Valve Aware The Steam Customer Support is Awful

Valve doesn't want to provide "crappy support in volume."

According to Valve's Erik Johnson, the company knows Steam customer support is awful, and that there are a few issues contributing to the long waits for responses. As one of the top causes is the need of a new software "to build a new support system," which will include the option to provide refunds.

"The thing that’s interesting is, you go out to third-party support providers, and—at least in our experience—most of them wanted to sell you ways to reduce the number of people currently waiting in support, but they weren’t very good at selling you ways to solve customer support issues," Johnson said. "I think we’ve all had that experience of, ‘I get it. You’re trying to get me off the line.’ We’re not super interested in providing crappy support in volume."

As an answer, Vlave is training its own people to do the job. The goal now is to have wait times reduced to an "acceptable point" by Christmas. "It's getting better internally; it just hasn't yet translated to great support for users," Johnson said. "We're going to get there, though."