It’s no secret that most PC gamers use Steam to buy games as well as to house their growing library of titles, but sometimes problems arise when using Steam or playing a game. Some of these issues require help from Valve’s customer support team. As the company continues to improve its customer service, a.k.a. Steam Support, it’s also making the process a bit more transparent by showing some statistical information on the number of requests for help it receives every day.
The Steam Supports Stats page features one main graph that shows the total number of requests, which is shown in blue, as well as the amount of requests that still require a response (shown in red). In the last 90 days, as early as February 2, the difference between the total amount of requests and those still waiting for a response were slim; of the 77,989 requests for help that day, only 25,605 received a response, with a massive backlog of 52,384 tickets still waiting for help. However, the gap between the total number and open requests significantly increased over the past few months. Yesterday, Steam Support received 65,615 requests, and it was able to respond and solve most of the issues with only 7,460 queries left to answer. That’s 58,155 issues solved in one day.
Aside from the graph, there’s some additional information that further expands on the many types of requests that goes into Steam Support. According to Valve, the vast majority of requests usually involve refunds for a game. Other major issues that come in are in regards to recovering an account, technical issues with a game or with Steam, and questions on purchases and billing. Valve also added a typical wait time for each of issues. Refund requests are usually solved between 1-2 hours while problems with purchases or billing can take between two hours to almost two days.
By no means is Steam Support perfect, but at least it’s more efficient in how it receives and solves tens of thousands of requests that come in every day. Valve’s post on the subject mentioned that it improved the service overall by using better tools to help with any requests, overhauled the support site and hired additional staff to help out with problems. The company will continue to improve the service in many ways, but transparency through the Steam Support Stats seems to be a step in the right direction. If you want to provide any additional feedback about Steam Support, you can always write a comment in the Steam Discussions forum.
