Suggestions for steam

#1 support in general needs a full on revamp. It should not take 2 days to get approved to get in to the forums. IMHO that is just ridiculous. Support? Kinda funny when you name something that and you get none. To have only one way to contact steam seems like no support at all. There is no phone number to call, no e-mail except to create a support account on steams web site. My suggestion to steam is to have at least one more way to contact someone if things go bad. All this automated response crap is just annoying after 4 days of trying to get answers

#2 Update the steam client more often. You've got games you cant even run when steam is open even though you downloaded them from steam. Case in point CODmw, all so known as COD4. At this very moment I can not run COD4 with out closing out steam. I get kicked by PunkBuster every time for a 125120/Disallowed program or driver. The problem is with "STEAMS", overlay/UI. This has gone on now for a while and hasn't been resolved yet. For the less savvy users this is gonna put a serious hurtin' on there game time with this particular title. That is not fair

#3 To have only volunteers for the forums is all so little or no support IMO. Might I suggest you have an actual employee of steam that has some kinda say so in what goes on, monitor the forums at least

Now for my little rant.

All the money that steam makes off us people who buy there games should at least be enough to employ a few more people to deal with these support problems. As a steam user for what, 10 years plus now? I can say I'm wholeheartedly unsatisfied with the service in general. I wouldn't use steam but a lot of good titles are released on it. Not only that but you can go to the store, buy a game and still have to download steam to use it to play online. I don't want to hear anything about steam not having enough money either cause after the L4d and L4D2 fiasco I wont hear it

[d10sfan]

1. The support ticket system is much better than email. Giving a support email would just mean that your email would be lost in the thousands of other emails they would get submitted.

2. That is punkbuster's problem. Many games that use punkbuster will kick for overlays, steam and sometimes xfire. Some games have gotten that fixed. If it still does it for you, I would recommend manually updating punkbuster. If that dosent work, you will have to disable the steam overlay until PunkBuster fixes the problem.

3. There are steam staff on the forum. BurtonJ is one of them and he posts quite regularly.

#1 I disagree with your steam ticket theory. Its been 4 days and I haven't gotten any answer to anything about a stolen account. If you had someone actually answering e-mails or Phone calls it would be a lot more effective and a little more personal. so...

#2 That's punkbusters problem, yeah and when you e-mail them its steams problem and around and around we go eh? so your answer there dosent make sence.

#3 Staff on the forum? Hmm seems to me I remember reading something about only volunteers modding the forums am i wrong? lol

[L.o.D.]

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

#1 support in general needs a full on revamp. It should not take 2 days to get approved to get in to the forums. IMHO that is just ridiculous. Support? Kinda funny when you name something that and you get none. To have only one way to contact steam seems like no support at all. There is no phone number to call, no e-mail except to create a support account on steams web site. My suggestion to steam is to have at least one more way to contact someone if things go bad. All this automated response crap is just annoying after 4 days of trying to get answers

First, the forums are not the same as steam support. Support is a whole separate entity.
Second, joining the forums is watched by Valve themselves so they can weed certain joinees out.
Third, the automatic emails are just to confirm that they have received your ticket.
Fourth, would you rather have phone support that puts you on hold for very extended lengths of time?
It's easier with the ticket system to weed out the crap & pay attention to the legit ones.

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

#2 Update the steam client more often. You've got games you cant even run when steam is open even though you downloaded them from steam. Case in point CODmw, all so known as COD4. At this very moment I can not run COD4 with out closing out steam. I get kicked by PunkBuster every time for a 125120/Disallowed program or driver. The problem is with "STEAMS", overlay/UI. This has gone on now for a while and hasn't been resolved yet. For the less savvy users this is gonna put a serious hurtin' on there game time with this particular title. That is not fair

Turn off the overlay when playing COD4 until Even balance update PB for it.
The game works fine as it is.
Until PB is updated to accept the overlay, it will continue to kick people. That's not something Valve can take care of.
How do you propose Valve make the overlay work with PB??
They cannot do that since any changes they make, PB will not like it.
Evenbalance MUST update PB.

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

#3 To have only volunteers for the forums is all so little or no support IMO. Might I suggest you have an actual employee of steam that has some kinda say so in what goes on, monitor the forums at least

As I said before, the forums are NOT support. Never was & never will be. It is a user to user forum.
BUT, Valve staff do post here & lurk as well.
MikeBlas & BurtonJ both post a fair bit.


