STEAM Messing Me Around ....

albert · 8 Jul 2012 at 14:15

Glaucus said:
And? Contact company, PayPal is last resort.

But surely your payments are protected with Paypal?

If you had a problem with any other transaction with any other company using Paypal the 1st thing you do is contact Paypal. What makes STEAM any different?

Steam will quite happily take your money using Paypal but any problems then STEAM wants nothing to do with them. Surely they should be working together. Plus STEAM took 6 days to reply through customer support.

Glaucus · 8 Jul 2012 at 14:18

Yes protected, it doesn't mean it's your first point of call.
No, PayPal is never first port of call. Check eBay rules. You try sorting it out with the buyer first.

Check out visa protection t&cs you try and sort it out. Pay pal, visa chargeback and other schemes are not and never should be used as first port of call. They are protection, I case other means fail.

Steams issue is, that people could buy games and do a chargeback. Hence steam shuts your account. If you went through steam, I'm sure you'll have no issue getting a refund. Just as I'm sure now you won't have an issue, now you've contacted them.

Squark · 8 Jul 2012 at 14:43

Aedus said:
This is why I don't use Paypal on Steam.

Me too

Witcher1979 · 8 Jul 2012 at 14:44

voorhees1979 said:
I have been using paypal with all my games lol. I have seen these stories before and they only seem to happen when you put in a paypal dispute. I would have given steam upto 14 days to answer my emails before putting in a dispute anyway to be honest. Some people just do it straight away. Which is right of course but Steam does not seem to like it at all.

Glaucus said:
it's not right, PayPal dispute is the last course of action, you should trysorting everything. Out with company, ebayer user or whatever first.

Of course Steam hate it, you get the game and they don't get the money. Hence the precautions, should have contacted steam first, rather than straight to last resort.

Hence why I did say I would have given Steam upto 14 days to respond. But I do believe the buyer has every right to open a dispute ASAP, Steam is not Ebay and does not have the same rules.

Glaucus · 8 Jul 2012 at 14:48

voorhees1979 said:
. But I do believe the buyer has every right to open a dispute ASAP, Steam is not Ebay and does not have the same rules.

of course not, but these protection. Scheme are always last resort. That's why they give you ~30 days to make a claim, gives you plenty of time to sort it out. I bet if you read any T&cs all schemes are last resort. eBay was but one example. Visa chargeback being another.

Komedy · 8 Jul 2012 at 14:53

So you have done as Steam Requested and Closed the Dispute ?

If so email them back informing of this and attach those two images and CLEARLY explain how the situation arose. Be patient

albert · 8 Jul 2012 at 15:24

Komedy said:
So you have done as Steam Requested and Closed the Dispute ?

If so email them back informing of this and attach those two images and CLEARLY explain how the situation arose. Be patient

Yeah , i've done all that. I've also emailed PAYPAL and told them i was threatened to have my account closed by STEAM if i didn't close the dispute.

Now i'm just playing the waiting game for STEAM support....

RedTop89 · 8 Jul 2012 at 15:34

I have used paypal to buy a few games and never had a problem, although i do usually tend to buy a retail copy first if i can before i absoloutly have to buy a key, even then i rarely buy a key straight from steam its usually G2Play.

Aedus · 8 Jul 2012 at 15:40

albert said:
Yeah , i've done all that. I've also emailed PAYPAL and told them i was threatened to have my account closed by STEAM if i didn't close the dispute.

I don't see where steam threatened to close your account, by looking at the original picture they just limited your account to not being able to buy games or trade using steam trading, and functionality would return after 9 weeks, or sooner if you removed the charge back.

It used to be that after a charge back they would close your account completely.

Komedy · 8 Jul 2012 at 15:41

Aedus said:
.....
It used to be that after a charge back they would close your account completely.

It said that in the email he got.

My advice to the OP - Keep Paypal well out of it - email them nothing in case some goon re-instates the dispute

albert · 8 Jul 2012 at 15:43

Aedus said:
I don't see where steam threatened to close your account, by looking at the original picture they just limited your account to not being able to buy games or trade using steam trading, and functionality would return after 9 weeks, or sooner if you removed the charge back.

It used to be that after a charge back they would close your account completely.

"However, if PayPal closes the dispute case by "Reversing the Payment", meaning they send the funds for the purchase back to you, the Steam account will be automatically locked and you will be restricted from purchasing, gifting, trading, CD Key activation, and Steam Community access"

... i think that would make my STEAM account pretty redundant.

Aedus · 8 Jul 2012 at 15:44

Komedy said:
It said that in the email he got.

Actually, it says:

If the dispute is closed and the funds are released back to Steam, the game/item will be reactivated. However, if PayPal closes the dispute case by "Reversing the Payment", meaning they send the funds for the purchase back to you, the Steam account will be automatically locked and you will be restricted from purchasing, gifting, trading, CD Key activation, and Steam Community access. Additionally, you will lose access to the disputed game/item.

Which is exactly what is said in the original picture, I.e. for 9 weeks, not completely.

albert said:
"However, if PayPal closes the dispute case by "Reversing the Payment", meaning they send the funds for the purchase back to you, the Steam account will be automatically locked and you will be restricted from purchasing, gifting, trading, CD Key activation, and Steam Community access"

... i think that would make my STEAM account pretty redundant.

