6 ms·

I've never issued a charge back so I'm in unknown waters, but if I wanted to keep my account with Steam after a charge back, couldn't I just update my account t

I've never issued a charge back so I'm in unknown waters, but if I wanted to keep my account with Steam after a charge back, couldn't I just update my account to use a different credit card?

nightcracker 9y ago
No, because they ban the account, not the credit card. You can make a new account and use a new credit card I guess, but you still lost your library of games.
- cm2187 9y ago
  But do you pay an upfront amount to get games on steam? It's not a subscription then, how do they justify preventing you from using them?
  - reformatt 9y ago
    Yeah, you purchase the game before playing it generally. The justification is that you've only purchased a license to play it, which they'll revoke. Still some BS to get locked out if you pay upfront for a game. It's also way worse when you realize how garbage their customer service is. It's pretty hard to get a human on the other side within a week or two, so it's way harder to get wrong things fixed.
    - cm2187 9y ago
      Why would anyone use steam then?
      - eropple 9y ago
        Because it's tremendously convenient, the games are cheap, and there's a two-week, two-hours-played window for refunds. "But I can't chargeback if I get irrationally gamer-ragey" is not something I've ever worried about, ever.
        cm2187 9y ago
        Not charged back. But steam having a kill switch where they can prevent you from playing any game if for any reason they don't like you. I'm not sure I would pay any money upfront for what is really a subscription.
        eropple 9y ago
        I don't think it's something that you need to worry about unless you're gonna be overtly shitty. I have my beefs with Valve, but not on this topic. Even if you get caught hacking in a multiplayer game, your account isn't banned (though you may be VAC banned from playing multiplayer in games that participate in VAC). Steam-wide bans only come from chargebacks that are against your EULA--and their refund policy is pretty reasonable, I think--and similar stuff pulled against Steam itself rather than anything you'll do during the course of using the service normally. And if you're really paranoid about it, you can pretty easily back up games and play them with a cracked Steam DLL. It's not a big deal.
        bigtunacan 9y ago
        Credit card charge backs are a federal law created to protect consumer rights. Steam's ToS are at odds with federal law in this respect as they say I have a 2 week / 1 hour window to get a refund. Federal law says I have 60 days and then outlines under what conditions, but they are pretty broad. Previously I purchased a software license for Gamemaker Studio Master Collection (directly from YoYo, not through Steam thankfully). This was when Windows 10 was very new, but YoYo claimed it was supported. Turned out it had bugs with some configurations and so it was crashing on launch; completely unusable. I opened a support ticket and was following up, but they had no idea how long it would take to fix it. Next thing that happens is they drop the price from about $800 to about $400. There I was, still unable to use the software and now it was 1/2 the price. So I contacted them again and said, "Look, it's been a month now and you still haven't fixed this and you dropped the price to 1/2 what I paid. I've been really patient, the least you can do is refund me the difference since I still can't even use the software." They came back and said, "No it was $800 when you bought it you just have to wait until we get it fixed." At that point I was super frustrated and replied back and said, "I'm done, just refund the entire amount and cancel my license." YoYo's reply was that they don't give refunds under any circumstances and that it was plainly spelled out in the EULA. So I called my credit card company and they did a charge back. Circling back, now they sell through Steam and if this had happened Steam would ban my account and block me from ALL software I had ever purchased from them. It's unethical and bordering on illegal that Steam takes retaliatory measures against consumers for excercising their consumer credit rights as provided by federal law. Quite frankly Steam should be on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit.
      - pmiller2 9y ago
        Some games give you no choice.
  - chii 9y ago
    > how do they justify preventing you from using them? they don't need to justify anything. Their platforms, their rules. You signed your rights away when you clicked yes to the EULER. Of course, you can litegate, but then you'd end up costing more money than you can gain, and probably no one will find it worth the hassle.
    - edoceo 9y ago
      They may have an arbitration clause, in which you agree to not litigate. 4D chess.
      - tijs 9y ago
        That would not hold up in court. At least not in European court. Consumer law trumps EULAS and its illegal to put arbitration terms in consumer contracts.
        edoceo 9y ago
        Take a look at what's happening with AT&T, arbitration in the USA. Consumers have lost a lot of their "rights"
        kilotaras 9y ago
        EU is generally a lot more consumer-friendly than US. Or company-unfriendly depending on your perspective.
johnbellone 9y ago
The account itself has a restricted set of functionality. Although a little sleuthing on Google seems to indicate there is a time horizon on this. Possibly while they investigate?
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
volkk 9y ago
Well your card is linked to your account. So you can start a new one, but you won't have access to any of your old games
- chii 9y ago
  i wonder if it's worth making a new account for every purchase, and then writing a script/custom client to map each game to its account, and create an automatic login shortcut for each game. This way, if you find any issues and had to chargeback, you only lose one particular game.
  - wazanator 9y ago
    They do some tracking of clients and I imagine if you start refunding more than they would like they would piece two and two together.