As for your hijacked account ticket, how did you submit it to begin with & how did you label it?
It never takes 4 days since they take a higher priority over all else.

[d10sfan]

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

#1 I disagree with your steam ticket theory. Its been 4 days and I haven't gotten any answer to anything about a stolen account. If you had someone actually answering e-mails or Phone calls it would be a lot more effective and a little more personal. so...

#2 That's punkbusters problem, yeah and when you e-mail them its steams problem and around and around we go eh? so your answer there dosent make sence.

#3 Staff on the forum? Hmm seems to me I remember reading something about only volunteers modding the forums am i wrong? lol

It usually takes 3-5 business days for a response. My point was that a email address would make it take more time for a response, since emails can be lost and disorganized. The ticket system is a very organized system.

It is punkbuster's problem. Punkbuster has fixed that in some games, but steam cant really do anything about it since punkbuster is just detecting that theres an overlay there.

There are staff on the forum.

First, the forums are not the same as steam support. Support is a whole separate entity.
Second, joining the forums is watched by Valve themselves so they can weed certain joinees out.
Third, the automatic emails are just to confirm that they have received your ticket.
Fourth, would you rather have phone support that puts you on hold for very extended lengths of time?
It's easier with the ticket system to weed out the crap & pay attention to the legit ones.

Okay, I never said that the forums were for support, what are you saying here? I'm in the forums making a suggestion like it says to do. So Again these reply's are not making any sence. Are you actually reading my post? Wow whats really going on here? second "weed certain joinees", whats that suppose to mean? That has nothing to to do with the fact it takes 2 days to get approved to post, as I stated earlier that is just ridiculous. It take 2 days to weed out a "joinees"? Unacceptable as a costumer. Third, you are overstating things in your post here again, I know what the automated e-mails are for otherwise I wouldn't be in here complaining about it, hello???? Anybody home? Yes I would rather have phone support.. At least I would get a reply in a day with phone support. IMHO your support ticket system sucks period.

Turn off the overlay when playing COD4 until Even balance update PB for it.
The game works fine as it is.
Until PB is updated to accept the overlay, it will continue to kick people. That's not something Valve can take care of.

Again, you are overstating in your post here, I know what to do all ready. In fact I'm the one that was going around on the net posting about it, to help people. I disagree Valve can take care of the overlay problem if it had staff to re write the code to accept Even balance hooking. Even if not that, Valve should be more in tune with even balance if they are going to force people to use it for the most part. Make sence?

As I said before, the forums are NOT support. Never was & never will be. It is a user to user forum.
BUT, Valve staff do post here & lurk as well.
MikeBlas & BurtonJ both post a fair bit.

As I stated before you even stated it, I know the forums are not support, lol! I wish you guys would actually read threw my post. About employees, lurking is not being an active admin is it? If they are here in some way I guess that's better than nothing and ill be forced to accept it.

[L.o.D.]

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

Okay, I never said that the forums were for support,

Considering you mentioned support & the forums together, I would say you did.
It's not support that takes care of people joining the forums. They are not the same. You stated that support takes too long to approve your forum account.
THEY are not the ones doing the approvals.
The forum admins take care of the ones joining.

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

second "weed certain joinees", whats that suppose to mean? That has nothing to to do with the fact it takes 2 days to get approved to post, as I stated earlier that is just ridiculous. It take 2 days to weed out a "joinees"? Unacceptable as a costumer.

You don't understand. You think they only get the odd person joining the forums & jump right on that one person?
Think again.

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

Third, you are overstating things in your post here again, I know what the automated e-mails are for otherwise I wouldn't be in here complaining about it, hello???? Anybody home? Yes I would rather have phone support.. At least I would get a reply in a day with phone support. IMHO your support ticket system sucks period.

Phone support would be worse.
Hello, please hold for the next available rep.
Then you get connected to some outsourced operator that has no real clue on anything, just like your typical phone support for large companies.

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

Again, you are overstating in your post here, I know what to do all ready. In fact I'm the one that was going around on the net posting about it, to help people. I disagree Valve can take care of the overlay problem if it had staff to re write the code to accept Even balance hooking. Even if not that, Valve should be more in tune with even balance if they are going to force people to use it for the most part. Make sence?

You don't understand, any changes Valve makes to the overlay, PB will not like it & kick for it, just like it does now.
PB must be updated to allow the new changes. Just like an antivirus with false positives.

