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Warning: Zen purchase through Steam -> STO Account Ban
lagunad
Member Posts: 198 Arc User
Over the weekend, I used my Steam account to buy Zen.
The transactions completed with no apparent issues. I had ample money in my bank account.
Last night, for no apparent reason, Steam refunded my purchase. I did not request any refund. My bank does not show the charges as being refused, and there is no reason they should have been. Steam sent me emails explicitly saying they were processing a refund, not that they couldn't collect the money.
The Steam client now shows me a message "This account appears to have been used for fraudulent activity".
When I attempt to login to the Star Trek Online client, it says "Your account has been banned".
It is unclear whether STO decided to ban me, and refund the Zen purchase (but that seems unlikely), and I was playing STO late last night after Steam had made the un-requested refund.
It seems more likely that Steam initiated the unsolicited refund for god knows what reason, and when STO was informed that the charges had been reversed, they banned me (which would be appropriate for someone who bought something and then didn't pay up).
But this is really, really distressing. I am a lifetime sub, founder account, and I have invested thousands of dollars in this game. My account is banned and I have done absolutely nothing wrong except (apparently) spend enough money to trigger a false fraud alert with a third party.
I have submitted tickets to both Steam and STO, but because there are two customer service departments involved here, it's unclear whether I will ever get my account back.
In the interest of pursuing every possible avenue of resolution, and also warning others, I am posting here as well.
I went to login tonight for some relaxation after a long day of work, and find this.
What a nightmare.
The transactions completed with no apparent issues. I had ample money in my bank account.
Last night, for no apparent reason, Steam refunded my purchase. I did not request any refund. My bank does not show the charges as being refused, and there is no reason they should have been. Steam sent me emails explicitly saying they were processing a refund, not that they couldn't collect the money.
The Steam client now shows me a message "This account appears to have been used for fraudulent activity".
When I attempt to login to the Star Trek Online client, it says "Your account has been banned".
It is unclear whether STO decided to ban me, and refund the Zen purchase (but that seems unlikely), and I was playing STO late last night after Steam had made the un-requested refund.
It seems more likely that Steam initiated the unsolicited refund for god knows what reason, and when STO was informed that the charges had been reversed, they banned me (which would be appropriate for someone who bought something and then didn't pay up).
But this is really, really distressing. I am a lifetime sub, founder account, and I have invested thousands of dollars in this game. My account is banned and I have done absolutely nothing wrong except (apparently) spend enough money to trigger a false fraud alert with a third party.
I have submitted tickets to both Steam and STO, but because there are two customer service departments involved here, it's unclear whether I will ever get my account back.
In the interest of pursuing every possible avenue of resolution, and also warning others, I am posting here as well.
I went to login tonight for some relaxation after a long day of work, and find this.
What a nightmare.
Post edited by lagunad on
0
Comments
This is actually the 3rd post like this I've seen this week. Something is up, but the common denominator is steam.
People need to stop using steam.
Not everything you see on the internet is true - Abraham Lincoln
Occidere populo et effercio confractus
At other times during the weekend, I was logged in through the STO launcher directly.
Have you tried logging in through arc? I don't think steam can ban your sto account like that but they can disable it through their launcher.
Not everything you see on the internet is true - Abraham Lincoln
Occidere populo et effercio confractus
After going through the usual steps to login, at the moment it should take me to the character selection screen, it instead pops up a message "Your account has been banned".
The arc support page says that if you get banned, you should get an email explaining the reasons, but I didn't receive one.
Yes, because it uses the steam overlay to do the transaction. I doubt this is steam's fault and more likely some failing on Cryptic's end, anyways you should probably put a ticket in through cryptic's support (If you haven't already) and and get this settled.
All I can say is I haven't had any issue with purchasing through steam, but I haven't done it in quite awhile. Stop using steam what blasphemy to speak such things =P
Interesting.....
https://support.arcgames.com/
It will take time to hear back regardless but if your banned in arc its a pwi issue.
Not everything you see on the internet is true - Abraham Lincoln
Occidere populo et effercio confractus
Suppose I had bought Zen through Steam, and then requested a refund after spending the Zen.
Then of course arc would rightly ban me for (in effect) trying to steal from them.
But in this case I did NOT request any refund, Steam just decided to initiate one by themselves.
So I assume that I will first have to get Steam to tell arc that they screwed up and that the refund was not initiated by me. And THEN convince arc to unban me. And then the refund will have to be undone, which presumably also involves Steam.
What a nightmare.