Yes, it's for 9 weeks, as it's stated in the original picture.

If your account was banned completely they would have said your account is disabled.

RedTop89 · 8 Jul 2012 at 15:44

Komedy said:
It said that in the email he got.

My advice to the OP - Keep Paypal well out of it - email them nothing in case some goon re-instates the dispute

If Paypal is such a problem then why do Steam offer it as an option at all? surely something would have been done about it.

FallshirmjAEger · 8 Jul 2012 at 16:39

6 days for C/S to respond is just pathetic tbh & the only reason they did come back was because you disputed the transaction with paypal.

I would just do what they say for now, then respond to the ticket letting them know what a bunch of smacktards they are & that they shouldn't have charged you twice for the same product in the first place.

MissChief · 8 Jul 2012 at 18:13

albert said:
It's a lot of hassle, all i want is my refund and the STEAM account that I am given a licence to use and they allow me access, back.

Fixed. (unfortunately)

Gimpymoo · 8 Jul 2012 at 19:36

In the past, when this has happened to me, I did this:

Purchased the game again (using Paypal).

Submitted a ticket with the paypal reference for both the failed transaction and the completed one.

They refunded the failed one imediately, no hassle.

Alternatively, if you do not mind waiting, just send them the Paypal reference saying the game has not been added to your account and they will activate it for you.

Their system obviously thought the transaction was completed, reversing the payment is obviously going to cause problems.

For the record, been using Paypal with Steam for as long as I can remember, the few problems I have had have been resolved promptly and amicably.

Then again, I have never reversed a Paypal payment to Steam as that will almost definitely cause problems, just submit a ticket.

albert · 8 Jul 2012 at 19:50

Gimpymoo said:
In the past, when this has happened to me, I did this:

Purchased the game again (using Paypal).

Submitted a ticket with the paypal reference for both the failed transaction and the completed one.

They refunded the failed one imediately, no hassle.

Alternatively, if you do not mind waiting, just send them the Paypal reference saying the game has not been added to your account and they will activate it for you.

I don't understand why i should buy the game again. I already have it. The 1st transaction failed, but paid for and the 2nd transaction was succesful , again paid for , and is installed my STEAM account.

There is no way i'm going to buy the game again , that would mean i would have spent £89.97 on a game and god knows when i would get my refund.

SpaghettiOs · 8 Jul 2012 at 19:56

He's not saying buy the game again. He's saying that he had the same problem, bought the game twice, and then instead of going straight to Paypal with the dispute he contacted Steam support, who solved the problem.

Gimpymoo · 8 Jul 2012 at 20:02

albert said:
I don't understand why i should buy the game again. I already have it. The 1st transaction failed, but paid for and the 2nd transaction was succesful , again paid for , and is installed my STEAM account.

There is no way i'm going to buy the game again , that would mean i would have spent £89.97 on a game and god knows when i would get my refund.

I was not refering to "NOW" but after the initial transaction "failed". Too late to do something once the horse has bolted.

The problem using any "automated" system is that sometimes, they do not work. For reference, the same thing can and has happened with debit card AND Paypal transactions.

Likelihood is that not all the transaction details were received from Paypal, hence why the automated systems flagged it has "failed".

This can and will happen with any etailer where transactions are not manned by people but "systems". "Dispute" equals immediate suspension of purchased service and should really be a LAST resort and even then, I would be hesitant.

If a transaction fails, and you are unable to purchase the game again, just submit a ticket with the Paypal transaction reference confirming payment and they will add the game to your account. Better to wait than open this can of worms which can be easily avoided.

SpaghettiOs said:
He's not saying buy the game again. He's saying that he had the same problem, bought the game twice, and then instead of going straight to Paypal with the dispute he contacted Steam support, who solved the problem.

Correct

albert · 10 Jul 2012 at 01:59

I'm now getting quite peed off with STEAM. Having got me to close the PayPal dispute they send me this email .....

"Your purchase is still listing a chargeback from PayPal in our system. You will need to contact PayPal and ask them to close the dispute and return the funds to Steam for your purchase. If you have already contacted them, they may be in the process of sending the funds back to Steam. The process can take some time depending on the specifics involved in the case. To check the status, you need to follow up with PayPal directly. As soon as the chargeback dispute is settled the game will automatically unlock. If this hasn't happened, it means that the chargeback is still pending with PayPal.

Unfortunately, we are unable to accept new purchase for the charged-back transaction. Due to the fact that PayPal has opened a dispute case for this transaction we have no way of determining if subsequent payments are valid or if they will also prove to be disputed. While we understand that your case may be an exception, we do encounter a high level of confirmed fraud cases. We need confirmation from PayPal that the chargeback or dispute was canceled by the account holder and that
the funds have been returned to Steam for the purchase to protect us from fraud liability."

Am I missing something here? I try to buy the game. The transaction failed , but I was charged. So I try again with success and was charged again. Why is Steam mentioning unlocking the game when I already have it? Why is it so hard to get a refund?