Wed 20 Feb 2008
Steam’s Tech Support Agents are a bunch of Monkeys.
Posted by Osama under Computing , Gaming[15] Comments
Honestly, if you hire someone for a technical support position, shouldn’t you make sure they know about the product they’re supposed to be supporting?
I worked as a technical support agent in the past, so I do know it’s a hard job. I appreciate that most of your clients are old techno-phobic half-blind dumb people who would need instructions to plug in a power cord. I appreciate that, but that is not me.
My problem is probably caused by Vista (which I hate but which came with my PC) and it’s my fault that I never got around to installing a dual-boot with another OS on this system, I understand that, but Steam claims to be Vista compatible, so it should be! My problem is that I can’t purchase anything from within the steam store. Clicking on the purchase button does absolutely nothing. When I try to open the link in a browser instead, I get “steam://purchase/38 is not a recognized protocol” as an error. In IE, it gives me a generic “this page cannot be displayed” error.
I reinstalled steam 6-7 times and it doesn’t work. Ran as admin and not, same thing. Ran with and without backwards compatibility, same. Searching for “steam://purchase/38 is not a recognized protocol” in google and yahoo produces less than a page of results with suggestions that didn’t work. After trying all that, I e-mail tech support. 3 days later (I kid you not) they sent me a link to the knowledge base with a few things to try. All were simple and generic and, most importantly, they didn’t help. I e-mailed the same guy back, what did he do? He e-mailed me the same friggin link again! Now I’m getting peeved.
After I calmly and politely explained that I’ve already tried all those steps, he asked me to reinstall Steam. I explained that I had done that both before and after his “helpful” link advised me to do so. Then he asked me to lower my IE security settings. I realized that he was now just reading me the steps from the link he had already sent me twice! What a friggin bonehead!
Anyway, I’m waiting for his response. If I don’t get something that will actually help me fix this issue, I’m taking my business elsewhere. Actually, I really want steam so after I calm down I’ll probably just install another OS and re-download steam.
Anyone out there in Cyber-Space have any advice for me?
UPDATE: Click here for the fix!
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February 20th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Did you try re-installing Steam?
February 20th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
posted on the wrong article.
Hey, I have had problems with steam in the past also. The thing is, they pretty much have a lock on your games being the only way to buy or play them online. They know this and use it to their advantage. Until there is a company who can rival them, there is no real need to improve their customer service from where it is right now.
February 20th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Sadly, you’re right Bradley. Well I guess I have no choice but to wait for the e-mail (which I still haven’t received by the way).
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:51 am
I know what you can do. Install Windows XP. In fact, I volunteer my services to install Windows XP on your Vista machine. I’ve done some research, and I can do it
Also that issue where the SATA drive you have won’t work with Windows XP, well there is a work around, all it requires with integrating SATA drivers into the Windows XP install disk (which I’ve already done). I’ve tested it and it works fine on Awais’s vista based laptop w/sata hdd – no problems.
Let me know. I can stop in this week, see the baby and fix up the comp – plus I can backup everything on my 1TB drive so you don’t lose anything. I wont take NO for an answer.
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Bilal, you have a deal! Man that would be amazing! Thank you so much!
February 29th, 2008 at 8:14 am
Steam’s tech support guys are rubbish true, but the real problem is vista, dump it a run XP which is more stable and faster.
February 29th, 2008 at 9:13 am
I hear ya man! Will do for sure. Vista has caused me nothing but headaches since day one
March 1st, 2008 at 3:35 pm
GOT THE SAME Issue.
I figured it had to do with steams registry on Vista which Ive came across another issue upon messing around in the Regedit I came across the fact that steam does not allow admin/user to gain permission logs. I figured I could delete the keys on Steams registry and rebuild my own so I CAN VIEW THE FUCKIN PROTOCOL but no progress So theres two main errors
1:Protocol issues with vista
2: Permission keys are set to system only and getting access is a pain in the ass
March 5th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Yeah, I figured it was the same thing too. I, too, wasn’t able to access the registry to make modifications.
Well I hope someone figures it out
April 11th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Steam Really needs to fix there vista issues, im not changing I love vista its just dang company’s that think everyone should run on xp
July 31st, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Geez if only I had a Vista problem. I’ve got XP.
My problem is with the Ping with my CoD game. And some numb nut Admin messes with my gaming while in play. How do I protect myself in a gaming room? Duha I think I should go onto a password protected gaming room. Plus I would like a shake and fries with my answer.
Thanks Guys & Gals
August 17th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Something like that is the same with me only it wont let me open steam at all. I didnt get the game yet so i am trying to download it from the website. I have uninstaled it like 10 times but nothing. I have set all of my security settings to something different but same thing. Uh i am getting so mad, im not going 2 go buy the game if steam isnt going 2 work cause that would be almost pointless…neway i guess i am just saying if any1 else had this problem and found a way to fix it than help. I have it at my moms house and its the exact same computer but it doesnt work at my dads house…HELP!!!
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Steam is better than X-Box live and it’s free! It works flawlessly on XP. Vista sucks, go back to XP if you can.
September 14th, 2008 at 10:43 am
@Brickhead: You like Vista? WHAT?
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:34 pm
After a huge wrestling match I found this solution:
1) Uninstall Steam
2) Open notepad and paste the following
— Copy below this line —
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\steam]
@=”URL:steam protocol”
“URL Protocol”=”"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\steam\DefaultIcon]
@=”steam.exe”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\steam\Shell]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\steam\Shell\Open]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\steam\Shell\Open\Command]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files\\Steam\\steam.exe\” \”%1\”"
— Copy above this line —
and save it as Steam.reg
(yeah, the file is the same as in https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2087-MZES-9065).
3) Double-click the freshly created Steam.reg to add its contents to registry.
4) Open the registry editor (regedit) and locate HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/steam
5) Right-click the key in the tree (HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/steam) and modify the permissions so that your user account has full rights. Apply, OK.
6) Re-install steam.
7) ???
This worked for me where other solutions presented across the didn’t. Hope it helps someone. I’m gonna post this around until you like it.