The STEAM Sales and Releases Thread

[IDtenT]

I fucking missed Arma X. FFS.

 

[OSK]

Have you ever worked in customer service? I have, and I know how to do it rite.

I have, and I know how much it sucks to be paid minimum wage and have stupid, childish assholes treat you like shit over a few measly dollars when you personally don't have the power to do anything about the problem at hand.

 

[Servo]

I bet you were a great employee and a real treat to work with.

You're acting like it's not within the employee's power to ask for an exception for a customer. If they aren't willing to do that, why the hell are they in customer service? It's in the job description. Quoting the policies and procedures manual to a customer is really poor service, I don't care what industry you're in. And defending bad policies and the companies behind them is just weird.

I didn't think I was being a stupid, childish asshole or treating anyone like shit or acting entitled but maybe I did offend somebody. I should probably apologize to that person. Not that I could get a hold of the same person anyways.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

They quote the standard procedures when you don't really have a good reason to ask for exceptional treatment, like "my internet connection failed" (if they started taking that into account, sales might as well not be timed anymore because everyone can send a ticket afterwards saying they really needed to be somewhere else at the time but would like to have the discount anyway, plzkthx). You weren't rude at the beginning, but the "let me tell you about good service" part was really obnoxious. Reminds me of those old people that insist on telling you how to do your job.

 

[Servo]

Damn I am an asshole.

 

[Metro]

It's disingenuous because you assume I have no good reason to miss out on the sale period or those other sales you mentioned.

Your reason doesn't matter for limited time promos. It's hardly Steam's fault you waited and had internet problems. Also the Humble Bundles last two weeks. Trust me, you weren't doing anything better during that time that would detract from your ability to browse a website for thirty seconds.

Witcher is awesome.

I rest my case.

Have you ever worked in customer service? I have, and I know how to do it rite.

I have in college. 95% of the time the customer was in the wrong and looking for some exception/freebie.

 

[Servo]

95% of the time the customer was in the wrong and looking for some exception/freebie.

The problem with most customer service today is this is the exact attitude they have towards customers. If someone wants to buy something from you, you are supposed to treat them like royalty. If you have a problem with that, don't work in customer service.

This is a matter of principles. Entitlement is the reverse scenario: you work in customer service and expect the customer to make your job easy, then blame the customer when they are upset for your shitty service.

I did send an email to Steam support apologizing for being such an asshole, but you can't convince me that is good customer service.

 

[Bubbles]

If customer service fails to treat you like royalty, feel free to boycott the company.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

They should just treat you courteously. If someone needs to be treated like royalty, then the other part needs to act obsequiously (even if they are just pretending). It's better for both to stay on the same level.

Yeah, receiving a corteous yet copypasted reply doesn't feel that great but I imagine a big ass company like valve gets thousands of calls every minute and writing customized replies to everyone is just not a realistic target.

 

[moraes]

Anno 2070 is on sale -75%

Good? If yes, should I bother with the complete version?

 

[Servo]

If customer service fails to treat you like royalty, feel free to boycott the company.

But nobody else is selling Dark Souls on PC for $5.99

 

[Bubbles]

Good? If yes, should I bother with the complete version?

Yes and yes. I've played that game to death and am deeply tired of it, but it's easily the best economy chaining/city building/underwater exploration/warfare game out there.

The add-on doesn't add much single player content, but the mechanical improvements are worth while.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Good? If yes, should I bother with the complete version?

Yes and yes. I've played that game to death and am deeply tired of it, but it's easily the best economy chaining/city building/underwater exploration/warfare game out there.

I know it still needs Udontplay, but does it still have the poisonous "TAGES" DRM? I hear conflicting stories.

 

[sser]

Good? If yes, should I bother with the complete version?

Yes and yes. I've played that game to death and am deeply tired of it, but it's easily the best economy chaining/city building/underwater exploration/warfare game out there.

I know it still needs Udontplay, but does it still have the poisonous "TAGES" DRM? I hear conflicting stories.

It looks like it still has TAGES based on the community response, though some sources say otherwise. Steam store page still says it has it, so that's not confusing at all... UPlay is lame and unnecessary, but it's not really cumbersome in anyway. TAGES is fucked up anti-consumer shit, though.

 

[Servo]

And bookmark humblebundle.com, bundlestars.com, indiegala.com, and theres shitload of other sites that do the bundle steam keys thing for little money and check em often.

I thought all they sold on Humble site was indie abominations.

 

[shiteatingnippledick]

I know it still needs Udontplay, but does it still have the poisonous "TAGES" DRM? I hear conflicting stories.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/48240/

3rd-party DRM:TAGES™

It seems so. Some people are saying no but I wouldn't believe them unless I get some official story.

 

[Metro]

If customer service fails to treat you like royalty, feel free to boycott the company.

But nobody else is selling Dark Souls on PC for $5.99

Pretty sure Amazon was.

 

[Country_Gravy]

Customer service would be a great job if you didn't have to deal with the fucking customers.

 

[Markman]

And bookmark humblebundle.com, bundlestars.com, indiegala.com, and theres shitload of other sites that do the bundle steam keys thing for little money and check em often.

