Is STEAM trading fairly?

[Kiyza]

Dear STEAM Community and fellow gamers.

If there is a link for a 22% discount on a game on the game's official website is it too much to expect that game to actually be 22% off of the RRP when you follow the link?
http://www.assettocorsa.net/en/
I have encountered this exact situation with Assetto Corsa and despite my best efforts explaining this to STEAM Support they ignore their responsibilty to trade a game at a linked price seeing that they are in partnership with the game developer and rebuff me with:

'Steam does not offer discounts to purchases made before or after sale periods.'

Well unfortunately I am not sure trading standards or I care much for sale periods, I am much more interested in STEAM selling games at advertised prices by the game developers they work with. Surely that is not too much to expect?

I wonder what the STEAM Community think of this?
Am I expecting too much?
Or is this the start of STEAM being another corporation the community can't trust further than their servers could be thrown?

Disgruntled

BoOSh

[IEVI]

Steam does not set the prices the game publishers/developers set there game prices on steam

[dirrtymartini]

You want pricing matching on a video game? You must be new here.

[PigStix]

I too am falling out with Steam support at the moment. I have had the same cookie cutter response to my email to them regarding a price error during a purchase in the Winter Sale. They point blank refuse to talk to me and keep closing my tickets stating I should have checked before I paid. Yes, I admit that and I was stupid no to check the final price but they had the wrong price on the store page so they should at least shoulder some of the responsibility. The purchase was the Bioshock Season pass which showed at £3.99 with 40 mins to go on the sale. I added it to me cart along with other items and then paid but as soon as I finished the payment I noticed that is had gone through at full price and it was now showing in the store at full price as well so I immediately contacted them and got: 'Steam does not offer discounts to purchases made before or after sale periods.'

I have been a Steam advocate for years and have never had to contact support before now and I have to say I am not impressed with their customer service. When my EA account was hacked it took me 3 months to convince them that it was my account but I hung in there and sorted it but I feel that I am getting nowhere with Steam because they refuse to discuss the matter and tell me that I should have checked and the matter is closed.

[Hempest]

No what he is saying it that the dev website for the game says the game is on sale for 33% on steam (clicking the link on the website brings you to the steam store page but the game is not actually on sale). But there is no reason to get mad, I assume its just a glitch of some sort and it will eventually get fixed, welcome to real life where everything doesn't always work the perfectly and sometimes you got to have this little thing called patience.

[Hempest]

Originally posted by PigStix:

I too am falling out with Steam support at the moment. I have had the same cookie cutter response to my email to them regarding a price error during a purchase in the Winter Sale. They point blank refuse to talk to me and keep closing my tickets stating I should have checked before I paid. Yes, I admit that and I was stupid no to check the final price but they had the wrong price on the store page so they should at least shoulder some of the responsibility. The purchase was the Bioshock Season pass which showed at £3.99 with 40 mins to go on the sale. I added it to me cart along with other items and then paid but as soon as I finished the payment I noticed that is had gone through at full price and it was now showing in the store at full price as well so I immediately contacted them and got: 'Steam does not offer discounts to purchases made before or after sale periods.'

I have been a Steam advocate for years and have never had to contact support before now and I have to say I am not impressed with their customer service. When my EA account was hacked it took me 3 months to convince them that it was my account but I hung in there and sorted it but I feel that I am getting nowhere with Steam because they refuse to discuss the matter and tell me that I should have checked and the matter is closed.

Sounds like a price error, happens sometimes during the sale. The season pass was never meant to be that cheap (3.99 euros would be cheaper than just one of the DLCs by itself), no one to blame but yourself for not checking the price but my assumption is that you knew the sale was not priced right and were rushing in the hopes of getting the game for cheap, no one to blame but yourself here really.

[Purple Tentacle]

if anyone is at fault here its the website in question not steam, steam has no control over what developers chose to put on there website, it the devs responsability to make sure what they put on there is true and not steams

also im assuming your english as you said trading standards, im not sure what you expect them to do over an italian developer selling on a american site, the law is lacking for internet ales, digital ones in paticular its sad but true

[PigStix]

Originally posted by Hempest:

Originally posted by PigStix:

I too am falling out with Steam support at the moment. I have had the same cookie cutter response to my email to them regarding a price error during a purchase in the Winter Sale. They point blank refuse to talk to me and keep closing my tickets stating I should have checked before I paid. Yes, I admit that and I was stupid no to check the final price but they had the wrong price on the store page so they should at least shoulder some of the responsibility. The purchase was the Bioshock Season pass which showed at £3.99 with 40 mins to go on the sale. I added it to me cart along with other items and then paid but as soon as I finished the payment I noticed that is had gone through at full price and it was now showing in the store at full price as well so I immediately contacted them and got: 'Steam does not offer discounts to purchases made before or after sale periods.'