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

As I stated before you even stated it, I know the forums are not support, lol! I wish you guys would actually read threw my post. About employees, lurking is not being an active admin is it? If they are here in some way I guess that's better than nothing and ill be forced to accept it.

They only post when it is justified to post.
They don't all have to post regularly like a typical user here. They have jobs to do & their own lives instead of having to babysit people here.
Hell, they don't have to be here at all if they so choose.

[BurtonJ]

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

That has nothing to to do with the fact it takes 2 days to get approved to post, as I stated earlier that is just ridiculous. It take 2 days to weed out a "joinees"? Unacceptable as a costumer.

Usually, it takes no more than a few minutes to an hour to get a forum account approved. Approval times are generally longer over the weekends.

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

At least I would get a reply in a day with phone support.

This is a false assumption. The method by which you receive support does not significantly impact the time it takes to receive support.

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

IMHO your support ticket system sucks period.

I am sorry that you feel that way. I understand that you are unhappy with the time it takes to receive a response and I apologize for that, but it is an issue we are actively working on. The holidays generated significantly more volume and a new base line was formed - we are making adjustments to tackle this and bring our response times back down to a more reasonable level.

Outside of the wait time, what issues do you have with the existing support system? What changes within the existing system would you like to see? Your constructive feedback is appreciated.

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

I disagree Valve can take care of the overlay problem if it had staff to re write the code to accept Even balance hooking.

I am sorry but we have no control over Punkbuster. They will need to add the Overlay to their whitelist just as they had previously done.

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

As I stated before you even stated it, I know the forums are not support, lol!

Knowing this, what exactly are you expecting Admin to post?

Valve staff are active on the forums. By "active" I mean that we actively post on the forums.

Usually, it takes no more than a few minutes to an hour to get a forum account approved. Approval times are generally longer over the weekends.

That did not happen for me. I applied to the forums Monday and didn't get approved until I returned this morning. something you guys might want to look into?

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150
At least I would get a reply in a day with phone support.
BurtonJ:This is a false assumption. The method by which you receive support does not significantly impact the time it takes to receive support.

Well if you had a call center it would be a safe assumption don't you agree? Wait times on a phone will not exceed an 8 hour period. Otherwise phone support would be pointless.

Outside of the wait time, what issues do you have with the existing support system? What changes within the existing system would you like to see? Your constructive feedback is appreciated.

The Wait time is everything in this situation I would think. That is my main concern. The changes I would make is having a call center handle some of your more severe problems like loosing an account. If the account gets VAC banned while in the hands of the guys who stole it, you get nothing.. If the account has $200.00US in games your out $200.00. That in it of it self would justify a more speedy recovery time on the account. Don't you agree?

I am sorry but we have no control over Punkbuster. They will need to add the Overlay to their whitelist just as they had previously done.

Steam and Valve have no power to facilitate the adding of the overlay to the whitelist? This is hard to believe. Sounds like poor management on someones part. Not going to play the blame game here, the point is one of you should get it done. Its been far too long like this.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150
As I stated before you even stated it, I know the forums are not support, lol!

BurtonJ: Knowing this, what exactly are you expecting Admin to post?

Valve staff are active on the forums. By "active" I mean that we actively post on the forums.

Not really expecting anything considering how things are going at this point.

[L.o.D.]

The problem with call centers is that they actually do not have access to anything.
They simply follow a list of troubleshooting methods & when all else fails, they issue a ticket.
I cannot think of any call centers that have any real access to resolve anything.

As for adding the overlay to the whitelist, you think that Evenbalance allows anyone other than themselves access to edit their own database?
The most that Valve could do is to notify Even balance of the changes made. Then it is up to them to add it.
Same with antivirus makers. Only they have the pwoer to add to the detections.

Originally Posted by L.o.D.

The problem with call centers is that they actually do not have access to anything.
They simply follow a list of troubleshooting methods & when all else fails, they issue a ticket.
I cannot think of any call centers that have any real access to resolve anything.

As for adding the overlay to the whitelist, you think that Evenbalance allows anyone other than themselves access to edit their own database?
The most that Valve could do is to notify Even balance of the changes made. Then it is up to them to add it.
Same with antivirus makers. Only they have the pwoer to add to the detections.

A call center would have access to what ever that call center is there for. I oversaw a project from Microsoft and HP to get people free Win7 upgrades. This was only e-mail support and I had access to all of there account information. I could delete accounts, make new accounts make changes to the account, including but not limited to address and phone numbers. So your comment dose not hold any water.

