I need someone to yell at me because every time I open this app my unending despair makes me type up a huge doom-posty tweet about an awful situation I am dealing with. I don't wanna be that guy though so I need to hold it. It's just so hard ‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·
A game I am a VA in will have a demo out for steam next fest in two weeks. Just got paid for my work, but thanks to the viewer in my last posts committing chargeback fraud all the money got eaten by the pending paypal balance. 😭 I am pretty sure paypal will side with me since I had all the evidence for the $400, but twitch completely blew me off for the other $900. I am just glad he couldn't charge back bits, or I'd be down ANOTHER $1k... these people man. Some of these charges happened 2 months ago... theres 100+ different transactions over the last few months.
A week ago, a viewer by the name of dr_death2004 charged back nearly $1.5k in donations he had sent me over the last few months and @Twitch@TwitchSupport does not care. At least 5 other streamers (some of which will be tagged below per their request) are also affected, and between all of us he has charged back over $2k in donations.
This was not a random scammer. This was a community member who was well established, and showed no red flags. He even had become friends with some of my mods. These donations took place over the course of months, and he even donated to people whom I raided (which are now unfortunately dealing with chargebacks as well.) On May 21st I received $400 in chargebacks through paypal from disputes on donations through my tip page. I ran to twitch, where most of his donations were, and money seemed unaffected (initially) which was a relief. As of two nights ago, this has changed. As you can see in my attached statement, I am down almost $900. Bits are currently unaffected, however he has donated 100k to me alone.
On May 21st the YT and Twitch account of dr_death2004 for were deleted, which led me to believe he filed chargebacks there as well. It took time for twitch to process things, but now that the money is missing I can confirm that is what happened. So far this viewer still has X and Discord, but has not been active or responding on anything.
Thanks to the paypal dispute, I can see he filed the charges as unauthorized/fraudulent (ie stolen card). I, as well as the others affected, have tons of proof that this is not the case. Not only do we have proof he was an active community member and consensual donor, but we also have personal info that proves it was his card being used. Because he was a friend to my community, we know his irl name which aligns with the name on the paypal disputes and other charges.
Despite providing twitch with this information, I have been entirely brushed off. Rather than actually responding to my ticket, they simply parroted the definition of what a refund is and why it happened. They mention an investigation, but it was obvious that none was conducted. Considering all of my evidence, as well as the other streamers involved, it is very obvious that his claims are all BS.
I don't know about you guys, but $1.5k is a lot of money to me. It is nearly my entire rent, and now it is gone. I fortunately still have enough to get by, but this should NOT be allowed (especially considering many donations are over 30 days old). I can't believe how twitch is handling this either, hence deciding to go public despite my initial desire to resolve things privately.
I don't like drama. I debut in less than a month, and this situation is not what I want to be known for. Despite that, the economy is bad and there are a lot of people being hurt over this. I have confirmed myself and 5 others are affected, but who knows how many others are too?
If dr_death2004 sounds familiar, please check your twitch payouts. If you have been affected, please reach out to me as I have a GC going with all affected streamers. No one deserves to go through this nightmare.
I have been struggling to sleep for days and am sick to my stomach with anxiety wondering what is going to happen next.
Twitch needs to step up and find a better system to protect their streamers, because this is ridiculous. I am not the first person who has been wrongfully charged back, nor will I be the last. There needs to either be an insurance policy in place for streamers, or twitch needs to get it together and do actual investigations rather than instantly siding with anyone who files a chargeback.
I saw a tweet a week ago of someone named @Hawkblooo dealing with a similar situation for $600, so this is no new problem. Twitch has enough money, and should be honoring everyone's payout. I can't believe this nightmare.
Likes and retweets are appreciated to not only spread the word, but also to try and get twitch to do something about this BS.
The other affected streamers who have consented to being included in this post are @SwirlSiren46089, @KimeraChimeraVT, @DulceMizudori, @bubbelbuzz, and @Ervsona
@MonikaCinnyRoll People don't understand that early access is the best mean of development: the devs are ACTIVELY LOOKING for player feedback, making sure that the final result will satisfy as many players as it can. They are basically inviting us to participate in the development process