Valve can kiss my......

BBA

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Apr 25, 2003
Messages
5,382
That's it.

I was going to try the new HL episodes and tried to log into steam, which I have not done in about 4-6 months and I hadn't logged in before that in around a year.

Account disabled.


So I go to the support site, ask what the problem is. They send me an email two days later saying the account was being traded and was therefore disabled and would not be enabled.

I responded that it was obviously a security problem on their part, what do you think the odds of getting anywhere with that are?

Basically, if they do not enable or create a new account for the products I bought, I either want credit in the same amount or a new account created or I will never say a good thing about them ever again.
It's bad enough they stole one license of Half Life when I bought the HL2 silver which should have included a new license (they migrated my existing license to the HL2 purchase instead) but this is crazy. I've done nothing wrong and because they can't control their crap, I'm out the HL2 silver I paid for?

If that's the way it goes down, screw those POS greedy bastards. I'll be dammed if I pay for another game to have this crap happen again.

What ever happenned to the buy a game and play it without having to register? They have created their own problem by associating my game keys with their crappy online system. Should be illegal as it results in valve not providing a product they sold.

That's all I have to say...hope you guys enjoy your copies of the new episodes for the time you have before valve locks you out as well.
 
Well did you share it or what? Go read the EULA, if you broke a rule you're screwed and it's your problem not valves..
 
Did you share your account info with anyone (even if you trust them)?

Is it possible you've had your details leaked via a virus/malware or something like that, theres plenty of nasty things that harvest things like account info for games.
 
No, I did not share my account with anyone. Hell, I even hardly ever played it. I have no virus's or trojans, and it's more likely valve was hacked yet again.

They seem to have security problems.
 
Yeah really, initial source leak, then leak of Hl2 alpha, and mroe recently the benchmarking tools used for their quad core benchmarking. Valve is about as secure as britneys nickers
 
If you really didn't do anything, then you don't have anything to worry about.

My roommate attempted to sell his Steam account on eBay, Valve found out about it and banned his account, but then they banned mine as well as we both connect to the interwebs from the same IP. I went through the song and dance with their support system, showed them proof that my account was unique and independent of my roommate's, and they re-enabled my account.

It might take a week or so for them to get back to you, unfortunately, thats about how long it took my case to get resolved.
 
Yeah really, initial source leak, then leak of Hl2 alpha, and mroe recently the benchmarking tools used for their quad core benchmarking. Valve is about as secure as britneys nickers
The security breach that leaked the benchmarking tools was a third-party site only associated with Valve.

Valve's Steam account security is very secure.
 
Shit dude, now you got me worried. Guess I better log in and see if my account is still there.
 
Did you use your account at a LAN centre? Problem with some new LAN centres, people try and phish on accounts, and Steam bans all accounts used at the LAN centre.

Did you add "Valve" or "STEAM" to your name/and or try to steal people accounts?
 
The security breach that leaked the benchmarking tools was a third-party site only associated with Valve.

Valve's Steam account security is very secure.

Yeah thats what Valve claimed, I find it hard to believe that 3rd party sites are holding internal builds of benchmarking software, especially since they claimed it was an internet Cafe affiliation, sounds fishy to me, and we all know Valve have been caught lying before, the source leak taught us that.
 
How does Valve know if you are sharing your account or you are using it on another PC?
I have all of my steam games on my main machine and HL2 on my HTPC.
When I want to play on my HTPC, I turn off steam on my main machine and run steam on my HTPC and log in and play.
 
Something else to watch out for with Valve:

http://games.slashdot.org/games/07/10/25/1845228.shtml

Dude, I'd be irate right about now if I bought that while I was in England or Japan. People do move or travel, so I don't know what brainiac thought this one was a good idea. Plus they risk alienating all of the military as potential customers that move around a lot.
 
Region-locking has already been done for awhile in DVDs and consoles, but not for PC games, they really should have some sort of warning for that. I understand the business sense behind it(Areas that can pay more help subsidize development costs so that areas whose market can't support the same amount can still get it at a lower cost vs. not getting it at all), but that doesn't release them from the responsibility of warning them that a legitimate purchase may not be usable. And worse, having the account locked because of it when they haven't done anything wrong is an extremely foolish policy.

Valve better make a damage control public statement soon.
 
They only region locked the few areas where extemely cheap cd keys were being bought up and sold online to Americans.
 
Still, nothing stops a company from buying low cost parts from other countries and selling them locally with a very high markup (for example, most of the clothing you wear). To somehow think that it is wrong when a consumer does it is a double standard.
 
Still, nothing stops a company from buying low cost parts from other countries and selling them locally with a very high markup (for example, most of the clothing you wear). To somehow think that it is wrong when a consumer does it is a double standard.

