Removed Post I surrender

wtf?

Haha that's awesome, Stephen Bradshaw seems like a real tool from that email trail. How'd you get a hold of it?

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg35/ggb777/tinfoil_hat_antenna.jpg

They look like they understand English quite well, and that they can't for security purposes, do what you're asking.

Being an a****** to them would make them much less likely to want to go out of their way to help you.

I think they responded in a fair manner, and you're the person who doesn't understand English here very well.

who am i talking to?

i think dealing with wankers like that has broken my brain

last edited by Freewheelin at 14:41:37 18/Nov/09

http://www.geekstir.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/prawned.jpg

I think you should provide proof of purchase. That'll show them.

LOOK AT ME IM ANGRY COS I CANT ABIDE BY COMPANY POLICY SO I INSULT PEOPLE IM GREAT COS I SPEAK ENGLISH

tl;dr

Here's a website that has my name on it, as you can see I'm Stephen Bradshaw. What do you mean that's not enough for you!?! Ok fine, how about this piece of paper that says "I am Stephen Bradshaw" on it? Wha-aa-aat?! You're still not satisfied? You clearly don't understand English very well!

Haha, awesome first post Swarzebear, really funny stuff.

I am confused.

Regards,
Stephen Bradshaw
Business Development
Acorn Software
Stephen Bradshaw
Director Sales and Marketing
Acorn software
Stephen bradshaw
Business development
Acorn software

It looks to me like you bought stuff on Steam without being aware of how their digital rights management works.

From a quick glance, here are all the things you did wrong - not saying this to be critical, but just to make sure you realise there's a bunch of issues that are really, really, really common mistakes that people make when buying digital software:

1) Used an email address you did not know you would always have access to. If you do this you might as well be throwing your money away. Email addresses is how your account is identified.

2) You made multiple guess attempts at logging in. This is always, always, a bad idea, unless you are 99% to 99.9999% you're going to guess right in less than 3 tries.

3) You assumed that mapping between a web page and an email address is a valid form of identification - it is not.

4) You immediately assumed incompetence at their end when they couldn't match your credit card details (and, let's be honest, replied pretty rudely). You should have double and triple checked your information and CC details to make sure that what you were saying from your side was accurate, and if it was, provided some more information to help them track down your account details.

5) Replying from different accounts. Again, the ENTIRE basis for most Internet authentication things at the moment is email. The instant you deviate from the known email path, you are almost certainly dooming yourself, or at the very least, making it much, much, much harder to get the support you want.

6) Spamming this on every forum before posting it, say, here, and getting someone like me to proofread it for you and point out all the things that everyone is going to slay you for everywhere else.

7) Giving up?!?! Don't give up. Find proof of purchase. Look through your credit card statements and find the receipt. If you don't keep them religiously or your bank sucks and doesn't make them available online you can probably pay for them to retrieve it (though realistically it would probably cost more than the value of the game, because banks suck)

I feel for your pain, and buyers SHOULD beware, not just of Steam, but of buying ANYTHING online EVER that uses DRM or any sort of rights management.

You need to really, really, really, really clearly understand HOW they're going to manage your rights - because if you don't, things like this will happen and - realistically - it's pretty much your own fault.

I remember when steam asked me for my password for the first time in 2 years, I absolutely s*** myself.

I don't think any of what trog said is legally accurate. Mainly because it's 'unfair'. Yes it's the practical/technical answer, but australian law clearly puts the burden of tracking these sorts of things on the seller and intends to make concepts such as 'buyer beware' illegal as they are unfair on the consumer.

It is absolutely reasonable that you could lose an email address, get a new credit card... those aren't abnormal things.

Hi Guys
Criticism accepted however in my defense i was only trying to get the account unfrozen as I had the email account reinstated to retrieve the password.
Why would they need proof of purchase when all i asked was for the status Quo to be reinstated prior to this debacle.
If i wasn,t the holder of the email account linked to mt steam account how would i be able to retrieve the password.
Therefore removing the need for proof of purchase!

Regards

Swarzebear

Read half of this

Stephen Bradshaw appears to be the wanker because he cant handle s*** like a grown ass man


Are you Stephen or the guy from Steam?


Wait nvm I dont care

I think someone just got called a crazy by faceman.

Oh snap.

/agree with trog.

