Steam account Suspension.

Mattyjw · 19 Jul 2011 at 21:36

On Friday Steam suspended my account, so I submitted a ticket asking why. Today I checked my support account and the question relating to the suspension has been added to the bottom of a (previously closed) ticket requesting a refund.

The refund was for beat hazard ultra dlc which steam failed to add to my account. I contacted Steam support when it happened and was told the money wouldn't be taken even though paypal had completed the transaction and sent a receipt. After three days the withdrawel processed through my bank account.

I then submitted another ticket to Steam requesting the refund and attached the paypal receipt as proof this I recieved with a note that read they had been told the transaction failed which it had. I had purchased the dlc when it was on a daily deal this time on my visa.

So as it stands my suspension appears to be related to a refund which Steam authorised after I'd provided evidence that the transaction had been completed they havn't replied in any other way than merging the tickets though.

So my question is what the hell are they playing at?

orderoftheflame · 19 Jul 2011 at 21:49

This happens when paypal issues a charge back usually. Paypal give Steam the money, then snatch it back from them. Steam will probably want paypal to sort it, and Paypal won't be bothered. In the end it's only a pain in the bum for the customer stuck in the middle.

Keep pestering them both, one of them will cave to the others whim eventually.

DampCat · 19 Jul 2011 at 21:55

It's paypal being thieving gypsy swines. Sucks for you but gotta wait for them to sort it out.

Aedus · 19 Jul 2011 at 22:02

I don't understand why people would use paypal on Steam anyway.

Mattyjw · 19 Jul 2011 at 22:03

The thing is it wasn't Paypal ordering a charge back it was steam issuing a refund in my paypal histoy it has refund from steam which paypal then placed a hold on. Steam issued the refund on the 7th and my account was suspended on the 15th. The only things I done on the account then were run the system information utility and move my steam install to a different drive.

It might be that the refund was issued too quickly by them and now they've decided to investigate because I bought the dlc again when it was cheaper.

tibbsey · 19 Jul 2011 at 22:26

Aedus said:
I don't understand why people would use paypal on Steam anyway.

I don't any more because of horror stories such as this.

Hope you get it sorted OP (from what you've said it sounds like Steam has got themselves a bit confused).

pumaz · 19 Jul 2011 at 22:50

Yeah when I read the last lot of horror stories about Steam + Paypal I stopped using Paypal and now use a CC.

arc@css · 19 Jul 2011 at 23:07

I'm sure it works fine for most people, however I must admit I've only got to see the P word and my mind does an automatic u-turn.

gronf · 19 Jul 2011 at 23:26

Haven't used paypal with Steam for 2-3 years, after first hearing about such problems. Used it maybe a half-dozen times back then, but naturally wanted to be on the safe side.

Sem · 20 Jul 2011 at 00:58

i read a lot of stories like this and i think its bang out of order for steam to suspend whole accounts because of things like this

they need to find a better way of dealing with problems like this as the users cant play the library of games they have paid for and would have no connection what so ever to the disputed transaction

of course i expect the steam fanboy brigade to come in and post some BS justifying steams actions :rolleyes:

MeMeMeMe · 20 Jul 2011 at 05:11

I'm a steam fanboy, and I do think this kind of thing is bang out of order.

I have stopped using paypal out of concern for this.

orderoftheflame · 20 Jul 2011 at 07:34

Sem said:
of course i expect the steam fanboy brigade to come in and post some BS justifying steams actions

At your service sir.

Tbh, account suspension does seem extreme. But effectively they're reacting to people stealing back money they've already been paid. They do it while they investigate fraud on the account. From their end, all they know is someone is trying to grab back money that they've already paid, and thanks to the way paypal operate, they can do this.

I think suspensions a bit far, but what else would they do while they check an account isn't trying to scam them out of money?

I'd personally prefer to see Paypal stop with the BS chargebacks, that would solve the problem entirely.

'Wes · 20 Jul 2011 at 08:07

Give a McDonalds voucher via email to Gabe, sorted.

