How do we get support?

[mav8029]

My kid went onto my computer on his first day of summer vacation and racked up charges while I was at work. I've been trying to get help, but there is no way to contact anyone. I've sent messages and left voicemails, and no one gets back to me. I reported the unauthorized purchases, and they locked my account, so now my refund requests are being denied for that. There seems to be no way to get help.

[76561198407601200]

Very top of this forum "Support"

[miamew3]

Did you do a charge back via your bank? That would be one reason why it is now locked.

[wuddih]

Steam has no phone support

https://help.steampowered.com/en/
in client it is Help -> Steam Support

[mav8029]

Originally posted by The Living Tribunal:

Very top of this forum "Support"

Their Support feature doesn't actually offer support. They just provide links to vague information that doesn't help.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by mnwithkids:

Their Support feature doesn't actually offer support. They just provide links to vague information that doesn't help.

They offer links to open a actual support ticket to get in contact with Steam Support.
Which is the ONLY way on Steam.

[mav8029]

Originally posted by miamew3:

Did you do a charge back via your bank? That would be one reason why it is now locked.

They did unlock it again, but they still haven't offered support. They refuse to refund anything saying it was "consumable."

My issue is that they added in-app purchasing at some point in the past 5 years and didn't notify parents so they could prevent it. They are a horrible company. Absolutely horrible.

[mav8029]

Originally posted by wuddih:

Steam has no phone support

https://help.steampowered.com/en/
in client it is Help -> Steam Support

Ya ... I've been trying that for days, and they offer no help whatsoever.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by mnwithkids:

My issue is that they added in-app purchasing at some point in the past 5 years and didn't notify parents so they could prevent it. They are a horrible company. Absolutely horrible.

I mean, why did your child have access to your account? Your account should be secured with a password login so this can not happen.
So the first point of failure was not Steam but your lack of securing your account.
Or teaching your child not to access your things when you are not home.
Or going on a spending spree in an online game.
I fail to see how ANY of that is on Steam. They give you plenty of tools to prevent scenarios like this, from account security to family view settings to manage children on Steam.

And yes, "consumable items" in games are non refundable on Steam, you would need to get in contact with the game publisher for that, Steam has zero access to that money as it did go straight to the publisher.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by mnwithkids:

Originally posted by miamew3:

Did you do a charge back via your bank? That would be one reason why it is now locked.

They did unlock it again, but they still haven't offered support. They refuse to refund anything saying it was "consumable."

My issue is that they added in-app purchasing at some point in the past 5 years and didn't notify parents so they could prevent it. They are a horrible company. Absolutely horrible.

If the purchase is a "consumable" then it cannot be refunded.

Originally posted by mnwithkids:

My kid went onto my computer on his first day of summer vacation and racked up charges while I was at work.

Sounds like the kid needs to pay you back, then.

[mav8029]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by mnwithkids:

My issue is that they added in-app purchasing at some point in the past 5 years and didn't notify parents so they could prevent it. They are a horrible company. Absolutely horrible.

I mean, why did your child have access to your account? Your account should be secured with a password login so this can not happen.
So the first point of failure was not Steam but your lack of securing your account.
Or teaching your child not to access your things when you are not home.
Or going on a spending spree in an online game.
I fail to see how ANY of that is on Steam. They give you plenty of tools to prevent scenarios like this, from account security to family view settings to manage children on Steam.

I had Family View turned on.
The store was restricted. He shouldn't have been able to make a purchase. Steam can't even tell me how it happened.

Sorry, but like countless other parents out there, I'm working 6am to 8pm almost every day just to put food on the table. I can't watch them 24-7. That is the reality for many working-class families. He's a really good kid who didn't understand that they would put purchases in the game. On top of my crazy work schedule, I volunteer over 300 hours a year to help with my kids' activities. I'm trying. There are a lot of parents out there doing their absolute best, and then there are judgemental ass-hats like you ready to blame the parents.

[Chompman]

Originally posted by mnwithkids:

Originally posted by miamew3:

Did you do a charge back via your bank? That would be one reason why it is now locked.

They did unlock it again, but they still haven't offered support. They refuse to refund anything saying it was "consumable."

My issue is that they added in-app purchasing at some point in the past 5 years and didn't notify parents so they could prevent it. They are a horrible company. Absolutely horrible.

A lot of games have in app purchasing for over a decade and this falls on you to make sure no one uses it without permission on your end.

Your best option in the future is to unlink any kind of payment service such as paypal / credit card from your account and only use it when you buy such items but never keep it linked after.

Also it falls on you to not allow anyone else to use your account as this is not allowed and if you want to allow your child to be able to use some of your games look into getting them their own account and setting up family share and set proper restrictions so this does not happen again.

[Aluvard]

Not everything can be refunded/has same refund policy as games. More below:
https://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds

[mav8029]

Originally posted by Chompman:

Originally posted by mnwithkids:

They did unlock it again, but they still haven't offered support. They refuse to refund anything saying it was "consumable."

My issue is that they added in-app purchasing at some point in the past 5 years and didn't notify parents so they could prevent it. They are a horrible company. Absolutely horrible.

A lot of games have in app purchasing for over a decade and this falls on you to make sure no one uses it without permission on your end.

Your best option in the future is to unlink any kind of payment service such as paypal / credit card from your account and only use it when you buy such items but never keep it linked after.

Also it falls on you to not allow anyone else to use your account as this is not allowed and if you want to allow your child to be able to use some of your games look into getting them their own account and setting up family share and set proper restrictions so this does not happen again.

In-app purchasing is turned off on every computer, ever phone, every gaming system. But never had I encountered in-app purchasing in Steam. And the store was turned off on Family View, so he shouldn't have been able to make any purchases. We purchased some Jackbox Games and Stray.

How long have you been using Steam? We never saw in-app purchasing prior to this instance.

[Chompman]

Originally posted by mav8029:

Originally posted by Chompman:

A lot of games have in app purchasing for over a decade and this falls on you to make sure no one uses it without permission on your end.

Your best option in the future is to unlink any kind of payment service such as paypal / credit card from your account and only use it when you buy such items but never keep it linked after.

Also it falls on you to not allow anyone else to use your account as this is not allowed and if you want to allow your child to be able to use some of your games look into getting them their own account and setting up family share and set proper restrictions so this does not happen again.

In-app purchasing is turned off on every computer, ever phone, every gaming system. But never had I encountered in-app purchasing in Steam. And the store was turned off on Family View, so he shouldn't have been able to make any purchases. We purchased some Jackbox Games and Stray.

How long have you been using Steam? We never saw in-app purchasing prior to this instance.

What game was it?

A lot of games have their own in game stores and this may had been the issue.

[Ben Lubar]

Originally posted by mav8029:

How long have you been using Steam? We never saw in-app purchasing prior to this instance.

https://www.teamfortress.com/mannconomy/

There were in-game purchases on Steam before they introduced Greenlight. So at least 14 years at this point.