Agreed. The buyers did nothing wrong besides getting a good deal. Free market FTW, however, Valve apparently doesn't like that philosophy and borrowed a business move from the MPAA and is strong arming people even though legitimate alternatives are available. Region locking should have been made illegal years ago and removing it part of fair use. In a manner of speaking, it may already be legal. I wonder what'd happen if someone cracked their Orange box for that purpose?
 
Something else to watch out for with Valve:

http://games.slashdot.org/games/07/10/25/1845228.shtml

Dude, I'd be irate right about now if I bought that while I was in England or Japan. People do move or travel, so I don't know what brainiac thought this one was a good idea. Plus they risk alienating all of the military as potential customers that move around a lot.
I love their games, but their business tactics get worse every day.
 
Agreed. The buyers did nothing wrong besides getting a good deal. Free market FTW, however, Valve apparently doesn't like that philosophy and borrowed a business move from the MPAA and is strong arming people even though legitimate alternatives are available. Region locking should have been made illegal years ago and removing it part of fair use. In a manner of speaking, it may already be legal. I wonder what'd happen if someone cracked their Orange box for that purpose?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_trade
 
I think I'm just about the most anti-Valve person on this forum. I hate them with a bitter, undying passion. However, I also love their games. It's complicated.

Keeping this in mind, I've been keenly trained to detect bullshit, and there's a lingering aroma of it about this thread. You fluctuate between being anger and optimism, looking for ways to get the games on the account back. Usually when people do the anger thing, it's because they have a vague idea of an action they took that caused the issue.

This isn't a 100% thing, because I was definitely pissed off when they banned me for 5 years from all HL1-generation games for a cheating violation that I maintain was a false positive to this day, even though they won't listen to me. You go off on this whole tangent about the problem being Valve's fault because they associate your game keys with an online account. This sounds like bullshit. It's exactly what I would expect somebody to say if they, say, gave a friend the account information so they could play a game for a bit.
 
It's also exactly what I would expect someone to say if it is actually what happened to them.

And since when is letting a friend play your games wrong?
 
Wrong to me? Or wrong to the company trying to make money? I couldn't care less, but they define "right" and "wrong" pretty well in that lengthy EULA they force you to abide by when you install their stuff.
 
Regardless, the OP still has a very legitimate reason to be upset even if he did let a friend borrow the game.
 
I have thought about this...and I have three options:

1. Wait and see if they re-enable because I did nothing wrong other than purchase their game and not play it very much.

2. Protest valve and never buy another product from them if they do not re-enstate my account.

3. Find out how many people have been banned from using a product they paid for and find a lawyer who is interested in a class action suit against valves criminal behavior.


So, option three looks pretty good. I wonder how many people have had their accounts banned and how many does it take to create a class action lawsuit.

I think valve needs to be bitch slapped. This makes 4 valve products I have purchased unusable, and to me that is criminal on valves behalf.
 
I think I'm just about the most anti-Valve person on this forum. I hate them with a bitter, undying passion. However, I also love their games. It's complicated.

Keeping this in mind, I've been keenly trained to detect bullshit, and there's a lingering aroma of it about this thread. You fluctuate between being anger and optimism, looking for ways to get the games on the account back. Usually when people do the anger thing, it's because they have a vague idea of an action they took that caused the issue.

This isn't a 100% thing, because I was definitely pissed off when they banned me for 5 years from all HL1-generation games for a cheating violation that I maintain was a false positive to this day, even though they won't listen to me. You go off on this whole tangent about the problem being Valve's fault because they associate your game keys with an online account. This sounds like bullshit. It's exactly what I would expect somebody to say if they, say, gave a friend the account information so they could play a game for a bit.


Anger and optimism comes from knowing how to turn a bad deal good. It helps you keep a job and get a better position while your at it.

Your bullshit sensor may be keen, yet it is wrong. This is simply me wanting to try the newest game only to find I can not even play the games I have already paid for, on top of losing a license to the initial game I paid for since valve associated that HL key with this now disabled steam account. And about that...it was bullshit they did that and then claimed that it was my fault for not creating a new account before purchasing HL2 silver...when they did not foreclose they would disable my initial game key on the purchase of the second game. I had to find out about it in a complaint thread on steams forums.

They have good games, but they are greedy asses and someone needs to put them and their criminal business practices in their places.

Anyone know a good lawyer?
 
i seriously doubt Valve just goes around disabling random accounts for no reason. there had to be some kind of unusual activity going on with your account for them to decide to disable it. if you honestly didn't engage in any shady practice then they will re-enable it for you.
 
They have good games, but they are greedy asses and someone needs to put them and their criminal business practices in their places.