I have been a Steam advocate for years and have never had to contact support before now and I have to say I am not impressed with their customer service. When my EA account was hacked it took me 3 months to convince them that it was my account but I hung in there and sorted it but I feel that I am getting nowhere with Steam because they refuse to discuss the matter and tell me that I should have checked and the matter is closed.

Sounds like a price error, happens sometimes during the sale. The season pass was never meant to be that cheap (3.99 euros would be cheaper than just one of the DLCs by itself), no one to blame but yourself for not checking the price but my assumption is that you knew the sale was not priced right and were rushing in the hopes of getting the game for cheap, no one to blame but yourself here really.

I was watching TV and browsing the Steam sale when I saw the price of Bioshock Infinite and the season pass in the sale. I wasn't paying attention properly after putting them in my cart and didn't look at the final price on Paypal until after I paid. I admit it was partially my fault but I want them to acknowledge that their price error on the store lead to my error and all I want is them to admit that fact. If they will at least accept some responsibility rather than putting the blame 100% in my direction I wouldn't be so annoyed.

[IEVI]

Originally posted by PigStix:

Originally posted by Hempest:

Sounds like a price error, happens sometimes during the sale. The season pass was never meant to be that cheap (3.99 euros would be cheaper than just one of the DLCs by itself), no one to blame but yourself for not checking the price but my assumption is that you knew the sale was not priced right and were rushing in the hopes of getting the game for cheap, no one to blame but yourself here really.

I was watching TV and browsing the Steam sale when I saw the price of Bioshock Infinite and the season pass in the sale. I wasn't paying attention properly after putting them in my cart and didn't look at the final price on Paypal until after I paid. I admit it was partially my fault but I want them to acknowledge that their price error on the store lead to my error and all I want is them to admit that fact. If they will at least accept some responsibility rather than putting the blame 100% in my direction I wouldn't be so annoyed.

You just said it yourself you was not paying attention when spending your own money. Before I buy somthing I check the price to make sure I know how much I'm paying. Don't be careless with your money

[Hanomaly]

Originally posted by Muppet among Puppets:

It was removed a bit before the discount period was counting out. If you buy several things at once, you could get hit by the fact that the counter doesnt mean the actual time you have to get that price.
Its not really the blame of the customer.
Nothing keeps steam from notifying that a price in the cart has changed (dramatically).

Actually any time i've had a game "change price" while in my cart (so if i get it in my cart at the sale price, and then while purchasing the sale ends) the Steam system does.. in fact... notify me. It says something like "An item in your cart has changed price...something something something".

Which means the item likely did not "change price" in PigStix's cart, but rather never showed up in the cart as the sale price at all.

It really is 90+% PigStix's error or more, and to expect Valve to refund him or reward him for making that kind of error (by giving him the discount) seems unfair to every single other person who would, of course, like Bioshock's season pass for such a cheap price still after the sale has ended.

[Amf1k]

ну да

[Kiyza]

I disagree with several opinions. Although welcome the comments.

Steam and the game developers have an agreement. It is for them to ensure that both sites represent the game and the price correctly.
If one fails they both take responsibility as they are working in tandem.
Therefore they should be expected to uphold the item for sale at the lowest price.

This is nothing to do with me.
Yes I am in the UK but digital and distance selling legislation continues to protect customers from false advertising of products in both description and price.
Again this makes the issue on for Steam (as the sale representative for the game developer) to fix and take responsibility for when it is incorrect and misleading a customer or not providing a customer with product at an advertised price.

Either way in this instance STEAM should front up and not fob off their customer base.

BoOSh

[PigStix]

I would accept that its 50% my error but 90%? They put £3.99 and I didn't check at payment. 1 error each :)

[emr0on]

♥♥♥♥ happens :D

[Kidarek]

good point

[Τhe Rolling Cheese Wheel]

Your fault for not paying attention to the final order screen. That is the only screen that matters. The final order screen will show exactly how much your order cost, and if you skip that, how is that Valve's or anyone's fault but your own?

Furthermore 3.99 for the season pass was an obvious pricing bug for those QQing about the bioshock infinite season pass.