Support NeoGAF

[TrainedRage]

New member Kaby wanted to make this thread... Give the quote a look.

Hello NeoGAF Community,

The Steam Support has deleted or renamed my account's login. I'm not sure when it was exactly happened. I had some problems with my PC around one month.

The account can not be search by the login or by the email. I've got an error that the account IS NOT EXISTS!

This topic is not personal support thread. I just share my negative experience.

If before it was just the deactivation for only 3 days (which also is not good from the Steam Support's side), but for now I get an error that the account's login is not exists in the database.

Here is the big conversation with their manager in the "brainwashes" style. The last conversation I had with them. (Alternative link - is.gd/Tr4nuw )

No sensitive data here and it can be disclosed to public.

Keep in mind that they are professional managers, but I'm just a normal user that need a help.

Steam support told me that my account was permanently and irreversibly deactivated and "The account won't be re-activated no matter who at Valve or Steam Support you talk to. You will not hear back from our team or a Valve employee regarding this account ever again."

So, basically all my 1000 subscriptions (games and programs) are gone. It wasn't indie games, I had triple-A titles like NieR: Automata and so on. And professional software like Sony Vegas Pro.

Here is my profile when it was still alive: https://web.archive.org/web/20170702233640/http://steamcommunity.com/id/Kaby

**UPDATE**

Guys. I agree that is something unclear here. But the ban of my account was totally unjustified.

I got Permanent Community Ban for using the official "self-locking tool" from Valve https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6416-FHVM-3982 (while I was temporarily Community Banned). This tool has removed my temporarily ban from my account. Steam Community Developer have noticed it and then banned my account permanently.

I got temporarily (six-months) Community Ban for vulnerability that I've found (And using, that was my mistake). I banned very small amount of my friends with their consents. All of them were in my friend list in the past and were Russians. It was forum related issue. Any Steam Moderator was able to ban any Steam User even if the user did not posted anything on the Discussions.

Example:

I have launch this tool three times. First one on 12 January of 2017. My friend wrote to me that he was unable to unlock his own Steam Account that was locked by him even with correct code wich was provided by that tool. It was a problem of the Steam Web designers, because code must be typed only with CAPS LOCK or SHIFT button. By default "self-locking" tool had crappy design with CSS attribution (text-transform: UPPERCASE). All my friends (including me) were unable to unlock Steam account because of this bug. And I wrote email to the russian Valve Employee (infortunatelly he is no longer with Valve). Any member of Steam Support can check that all my words are truth.

Additionally, I suggest anyone in this thread to "stalk" the web archive with my profile

April of 2017: http://web.archive.org/web/20170418213556/http://steamcommunity.com/id/Kaby
28 May of 2017 (Banned): http://web.archive.org/web/20170528190741/http://steamcommunity.com/id/Kaby/
2 July of 2017 (Unbanned by "self-locking" tool): http://web.archive.org/web/20170702233640/http://steamcommunity.com/id/Kaby

Full: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://steamcommunity.com/id/Kaby

I had an ability to transfer any item (or giftable copy of the game) when temporarly Community ban was reversed by "self-locked" tool. But I did nothing with all these stuff. I bought 100+ new games while I was temporarly banned also. (Community ban do not disallowed "purchasing feature").

I thought that all Valve Employees (Steam admins) are adequate and polite. Well, it kills me to say it, but I was wrong.

 

[Kaby]

And of course I forgot to add. Here is an answer from the Steam Developer with nickname "Jack".

Jack's reply about six-months ban

Jack's reply about permanent ban

 

[DynamiteCop!]

I've been a member of Steam since beta in 2002 and from my near 16 years of experience with the platform, Valve and the community I'm going to come out and say that you've got less than a 0% chance of them reversing this. Valve is very strict when it comes to account protocols, personal responsibility for actions and the consequences as a result.

They issued a 6 month ban on your account and you whether intentionally or not circumvented that ban and the consequence for that action is a permanent ban. They're not interested in circumstances, mistakes or long winded stories and excuses. You violated their community and platform SSA and ToS and they're not going to budge.

