Elliott C. Back: Technology FTW!

Steam Support Sucks

Posted in Games, Uptime by Elliott Back on October 1st, 2006.

If you’ve ever played any Steam-powered game, you know that their distribution model requires a user-account which is licensed for whatever games you’ve bought from them. Their top games, according to rating, are Half-Life 2 (HL2), Half-Life (HL), Counter-Strike (CS), Counter-Strike: Source (CS:Source), Half-Life 2: Episode One, Darwinia, Day of Defeat: Source, SiN Episodes, and X2: The Threat. Apparently, though, account authorizations aren’t working properly, and their support page is dead in the water. When I signed in today to kill half an hour on CS:Source, I got the following error message:

cs-source-error.jpg
“Disconnect: This Steam account does not own this game. Please login to the correct Steam account.”

Naturally I’d like to visit their Steam support page, but I get a timeout when I try to load the page:

steam-support-timeout.jpg

In other words, Steam is telling me that I don’t own the rights to play the game I bought from them, and refusing to listen to me when I want to complain and let them know that I do. Sorry Steam, Valve, et al, you’re wrong. I really did buy that game:

Dear Elliott Back (Steam account name: exxxx),

Thank you for your recent purchase. Counter-Strike: Source is now available in your Steam “Games” window. To play, just double-click on the name of a game in this list.

Your credit card has been charged as detailed below. This email serves as your receipt.

Product Cost
———————————————–
Counter-Strike: Source $ 19.95

In their purchase email, they include steamsupport@support.steampowered.com as a support email address, so I’ll definitely be dropping a note. I’m not optimistic, though, since many other Steam or CS players are experiencing the same issues. Valve / Steam must have rolled out a new patch without thinking about how it would hammer their servers.

Viewing 69 Comments

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    elliott, do you still play cs:s? add me to your steam friends the next time you start up steam - cmurder280@verizon.net, and perhaps we can shoot people together
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    Well, just recently steam began having an error, every time i tried to open it. Thinking of no other quick solution to the problem, i decided to reinstall steam. Anyway, steam began to work again, but reinstalling steam, also took day of defeat : source of my hard drive. Now when i go into steam it says you do not currently have any games on steam. I paid for it over the internet, so i have no actual copy of the game. I have written to steampowered, but have had no reply. This is ridiculous, and pathetic. I want the game i paid for put back where it belongs - on my computer.
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    yeah, steam sucks, i would play HL2 and when i host i would get C++ errors
    then i started getting the following error
    "the instruction at XXXXXXXX refrenced memory at XXXXXXXXX the memory could not be "read" click on OK to terminate the program" so i went to their support site but wait... they DONT have one they have some stupid see if your question is awnsered in our FAQ page or goto the forums
    so i goto the forums, post a message, and get a bunch of suggestions that didnt work... i'm still getting that error i ran steam crash test and that said everything EVERYTHING was OK so i have no clue....
    meanwhile i can still play CS:S..... and this was.. a few months ago
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    I'm having the same trouble right now. Steam won't connect to the server and no support because of the timed out page. I took 3 years for my friends to talk me into going with steam after Won-THE BEST NETWORK EVER- which always worked, went down. Are Steam and Vista in cahoots or what? Every fucking time I go with "legitimate" software I get fucked around!! I HAVE to used pirated software to be identified as a valid user-this is BULLSHIT!!
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    Sorry about the spelling but I'm too pissed to deal with it
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    I agree Steam has dropped the ball I just tried logining in which I never had to before and when requesting my password to be sent to my e-mail it never did and then tried calling the line was busy, and tried e-mailing support or ANY of thier contact e-mail address' and they all came back with the website (or page) could not connect.
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    Yeah, I have been trying to log into steam all day today but to no avail. I use the service every day as I play ALOT and have had some pretty bad experiences with them. At the moment it is telling me that my username (the same one Ive had for three years) is not valid. I cannot get to the support or forum pages to post or check for problems (IE7 tells me that they are down) so am assuming that they are having serious server issues. I regularly have games reinstalled by the software and at times it tells me that I dont own the games I have purchased. It really is unacceptable, surely there is a way for them to test rollouts and updates before they screw up everyones lives...
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    I also emailed them asking for my username and password (this morning) and still have not gotten a reply.

    Having said that in the past I have emailed about problems and not gotten any reply at all.

    I too was asked for my password (which I never use as it is saved and has never been requested once since I installed the program) and after entering it was told that the servers were unavailable. I have tried this several times today. When I tried to "retrieve" my "lost account" it told me that my account does not exist.

