Steam tend to restrict the ability to purchase when you buy too many things for trade in a short period of time. It happened to me a couple times. Usually buying something for yourself and/or changing the payment method tends to unlock things.
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The only mistake you did was actually contact the Steam Support. After that, they pretty much checked your account, what do you buy, and who do you trade them to.
This "An unexpected error has occurred." error happened to me too, when trying to send someone a gift, but after a few tries it worked. Also i talked to a friend who had same error as you, and he said everytime he had that error, it fixed itself the next day, which im sure it happened to you too and steam support didn't "forgive" you or anything else.
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+1, had same purchase error, never contacted support. Contacting support is like: "Hay valve, for some reason i cant make money off you, please see whats wrong!"
Valve cant screen all their gigantic user base. My guess they are applying new limits, but real tradebans goes only to scammers and mybe extremely aggressive traders (multiple accounts on same IP, all maxing out on 10purchases/hour limit etc).
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Well,im Russian too,and i few mouths ago buyed an Borderlands 2(DRM-free expect russian buys)copy from an user that well paid more than russians,but snice 6(480 rubs)keys was cheaper than 599(gift)rubs at that time,well i didn't got banned. Why?
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I decided to make a trading account because I don't want to risk my primary, however after buying 20 gifts and a few cheap to the account I get this "An unexpected error has occurred. Your purchase has not been completed. Please contact Steam Support" error.
I'm getting this since 2 days - so I should wait or contact them ? Will it "unlock" my account automatically after a few days ?
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Just a shame Valve aren't so diligent about finding and banning all of the no-mark scammer accounts who attempt to befriend regular users every day, in an effort to part them from their money and games.
I guess it's all about their bottom line, but it would be nice to think that Valve were attempting to make Steam a safer place, rather than simply paying lip service to the idea while, in reality, making it a whole lot more dangerous by deliberately disabling the only safe way of trading games...
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How about korean or chineese DOTA2 players, who get FOR FREE a lot of promo and event items and then sell them for crazy prices of 100+ USD? And, btw, having "the cheapest games in the world" is lies and bullshit + russian Steam store lacks many games, especially MMOs. So you better stop talking about smth you don't know.
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You talk about lack of games like it is a bad thing. Most games released in the last few years have been pretty crap.
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Tastes are irrelevant for broken games. But if you really want broken games then move to the US, but once you do that prepare to bitch constantly about nothing but shitty broken games. Be happy you don't have to deal with all the trash we get.
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Have you not been following gaming news lately? EVERY game released in the last few months has been a broken mess. I also have not been buying broken games as i haven't been buying games at all and being smart enough won't fix a damn thing when every game being released is either broken or just straight up bad.
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FOR TS: you are a lucky guy. I still can't buy anything from Store and last reply from support was:
"We will no longer modify the flags on your account as you are a re-seller.
We aren't doing anything specifically to prevent your purchases, but as we cannot spend time checking on all your purchases we cannot assist you with further flag checks.
You are welcome to attempt your purchases, but if your account is on cool down or unable to complete the purchase - we cannot assist you with it further."
Amazing.
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So let me get this straight: You guys are complaining because you can't make money off of Steam anymore? Grow up kids.
And just to clarify: Yes, I like being able to get cheaper games from russian traders, but you guys just found a loophole. Complaining about not being able to resell is another matter. Get a real job.
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You totally took what I said and went off topic. So basically, I'm right. You are mad because you can't profit anymore from Steam with the loophole.
So basically what you're saying is: "Oh Steam, please let me resell games that are meant for people in some countries to other people and make a profit and take that money from you. Steam, you so mean to me!!!"
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Kid, you started those flaming offtopic throws, don't even try to deny it. Also read some of my replies above and get out of your nutshell and face reality: russian game traders are by far not the most profiting from Steam. And they take a lot of risks.