You were totally unnecessarily rude to the customer support and were not in the least bit helpful after your initial email. You need to understand what they require of you and try your best to help them out.

They actually do want to protect your account, and are doing so. You provided no more 'assistance' than a would-be hijacker could.

people dont have gmail accounts?

They believe your account has been hacked. If your account has been hacked it's a good bit likely you could have had your email hacked too. So they need your proof of purchase. It's not that f***ing hard to understand you f***ing idiot.

Jesus, just reply with:

Hi Support,

Could you please re-enable my Steam account tied to e-mail address (the one you got re-activated).

I will then be able to use the 'reset password' feature to regain access to my account.

Thanks,
Stephen

1. Keep the receipts they send you after a purchase
2. Use a PW you will remember
3. Use the email verify thing in steam

I can't for the life of me understand how you (Stephen) are a director of a company! You have no clue at all :)

Back on track, what trog said is correct. You couldn't even supply them with CC information you were kinda flakey on the information provided...

Use the 'shoe on the other foot' analogy and try re-reading your email(s) and see if you (acting as steam/vavle/whoever) would hand over account details.

You were very fkn rude in your emails.

http://www.quantum.com.au/photos/stephen.jpg

E-RAGER!

do you still have that olympic ice skating medal?

you are a complete f***ing moron, and a very unlikeable one at that. you deserve what has happened to you, and me and all of my work collegues are laughing at you and your retarded photo on your company website.

I R IMPORTANT COMPANY DIRECTORZZZ, HALP ME STEAMZ OR I WILL GET ANGRY1!@#!!!

I'm glad you posted that so we could see how that Stephen guy was really rude.

Reading that, I found that you replied very rudely very quickly.

That stuff might fly when you are trying to scare a minion in your company, however when you have no control over them it only frustrates people and makes them NOT want to help you.

They get hundreds of emails a day, why bother helping the guy out that is being abusive?

You sir, failed.

Perhaps you should find your CC payment, it will be easier then digging yourself out of this mess.


Anyway, being a director of a company and super special you should be able to just drop a few bucks and purchase the games you still play on Steam. Learn your lesson and use an email address that you will always have, or update them when you change.

Enjoy life.

In that case, I'm screwed because I used a mates CC to buy stuff in steam (I didn't have one at the time so I used his & gave him the cash). Hope they never have to de-activate my account :S

Gee everyone likes to point out he was rude. He is pissed about the product he's paid for, and the customer service are indicating that they think he is not telling the truth. It is absolutely normal that he should be angry at them.

We live in a world where you go to get your own money out of the bank and they challenge you by questioning your identity and making you prove it.

Everytime you go into the train station, the a****** at the door questions your honour, and accuses you of trying to steal a train fair.

These aren't the sorts of things the human psyche is comfortable with!!

I can offer no solution other than people need to have trust, and not be deceitful.

We live in a world where you go to get your own money out of the bank and they challenge you by questioning your identity and making you prove it.

Really? So you think a better system is people can just strolling in and out of a bank taking any money they desire? You f***ing retard.

I can offer no solution other than people need to have trust, and not be deceitful.

I lawled.

when that happens, let me know and i'll buy you a beer.

and he can't adequately identify himself. steam have a responsibility to protect the privacy/security of their users' accounts... even from themselves if they are that retarded (which stephen bradshaw obviously is).

trust thermite to come up with s*** like that

edit:

Everytime you go into the train station, the a****** at the door questions your honour, and accuses you of trying to steal a train fair.

f*** i hope you see a shrink on a regular basis, hey

last edited by taggs at 19:12:17 18/Nov/09

^ Taggs is right. It's not that big a deal to identify yourself with a credit card. It's his fault for not keeping track of his purchases.

Also, thermite, you're an idiot.

i like how he got the IT department to re-make his old email account.

he Follows the faceman School of Capitalisation

Its called Automatic Writing.
Get over it.
Dont bring it up again.

sorry faceman, i Didn't realise it Would hurt yOur feelings So much.

hug And make Up?

Gee everyone likes to point out he was rude. He is pissed about the product he's paid for, and the customer service are indicating that they think he is not telling the truth. It is absolutely normal that he should be angry at them.

Going straight from zero to angry in one support inquiry is silly and not productive. I can guarantee that if you get angry, you're just making it easier for them to justify not trying as hard to help you.

