Well its Friday, my work is done, and rather than kick off a nice game of Civ V, all I have to do is some hear and vent some STEAM about Steam.
Let me give a complete timeline to clear up any confusion.
2/20/2011 11:40 PM: Attempt to buy some DLC's for Civ V from Steam and get to verify my email address.
Buy some DLC's and when attempting to pay with PayPal they decide its time to verify my account as well with new password and security question setup.
2/20/2011 11:50 PM: Emails from both Steam and PayPal thanking me for my purchase and a receipt for my payment.
New Scenarios and Civs available in the game.
2/21/2011 Start a new Diety game in Civ V. All is well
2/23/2011 7:33 PM I get the message I posted above from Steam declaring my account locked.
I see this a few hours later and call PayPal immediately, getting transferred a few times, but always dealing with professional English speaking individuals who promptly straightened things out once validating who I was and that the charge was valid.
I then stumble through the always confusing Steam UI and manage to finally open a support request to unlock my account stating that the funds where released as well as updating the original request that I had called PayPal and release the hold.
I fire up the game (I was already logged into Steam) and note that I cannot load my Diety game because a DLC has been locked. I can however start a new game.
2/24/2011 At some point during the day I got an update notice from the Steam client, and thinking it was my DLC coming back, I let it restart. WRONG. Now I am locked out.
2/24/2011 12:05 PM I get this boilerplate response to the ticket I had opened:
Hello, Thank you for contacting Steam Support. The purchase of Civilization V Babylon DLC and Civilization V Double DLC Pack has been disputed by Paypal. The Paypal account holder will need to close the dispute and have the funds returned to Steam. If the account holder is unable or unwilling to drop the dispute and let the PayPal know that the purchase is valid, and in turn have the funds returned to Steam, we will not be able to reactivate the account. All games on your account are locked to the account and can not be transferred to a different account. A different payment method can not be used for this game; the money must be returned by the PayPal account that made the original purchase. If the dispute is closed and the funds are released back to Steam, the account will be reactivated. However if PayPal closes the dispute by Reversing the Payment, meaning they send the funds for the purchase back to you, the Steam account will remain locked and you will lose access to all of the games on the account. There are no options to resolve a dispute once PayPal has closed the case, so we suggest that you contact them immediately. PayPal Help Center
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_help-ext Please let us know if you have any further questions. We are not able to do anything further with your account while a PayPal dispute is still pending, please remedy this issue with PayPal before asking for the account to be reactivated.
This was over 12 hours since the funds where released and they give no indication of even looking to see if they where.
2/24/2001 11:37 PM - I open a second ticket (3 total now) and post again that the funds are released, please unlock my account.
18 hours later and no more responses on any of the three open tickets.
That's the history so far. Now, as for blame, I blame Steam.
I have used PayPal for years and have NEVER had a problem. I was not happy with the tighter security I faced, but in today's world, I cannot really find fault. The handled my problem IMMEDIATELY. Steam doesn't even have a phone number you can call.
I also have a credit card I use exclusively for online purchases. I have had LOTS of problems with held payments, phone calls validating a sale, etc...
PayPay is quick and easy to use. You type your email and a password, click a few buttons, and you have paid. No name/address/number entry.
I bought a boxed copy of Civ V with NO expectation of being at the mercy of Steam. I assumed it would be used for multi-player only. Now I cannot play that game unless I reinstall it and steam and setup a new account, losing all of the achievements I have earned, not to mention the DLC's I have now actually paid for.
I know for a FACT that Steam locked out my DLC, and that would have been completely fair and OK with me. They had no reason or right to lock my entire account and prevent me from playing a game that was legally paid for. I also place some blame on Firaxis/2K for putting their fans in this mess.
I have been a Civ fanatic for years and now I am at the mercy of a lousy company called Valve. Held payments and fraud detection are normal and expected practices and Steam should deal with them correctly, not lock down an account since they clearly have a way to retrieve/lockout the DLC. Since there customer support is so slow they are completely wrong in locking an account unless a clear pattern of misuse is evident. Unless Firaxis comes up with a work around for this we are at the mercy of Steam until Civ VI comes out.