ORIGINAL: Scott_WAR
Actually Gary, steam is about the best way to buy games now in my opinion. Any game I have bought at steam is always there ready for me to install and play.
I just feel the need to balance things a bit Scott. That is your experience, this is mine:
1. 26 Mar - Tried to buy a game, process failed, message to contact Steam support. Account debited, Paypal showing money gone, no game. I logged a dispute with Paypal but only at "Talk to Seller" level.
2. 28 Mar - Late on Sunday before any contact. Steam support told me the money had been refunded. Not great as I had lost the weekend, but at this point I thought it had been resolved.
3. 28 Mar - I buy the game from Gamers Gate via Paypal as I want to play it now with the refunded money, didn't want to risk a repeat of 1 above.
4. 03 Apr - Saturday morning of an Easter weekend, account disabled, money still missing from bank account but no goods provided. I now escalated the dispute on Paypal AFTER the account had been disabled.
6. 09 Apr - 6 days to contact me, account disabled all this time. Account enabled, only after I pm'd one of the moderators on the steam forum when I managed to spot him on line. Money still missing. I had told them I had bought the game elsewhere but as a sign of regret they added the game I had tried to pay for earlier to my account claiming it was freebie. At this point they still had my money so it was in fact not free and not wanted.
7. 12 Apr - Steam claim I have been refunded, but no evidence so I pursue this providing evidence to paypal and steam.
8. 14 Apr - Paypal contact me, finding in my favor, and force a refund from Steam.
9. 15 Apr - Steam then let me know a day later they have refunded me.....
10. 16 Apr - Steam then contact me explaining the refund and apologising. Can't fault that. They did then remove the free game because I said I didn't want it as I had bought it elsewhere, but without my agreement.
My Experience:
1. 3 weeks to resolve. Two weekends disrupted, one with the loss of all games.
2. Sporadic contact with minimal information during this time.
3. To raise a dispute with Paypal should never disable a customers account, especially if it is only "Talk to Seller" level. However, the account was disabled 8 days after the dispute was raised. It was still at "Talk to Seller" level which means Paypal take no action, nada. It is all between you and the seller.
4. I have heard so often that raising a dispute will get your account disabled, rubbish. Disabling my account caused me to escalate the dispute, not the other way round.
5. 6 days with a disabled account, yet I had done nothing wrong.
It did not sit well with me, the attitude towards my account (and myself indirectly). Disabled it, added a game, then removed it. All without notifying before taking such action. So who's account is it?
So what I have ended up with was frustration, lost time, loss of money from bank account for a couple of weeks and nothing else. I personally believe the only reason I got my money back was because Paypal took it back.
They were polite (when they finally contacted me) and I believe were regretful; although I still find it odd that they only offered compensation of the game I had attempted to buy. Once they found out I had been refunded and I had bought it elsewhere, they removed it and offered no substitute.
Take from this what you will, I can back it up with the support ticket and the emails between all parties concerned.
My personal experience means I quit Steam and have not regretted it. I even had them delete my account (they have only disabled it but it makes no difference to me). I have lost my games, but I don't care. The companies I buy from now are fine and in my opinion provide a better service, I like owning my games.
As for backups and availability? Digital downloads and Acronis True Image (an absolutely fine product; and cheap) along with one of those backup drives. It takes about 3 mins to install most games and get playing, anywhere. And if I don't want to carry a drive then there is Dropbox via the internet. I might add, all this installs faster than Steam and is a lot more available.
Scott's opinion and experience is just a valid as mine and I am not knocking what he says. I just wanted to show him and others there is another experience that can be had. And, in my opinion, there are other ways of getting the same, if not better service than Steam.
No more from me after this. I am not here to send this off topic, but felt as people were promoting Steam it was okay to offer an alternative view.
Signing out , enjoy your sales everyone [:)]
Too many games at too great of prices.
I don't think I want to get anything with Steam. Other than the good prices it doesn't sound worth it.