STEAM: You are Dead to Me:(

Ok, I have been a avid Steam user and supporter for over 4 years now since HL2 came out. But they have now lost me forever and I will never buy a game from Steam Again...

Today my account was disabled. Here's what happened. I bought Call Of Duty World at War on Ebay, it was the steam edition, for about $30...Now the seller I purchased it from has over 150 positive feedback at a 100% rating DIRECTLY DEALING in steam games over the last 3 months.. Reading all the glowing feedback, I thought Ok, well its got to be legitimate and I gave it a whirl. The auctions were all paypal protected and everything indicated it was legitimate.

Now before anyone says anything about the TOS, I am not a lawyer, I don't have the legal jurisprudence to digest the entire body of obtuse legal restrictions and provisions, and could not find anything in it directly relating to this scenario.

I had been playing WORLD at War for about two weeks, then all of a sudden today I log in and it was removed from my games list stating "the gift of this game has been revoked due to improper payment"...so I put two and two together and figured some how these codes that have been sold on eBay are less then legit, and I lost the game. OK, that was bad enough...but caveat emptor right? I lost my $30 and will have to spend another $50 to buy the game from Steam...which was bad enough but I was willing to swallow it...

But no...a few minutes after that Message, I was booted out of steam saying my account was disabled...So now what, 4 years of games purchases totaling hundreds of dollars are now gone...

This apparently is the downside to BIG BROTHER STEAM, THE GOD THAT IS STEAM, has decreed that this mistake is worthy of removing all goods you have previously purchased, no refund no remorse, there's the door, don't let it hit you in the rear on the way out....

You know, I have been unemployed for months after being laid off, and I saw a nice discount on a game that seemed to be legitimate, and what happens, I wind up losing hundreds in software that I paid for because I thought I was being a smart consumer and finding a value...this is just not right..

 

Your account is disabled not deleted.

Why dont you let them know what has happened?

 

dude, its illegal to sell or trade or buy gifted games.

 

Whats going on here? It seems like everyone on this site has no job(or layed off)...things really suck now.

Anyway did you contact steam directly by email or maybe by phone?

 

guys guys, before "helping" him out, note that it's illegal to sell or trade gifted games

quoted from this https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?p_faqid=549

read around the bottom.

10 char

 

I have sent them a long articulate email explaining everything, and now I have to sit and wait for their response, but knowing how companies conduct themselves typically, I am not holding my breadth that there will be any remedy

 

DUDE, READ WHAT I POSTED, ITS ILLEGAL TO SELL AND BUY GIFTED GAMES. READ THE LINK I SENT YOU

oops caps lol

 

im glad i buy my games from direct2drive. the game is yours. the serial is yours. thats it. no ties or hidden magic to make them work. i have always been leary about steam, now i will definatly stay away.

 

Well technically I did not sell or trade, I purchased it...and I am sorry , I did not read through the annuls of legal restrictions when I made the purchase.

I saw something that looked like a good deal, the seller had a long solid track record, with tons of positive feedback on these games..

If in the worst case scenario, I did something wrong, I do not think the punishment of removing everything I have Paid For through Steam, fits the "crime" at all...

I can understand them revoking the game if it was against their policy, then me being the idiot, loses out on the money I paid for it, and learns my lesson...and is enlightened to the policy...I mean I had no idea honestly, and now I lose everything, that ain't right.

 

Steam probably sniffed in eBay and take took all these steam games down.

Sorry to say but your at fault here. Their Terms of service seem fair to me, which had grounds to disable your account.

I wasnt aware that it was illegal either but i still wouldnt have bought it on ebay unless its physical item. I didnt even know your were still allowed to sell electronic/digital content on eBay.

I still suggest you contact steam and try get your account unlocked to get your other games back.

 

I agree. Yes, them removing the game from your list sure, but not your whole account. Thats like saying you were speeding once and caught, should you get your car taken away from you?

 

i hope they'll be understanding in your case...
you are kind of the victim, didn't know any better...

 

I hope they are understanding too, and I hope that I am "jumping the gun" here, ranting away like a lunatic

But I just don't think its a fair way to treat your loyal customer base, someone who has been with you for 4+years...that is not good customer service, not a good way to treat your customers..and if they do that to "enough" people, it will hurt them in the long run...

 

Regardless if it is illegal, does this give them the right to disable his WHOLE ACCOUNT with games that were validly purchased?

This concerns me because I have spent hundreds of dollars on Steam games over the last several years. Would hate to see them all go bye-bye because of a glitch or misinformed purchase. In a way though, I buy all my games directly through Steam.

I raised this point on the Steam forums many times. Why can't you legally gift a game you already own to someone for whatever price you want? Even if all the funds go directly to Steam. This would open a used games market that Steam could capitalize on. I know I probably have a dozen games I don't play and probably won't play ever again, so why can't I offer them to someone else for free or even for a nominal fee charged by Steam (other than full price of course).

