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bansama: Simply put; you're over reacting. Especially given the fact that you know support don't work on the weekend. Chances are very good that they disabled your account because they felt someone was trying to hack into it and disabled it as a preventative measure.
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Delixe: That is an extremely poor excuse for disabling access to all my games. You also forget the time I sent the complaint which was 11am GMT. They had all day to at least acknowlede my complaint, they chose not to.

It takes 3-5 days, I have never heard of same-day support replies.
If you have to verify your account, that will take even longer as well... you need to send them pics of packaging, or CC info.
Did you have a verified email address?
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Delixe: The fact is I will be seeing a lawyer tomorrow as they are the only people who speak Valve.

I have to agree with bansama.
There's little point to it, even because there could be a legitimate reason for disabling your account, and they do state in the SSA that they can do that at any time, so they aren't doing anyhting they're not untitled to. The fact that they give no warning or explanation and that their support is out on the weekends sucks big time, but that's pretty much that really.
On monday you'll probably get your account back, so try to put it out of your mind untill then.
If you're really displeased with the incident, and i guess you are, the best you can do is to let them know you're not happy the only way they understand, with your wallet.
Get your games elsewhere and keep the purchases on steam down to a minimum. That's what i do.
In '09, i've spent the whoopin' sum of 4,49€ on steam. HAHAHA, 4,49€ in almost one year.
Gabe isn't paying for his flight down to wherever he's going with ma money, that's for sure.
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Delixe: That is an extremely poor excuse for disabling access to all my games. You also forget the time I sent the complaint which was 11am GMT. They had all day to at least acknowlede my complaint, they chose not to.
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StingingVelvet: It takes 3-5 days, I have never heard of same-day support replies.
If you have to verify your account, that will take even longer as well... you need to send them pics of packaging, or CC info.
Did you have a verified email address?

Ooh, verified addresses on Steam? That's news to me.
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michaelleung: Ooh, verified addresses on Steam? That's news to me.

It's a new feature which they added and then - surprise - didn't tell anyone about.
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michaelleung: Ooh, verified addresses on Steam? That's news to me.
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bansama: It's a new feature which they added and then - surprise - didn't tell anyone about.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5151-RUAS-1543
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anjohl: I am considaring taking Steam to court.

Umm... what?
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bansama: Simply put; you're over reacting. Especially given the fact that you know support don't work on the weekend. Chances are very good that they disabled your account because they felt someone was trying to hack into it and disabled it as a preventative measure.
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Delixe: That is an extremely poor excuse for disabling access to all my games. You also forget the time I sent the complaint which was 11am GMT. They had all day to at least acknowlede my complaint, they chose not to.

I have had bank accounts frozen because they may have been compromised. I have had credit cards frozen because my accounts may have been compromised. It is a standard security protocol. Going a few days without your Steam games may not be what you had in mind but it can't be nearly as inconvenient as going a few days without money. Chillax and spend some time with your GOG games.
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Delixe: That is an extremely poor excuse for disabling access to all my games. You also forget the time I sent the complaint which was 11am GMT. They had all day to at least acknowlede my complaint, they chose not to.
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Darling_Jimmy: I have had bank accounts frozen because they may have been compromised. I have had credit cards frozen because my accounts may have been compromised. It is a standard security protocol. Going a few days without your Steam games may not be what you had in mind but it can't be nearly as inconvenient as going a few days without money. Chillax and spend some time with your GOG games.

I'm as reasonable as they come, honetly I am. All I would expect is an e-mail from Valve saying "O HAI we think you are dodgy so we are checking you out K?", hell I would invite them to my house for burgers. The fact is I have lost my entire Steam account with not so much as a "do you mind?". THAT is the reason I am annoyed.
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Darling_Jimmy: I have had bank accounts frozen because they may have been compromised. I have had credit cards frozen because my accounts may have been compromised. It is a standard security protocol. Going a few days without your Steam games may not be what you had in mind but it can't be nearly as inconvenient as going a few days without money. Chillax and spend some time with your GOG games.
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Delixe: I'm as reasonable as they come, honetly I am. All I would expect is an e-mail from Valve saying "O HAI we think you are dodgy so we are checking you out K?", hell I would invite them to my house for burgers. The fact is I have lost my entire Steam account with not so much as a "do you mind?". THAT is the reason I am annoyed.