Your only real option is to create a new account and start from square one.

 

[Night.Ninja]

Can he still play the games he bought

 

[DynamiteCop!]

Can he still play the games he bought

From the sound of it his Steam account itself has been permanently disabled, access rights revoked.

 

[TaroYamada]

From the sound of it his Steam account itself has been permanently disabled, access rights revoked.

Unacceptable if so. Banning him from online multi is fine. Offline single player? Not ok.

 

[Kadayi]

From the sound of it his Steam account itself has been permanently disabled, access rights revoked.

I can understand maybe banning him from making community posts, but locking his entire account GTFOOH. I mean jeez, some people have thousands of $ of games in their account. If this guy has the skills to hack Steam so far that he can ban other users, I'm surprised they're banning him versus paying him cash moneys to learn the exploit. IIRC wasn't there something recently about Valve doing that?

 

[JaseC]

Can he still play the games he bought

He'd be able to if he could log in. A "community ban" is just a revocation of access to Steam Community. Valve actually stopped banning/suspending accounts in early 2012 in favour of a restriction-based penalty system that, rather than locking out users from their account/s altogether, instead disables access to certain features. For example, here's what happens when you issue a chargeback (not my image):

It appears Valve's made an exception in the OP's case because it was determined that he was relentlessly abusing the support system ("Each time that you choose to write in, regardless of whether you use a Steam Support message or email a Valve employee otherwise, you're actively choosing to ignore our previous conversations and warnings" and "You've sent Steam Support and Valve hundreds of help requests and emails regarding this ban"). Indeed, this is the first time I've heard of someone losing access to their account in the six-and-a-bit years since Valve introduced the restriction system.

 

[Kaby]

"You've sent Steam Support and Valve hundreds of help requests and emails regarding this ban"

it's a "professional" answer from their manager. About "hundreds of help requests" it's not true even.

I did not spammed them. Just watch the video which included in that help request. There is only two help requests. No "hundreds".

 

[undu]

Hello,

We see that you've decided to continue spamming Valve employees regarding your account's permanent, non-negotiable ban.

We've spent a lot of time reviewing the decisions that you made, and our ban that was issued as a consequence, and won't be doing so again. Every restriction that this Community Ban causes for your account is intended. Each time that you choose to write in, regardless of whether you use a Steam Support message or email a Valve employee otherwise, you're actively choosing to ignore our previous conversations and warnings.

Per Jared's previous warning, I'm deactivating your Steam account now.

This time, the deactivation will only last until Monday, around 11 AM PST, at which time I'll be turning the account back on.

Next time you contact Valve in any form or venue about this account's Community Ban, we will follow through with Jared's previous warning to permanently deactivate your account. If you do, we will also deactivate all other accounts that you use at that time if you choose to ignore this final warning. In that situation, you would no longer be welcome to use Steam in any capacity. We sincerely hope that you don't make us do this.

Best,
Mara

This is a very clear warning to me with the consequences properly laid out, why in seven hells would you ignore it?

 

[Kaby]

This is a very clear warning to me with the consequences properly laid out, why in seven hells would you ignore it?

Yeah, it's also funny. I have no idea how they are determined "other accounts". (Of course, I had an empty one without games). And I did not contacted them after this conversation.

 

[B_Signal]

I dunno man, that doesn't sound like a reply you'd get after just 2 messages.

I might be misunderstanding what you were doing, but if you were banning other users it's not really a surprise they aren't giving you a lot of slack either.
I don't think you should lose access to stuff you've paid for mind, but I don't think it's something that's happened lightly

 

[JaseC]

it's a "professional" answer from their manager. About "hundreds of help requests" it's not true even.

I did not spammed them. Just watch the video which included in that help request. There is only two help requests. No "hundreds".

I don't entirely agree with Valve's decision here, but the final support ticket strongly suggests you'd been in regular contact since the community ban was upped to permanent, "either through official or unofficial channels", and refused to accept "No" as an answer when being told that the ban would not be re-evaluated, so I can understand why Valve eventually decided to put its foot down and issue a clear and stern final warning.