I thought all they sold on Humble site was indie abominations.

Well, you thought wrong. And if they were abominations they would not collect millions each month. EA had a bundle, WB with Batman games had a bundle, Hotline Miami was in Indie bundle. Its definetly worth checking out for a collector or for a poor sob.

 

[Servo]

And if they were abominations they would not collect millions each month.

What the? Listen to what you're saying man. Abominations are precisely what sell in this industry.

 

[shiteatingnippledick]

I know it still needs Udontplay, but does it still have the poisonous "TAGES" DRM? I hear conflicting stories.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/48240/

3rd-party DRM:TAGES™

It seems so. Some people are saying no but I wouldn't believe them unless I get some official story.

I read further and people are swearing they removed TAGES with patch. The problem now is that at least the other uplay game I have (Trials) seems to be updating itself through uplay, so TAGES will be on your computer momentarily after you download it through steam.

Why can't they just fucking say it clearly.

 

[sea]

Have you ever worked in customer service? I have, and I know how to do it rite.

I have, and gaming-related. I guess I'll chime in:

• Most people I deal with, I'd say about 60-70%, have legitimate requests and just want help.
• Of those 50-60%, I would say about 80-90% are in the wrong or want us to provide help for something beyond our control (i.e. they forgot their e-mail account used and can't recover their account, they left their account signed in somewhere and it got stolen, etc.).
• The remainder includes mostly people who did something stupid and are lying about it to have their mistake made up for, or who are actively trying to scam us.

I will always do my best to help the customer, and will give the customer the benefit of the doubt, however, I also have to be suspicious of people's motives and if I see things that don't line up I have no qualms with asking questions of the customer and outright putting them on the defensive. In my line of work, many customers who get into shitty situations are involved in illegal shit or things that otherwise violate the terms of service, so I have very little sympathy for them and make it known to them.

In the rare case I see someone made an honest mistake, even if it's not covered by us, I will make an exception to the rules to help them; if I can't help reverse their problem directly I will basically try to compensate them in some other way. Especially for long-term customers who have a history with the company, I will also occasionally give them freebees even though I know they are in the wrong, because I'd rather they stay happy - giving out some $5 coupon or something isn't a big deal if they go on to spend $100. Hell, this can even train users to spend money on something that they don't have to normally - because they know the supp

My guess with Steam is, in an ideal world, their support would be able to provide an exception for you in the case of a network error on your end. But, they don't have 10 minutes to devote to your issue realistically speaking, so they simply have to say "no" and that's it. It kinda sucks for the customer, but if Steam is not at fault and they have a high volume of support tickets to deal with (around sale and holiday season time, that's a sure thing) it's understandable if quality of service suffers a bit on what are ultimately non-critical issues. It basically comes down to juggling severity of an issue vs. time to resolve the issue vs. number of other issues to deal with. Do you spend ten minutes helping one person, or spend ten minutes helping ten people with one-minute issues? Usually the answer is pretty obvious.

There's one more thing to consider. There is an advantage to not helping people who are at fault. If someone say, has their account trashed because they gave their password to someone, I will help recover it but I won't repair the damages. If a customer knows they can always do stupid shit and get away with it, they will keep doing it and generating problems both for themselves and for the support team - but if they are left on their own, they are going to think a lot more carefully in the future. I'm not saying Valve is intentionally doing this, but in the long run it's not a bad idea either - and let's face it, you probably won't stop using Steam over this, and you probably won't leave buying a game on sale to the last minute again either.

 

[Servo]

If customer service fails to treat you like royalty, feel free to boycott the company.

But nobody else is selling Dark Souls on PC for $5.99

Pretty sure Amazon was.

Oshit it's shill there.

Especially for long-term customers who have a history with the company, I will also occasionally give them freebees even though I know they are in the wrong, because I'd rather they stay happy - giving out some $5 coupon or something isn't a big deal if they go on to spend $100.

This is very true, and it's something bad customer service reps don't get. Those who say I'm acting entitled don't get it either. When a company demonstrates superb customer service, I will gladly spend additional money there on stuff that I normally wouldn't buy. I will even write a damn thank you letter to the rep to let them know how much of a bro they are, and one to their manager too. I've told managers before that they should give the rep a raise because they are great at their job.

I'm sure there are a few people that work at Valve who would have gone out of their way to ask their manager for an exception in my case, but people like that are the minority which is a damn shame. I think the reason this is the case is most companies have lost all sense of personal touch. They guard themselves against customers who might try and scam them by coming up with a bunch of policies and then telling their reps to just quote the policies to customers who are cranky or whatever. By the way, this is the same logic behind the DRM schemes that everyone here hates: enforce the same rules on everybody, including your best customers, to avoid letting one hacker or scammer get through.

and let's face it, you probably won't stop using Steam over this, and you probably won't leave buying a game on sale to the last minute again either.

Nah it's not that big of a deal. I was mostly pissed at the time it happened.

 

[RK47]

the above post and optimism doesnt apply in azia

 

[Servo]

Neither do the laws of physics but OTOH nothing applies in weaboo land.