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Steam User Forums: Steam no longer disabling game access after payment/account issues

I did not know this, but Valve has apparently changed the way disabled accounts work. The change is that accounts are no longer disabled and are now restricted on buying new titles, trading, and activating keys. The accounts can access their titles. The change has been in effect for 2 months already:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=30324377&postcount=50

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21565521/sekrit/support2.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21565521/steam/support-lock.png
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21565521/steam/support.png
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
I didn't know this, but Valve stopped disabling accounts two months ago and has been restricting accounts instead. People can still play their games, but they cannot buy, trade, or activate CD Keys:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=30324377&postcount=50

[https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21565521/sekrit/support2.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21565521/steam/support-lock.png
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21565521/steam/support.png

This is great -- allowing customers to continue accessing the items they've paid for but cordon off most everything else. I'd like to also say "It took long enough", but, you know, Valve. :p
 

Blizzard

Banned
I did not know this, but Valve has apparently changed the way disabled accounts work. The change is that accounts are no longer disabled and are now restricted on buying new titles, trading, and activating keys. The accounts can access their titles. The change has been in effect for 2 months already:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=30324377&postcount=50

[https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21565521/sekrit/support2.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21565521/steam/support-lock.png
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21565521/steam/support.png
This is DEFINITELY good news. That used to be a concern. And yes, it was about time. :p
 

Kai Dracon

Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
If true, this seems like it should help reduce rage levels for users who are flagged for violation and are going through arbitration. Nothing worse than being TOTALLY locked out of stuff you already own, while trying to get support to pay attention to your billing situation.
 

Lumination

'enry 'ollins
Nice. Not the biggest fan of Steam, but a nice feature is a nice feature. Especially in the wake of all those EA forum ban fiascoes.
 

alstein

Member
This was my biggest objection to Steam, and now it's been solved.

As for other services- this pretty much matches the worst they could do to you, since most other services allowed you to run the .exe without activating the program, or didn't have a program.

Origin probably still screws you over, but it's Origin (lol).
 

Vaporak

Member
This, along with flaky offline mode are the only two real complaints I have had against Valve since I started using steam. Thank god they finally stopped locking accounts that were being investigated.
 

hym

Banned
EA just did this with Origin a while ago too. Great changes.

Not exactly the same, an Origin ban allows you to access your games in offline mode so you're still locked out of any online game. What changed in the Steam subscriber agreement in February still allows full access to any game you own including multiplayer but you can't add new games or make in-game transactions until the investigation is complete.
 

Card Boy

Banned
I know people on another forum who got banned over a payment dispute with hundreds to $1000's of dollars of games on their accounts and their only choice was to cut their losses and start a new Steam account.

I see Valve time is too late for those people.
 

Iadien

Guarantee I'm going to screw up this post? Yeah.
Such a great change, I was super pissed when I was locked out of my account for a year for no damn reason.

Valve loves everyone! Even those who have done wrong!

or have their account disabled because of a mistake on Valve's end?
 

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
A sizeable portion of these disputes are Valves fault just so you know. Paypal payments was the glitchiest piece of crap for quite awhile.
First you blame Valve and then you state that Paypal is the piece of shit? Wouldn't that mean that it's paypals fault?

And how would you know the portion of disputes that aren't the users fault?
 

markot

Banned
Oh come on, no one admits to being wrong even if they are >.<

But yeah you cant say 'its valves fault cause of Paypal!'
 
Oh come on, no one admits to being wrong even if they are >.<

But yeah you cant say 'its valves fault cause of Paypal!'
It's Valve's fault that they responded the way they did because of Paypal's glitches. Paypal doesn't lock you out of your games, Valve does.
 

DTKT

Member

Volcynika

Member
How promptly did they reply?

I think you're just too forgiving.

Within a day or two. One issue within an hour or so.

And I've used Amazon which is probably the best support around. Valve's support has still been helpful and responsive in a timely manner, that's all I require.
 

DTKT

Member
OP says steam has been doing this for 2 months.

As long as the great RPS doesn't report on something, it's not news.

:|

|:

Strange that Valve didn't say anything about it though.


And EA's customer service is better than Valve's.

Still depends. It seems that both EA and Steam support are terrible at anything technical. They really can't help regarding issues you have with the game. You are better off with some google-fu and some Neogaf support. If you need stuff like refunds, they are on par. It's just that EA has phone support, live-chat support and email support. Valve can only offer a ticket based system where you have to wait up to 3-5 days for an answer. And sometimes, you get the automatic answer and nothing else. So, they might both be bad but it's easier to get in touch with EA.
 

legend166

Member
Excellent news. I thought someone was going to have to take them to court first to get this fixed.

Now if they'll just get themselves a competent support service, things would be good.
 
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