Yeah, it's also funny. I have no idea how they are determined "other accounts". (Of course, I had an empty one without games). And I did not contacted them after this conversation.

"Currently I am unable to contact Steam Support from my main Steam account ..." probably had something to do with it.

 

[Kaby]

"Currently I am unable to contact Steam Support from my main Steam account ..." probably had something to do with it.

It's an old ticket from 2017...

 

[undu]

And I did not contacted them after this conversation.

You did reply to a warning telling you to not send any other kind of message to them, which includes replying to the warning.

And yet you did it, twice, completely ignoring their warning.

 

[JaseC]

It's an old ticket from 2017...

Sure, but by submitting the ticket from an alt account, you made it abundantly clear that you have one. That and I'm sure Valve has tools to identify alts (e.g. detection of shared IP addresses).

 

[Kaby]

You did reply to a warning telling you to not send any other kind of message to them, which includes replying to the warning.

It was a single help request. I just showed them my position. It's better than just close a ticket and doing nothing, isn't it?

 

[Greedings]

"OP" is very fishy.

 

[Kaby]

"OP" is very fishy.

Plus one more post, nice. How about the argumentation?

 

[Dali]

Can he still play the games he bought

Based on the replies he got, yes he could until he continued to press the issue and his username was wiped. I imagine he can't now.

 

[Kaby]

Based on the replies he got, yes he could until he continued to press the issue and his username was wiped. I imagine he can't now.

Technically username is not wiped. They are somehow edited my account's login. And the account can not be restored through Steam Support site (Error: Login is not exists).

https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithLoginInfo?issueid=406

 

[Darak]

That's why I never join any Steam discussion, add friends on Steam, or chat through its interface. I have an account with hundreds of games which I've accumulated through the years (it's thousands of dollars of value) and any random moderator has the ability to permanently delete my account, blocking me to play any and all of my games forever, with no justification required and no compensation allowed. It's scary as hell.

I don't care about policies, rules or guidelines. There are humans behind those tools and any of those things are open to interpretation. Their interpretation, not yours or mine.

 

[DynamiteCop!]

Unacceptable if so. Banning him from online multi is fine. Offline single player? Not ok.

He violated the SSA on multiple occasions and didn't heed their warnings, there's nothing unacceptable about it.

Technically username is not wiped. They are somehow edited my account's login. And the account can not be restored through Steam Support site (Error: Login is not exists).

https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithLoginInfo?issueid=406

They disabled the account not deleted it, login's are permanently restricted and to the community the account does not exist which is why you can't look it up.

That's why I never join any Steam discussion, add friends on Steam, or chat through its interface. I have an account with hundreds of games which I've accumulated through the years (it's thousands of dollars of value) and any random moderator has the ability to permanently delete my account, blocking me to play any and all of my games forever, with no justification required and no compensation allowed. It's scary as hell.

I don't care about policies, rules or guidelines. There are humans behind those tools and any of those things are open to interpretation. Their interpretation, not yours or mine.

Moderators have no access to disable your account, they only have control over community features. Valve employees are the only ones who can disable or delete accounts.

You're being paranoid.

 

[Darak]

Moderators have no access to disable your account, they only have control over community features. Valve employees are the only ones who can disable or delete accounts.

Valve employees which would listen to moderators, and are known to never reverse such a ban, regardless of circumstances. I'd say my paranoia is justified in this case.

 

[JaseC]

Valve employees which would listen to moderators, and are known to never reverse such a ban, regardless of circumstances. I'd say my paranoia is justified in this case.

Moderators merely enforce Steam Community guidelines. They have zero influence over administrative matters. Also, just to reiterate, a community ban relates solely to Steam Community access; it otherwise has no effect on your account (and to be clear, moderators cannot issue community bans).

 

[Strazyplus]

So let me get this straight you got suspended multiple times. found a invulnerability instead of reporting it you used it (consent does not matter) Bypass a ban you had with some tool (somehow) and you think it's unjust for them to ban you permanently?