Second of all I never said anyone would have database access to even balance. You could use a phone call and that could be used between the managing team at even balance and Valve to facilitate a more speedy adage of the overlayUI to the whitelist..

Please stop arguing with me and stick to the matter at hand or please don't post. thank you.

[L.o.D.]

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

A call center would have access to what ever that call center is there for. I oversaw a project from Microsoft and HP to get people free Win7 upgrades. This was only e-mail support and I had access to all of there account information. I could delete accounts, make new accounts make changes to the account, including but not limited to address and phone numbers. So your comment dose not hold any water.

That's funny since if I have a connection issue & I call my ISP, they follow a list & if they can't solve it, they submit a ticket.
And my ISP basically has a monopoly of the internet etc market.
Even if you ask to talk to a level 2, same crap.
Just because yours was run that way, never means they all are.
Why do you think there's call centers in India?
Think they got access to our accounts other than info?
Also, what you did would not be the same as when dealing with steam accounts that have hundreds if not thousands of dollars at stake.

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

Second of all I never said anyone would have database access to even balance. You could use a phone call and that could be used between the managing team at even balance and Valve to facilitate a more speedy adage of the overlayUI to the whitelist..

You honestly think that Valve have not told EvenBalance to update PB?

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

Please stop arguing with me and stick to the matter at hand or please don't post. thank you.

This is a public forum where anyone can post pretty much what they want & reply to any thread they so desire.
I am not breaking any rules here either.
Oh and BTW, we are discussing your suggestions.

Originally Posted by L.o.D.

That's funny since if I have a connection issue & I call my ISP, they follow a list & if they can't solve it, they submit a ticket.
And my ISP basically has a monopoly of the internet etc market.
Even if you ask to talk to a level 2, same crap.
Just because yours was run that way, never means they all are.
Why do you think there's call centers in India?
Think they got access to our accounts other than info?
Also, what you did would not be the same as when dealing with steam accounts that have hundreds if not thousands of dollars at stake.



You honestly think that Valve have not told EvenBalance to update PB?




This is a public forum where anyone can post pretty much what they want & reply to any thread they so desire.
I am not breaking any rules here either.
Oh and BTW, we are discussing your suggestions.

lol! funny.. You obviously have never actually worked at a call center or an MSDN facility.

Sounds like you have absolutely no experience at all with a workplace environment cornering e-mails, or call centers. I on the other hand do.

I appreciate your input but it is not needed..

[L.o.D.]

Originally Posted by Ex0duS_5150

lol! funny.. You obviously have never actually worked at a call center or an MSDN facility.

Sounds like you have absolutely no experience at all with a workplace environment cornering e-mails, or call centers. I on the other hand do.

I appreciate your input but it is not needed..

Who said anything about working there?
Who cares about the workplace when it's the customers you have to think about & the experience they have with said call center.
Working in one is not the same with dealing with one from the customer side of things.
I have dealt with call centers that could barely speak any english.
Your suggestion is not about working in one so I don't understand why you even brought that up when it has no bearing on your suggestion to begin with.
As for the MSDN, you don't have millions of people with an MSDN account.
There's at least 2 million users on steam, more than likely more.

As for you not needing any negative side discussions on this, too bad. You either have both or neither.
It's not going to be all in agreeance with you.
It's also not about YOU.

BTW, you never answered my question asking if you honestly think that Valve have not notified EvenBalance about updating PB to allow the overlay again?

BTW, no one here is going to care about the workplace environment of a call center.
They want they best support they can get.
Since none of us work there, we don't care about the environment there.

Originally Posted by L.o.D.

Who said anything about working there?
Who cares about the workplace when it's the customers you have to think about & the experience they have with said call center.
Working in one is not the same with dealing with one from the customer side of things.
I have dealt with call centers that could barely speak any english.
Your suggestion is not about working in one so I don't understand why you even brought that up when it has no bearing on your suggestion to begin with.
As for the MSDN, you don't have millions of people with an MSDN account.
There's at least 2 million users on steam, more than likely more.

As for you not needing any negative side discussions on this, too bad. You either have both or neither.
It's not going to be all in agreeance with you.
It's also not about YOU.

Working in a facility of this kind qualifies me to know what a call center can and cant do. That was the significance of the comment. You missed it in your rage I guess. We are discussing a virtual call center that I think should be there for Steam users no? I think I've made my point.