cozza 24 Posted August 29, 2014 http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/steamowner-valve-taken-to-court-by-accc-over-alleged-violations/story-fnkgdftz-1227041421564 "Steam-owner Valve taken to court by ACCC over alleged violations" A POPULAR gaming service Steam, owned by Valve, may have broken Australian law when it refused customers refunds they were entitled to. Thoughts? Didn't Germany do this aswell awhile back Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tonci87 163 Posted August 29, 2014 I hope Valve looses. The more customer rights the better Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jblackrupert 14 Posted August 30, 2014 Good and hopefully something can be done about the massive flood of falsely advertised/Labelled games and tons of ancient ones that don't work at all with anything newer then windows XP appearing on Steam the last year. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tonci87 163 Posted August 30, 2014 Jep, Steam has opened the floodgates to all kinds of shit, even stuff that is missleading in the descriptions. They must give out refunds if the product is broken/not as advertised. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
krycek 349 Posted August 30, 2014 For all the good Steam made to pc this time I agree with the rest of you,the amount of crap they let on the platform these days is astonishing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Phantom Six 25 Posted September 1, 2014 Better if Steam loses this one. I see some games on steam that have false advertising and a refund should be made for those situation. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bangtail 0 Posted September 2, 2014 (edited) Steam needs a wake up call. Their stubborn refusal to refund under any circumstances is not legal (despite what their f**king subscriber agreement might say) and holding a customer's feet to the fire by threatening to freeze accounts should they attempt a chargeback is also at best dubious, but further I suspect, would crumble under a legal challenge. Edited September 2, 2014 by BangTail Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kualus 1 Posted September 4, 2014 Not to mention I've heard that Valve having the Steam EULA override the EULAs of other game devs is a violation of US intellectual property law. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cozza 24 Posted September 4, 2014 http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/09/the-acccs-list-of-demands-for-valve/ Last week the ACCC announced it would be taking legal action against Valve as a result of its refund policy, which allegedly goes against Australian Consumer Law. Today Kotaku acquired the application papers for the lawsuit, which include a list of the ACCC’s demands should its legal action against Valve be successful.The ACCC is asking that Valve: – Provide an email address that specifically deals with refunds as per Australian Consumer law. – Provide a 1800 number to help consumers address any refund issues. – Provide a PO Box address for consumers to deal with refunds. – Appoint representatives (the ACCC refer to this person as a contact officer) to reply to consumers regarding refunds. If the ACCC is successful, Valve will have to implement these changes within 30 days of the court order. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bangtail 0 Posted September 4, 2014 (edited) http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/09/the-acccs-list-of-demands-for-valve/ I don't see how the ACCC can lose as this is an Australian law and Valve is in direct contravention of it. Having said that, and quite unfortunately, Valve has won other cases that one would have expected them to lose based on the interpretation of the current law, and in the given situation. Steam is a fantastic platform, fantastic until you have a problem. I just got through fighting with them for a refund on 'Risen 3' as it did not support over 8 threads (rendering 6 or more cores unable to play the game). To me this represents a game that is not fit for purpose and as much as disabling CPU cores will fix the problem, I have no desire to and should not be required to do that in order to play the game. Nevertheless it took over a week of 'debate' before Steam finally relented and processed the refund. I should note that this problem was apparently patched yesterday but after watching Angry Joe playing it, I'm glad I got the refund before it was patched because it looks dreadful. When EA has a better return/refund policy than you do, you'd best be worried and having used EA's GGG (Great Game Guarantee) on two occasions, I am actually more comfortable buying from Origin than I am from Steam. Unfortunately, Steam behaves like it is the only game in town and it needs to lose this case (and several others should they be brought to bear) in order to reinforce the fact that you cannot just take people's money and then tell them to go fu*k themselves when the product that they've been sold does not work as advertised. This 'Early Access' bollocks is no doubt making them a lot of money, but the lack of vetting is shocking, and Steam is rife with all types of garbage that quite honestly should not be there. If they are going to insist on selling 'games' from any Tom, Dick and Jane they have to offer some sort of recourse, it's as simple as that. Edited September 4, 2014 by BangTail Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jblackrupert 14 Posted September 4, 2014 (edited) When EA has a better return/refund policy than you do, . They also have better support. The live chat is a bit slow but they will fix things right then and there without waiting for a week to get even a reply. The EA tech support phone line is stupidly fast in responding, they'll literally call you back 5 seconds after entering your phone number. I remember the first time I left my number with them, the phone rang so fast I almost forgot my problem because I was so shocked and they are not in India, so that helps a lot. the Chat is though. The only issue I've had with EA is Origin refusing to accept Visa/Mastercard gift cards which EA seems to have no interest in dealing with. Edited September 4, 2014 by jblackrupert Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bangtail 0 Posted September 5, 2014 They also have better support.The live chat is a bit slow but they will fix things right then and there without waiting for a week to get even a reply. The EA tech support phone line is stupidly fast in responding, they'll literally call you back 5 seconds after entering your phone number. I remember the first time I left my number with them, the phone rang so fast I almost forgot my problem because I was so shocked and they are not in India, so that helps a lot. the Chat is though. The only issue I've had with EA is Origin refusing to accept Visa/Mastercard gift cards which EA seems to have no interest in dealing with. Yep, I've had nothing but good experiences with Origin but it's very 'du jour' to hate on EA, MS and certain other companies. EA have made a lot of mistakes but I will give them credit for making an effort to improve (and yes, they are improving to facilitate making money but that's business). Valve's 'support' is canned answers that can take in excess of 80 (not a typo) hours to appear and are often not even relevant to the original question so you have to wait another 80 hours for another canned response :rolleyes: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jblackrupert 14 Posted September 23, 2014 (edited) New storefront. You can now filter out games like Early access titles from flooding the front page. They've also added curators. http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/09/23/steam-update/ http://store.steampowered.com/about/newstore Edited September 23, 2014 by jblackrupert Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bangtail 0 Posted September 24, 2014 Ditto, well done Steam. I'm liking the new interface a lot. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