You should have at least received a canned email like this:
""""""
Hello,
Thank you for submitting your question to our staff. We will respond to your question by email.
""""""
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anjohl: Moral of the story is, buy retail unless you are comfortable with making backup discs of all your titles (Which can be done with GOG and Impulse), and in general, avoid Steam.

I wouldn't take them to court, it's a bit unreasonable since you knew what you were in for after buying a few games. Which is why I terminated my account.
What I think there should be is better customer service from developers/original publishers. E.g. if I'm dissatisfied with Steam I should be able to transfer purchases to another digital distribution service (if the games are on other services), since it's essentially the same product.
Post edited October 03, 2009 by Lucibel
Well, if you guys really want to take Steam to court, maybe you could rally hundreds or thousands of disgruntled Steam (ex-)users to pull a class-action lawsuit or whatever; You still may not be successful, but at least it will raise the awareness of Steam's problems.
If you're going to take them to court though, you need to have a very good reason. Right now though, you don't have a good reason. You'll need to fully exhaust the support avenue before you could even begin to build a case.
You'll also have to ensure that you don't even try to take them to court over VAC bans as the recent case with Sony's PSN has proven that losing access to full or partial benefits of service due to behaviour will be upheld by the courts.
As it is, there really isn't much you can take them to court over. If they account was temporarily disabled to protect your or other accounts, a judge isn't likely to do anything. If the account is permanently disabled due to phishing, etc., that can be proven to have been initiated from your account, the judge isn't likely to side with you.
However, if it's disabled temporarily or permanently due to a billing concern then you might have a case that could be won. As they really shouldn't be allowed to restrict access to already bought items if there is a billing issue with only 1 item (they should just restrict access to that item) -- and for this case at least, I hope someone *will* take them to court.
A better first step though would probably be the BBB or similar.
I think you should relax until monday. I can imagine it's annoying, but it might just be a bug, or it might be a security measure like when my bank disabled my card because they thought it had been stolen.
However, once it gets re-instated, you should insist on an explanation. They may well have a good reason, or they may not. But either way, they should let users know.
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Delixe: I'm sure Weclock will be laughing his ass off right now about about 11 am GMT I tried logging into Steam, (in fact just to see what the weekend deal was) and it tells me my account is disabled. Seriously not even an e-mail to tell my why just turned off like that. I sent an e-mail to their support asking why and as of 7pm GMT I still haven't had an answer. I have to say that unless a game is ONLY available on Steam I think I will be buying from Impulse or GamersGate even if the cost is slightly higher from now on.
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anjohl: Moral of the story is, buy retail unless you are comfortable with making backup discs of all your titles (Which can be done with GOG and Impulse), and in general, avoid Steam.
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Tserge: So, any known details on how steam goes about deciding which accounts to disable?

However they want. Allegedly, they *only* ban accounts for hacking/phishing/piracy/billing issues, or when an account is hijacked. Supposedly the last two are only temporary, requiring you to fix the billing issue for the former, and contact support for the latter and they will change your password.
STRESS on the word "supposedly". Unfortunately, even though Steam markets itself as a gamer-friendly utopian vision-driven company, they are nothing but a near totalitarian corporatist entity, essentially renting games to you at full retail price.
I feel bad for anyone with "a lot of games" on Steam...I have 130, and I feel like a victim of a con artist. It has actually decreased my motivation to play those games, and I am considaring taking Steam to court.

Oh, brilliant idea. Let's see how that case will play out!
"I want my money back!" (Actually, this brings up question one...taking them to court ON WHAT BASIS?!)
"Did they restrict your access to your purchases?"
"Well no, I can still play them..."
"I see..."
"But they're really mean and I don't like them!"
"Did you know these rules when you went in? Did you have to agree to these rules when you signed up for your account?"
"Well, I can't possibly be expected to read those forms and stuff, right?"
"Case dismissed...oh, and for wasting the court's time you CAN be expected to pay the court costs of both parties."
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Crassmaster: "Case dismissed...oh, and for wasting the court's time you CAN be expected to pay the court costs of both parties."
there's no reason to be an ass, he's just over-reacting.