 

[Kaby]

and just to be clear, moderators cannot issue community bans

As far I know, since early of 2017 this feature was implemented for the global Steam Community moderators too.

Moderators merely enforce Steam Community guidelines. They have zero influence over administrative matters. Also, just to reiterate, a community ban relates solely to Steam Community access; it otherwise has no effect on your account (and to be clear, moderators cannot issue community bans).

Community ban throw away many opportunities like Steam Community Market and Trading. Also all possible interaction with Steam Community (including activity feed and friends).

 

[JaseC]

As far I know, since early of 2017 this feature was implemented only for global Steam Community moderators.

Global moderators can ban you from specific forums. They can't ban you from Steam Community altogether.

Community ban throw away many opportunities like Steam Community Market and Trading. Also all possible interaction with Steam Community (including activity feed and friends).

All of that stuff is related to Steam Community. I didn't mean to imply you're merely prohibited from interacting with user profiles and game community hubs.

 

[Kaby]

I didn't mean to imply you're merely prohibited from viewing user profiles and game community hubs.

All works. Only in read-only mode.

 

[DynamiteCop!]

Valve employees which would listen to moderators, and are known to never reverse such a ban, regardless of circumstances. I'd say my paranoia is justified in this case.

It's not justified and you're misinformed, Steam moderators are volunteers who merely have access to community moderation and can only enact temporary bans from community related features.

They have no influence over anything beyond some community moderation and most definitely have zero influence over account matters.

 

[JaseC]

All works. Only in read-only mode.

D'oh, brain fart. Fixed.

 

[Isurus]

Real life example of how [repeatedly] violating the ToS / SSA can lead to consequences. I'm not seeing anything wrong here. Can't walk (even if virtually) around the world being an asshole all the time. Learn from it and move on.

 

[Darak]

Also, just to reiterate, a community ban relates solely to Steam Community access; it otherwise has no effect on your account.

We are talking about permanent account suspensions, which block your access to your games, since you won't be able to login anymore. They shouldn't even be a thing, yet they exist. OP may be shady, but he still got all his games deleted forever due to what essentially looks like a community matter to me.

Let's take a look at the kind of thing that could make some random Valve employee delete your account with all your games forever:

• Credit card chargebacks (which may not be your fault)
• Accepting a fraudulent gift (which you didn't know was fraudulent)
• Sharing accounts (not a problem per se, but now having several computers with Steam installed makes me nervous)
• Deliberately deceptive activity (whatever that means)
• Violating the online code of conduct (which, like any other CoC, is purposely vague and open to interpretation)

Sure, now I know a moderator doesn't have access to account suspension tools. Thank you for pointing that out, I stand corrected. But since an online code of conduct violation is reason enough to suspend an account, and moderators are the ones who enact community bans (hence, the ones who decide if you violated the CoC), I still prefer to stay away from the Steam community. Better safe than sorry, IMHO.

 

[nemiroff]

I would gladly debate if this was about libraries suddenly vanishing into non-existence just because people unknowingly made some sort of simple error, or if f.ex. Valve joined the wrong-think totalitarian bandwagon and started banning accounts because people had the "wrong" opinion.
However, it sounds like that's not even close to the case here. It appears to me that you fucked up, and you couldn't help yourself screw up even more. I honestly wish you no bad, I just find it fascinating that you made yet another move to avoid taking responsibility by posting your story here.

Edit: With that said, I'm not so sure I agree with Valve that this is something that people should lose their libraries over..
Edit2: Wait, did I misunderstand something, are the games gone or not?

 

[grumpyGamer]

I whould say ban OP if necessary, but let him play his games.
Thats why i dont like digital, one wrong move and you are fucked

 

[JaseC]

We are talking about permanent account suspensions, which block your access to your games, since you won't be able to login anymore.