-inb4 Episode 3 delayed again replies.

Mattyjw · 22 Jul 2011 at 01:18

My steam account has now been reinstated with the following explanation.

"Hello, Normally when a purchase fails in this way, it will automatically drop off your PayPal statement, or list a refund within 3-5 business days. Since you initiated a dispute on the transaction directly through PayPal (no I did not), they blocked our reconciliation attempts. They sent a notification to our system that your PayPal account had potentially been used fraudulently, in which case our system automatically disabled the Steam account for review. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. If for any reason you see a charge on your PayPal account for a transaction that failed in Steam, please do not submit a dispute with PayPal. In the future, please do not use PayPal's dispute system to resolve these discrepancies. Please contact Steam Support and provide us with the Transaction number for the payment you are seeing in Steam (I did this) and we will work with PayPal to correct the issue. Since this transaction is in Dispute Status at PayPal (lie), PayPal has locked us out and Steam is no longer able resolve the discrepancy on our end(another lie). PayPal will refund you after the dispute case that you opened with them has gone through their review process( I was already refunded by Steam a week before the suspension). If you ever have an issue like this with a Steam purchase, please contact Steam Support so we can ask PayPal to fix their reporting error."

So Steam blame a non existant dispute through paypal. I'm not sure what I'd get out of disputing this though except a ban.

Final8y · 22 Jul 2011 at 06:07

Mattyjw said:
My steam account has now been reinstated with the following explanation.

"Hello, Normally when a purchase fails in this way, it will automatically drop off your PayPal statement, or list a refund within 3-5 business days. Since you initiated a dispute on the transaction directly through PayPal (no I did not), they blocked our reconciliation attempts. They sent a notification to our system that your PayPal account had potentially been used fraudulently, in which case our system automatically disabled the Steam account for review. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. If for any reason you see a charge on your PayPal account for a transaction that failed in Steam, please do not submit a dispute with PayPal. In the future, please do not use PayPal's dispute system to resolve these discrepancies. Please contact Steam Support and provide us with the Transaction number for the payment you are seeing in Steam (I did this) and we will work with PayPal to correct the issue. Since this transaction is in Dispute Status at PayPal (lie), PayPal has locked us out and Steam is no longer able resolve the discrepancy on our end(another lie). PayPal will refund you after the dispute case that you opened with them has gone through their review process( I was already refunded by Steam a week before the suspension). If you ever have an issue like this with a Steam purchase, please contact Steam Support so we can ask PayPal to fix their reporting error."

So Steam blame a non existant dispute through paypal. I'm not sure what I'd get out of disputing this though except a ban.

There are 3 parties involved, you know what you did but you don't really know what's going on between PayPal & steam.

'Wes · 22 Jul 2011 at 06:34

PayPal are scum, and i'm not white knighting Steam, my experiences with PayPal warrant my negativity towards them.

Tefal · 22 Jul 2011 at 09:31

Sem said:
they need to find a better way of dealing with problems like this as the users cant play the library of games they have paid for and would have no connection what so ever to the disputed transaction

You sir have never read your steam agreement or your receipt when buying a steam game have you?

of course i expect the steam fanboy brigade to come in and post some BS justifying steams actions

it's automated, till you get in contact to sort it.

CaptainRAVE · 22 Jul 2011 at 10:07

tibbsey said:
I don't any more because of horror stories such as this

Same tbh, wouldn't want to risk this happening to my account.

psychas · 22 Jul 2011 at 11:08

similar thing happened to me and loads of others took me 1 month till steam eventually caved in. one of the users had same problem and got it fixed in 1 day.

cause member called Aedus probably knows someone or works for steam support should ask him to help you out if he still around in these forums.

Mr Krugga · 22 Jul 2011 at 11:34

psychas said:
similar thing happened to me and loads of others took me 1 month till steam eventually caved in. one of the users had same problem and got it fixed in 1 day.

cause member called Aedus probably knows someone or works for steam support should ask him to help you out if he still around in these forums.

Post #4 in this thread.