 

Well according to their policy, they can do whatever they want if you violate any section of their long legally verbose and obtuse TOS....

And you know, I was just thinking..If I really had any malfeasance or mal-intent, I would have made a "fake" steam account just to play the "illicit" and illegal copy without fear of losing all of my other software...

But I just wasn't thinking in those terms and made an honest mistake...

Another analogy I was thinking of is, say your going through customs and you think that Cured Salami from Italy is ok because 50 other Americans you ran into while you were visiting told you it was acceptable, but you get to front of the line and the officer tells you you can't bring the salami in, and by the way, we are now taking all of your luggage, personal belongings and clothes on your back for the mistake...

 

Steam needs to give you a way to back up your games on a disc and install them ANYWHERE(on any computer you own) sadly this will never happen......that would be awesome.

 

This is another reason why I despise steam as a DRM platform, and why I believe it is the worst.

So the TOS says that you can't trade gift games. So basically games that you bought at FULL PRICE can't be traded for another game that someone else has a gift for, or you'll get your hundreds of dollars of games revoked from you. This seems extreme. Even if it's temprorary, the fact that they have this much power over EVERY game you own if you decide to use their service is just too much.

I can understand removing the one game that was added to the account, but removing them all is going WAY too far. It's like they think they're the mafia now, make the slightest mistake, and pay the highest price they can possibly dole out.

 

Well you can always get them onDirect2Drive and use them with the Steam overlay.
One thing I'm wondering though is that once Steam goes belly up, they said that they will release everyone's games control back to them. I wonder how exactly they are planning to do that has those files are encrypted.

 

You should be able to get your money back if you paid via PayPal. You'll need to file a complaint with them stating you were defrauded.

 

I'm sure it would be in the form of a patch of the game, or a patch of Steam that would validate your games offline.

 

I dont think steam will go belly up. They are like itunes of games. They are too big and too profitable. The industry backs them too.

 

Hmm thanks bud ill have to look this up.

 

I probably could get my $30 back from paypal, but that's peanuts compared to the software I lost

 

How many games in TOTAL did you lose?

 

I had about 5-6 installed, a bunch not installed, not sure on the total exactly.

 

I.m.p.u.l.s.e.

 

how come you never installed them? I know what you mean though during that STEAM Holiday sale i had bought Bioshock but didnt install it until way after.....i have to finish that off as well.

 

No I had most of them installed at one point or another, but I am pretty anal about hard drive space and hate to have stuff sitting there not being used, so I typically uninstall the ones I finished/haven't used for awhile, and reinstall them if the mood ever strikes.

 

Just because they're not installed doesn't mean you didn't use them. Just that they aren't currently installed. I have probably 80% of my Steam games backed up. IMHO I shouldn't HAVE to, but I do for convenience sake. Of course it won't matter if Steam ever decides to ban my account for whatever reason.

 

does offline mode still work?

 

no, you can't log in, boots you right when you try and sign in

 

Wow man I feel for you. I also had a certain incident with steam a few weeks ago. My friend bought CS:S on steam and was given the option to email a 30-day guest pass to someone so he let me have it. I got the email, downloaded CS:S, and installed it. I was able to play it for about a week, then suddenly it just disappears entirely from my games list. I know it's kind of silly to complain about FREE stuff in the first place but I really wanted my promised month's worth of CS:S...

 

You dont need to log in to use offline mode.

Disable your wireless or Ethernet adapter and log in steam. A prompt should come up asking you to switch to offline mode cause it cant detect an interent connection.

 

there's a flaw, steam already recorded your account being disabled into its offline mode files. its the same way it records your game on your account. like if you have cod waw on online and offline mode, you have disabled account both online and offline.

 

This is a good reason to always own hard copies of programs. From the very beginning of the conception of Steam this was a fear and a problem throughout it's history.

I do have a few games on it, but I much prefer to have actual games on cd's.


I'm sorry you have to go through this. This sucks

 

I'm a bit confused by this usage of 'gift' - people keep saying it is illegal to sell or trade gift games on Steam. When you say 'gift', do you mean that you can't sell games that have been gifted to you, or do you mean that you can't sell ANY game purchased on Steam, as you are exchanging money for the action of gifting the game to someone else?

If the former, then how would you know if a game was a gift or not before buying it? Or is it the latter, in which case why not simply say that it is illegal to resell Steam-purchased games and avoid this while misleading gift thing?

 

What i dont understand is that if you've bought the game, WHY cant give it to ur friend or something, it does belong to you ryte?

 

The only way I would buy any game from STEAM would be directly from them. You violated the TOS, that's why it happened. I'm sure if you send them an email explaining what happened they will be more than happy to enable your account, just without COD:WaW.

 

Another example of why DRM sucks. It's why I buy all my games in a store, with a disk.