Oh, I realise that. I was just clarifying that moderators have no say in administrative decisions and the community ban the OP was slapped with isn't why he lost access to his account. Also, as I mentioned earlier, Valve actually stopped banning/suspending accounts more than six years ago; that support article is no longer relevant. For instance:

There is a Zero-Tolerance policy for any violations of the Steam Subscriber Agreement and Online Code of Conduct. All accounts in a user's possession for any of the following activities will be suspended:

...

Payment Fraud
Any fraudulent credit card use, credit card chargebacks, or Paypal chargebacks (regardless of when the transaction occurred).

This is actually what happens now when you issue a chargeback (not my image):

The situation with the OP is a special case. His account wasn't banned because of a policy infraction but rather due to continued misuse of the support system despite numerous warnings.

 

[Darak]

Also, as I mentioned earlier, Valve actually stopped banning/suspending accounts more than six years ago; that support article is no longer relevant.

What? But we have a suspended user right here, today. I'm not even discussing the case, for all I know he may be Hitler reborn and he may deserve everything he gets... But the thing is, Valve has a system to suspend user accounts, something which will effectively block your access to all your years of purchases games, and that's a system that is in use as we speak. The only official guidelines I've found about possible causes for suspension are in that article, which is extremely vague and open to interpretation, and that makes me very paranoid about using any of their services.

Why do you think the article is no longer relevant? It is right there, in the support section, and as far as I can see there is no newer article or policy about the fact.

Thanks for pointing out that example about chargebacks anyway. Of course, I wouldn't expect every minor infraction to result in an immediate suspension, I understand the rules are there to give Valve the maximum leeway, and are probably only enforced in extreme cases. However, at the end of the day, there are random people out there holding a kill switch over your entire game library, and that's not cool.

 

[Shin]

I got temporarily (six-months) Community Ban for vulnerability that I've found (And using, that was my mistake). I banned very small amount of my friends with their consents. All of them were in my friend list in the past and were Russians.

OK? And support ticket spam / misuse on top of that? You're not really bright and brought this on yourself. Seeing as you're spamming ticket you're also holding up others that might be in need of help, so nothing to see here.

Act properly or get punished, you thought you could get away with it but got caught and now seeking attention for your wrong doings, I don't know man this sounds like karma.
You reap what you sow, lesson learned hopefully.

 

[hivsteak]

In their eyes you’re the type of user that would exploit any bug you come across. You can’t really blame them for that. You found a gun on the ground and pointed it at people

 

[JaseC]

What? But we have a suspended user right here, today.

Right, which I acknowledged:

The situation with the OP is a special case. His account wasn't banned because of a policy infraction but rather due to continued misuse of the support system despite numerous warnings

It's quite clear from the OP's final support ticket that Valve banned his account because he wouldn't stop "wasting the time of a large number of Valve employees" by continually asking that his community ban be re-evaluated. The situation is an extraordinary exception.

Why do you think the article is no longer relevant? It is right there, in the support section, and as far as I can see there is no newer article or policy about the fact.

Because, strictly speaking, Valve didn't suspend the OP's account but rather invalidated the login details, and those transgressions are described as "zero tolerance" and yet they no longer result in a suspension (as they once did) but rather a restricted account. Other examples from that list:

Fraudulent/deceptive activity:

Hijacked account:

SSA violation:

At worst, you'll be denied access to everything but your game library. That's the point of system: regardless of which rule a user breaks, they can still access the games they'd purchased while their account was in good standing. While Valve can disable accounts, this is evidently not something that is done under any vaguely normal circumstance. As I mentioned in my first post, this case is, to the best of my knowledge, the first and only time Valve has denied a user access to their account since introducing the restriction system, and it was seemingly done because it was the only way to permanently cut off the OP from Steam Support.

 

[Kaby]

One more: "This account is associated with the theft of other users’ Steam accounts."

But they gave me two different locks instead of this one. But I've got all restrictions of the accounts' thief.

 

[Darak]

It's quite clear from the OP's final support ticket that Valve banned his account because he wouldn't stop "wasting the time of a large number of Valve employees"

Holy shit, that's even more scary than having a set of vague rules. Is that an actual quote?

