Valve gets an "F" from the BBB

Compared to a service like GOG, Valve absolutely deserves an F for Steam. I don't understand people who refuse to buy games from other more customer-friendly sites.

Valve recovered my account after it was hijacked. Their customer service is awesome.

Well since I am undoubtedly the most experienced and oldest Steam user here allow me to explain exactly why they rate at an F on the BBB. Valve provides good customer support and handles things exactly as their SSA lays out. The problem is it takes several days to get things resolved due to the staff actually handling support tickets, they do not sub-contract their support and handle it all themselves, even Gabe Newell answers support tickets from time to time.

The other issues are as follows, people seeking refunds that do not qualify under the SSA, people getting scammed out of digital items and Valve not giving them back due to bylaws in their ToS, people not being careful with their Steam accounts resulting in hijackings that end up with them being VAC banned, Valve will not overturn these. These people throw a fit when Valve tells them exactly why things are not going to happen the way they would like, the SSA is in place for a reason and people have to abide by it.

Aside from the response time the actual problems are not caused by Valve, it's people not understanding what they signed up for, not understanding the rules, not understanding the Steam Subscriber Agreement and in general thinking they are entitled to absolutely whatever they want.

Steam support is fine, I wish it were faster but I have never had an issue with them because there is no issue with them or how they do things.

Their customer service is terrible. They take ages to respond and whenever you have a technical issue, they reply 3 days later with a copy/paste answer taken from the Steam FAQ.

Garbage customer service.

Their TOS kind of sucks, though. I've never even tried to use the customer support, but a 3 day wait for technical assistance is really bad.

except thats not 100% true on how ratings work. In that case, they would complain, valve would respond to the BBB how the user was banned for cheating and thats why they lost access and cheating is against the ToS and they would not get a negative hit. The "F" grade means they got a lot of legit complaints or they didn't respond to the BBB meaning they lost their grade for not saying their side.

I have never needed to contact customer support....so they get an A from me.

You can't really contact their customer support by phone so its only by email. The funny thing is EA customer support you can actually speak with them on the phone. I think Valve needs to devote money in their customer service division. If EA can offer customer support on the phone why can't Valve a least provide something like that.

@uninspiredcup I completely agree. There are lots of early access games available on Steam that have been completely abandoned and I would say that has generated a lot of complaints and people wanting a refund. There needs to be stricter rules enforced to prevent these situations.

Sony's faults reflect on the PS4. But Steam isn't the only thing PC gaming is dependent on. Not even close.

Its as relevant to System Wars as the Sony bashing thread. Id say it is worthy (it is platform v platform after all) but you could have posted it as a response in that other thread instead of starting a new one.

"bu..bu..but I've never had an issue with steam so the BBB must be full of teh sh!t."

..well guess what.. I haven't had as many issue as some formites have had with Steam or Live Gold or PSN+, but I do recognize that they exist. These companies we support will not get better if we keep on our fanboy hats and refuse to acknowledge when they mess up. Even Valve can see this.

@OhSnapitz: are there really that many people saying Steam customer service doesn't have issues? Their customer service response time is one of the main criticisms I see of the service.

But the BBB does seem somewhat full of shit overall

I remember I bought a game off Origin I wasn't digging, and I realized they had a refund policy in place for recently purchased games. It was really simple to do as well. I usually buy off Steam, so I was amazed.

Valve's customer service could be better.

The BBB must've simply not gotten their check during the inspection of Valve.

Considering their competitors offer returns, Valve could definitely step it up in this regard. As a customer, I can't see why you'd be against it.

With Steam sales, Valve isn't necessarily encouraging smart purchasing decisions more so than buying in bulk games that sort of interest you.

Steam and PC go hand-in-hand.

Lets just remember the 65 million or whatever the ludicrous number of Steam accounts there is.

Yes, it doesn't reflect on PC in general....but to think that it doesn't have anything to do with PC gaming....and saying it's "not even close"....is just a lie.

Well I never really had any major problems with Steam, except that one time where I couldn't open up the client and had to verify the game cache on every one of my games. It was one of those things that I could resolve on my own though the Help forum sucks though, no moderator ever helps me when I post a topic about an issue I'm having.

VALVe Corporate is a LIE!!!

@mr_huggles_dog: Microsoft has an F aswell

Not even close is perfectly accurate considering the user number on GMG, GOG and sales of Physical copies on Amazaon. So the only one lying here is you.......... to yourself.

@faizanhd: Ok, whatever.

I guess Steam is just some shareware that no one uses.

@AM-Gamer Just made the first sensible post he's ever made at SW and then deleted it, for shame sir, for shame.

And to answer your (deleted) question, Steam is indeed a shining beacon of gaming.

They don't have enough employees for customer service, and i'd rather they work on real things anyway... like games. They don't need to be sitting around responding to help tickets and answering phones.

My issue with moving from steam is my friends list and the activity page. Other services don't even come close to steam in terms of community.

@Snugenz: Errr I didn't delete it, but glad you enjoy the sarcasm. Your shining beacon of PC gaming gets a big fat F in customer service

But an A+ in gaming awesomeness.

How the F did you get an "F"? C was like the lowest I've seen up to now.

I like how Steam is central to PC gaming now. Its annoying when a company makes you sign up for an app like Uplay or Rockstar Social Club when they only have a handful of games for it - if that!

@mr_huggles_dog:

YES !!!! They deserve that and more maybe even an F+, in fact the whole stinkin' company can be eradicated from the face of the earth and I would throw the biggest bash to celebrate their demise that anyone has ever seen or heard about.

Valve an Sam are the worst pile of crap ever.

is this because of your whole Alienware Alpha thing?

Steam has a long ass way to go before it's acceptable imho