it and get his money back.

This is terrible advice that can result in an account being permanently locked. What you're suggesting is theft, not a resolution. They can ONLY use Steam Support to request a refund, at the most.

Publicado originalmente por JaneDoe:

Here is [e-mail]
Or you can do the below.

They can create a ticket through the ticket system, they do NOT manually send an email.

[Satoru]

Publicado originalmente por 𝓑𝓵𝓾𝓮𝓫𝓲𝓻𝓭:

Publicado originalmente por Satoru:

Salt and Sanctuary is still getting updates years later. They just released a public beta last month

If it didn't work on Windows 10, it would be obvious. And as you said the Epic version runs fine

It sounds more like you need XNA

The difference stay in the fact that the XNA files are present in the game folder in the Epic version and it works, but they are not present in the Steam version although I had already tried to reinstall them, but soon they will release a new update this august for the Steam version.

Again the game works fine on Windows 10 on Steam. Meaning there’s something up with your local install that’s causing the issue. There is no systemic issue with the game on Windows 10.

[Brian9824]

Publicado originalmente por Built-in Wardrobe Led Light:

Hi can you guys put a list of all authorities that we can systematically complain steam? It looks like there is a post-modern keep them in the loop style avoidance is in place. I have this game AOE4 that keeps crashing every 15 minutes. Did the entire tech guide to fix it nothing works. Complained to them separately.

See now I'm filing a complaint to Australian Consumer Affairs, but was just curious if someone has a hand list of all places that we can possibly complain them to. Including PC gamer kind of journals or some news sites that cares about consumer issues?

Can't believe how disgusting steam's attitude is when it comes to refunds these days. Won't even refund for a game that simply does not work.

You can't. Steam's refunds meet their legal obligations, the game in question is widely played and works so the issues are on your PC. If something breaks after a stores refund policy expires then that's it.

Your only option is to contact the manufacturer of the product.