one thing to keep in mind is that when you pay steam money for a program you are actually not buying or licensing the program like you do when you go to other stores or websites.
its a subscription and valid only to you and while you maintain an account in good standings with steam. steam can at any time close your account or block you from even logging in or accessing the software that you paid money for. so they close or block your account of any reason and you will not be able to access any of the software that you licensed until you resolve it with them on their terms, if any!
http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/
this was very apparent recently when steam changed its licensed agreement and everyone had to first ok the new license agreement before they could even access any of the software the they subscribed to with the old license agreement. people who did not agree with the new license agreement were not given any other chose but to agree to the new license agreement or to close their account or remain without access to the software that they subscribed to and paid for until they agreed to the new terms. and they can change their license agreement and/or terms at any time!
also, they do not guarantee that you will even have access to the software or that it will be updated or supported by the developers. at any time steam can and does go down, sometime of a few seconds and sometimes for hours and during that time you do not have access to your software. even when steam is up it sometimes is very busy and again you may not have access to your software. it's very frustrating to want/need to use the software that you've paid for and be blocked and have no clue what is going on. there is no number to call. the only thing you can do is create a ticket and wait for days or weeks until you get the automated response and then try to work it out with them. by then the service is up.
also, software on steam is updated usually after the main software is updated by the publisher. they have their own update system as some have posted and that sometime because a problem when you wait months, years and even never for an update. and steam has a very strange and dated way of updating software. sometime you end up having to download the whole thing again. i mean 20 gb game and 20 gb update for 1 byte change! now steam publishers have been changing over to a new format that is like differential format, but their is no guarantee when and if that will happen with any specific title. also when a publisher wants to make a release they submit it to steam, and them steam releases in valve time, and if you don't know what that means you better learn what valve time means!
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time
so while steam has some positives it also has some very important negatives that people need to be aware of that steam does not make clear and often obscure by their use of word such as purchase, buy, ect when they dont mean those words they mean subscribe to subscription that steam at any time can change and subscription where you never ever own any of it and only have access while steam does not close or block your account.
and with regards to steam blocking your account, if you ever, ever do a charge back or have a dispute with your credit card steam will automatically block your account and you will not have any access to any of the software and its not always clear how many days or weeks you will have to wait after you give in to them before they will let you back in
there is no phone number to call. all you can do is create a ticket and sweat it out, they will tell you what if anything you have to do
also, on some purchases that steam flags as suspicious, like too many purchases during the same day, they will again automatically block your account and your only option is to create a ticket and wait days, and if's a weekend, an extended weekend, will it can take a week or more before they get around to getting back to you and unblocking your account.
and also with regards to them blocking your account beware if you you pay with services like paypal or even a credit card that from time to time challenges the purchase or flags the purchase. your account will automatically get blocked until they get paid
one more point, all sales are final. no refund, exchange, ect. no i didn't play it or i didn't download it, ect. you will lose and if you try a charge back like i said its locked out until they are happy. now they do at times offer a one time refund, but i dont know how they will implement or allow that for things other than games which could be very expensive.
so you better know that you want it before you subscribe!
finally, how do i know all these things well sadly they and more have happened to me
now i'm stuck with years of buying from them, well not buying subscribing. was not apparent to me until years later that there was a difference. they word it so very well.
steam faq
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_cat.php?s=70fb1e46644a88fdeb1f0bf631b4bdf9&id=3
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