Because those transgressions are described as "zero tolerance" and yet they no longer result in a suspension

Fair enough. Even with the strong wording I'm sure you wouldn't be automatically suspended for every minor transgression, even 'back in the day', though. I'd say the rules were written to protect Valve, and are close to allow them to ban everyone for any circumstance whatsoever. If they are no longer applicable, that's even worse. If the reason in OP's ban is really about wasting the time of the wrong person, that makes me even more anxious against any of Valve's community features. In fact, I'm now afraid of contacting their support team under any circumstance.

As I mentioned in my first post, this case is, to the best of my knowledge, the first and only time Valve has actually banned an account since introducing the restriction system

I really hope you are right, but that still doesn't make the situation any better.

I just hate those holier-than-thou gatekeepers with kill switches. We are in a digital era now, when manufacturing plastic boxes with data inside is a waste of resources, but on the other hand we should still keep our consumer rights intact. If I purchase a chair with a stolen credit card, the store would be right to demand I return the item and even ask for a compensation, but they shouldn't be allowed to push a button which makes all the other furniture in my house to collapse, just because I purchased said furniture in the same store a few years back and now they don't like me. Sure, sure, downloading games from Valve's own servers is not the same thing, and in fact it is not some kind of right we'll have forever, but on the other hand it is their fault they added a system to all the games which prevents the games from working if said access is not available.

 

[DynamiteCop!]

What? But we have a suspended user right here, today. I'm not even discussing the case, for all I know he may be Hitler reborn and he may deserve everything he gets... But the thing is, Valve has a system to suspend user accounts, something which will effectively block your access to all your years of purchases games, and that's a system that is in use as we speak. The only official guidelines I've found about possible causes for suspension are in that article, which is extremely vague and open to interpretation, and that makes me very paranoid about using any of their services.

Why do you think the article is no longer relevant? It is right there, in the support section, and as far as I can see there is no newer article or policy about the fact.

Thanks for pointing out that example about chargebacks anyway. Of course, I wouldn't expect every minor infraction to result in an immediate suspension, I understand the rules are there to give Valve the maximum leeway, and are probably only enforced in extreme cases. However, at the end of the day, there are random people out there holding a kill switch over your entire game library, and that's not cool.

Valve will only disable an account for egregious negligence resulting in SSA violations and even then it's rare, they don't target people. You have to of done some pretty stupid crap to get your account disabled. That's why I don't understand the paranoia you have, if you just do what you're supposed to nothing will come of anything.

You can post on the boards, add friends, use all of the services at your disposal without having to worry about anything.

 

[Darak]

Valve will only disable an account for egregious negligence resulting in SSA violations and even then it's rare, they don't target people. You have to of done some pretty stupid crap to get your account disabled.

You're right. But still, the definition of what kind of 'stupid crap' will get you suspended is unclear, is not written anywhere, or is something they will decide in a case by case basis, and that's enough to freak me out. Not to mention sometimes you don't realize what you are doing is stupid until it is too late, or you are victim of malware or are targeted by someone. Also, they may make a mistake and suspend someone who did nothing wrong, and it is very clear such decisions are final. As someone else said in this thread, they are not interested in circumstances, mistakes or excuses.

That's why I don't understand the paranoia you have, if you just do what you're supposed to nothing will come of anything.

'If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear'. That's never right, for a big number of reasons.

Look, I'll be completely honest: there are many other reasons for me not to use those features. I'm not a heavy multiplayer user, my friends are on console for the occasional game I want to play online, etc. But I also weight the fact I could lose my PS or Xbox account tomorrow for whatever reason, and almost all my games (which are boxed) will continue to work fine. That can't be said of Steam. Sure, the chances of having your account suspended or lost is very slim. But it is not zero, and the damage is insurmountable. Why risk it?

 

[DynamiteCop!]

