Steam Support understaffed?

[Zach]

@KilroyWasHere, I'm sorry that you had issues accessing your account. Looking at your ticket it looks like you reopened an old ticket from 2 years ago. In cases like this its best to create a new ticket. We will try to make that messaging clearer.

@schnitzeljaeger, can you please PM me your ticket number so I can see what is going on there.

[AsheMan]

Originally Posted by Zefar

Valve are hiring people as much as they can for the support staff. It's just that there ain't that many people to hire where they have their company.

They operate out of Bellevue, which is in the Seattle Metropolitan area. There's not a lack of people to hire.

[real4xor]

yeah, OP, think twice about buying anything here.
Because it`s impossible to lose your login details on any other site.

Several days just seems long.
As long as it`s not several weeks, it`s all within business standards.

[Warhorse]

Originally Posted by real4xor

yeah, OP, think twice about buying anything here.
Because it`s impossible to lose your login details on any other site.

Several days just seems long.
As long as it`s not several weeks, it`s all within business standards.

We have no idea if he lost his details or the system is simply not lettng him log in, and several days is long when you can't access your paid for games and you want to play them.

[Washell]

Originally Posted by Warhorse

The trouble is, people have been complaining about slow support on Steam for years and every time it gets the same sort of response as this (much like the offline mode or slow downloads during sales). How long are people ment to wait for things like this to be sorted out?, a year, 2 years, 7+ years? (i say 7+ as i've been here for over that and i see the same issues complained about like the above 3 now, just like back then).

The people using Steam doubled each year since Steam is in business. Keeping the complaints at the same level while doubling the customer base each year is a big achievement in itself. Furthermore, the amount of complaints on the forum when compared with the amount of customers Steam serves does not indicate a serious issue. An issue, yes, but not one that calls for hiring every jack & jill who can type of the street.

No matter how much support staff you have, there will always be a few tickets falling through the cracks or customers who complain after 6 hours about 'waiting for days'.

[Warhorse]

Maybe so, but it does need to offer more immedicate methods of support. Having the system they have now may well have been good enough back when the customer base was smaller, now they really need better systems in place IMO.

To this day i'm shocked that you can't call or live chat etc with Steam support.

[real4xor]

Originally Posted by Warhorse

We have no idea if he lost his details or the system is simply not lettng him log in, and several days is long when you can't access your paid for games and you want to play them.

In that case there`s a help&tips forum and a FAQ.
I usually go there first if there`s a problem. (well, actually I google it, but meh)

The users helping users forum usually gives a much faster response. Obviously they can`t help with account-specific things, but they cán help out finding connectivity issues.

I`m just used to calling Support as last.
And in cases of not being able to log in, it`s most likely forgotten account details, unless there`s something réálly weird going on with the connection.

[KilroyWasHere]

Originally Posted by Zach

@KilroyWasHere, I'm sorry that you had issues accessing your account. Looking at your ticket it looks like you reopened an old ticket from 2 years ago. In cases like this its best to create a new ticket. We will try to make that messaging clearer.

@schnitzeljaeger, can you please PM me your ticket number so I can see what is going on there.

I did not reopen an old ticket so please dont attempt to deflect the issue. Looks like "MIRACULOUSLY" my issue has finally been addressed. Wow, the power of the message board!!!

[Zach]

Posting had nothing to do with it. Glad your issue was resolved.

[Washell]

Originally Posted by Warhorse

To this day i'm shocked that you can't call or live chat etc with Steam support.

I'm not. It's an extremely cost ineffective way to provide support and there's no real difference between waiting half an hour for a live support tech and filing a ticket and getting a reply half an hour later.

[Al_Chemist_]

I guess I should consider myself extremely lucky I suppose.

Never had a problem with steam except once when my CC was declined. To which steam support responded quickly and I found out that the problem was at my bank's side.

I consider Steam one of the best services on internet.

[mattila95]

Originally Posted by schoerg

Live chat like Origin would be awesome.

Yeah... We would see live on how the support staff member starts crying, when trying to understand what "omgzzzz FUUUUUU fix dis gaem nao plz " - help requester is trying to say both on the chat.

[ChrisW]

If you want to know why support is so slow, all you have to do is read these forums. People submit a support ticket for anything and everything. Everyone that gets VAC banned submits a support ticket claiming they don't cheat. Everyone that gets scammed trading outside the trading system submits a support ticket. Everyone that tries to make a PayPal purchase with no money in the bank submits a support ticket. Everyone that has a problem with any game submits a support ticket. People can't seem to stop doing stupid things to get their account hijacked, despite all the steps Valve has taken to help prevent it, so they all have to submit tickets. If people would stop doing stupid stuff and stop submitting support tickets for things Valve is not responsible for, support would be much faster for the people that actually need it.

[Blufmacaroon]

Originally Posted by rmartinezdl

Yeah right, excuse me but EA hires monkeys so they could just make you "feel" like you are being attended, at least Steam support knows what they are talking about.

I have dealt 3 times whit EA support now and all three times it was verry fast and it helped me out. I really like the live chat becouse you can get things fixed right away.

The last time i submitted a ticket to steam i got an answer in 4 days. Still good enough for me but yeah, on the support EA wins it from Valve.

[epicphail]

Originally Posted by GirlPower23

Typical "Email" Type support takes 24-72 hours for most businesses. If you get your response within that time then it's acceptable. Typically if it's not a big sale week or some kind of huge event at Valve then you'll get a quick replay within that time. You are being completely unrealistic to want a faster reponse.

Originally Posted by GirlPower23

I've said nothing of the sort. Not even sure why you'd post this.

You didn't say "should we want a slower response," but you said it is unrealistic to want a faster response. So either we should want the responses to stay the same or be slower for them be be your definition of realistic?

I posted this because having had to deal with steam support in the past I was very surprised at how a multi-billion dollar company that is in the technology field could take several days to deliver a response. And once said response is finally received it is often followed by asking another question which means it will take even longer to get the problem resolved. Live chat with steam support should be available other large companies do it and are just fine.