"First let me state that I have been a loyal customer of this company since the days of "Stardock Central" - a precursor to the current Impulse PC gaming platform. I own dozens of games on my Impulse account and I believe I have owned the majority of Stardock's in-house-developed catalog at some point or another. In short, I'm a pretty dedicated fan of Stardock.

Despite that, here is a short record of my experiences with the company through their Impulse Customer Service reps. I've had three occasions where I needed assistance from Stardock:

The first one went great and my issue was resolved very quickly and courteously. The second one was one of the most infuriating experiences I've had with ANY company doing business online. About a year went by and as I'm a huge fan of their games I gave them another go and things were going great when I needed their help again. This third time went better than before but was not particularly satisfactory.

I love the Impulse platform and ease of use of the tool. I think Stardock games are amazing and extraordinarily high quality. However, I will say that when something doesn't go according to plan, their customer service is at best mediocre, and I'm being very generous.

My biggest issue with them was being unable to get a refund on purchased software that didn't work on any computer I owned. I was accused trying to "circumvent their refund policy." Nonsense! I did everything humanly possible based on their advice. Unfortunately, they couldn't be bothered to actually express any integrity and take some responsibility for their muda. As I don't make it a habit of paying for goods and services which I don't receive in functioning order, Stardock finally relented when I got my credit card company involved. I really wish it hadn't come to that. However, I was warned that if I ever speak up again to my credit card company about Stardock's behavior that I would be forfeit my account and all the games I have bought fair and square. Wow - talk about making your customers feel like they are the priority /sarcasm.

I don't understand what was so hard to simply say "hey, that's too bad we couldn't help you resolve this. Let us make it right and refund you, no harm no foul." Their inability to be that customer-centric simply baffled me and everyone I showed their responses to.

The reps working for Stardock vary widely in terms of courteousness and emotional intelligence. Some of the answers I got from them made me seriously think that they had been drinking on the job or playing a strange, unfunny April Fool's joke. They will accept NO accountability when their platform doesn't deliver. The going instructions given to these poor souls seem to be - "(1) It's always the customer's problem, (2) we will not be an advocate for our customers when they need assistance on products we sell, and (3) play dead if we are stumped."

I've invariably been threatened, apologized to, talked down to, then threatened again, and then finally ignored when their lame scripts couldn't resolve the problems I had been experiencing. Even DELL is better than this (I know, I know, low blow there)!

Given that some of the reps are actually pretty damn good and I wish that I could receive help from them every time I had to interact with Customer Service, I still cannot give a 5-star rating to the service in its current form.

Prices are usually terrific and if I find both products on Steam and Impulse, I'll try to buy it on Impulse first every time. I love their products, just have had bad experiences with them when I needed help. Your mileage may vary - this is simply what I happened to me and my perspective on it looking back."