We live in a world where you go to get your own money out of the bank and they challenge you by questioning your identity and making you prove it.

I assume, from this point onwards, your post is a troll

Wow. That is high-level douche-baggery right there on your behalf. I'm sorry, but there it is. You were rude and arrogant, yet somehow you still expected calm, logical and helpful assistance!

I worked in hospitality and met a lot of your type. You should work in such an industry for a while to learn that additioin of attitude is not the correct way to solve problems and is actually counter-productive to your needs.

My Enquiry to Steam

Enquiry? More like a HOWTO for ensuring you never get taken seriously, nor have your account unlocked.

Assuming any of this is true ...

Assuming any of this is true ...

Yeah, I think you're right to be skeptical. This could be a slander campaign about the real Stephen Bradshaw. Someone should alert him...

http://www.xfire.com/profile/swarzebear/

I'm not suggesting we shouldn't have identification in banks, see or shrink, or troll, I'm just saying it's normal to feel s***ted off by these things, and a short tempered response should be expected, so you don't have to be all "oh gosh what a dreadful display of manners, you'll never be a lady".

last edited by thermite at 20:42:09 18/Nov/09

I think we can probably dispense with the personal attacks, eh?

This is a surprisingly complicated issue and you would be f***ing blown away by how many people we say EVERY DAY that get in trouble with it. Part of what we (we == Mammoth, AusGamers parental unit) deal with every day is providing support to people that have bought digital download games with DRM and trust me, trying to provide support for that is a frustratingly educational experience into how many ways people get things wrong/misunderstand what is going on.

I'm really perplexed as to how someone goes from this reply

The card you have provided does not match the card used for Half-Life 2 Silver. Please provide the correct credit card. You may contact the card issuer if you do not have the physical credit card in your possession.

To this:

Do you actually understand English.
From the evidence provided its obvious I am the account holder all I request is you reinstate the account.
I am not asking for anything to be reset
In response to your we don't give a damn attitude to customer service how am I to retrieve the CC used when I do not remember what date I purchased hl2 it was that long ago.
Please respond as it is frustrating to be denied what I have legally paid for

I've read it a couple of times and no where does he even mention anything about resetting his card or that he doesn't give a damn about your problem. Nor does he indicate failure at the English language.

My steam account is tied to an email address i had almost 10 years ago that is well and truely not in use but you can update that s***. Sure i still use that email to login but all correspondence goes to my newer address. Its really not that hard.

Maybe instead of e-raging you could take that nice fellows advice and contact the issuer of your card and ask for a statement for the period in question. It doesn't matter if you still have the card or not it isn't like banks shred the evidence the second someone cuts up a card.

I too vote that the OP was a rude douche bag.

Protip: you should really brush up on your own English skills before trying to insult the language abilities of another.

Somebody should dump old mate Steve's details on 4chan for some internet justice.

Ok Guys
i surrender point taken I was very pissed off about not being able to install COD MW2 that I purchased retail not from steam i might add without creating a new account.
While i accept i was a bit blunt in my second email i was only trying to unfreeze an account not asking them to reset anything.
someone who suggested my email account was hijacked if you had read the thread and followed links you would see its my own Business which owns the domain and exchange server. I could accept this if i was using a hotmail or gmail but the account on steam is tied directly to my Business email account. which was the point i was trying unsuccessfully to prove to Steam.
In response to all the personal attacks I apologies to whoever took offence at my post,however to suggest i treat my staff this way is a ludicrous statement and a huge leap.
My final email to steam was meant to be a joke and was written tongue in cheek and was not meant to be taken out of context.
Anyway for a first post in many years at least it caused a stir LOL
Swarzebear

I can't for the life of me understand how you (Stephen) are a director of a company!

Shelf companies can be purchased for a few hundred dollars, its ridiculously easy to become a Director.

On topic: BL dude, life lesson learned.

Don't f*** with customer service zombies, the carrot is always mightier than the stick. The moment you let yourself vent at someone like that you've pretty much conceded.

Your goal in a situation like this is for the CS zombie to want to help you, so don't hit it with sticks.

Removed Post I surrender

ehh... can't expect much mercy from a net forum.

thermite I think you owe us all an apology, especially one to the OP for supporting him