Anyone know a good lawyer?

Over $50? Or less?

Honestly, give it a rest... Contact Steam and try to figure something out... otherwise I'd accept your loss and move on... tell people to avoid Steam/Valve if that'll make you feel better. Unfortunately it's the only content delivery system or option we have if we want to play Valve games (which are incredibly good)...

I've bought multiple copies of Halflife 1 and 2 because before Steam I lost my CD's and CD-Keys (Which were printed on the cases)

Now all my account information is stored and locked to my one account, and I registered one Halflife 2 to an account earlier but forgot both the email and password, but a quick email to Steam and a picture of the CD Case with the CD-Key printed on it and I obtained my login information again. :D !

I also had another account hi-jacked, again a simple email w/ Steam Support and they reset my password.

There is no criminal business practices going on... simple mistakes...
 
It's all good and well that you have had a pleasant experience with Valve and their products, but that in no way diminishes the fact that the OP has been ripped off.
 
Over $50? Or less?

That was the cost of the first Half Life game I bought. Then I bought blue shift...and another one of the HL ones I can't remember, HL2 silver...like closer to $75 by itself.

Basically, about $120-$150 in games that I can not play any more because of valves tactics.

They sold me products, they need to see to it I can use the products they sold me, instead they have done the opposite.
 
My expierences with Valve so far have been pleasent. I just purchased the Orange Box and before that my last Valve purchase was HL1. Im not pleased with the fact that when I want to play HL2:E2 or whatever I have to log into Steam. But, whatever, I think I another group you could contact if your really pissed and hope to have them help you and publish your troubles is PC World magazine. I know they have a small section in each monthly issue called "On Your Side" or something like that where you tell them your story and they help you by contacting the company your having issues with etc. and like 99% of the time they get the issue resolved for you unless it was your fault all along.
Anyways just another suggestion for you. Sorry to hear your having such a bitch of a problem with them.
 
my experience with valve is pretty good, the only thing i had beef with valve back in 2004 was the login issue every time you wanted to play cs or hl2 which kinda made me irate back then but i have since come to terms and accepted it.

the orange box issue is valve's petty bitching and moaning about losing money to other countries, but they already made a profit of it on those named countries why are they even caring what and where we buy our stuff at. They are trying to be trolling riaa spokespersons in disguise.
 
i seriously doubt Valve just goes around disabling random accounts for no reason. there had to be some kind of unusual activity going on with your account for them to decide to disable it. if you honestly didn't engage in any shady practice then they will re-enable it for you.

agreed, i have had an account that i let sit idle, as in i didnt have steam installed on any PC's at all....for like a year....and the other day with all the talk of the Orange Box i decided to install steam to see if i could remember my account info

and bam, it worked perfectly, even installed it on my laptop as well, so i can play my games at home or when i travel, no problems here

it had been so long that theres like a crap load of games on there now to buy, last time i logged into Steam you could only get Valve games, HL2:LC and CS:S and DOD:S had just came out...thats hoe long mine sat idle and still works today
 
if you honestly didn't engage in any shady practice then they will re-enable it for you.

No they won't. They are notorious for not listening to the customer and banning accounts they have no concrete proof of any wrong-doing. I haven't had any issues with my Steam account and have had it for a long time but sounds to me that he is right and Valve needs to be bitch slapped and made aware that they have no legal right to take these kinds of actions against customers. They have stolen the games he paid money for. Their EULA may not even be enforceable in many countries or states as local law supersedes any EULA. Consumers do have rights and protections that are covered by law.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, I just like to play one on the internet. :)
 
This happened to my account, and they happily unlocked it for me.... You must have done something wrong :eek: Otherwise you wouldn't be "waiting" around to see if they unlock it, and talks of lawsuits, LOL, dont see you doing that, but please do prove me wrong. :cool:
 
You mind telling me what I did wrong? Other than not logging into steam for a few months?
 
You mind telling me what I did wrong? Other than not logging into steam for a few months?


something must have been done with your account, either someone logged into it and did some bannable things or something along those lines, thing is, if someone guessed or stole your account login and password and did something, there's really no way for you to prove it, it could just have easily been you
 
could be any number of things...

sharing your account with a friend or family member.
using your account on an unsercure computer where someone could have gotten your password.
selling one of your games that has already been activated on your account. (the new user gets the cd key reset and in turn your account is disabled)
buying your account on ebay.
buying "just a cd key".
buying a game on steam and then back charging it on your credit card.
buying a game with a stolen cc.
impersonated a valve employee on steam friends and tried to steal accounts.
or lastly, using your account in many different places and valve may have thought it was being shared, inwhich they should re-enable it.
 
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