 

Because saying the latter amounts to a violation of the first sale doctrine and would quite likely be illegal in the US and various other jurisdictions. What Steam and others of its vile ilk would really like to do is say "You may only buy these games from us and you may never, ever resell them to anyone under any circumstances" -- but they can't, because that would probably not hold up in court. Contrary to the official attitude of this site and many others, the EULA, TOS and all similar filth is not the end all and be all of the case -- it doesn't matter that the user "agrees" to the contract if the contract is illegal (e.g. if somebody signs a contract selling themselves into slavery, that wouldn't hold up).

Steam is being careful here because it's not clear which way the courts would decide. In Softman v. Adobe, they decided that the EULA has no such power, but the software industry consistently contends that no sale has taken place because the user is merely licensing the software. IMHO, this is absurd, but they have very deep pockets and I think there is some case that they've won. Because of the uncertainty, Steam is reluctant to outright say what they want to say and instead hides behind misleading statements.

As far as I can tell, their TOS might be contrary to the first sale doctrine in any case and I'd be curious to see what the result would be if somebody took them to court over it.

 

You're right, they can avoid the First Sale Doctrine because they are technically giving us a "Subscription".


Although to be fair they always put it where you can see it, whenever you "buy" (subscribe) a game you have to agree to the Steam Subscriber Agreement.


I think it's pants to be honest, I don't like the idea that they could take all my games away from me so easily.

 

Atlhernai,

I had actually always thought about companies hiding behind their TOS and EULA as a carte blanch shield of immunity and impunity as inherently slanted...Just because they state something and you "agree" to it by using it, does not make it law, if in fact it is inherently illegal or improper to begin with...

I think the industry, like a lot of industries, is banking on the fact that individuals do not have the time or money to ever challenge them on the issue in court...

I would like to see someday, a clear dilineation of where a companies power ends and where endusers rights begin. It will probably take enough people being screwed over by various companies over time and a huge class action suit to develope a sollid precidence.

In the meantime, people like me get worked over by steam, and you have hundred's of 1000's of people downloading cracked steam games off torrent sites, but its ok, Steam "got me" good, +1 for the corporate machine...

 

Great point and well said mfox76 (mfox = Megan Fox? Grrrrr).

I always thought that too, and over the years had these arguments about the EULA and TOS, but the tight lawyer types always used the excuse that "it's in the EULA". It's sad that it requires a 5000 word document to buy a $40 game, just so the publisher and/or developer can put out crapware.

If it said "By purchasing this software, you give us the right to take 10% of your paycheck for the next five years." Is this binding? If it is, then I'm making a POS game, and putting this EULA in there and even if I get a few dozen sales, I'll be making plenty of money.

So many people say "you should have investigated it more" or "spent time researching the game" or "tried the demo". Well, guess what. I'm not going to spend hours researching a game that costs $30 to $50. And I sure as hell don't have the time to read through a highly detailed litigious document either. And in most cases you can't even READ the EULA until you open the box, which violates your chance to return the product. At least Microsoft honors their return policy. They are fair with returning sales tax and shipping costs too. Every publisher should be FORCED to have this type of return policy.

Hell, even when buying a house, I had someone explain the details of the mortgage to me and that was binding enough in court that if they didn't explain something to me clearly it was their responsibility.

 

I was in the same boat about 3 years ago. They said it was my fault, so I haven't bought a steam game since.

 

Who the hell buys a STEAM game off eBay? Your just asking to get mauled over.

 

Wow, thanks for that post! Very illuminating - I had no idea of that, and I presume that's either because the countries I have lived in have updated legislation covering digital works or (more likely) the software companies have kept it just as opaque as it seems Steam has!

Rep for you!

 

Oh yay! Another case of people being LEGALLY scammed. I'll make sure to avoid steam as much as possible from now on... but Im still addicted to L4D

 

Normally I would agree with you USAPatriot, but in this case, when there's over 150 positive feedback, 100% spanning 3 months, it was seemingly a safe play, with hundreds of people reporting no problem giving glowing reviews of the transactions, I figured it was worth a shot..

At worst I expected the code not to work, and was willing to accept the revoking of the game...but taking all the marbles is just too much in my opinion.

 

If the only penalty of being caught shoplifting was that you had to pay for the item, how many people do you think would shoplift?

The punishment for violating their TOS is exactly that, a punishment. Punishments are not "fair", or equitable. They have to be balanced at the very least to the probability of being caught. That is, if you steal a $100 item and the chances of you being caught are 10%, then the fine/other compensation should amount to at least $900 dollars, and the item taken away from you. If it was a 90% chance of being caught then the punishment would have to be at least the product taken away from you, and you pay $11.11.

So no, there is no free ride. There is no riskless or less risk transaction.

However, I am questioning the legality of leasing the product vs actual purchase. I don't think that the vast majority of software purchases amount to leasing, rendering many points of the EULA/TOS invalid.

 

I fully agree and feel Steam definitely took things too far. Please update us on your condition and I hope Steam can reopen your account. Just because you mess up once, they can take back all the games you've bought from them!?

I am really fearing digital distribution and DRM now, these companies own the games, not you.