I've never issued a charge back so I'm in unknown waters, but if I wanted to keep my account with Steam after a charge back, couldn't I just update my account to use a different credit card?

nightcracker 9y ago

No, because they ban the account, not the credit card. You can make a new account and use a new credit card I guess, but you still lost your library of games.

cm2187 9y ago
But do you pay an upfront amount to get games on steam? It's not a subscription then, how do they justify preventing you from using them?
- reformatt 9y ago
  Yeah, you purchase the game before playing it generally. The justification is that you've only purchased a license to play it, which they'll revoke. Still some BS to get locked out if you pay upfront for a game. It's also way worse when you realize how garbage their customer service is. It's pretty hard to get a human on the other side within a week or two, so it's way harder to get wrong things fixed.
  - cm2187 9y ago
    Why would anyone use steam then?
    - eropple 9y ago
      Because it's tremendously convenient, the games are cheap, and there's a two-week, two-hours-played window for refunds. "But I can't chargeback if I get irrationally gamer-ragey" is not something I've ever worried about, ever.
      - cm2187 9y ago
        Not charged back. But steam having a kill switch where they can prevent you from playing any game if for any reason they don't like you. I'm not sure I would pay any money upfront for what is really a subscription.
        eropple 9y ago
        I don't think it's something that you need to worry about unless you're gonna be overtly shitty. I have my beefs with Valve, but not on this topic. Even if you get caught hacking in a multiplayer game, your account isn't banned (though you may be VAC banned from playing multiplayer in games that participate in VAC). Steam-wide bans only come from chargebacks that are against your EULA--and their refund policy is pretty reasonable, I think--and similar stuff pulled against Steam itself rather than anything you'll do during the course of using the service normally. And if you're really paranoid about it, you can pretty easily back up games and play them with a cracked Steam DLL. It's not a big deal.
      - bigtunacan 9y ago
        Credit card charge backs are a federal law created to protect consumer rights. Steam's ToS are at odds with federal law in this respect as they say I have a 2 week / 1 hour window to get a refund. Federal law says I have 60 days and then outlines under what conditions, but they are pretty broad. Previously I purchased a software license for Gamemaker Studio Master Collection (directly from YoYo, not through Steam thankfully). This was when Windows 10 was very new, but YoYo claimed it was supported. Turned out it had bugs with some configurations and so it was crashing on launch; completely unusable. I opened a support ticket and was following up, but they had no idea how long it would take to fix it. Next thing that happens is they drop the price from about $800 to about $400. There I was, still unable to use the software and now it was 1/2 the price. So I contacted them again and said, "Look, it's been a month now and you still haven't fixed this and you dropped the price to 1/2 what I paid. I've been really patient, the least you can do is refund me the difference since I still can't even use the software." They came back and said, "No it was $800 when you bought it you just have to wait until we get it fixed." At that point I was super frustrated and replied back and said, "I'm done, just refund the entire amount and cancel my license." YoYo's reply was that they don't give refunds under any circumstances and that it was plainly spelled out in the EULA. So I called my credit card company and they did a charge back. Circling back, now they sell through Steam and if this had happened Steam would ban my account and block me from ALL software I had ever purchased from them. It's unethical and bordering on illegal that Steam takes retaliatory measures against consumers for excercising their consumer credit rights as provided by federal law. Quite frankly Steam should be on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit.
    - pmiller2 9y ago
      Some games give you no choice.
- chii 9y ago
  > how do they justify preventing you from using them? they don't need to justify anything. Their platforms, their rules. You signed your rights away when you clicked yes to the EULER. Of course, you can litegate, but then you'd end up costing more money than you can gain, and probably no one will find it worth the hassle.
  - edoceo 9y ago
    They may have an arbitration clause, in which you agree to not litigate. 4D chess.
    - tijs 9y ago
      That would not hold up in court. At least not in European court. Consumer law trumps EULAS and its illegal to put arbitration terms in consumer contracts.
      - edoceo 9y ago
        Take a look at what's happening with AT&T, arbitration in the USA. Consumers have lost a lot of their "rights"
        kilotaras 9y ago
        EU is generally a lot more consumer-friendly than US. Or company-unfriendly depending on your perspective.

johnbellone 9y ago

The account itself has a restricted set of functionality. Although a little sleuthing on Google seems to indicate there is a time horizon on this. Possibly while they investigate?

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

volkk 9y ago

Well your card is linked to your account. So you can start a new one, but you won't have access to any of your old games

chii 9y ago
i wonder if it's worth making a new account for every purchase, and then writing a script/custom client to map each game to its account, and create an automatic login shortcut for each game. This way, if you find any issues and had to chargeback, you only lose one particular game.
- wazanator 9y ago
  They do some tracking of clients and I imagine if you start refunding more than they would like they would piece two and two together.