I'd ask the guy to take screenshots of him trying to activate it on his account, complete with today's date and time in the screenshot.
If necessary, tell him you need the screenshots to get him another key from [insert site here].
He can still get around it by using a dupe key he already owns , but maybe it will let him know you don't believe him and maybe pressure him a little more to activate the key.
Comment has been collapsed.
I that case, I think you'd be SOL unless support from the seller can help you ...
Had something similar happen a couple of months ago, bought two of the same game on the same day, created a ga for one and the winner said it was a dupe. Luckily (and coincidentally) I still had the other key and guess what? That one worked just fine, along with every other key I bought that day from that site, so yeah ... I knew it wasn't a dupe.
Fortunately I haven't had it happen since ...
Comment has been collapsed.
And what else was I going to do about it? My word against his as far as I can see.
I could have taken the "Not Received", I suppose, but I also like my profile neat and tidy. ;)
EDIT: as a sidenote -- I did screenshot the second conversation and sending the key, along with him saying it was the 2nd key, so if he tried to get a third, I had proof. ;)
Comment has been collapsed.
The real kicker --. I had blacklisted the person after that exchange, and recently I wiped my blacklist except for a handful of particularly unsavory fellows. I had forgotten his sg name since then, though, and removed him, too. Oh well, live and learn ...
Comment has been collapsed.
This hasn't happened to me on any GAs I have created, nor have I ever won a GA where the key was a dupe...However, there have been at least 1 time where a game i bought from Humble store(Not in a bundle) listed the key as a dupe and I had to contact support. Another time my GF purchased a bundlestars bundle, and all of the keys worked but one. It was a game she didn't care about, so she didnt bother contacting them, but stuff like that CAN happen...those are the only 2 occasions I can think of though where a key retailer provided a "Dupe key"(Authorized anyway..im sure it happens a lot on places like G2A)
Comment has been collapsed.
Yeah, I realize it can happen, but it'd have been the first time in about (at a conservative guess) 250+ keys I've purchased from the site (and it's an authorized reseller). Plus the 2nd key for the same game, purchased that same day, worked fine ... You can never be 100% sure, but I was pretty damned sure, if you know what I mean. ;)
Oh well, it would have been my word against his either way, so I just replaced the key and moved on. It was a bundle game, so I wasn't going to stress over it. I used to keep a simple text document with what keys I'd used for giveaways and that's all -- these days I keep a spreadsheet so I can add notes and such. :)
Comment has been collapsed.
I dunno...I think I would take the mark against me in that situation. If I was fairly certain it was a good key. Just for the principle of the situation. Most people on here thankfully aren't that way, even the rule breakers don't normally lie, they just don't activate the key. So it's unlikely it would happen more than once, and I doubt anyone would hold 1 mark against me....knock on wood.(Though who knows)
If that situation does ever arise for me, I most likely would stop making public GAs altogether and just stick to making group GAs and WL giveaways...that way the people entering them I would be fairly certain are honestish and decentish folk.
Comment has been collapsed.
I think it's even more horrible if you discovered an old bundle you bought ages ago but you remember that you didn't activate games you wanna give away.
Anyone can just fool you and you will think that everything is okay because you can accept that you forgot that you gifted it to someone...
Comment has been collapsed.
I'm not sure because i haven't tested it yet but it seems ( refer to Tempete comment ) The website you have bought your keys from there can check the key situation.
If you prove the X or Y game store support team that you are the owner of the serial key and your key doesn't work now, they probably / certainly can check the key for you to find the reason.
Comment has been collapsed.
Any point in reporting the incident and hope that Support would keep track of other similar reports against the same user? This info could be used to show there's a pattern to this behavior (justifying a ban).
Yes, that. If it never happened before, we can't really do anything since they might be saying the truth, but you can try contacting the support from the website you got the key from.
Comment has been collapsed.
It hasn't happen to me yet, though I have an experience to receive an used key. The creator said it was from Groupees, never used, but the key didn't work. So we agreed to delete the GA, I don't know whether the creator contacted Groupees' support.
After story... the creator suggested me to select one of their spare games as a token of apology, I accepted a game which was free once, cannot be made as a GA here.
I always write down(Ctrl-V) keys from sellers not to make a mistake, but two times Bundle sites gave me bad keys. Fortunately, the bad keys were for me, not for GAs. I'm afraid sometimes such an accident happen to me, too. -_-a
And if I'm in such a shoe and absolutely sure of not-used key, I'll check winner's record first such as any rule-breaking, trading feedback etc. Next step will follow the result.
Comment has been collapsed.
Contact winner, buy a new key and send via chat, require immediate activation. If winner still claims it's duplicate, report to support (may also request a new winner). If it's cheap enough I might buy a gift copy on Steam and send to them directly and blacklist them after confirming receipt.
I only reveal the keys to be given away when I was about to create the GA, so I have 99.8% confidence the key would be working.
Comment has been collapsed.
I've had it come up a couple times. Once I thought it was the winner but turns out I just done goofed, but if the key is cheap I give them another (and then blacklist if I suspect foul play). I've never had it be an issue; sometimes I "encourage" the winner to "try it again" and suddenly the problem goes away.
Comment has been collapsed.
I'd immediately give the "bad" key to a friend to try (or try it myself if I didn't have that game).
If it works, at least your friend got the game and not the cheater.
Comment has been collapsed.
16,205 Comments - Last post 26 seconds ago by ClapperMonkey
34 Comments - Last post 26 minutes ago by SketCZ
12 Comments - Last post 33 minutes ago by Velandur
22 Comments - Last post 47 minutes ago by popocho
329 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by OwieczkaDollyv21
1,662 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by FranckCastle
4 Comments - Last post 2 hours ago by MeguminShiro
73 Comments - Last post 33 seconds ago by SINNEDUE
567 Comments - Last post 4 minutes ago by ClapperMonkey
231 Comments - Last post 6 minutes ago by PaganFears
2,536 Comments - Last post 30 minutes ago by highlysuspect
1,830 Comments - Last post 30 minutes ago by MeguminShiro
27,909 Comments - Last post 38 minutes ago by ha14
190 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by Naitas
Thankfully this hasn't happened to me (yet), but I was always curious about this scenario. Suppose you create a giveaway and you know for a fact the key was never used and comes from a good site (so odds of it being bad are close to zero). If the winner already traded the key or regifted it on another site, there's no way to know that someone else activated it. And as long the winner doesn't activate it on their account there's no hint that they may be lying. I guess the giveaway creator can then either deliver another key (I know at least one user who delivered a extra key even though she knew the first key was good), or let the winner mark as Not Received.
Is there anything else to do in such cases? Any point in reporting the incident and hope that Support would keep track of other similar reports against the same user? This info could be used to show there's a pattern to this behavior (justifying a ban).
O.GA
Comment has been collapsed.