    Who knows what these clowns are up to?
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    Honestly, Valve fucked up when they cooperated with Steam to run and produce their games. If any of you are long time Valve gamers you would know what I mean because back before Steam was even thought of being used, Valve was using a different network (I'm not sure which network it was) which would run in each game and it actually ran pretty smooth and sweet. Today and all day, I've tried logging into Steam and its been saying "Steam cannot connect to Steam servers." I've asked my friends if it's happening with them and they as well, are experiencing it. The basic thing to this is that Steam is a piece of shit and Valve fucked up by choosing it as a network for its games. Second, steam support isn't support AT ALL because they won't help you for shit and they'll take forever in replying to your problems with bogus answers that most likely won't work. If any of you have the phone support number for Steam, I would greatly appreciate it
    if you can post it on here once you read this, so I can try my best to give not just myself but ALL users their playability back and to IMPROVE it while there at it.
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    I tried same thing, tried to login and failed to connect Invalid username when trying to change the password, not recieveing email for the "correct" username. Sent an email which was thrown back because I don't have a "Steam Support" account and that I should make one on the site which apparently doesn't exist.

    However, I am relaxing nowing that others are having the same issues and not just me.
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    http://www.penny-arcade.com/forums/viewtopic.ph...

    Seattle's power is out and that is causing the issues apparently.
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    I get the following message when I am trying to get into Counter StrikeSource:
    "The instruction at 0x0####### referenced memory at 0x0fc03e2c. The memory could not be "read". Click OK to terminate the program." I re-installed Counter Strike Source all together---that didn't work. I can still play Half Life 2 Deathmatch and Day of Defeat, but it is only occuring with Counter Strike Source. What the hell is up with this? Can anyone help me?
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    They're fucking assholes. Their product page comes up but the support sites don't. DON'T BUY ANYTHING ELSE FROM THESE PRICKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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    I doubt this has anything to do with the power outtages in WA and OR. The winds and flooding hit Thursday evening. I live in SW WA and played CZ today without a problem at 2PM PST. Around 5 PM I tried to get back in and had the same problem as the others in this thread.
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    Then again, that's what they're saying:

    http://www.nonameservers.net/

    ...and if you can get the to the support site...

    http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthrea...

    Getting to the support page is probably more painful than usual by the number of hits it's getting. Looks like an on-line poker night...too bad I can't bring an awp.
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    WOOT!!!
    New update from Steam at 8:50PM PST. 1/2 the servers have been relocated and I'm IN!!!!!

    Shoot ya there...
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    Well everyone. I too bought the game, paid $55.00 at EB. Got home, took all night downloading Steam even though I have a DVD. I don't want to play online, just single player. I can't install from the DVD. I can't download it, it was at 16% after 12 hours overnight on a DSL line, it stopped dozens of times and said the servers were too busy and to try back later. It's been nearly a week since I purchased the game and I have not played one second. I have been playing PC games since I was 15, I'm now 30. I have never experienced anything even remotely like this. I assume that Valve is so worried about software piracy that it has come to this. You have to download something even when you buy the DVD in the store. I am having doubts if I will ever be able to play it. I can't find any phone numbers not even a pay service. I would pay to speak with someone. I would like everyone at Valve to die a slow painful death. just kidding.....but seriously, this is the lamest shit I have ever dealt with. I HATE VALVE!!!! STEAM SUCKS!!!! I heard Halflife was cool, but I will never know. Time to blow my brains out now.
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    i'm having the same problem .I can't log in, they wont send me my info. I WANT TO PLAY. I'M 46YEARS OLD AND I DONT HAVE ALOT OF TIME LEFT TOO PLAY. WHERE ARE THEY WHEN YOU NEED THEM, YOU BUY THERE SHIT YOU WANT TO PLAY BUT YOU CANT.I WANT MY MONEY BACK BUT I CAN,T EVEN GET IT.
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    PLEASE ADD ME TO HELP ME

    VOLCANO_STRIKE@HOTMAIL.COM

    MY STEAM ACCOUNT STOLEN HOW TO GET IT BACK

    PLEASE HELP
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    these motherfuckers need to put up a phone number so we can contact these bitches.I WANT MY MONEY BACK MOTHERFUCKER,S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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    i got a reply from steam it said. My login and password was right but it would not work within steam.What in the fuck does this mean. I have a account but cant use it . I HAVE USED IT FOR YEARS WHY IS IT NO GOOD NOW. SOMEONE TELL ME PLEASE!
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    Same story after years of automatic login suddenly my password or account are invalid. who know which. 5 days later STEAM has not responded to the email I sent through thier support site. If any of you are attourneys lets get a class action togehter. pathetic, valve was the best, pc gaming is dead
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    I too have had problems with said Steam. I received a copy of half life 2 as a birthday present, installed it and have been playing it for about a week. Now, when I try to log on, I get an error message saying "Steam has encountered an error and will now close. When I tried to contact the support group with my user name and password, It said they were invailed, so I tried to open a NEW account. I get an error message saying my e-mail address is already on the system and I need to go back and correct this before I can continue. Now how am I suppose to fix this problem if I can't evern contact them. Like thi