You're right. But still, the definition of what kind of 'stupid crap' will get you suspended is unclear, is not written anywhere, or is something they will decide in a case by case basis, and that's enough to freak me out. Not to mention sometimes you don't realize what you are doing is stupid until it is too late, or you are victim of malware or are targeted by someone. Also, they may make a mistake and suspend someone who did nothing wrong, and it is very clear such decisions are final. As someone else said in this thread, they are not interested in circumstances, mistakes or excuses.



'If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear'. That's never right, for a big number of reasons.

Look, I'll be completely honest: there are many other reasons for me not to use those features. I'm not a heavy multiplayer user, my friends are on console for the occasional game I want to play online, etc. But I also weight the fact I could lose my PS or Xbox account tomorrow for whatever reason, and almost all my games (which are boxed) will continue to work fine. That can't be said of Steam. Sure, the chances of having your account suspended or lost is very slim. But it is not zero, and the damage is insurmountable. Why risk it?

Read the SSA, Exercise common sense, follow the rules, protect your personal information, and don't try anything illegal or to circumvent Steam's systems. I mean it's not exactly rocket science and it's pretty clear how things work to just about everyone.

There's nothing to be afraid of if you're not doing anything wrong and even if you are the chances of getting disabled are slim, you'd have to draw a lot of attention to yourself. People don't get access to their accounts revoked for making simple mistakes or using features of the platform as intended, people don't get disabled for no good reason. You're functioning on the defined basis of total paranoia without rationality, you're free to do whatever you want but you're tip toeing around imaginary landmines right now due to an illogical fear rooted in nothing.

 

[Kenpachii]

Sue them, no amount of crap you did validates a account ban where you games are on. If you are obnoxious towards support they should just cut you off for x amount of time from support and be done with it.

If they don't got a system for this, then that's there fault not you as consumer.

 

[nkarafo]

I can't believe someone can just disable/ban your account and pretty much wipe out all your purchases along with it.

 

[John Day]

I thin the big red X here is that you:

Banned/unbanned people with the tool (don’t think its the big deal in this case but, worth mention)

Got a Community Ban, and proceded to UNBAN yourself with such tool (This must have been the first big no no, weather it was a honest mistake or not)

Kept writing to support discussing the ban after warnings.

Something to take into account in my years of experience with such services: these companies will go the extra mile to preserve the service environment. You taking it to yourself to test a tool like that probably did not help with the final decision they made, weather you really meant harm or not. These companies will rather cover their bases first. Happens a LOT in tech industry.

It is a real shame that you lost access to your (debatable according to industry) content. But man, the warnings were there, why did you kept pushing?

 

[JaseC]

Holy shit, that's even more scary than having a set of vague rules. Is that an actual quote?

There's no need to quote selectively and be obtuse about it.

Fair enough. Even with the strong wording I'm sure you wouldn't be automatically suspended for every minor transgression, even 'back in the day', though.

That is absolutely what happened. There was no other option. There was no restriction system. There was no alert system. That's why there was "zero tolerance".

I really hope you are right, but that still doesn't make the situation any better.

I just hate those holier-than-thou gatekeepers with kill switches.

Well, the situation is that Valve disabled the OP's account because he endlessly hounded Steam Support and Valve employees about his community ban and refused to stop, so unless you envision a future in which you follow in those footsteps, you'll always have access to your game library, regardless of which rule you break. But if you'd prefer to err on the side of extreme caution and assume that Valve making an exception in the OP's rather bizarre case is a slippery slope to disabling accounts in situations that previously called for the use of the restriction system, then that is, of course, your prerogative. All I can say is that it's unnecessary for reasons already explained.

 

[Darak]

There's no need to quote selectively and be obtuse about it.

Sorry, I don't like quoting entire messages because that makes the answer hard to read, I wasn't trying to be obtuse.

Well, the situation is that Valve disabled the OP's account because he endlessly hounded Steam Support and Valve employees about his community ban and refused to stop, so unless you envision a future in which you follow in those footsteps, you'll always have access to your game library, regardless of which rule you break.

But that's exactly how it should work IMHO. If I legally purchase a game, I should be able to access that game forever, regardless of anything I do in some online community some time later.