I personally never had any huge profits - barely enough to keep buying new games and ingame items. If I'm mad for smth, that is that I can't buy anything for myself atm, cause I can still have enough profit just by using Steam market, which is tottaly legit by Valve. And also for that lazy Valve can't properly write something in their own ToS.
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I spoke about the money profit issue, but you say I went offtopic, but then you talk about russian traders that "are by far not the most profiting from Steam", and that you "never had any huge profits". So where exactly am I OFFTOPIC?
Now, if Valve banned ALL russians from buying and trading, that is one thing, but banning you because you profited from them, is another.
I'm not sure if you just don't get it or you're in total denial.
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Those are pertinent remarks, I guess you can't see it.
How is Steam supposed to know that you aren't going to trade these "personal" purchases? Trust you or something?
They already figured out that you resold games. Now wait some time, let the issue cool off and then send another support ticket.
The OP of this thread had his ban lifted and immediately said he was going to get back to reselling. Do you see what I mean?
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Pertinent? Really? For what? I guess you think too high of yourself and can't see its obvious flaming.
How is Steam supposed to know? Are you really asking this? When you buy,there is a button "purchase for myself", so how can it be not personal?
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The same way it says "purchase for myself" and you resold it. You must have mental issues, and I'm very serious.
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Ok, stop with the insulting. I never insulted you. I've had enough with your communication problems already misunderstanding everything.
What I'm trying to say is that maybe, just maybe Steam doesn't have a way to separate the purchases you make, be it for yourself or for your inventory and they don't want to waste time programming something like this just for you.
Yes, I KNOW you can select if it's for you or not, but maybe server-side they can't separate the time of ban or flag.
Or maybe, they are just pissed off with you for reselling and trying to act all smart.
If you emailed support the same way you respond to me, with smart ass remarks, trying to bend reality in your favor, I would have done the same as them.
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Your "pertinent remarks" were not less smartass and provoked likewise replies, that should have been clear from the start. No reason to go on with it though.
I know they have some ways to separate kinds of purchases, cause once in the past I've had some kind of error and button "buy as a gift" was not active until support fixed that. "Pissed off" sounds more likely, which again proves that they act not based on ToS, but how they see it right. But ofcourse I talked to them politely, that's why most of the restrictions have been removed from my account.
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Oh, and btw they could just easily block undesired cross regional trading in their own client if they think its bad for them. No profit for abusers, no stupid bans and restrictions - and everyone is happy. But, again, too fucking lazy for that.
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The funny part is they keep trying to say they are in the right because Valve allows trading. The problem they all fail to realize is that trading and reselling are two completely different things. Valve and EVERY OTHER STORE SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME has been against unauthorized reselling of products and the tos even mentions several times about unauthorized reselling. Now if they really were trading i am sure Valve would have no problem with it, but they are selling stuff which is and always has been against the Steam tos.
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Yes, exactly. That's why I just realized that there is no point in discussing this anymore with superfly or anyone else.
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Quotes from ToS pls? Cause maybe you fail to realise that "not supported" and "forbidden" are also two completely different things? And I have a recent reply from Steam support, where they clearly say, that cross regional TRADING is FORBIDDEN in some cases (while ToS doesn't give any clear info about that). In that same message they say, that RESELLING is just NOT SUPPORTED, but not forbidden.
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If you're trying to keep on reselling, based on technicalities against a huge enterprise like Valve, you won't win. Why would they lose money to resellers? They have the ability to prevent that and that is what they are doing.
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So basically Valve is right cause it's stronger and not cause I did something wrong? That's the issue. Cause instead of writing it properly in ToS and blocking undesired trading with technical means, they give vague meanings in ToS and allow free trading between the accounts. Then when they see smth they don't like, they start hitting individual traders adapting ToS rules to current situations, instead of fixing global problem. That's just plainly stupid and a good reason to be mad, yes.
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EVERY single business in the world does that. They always have a clause that says something like: "X can modify these terms at any time" or "we reserve our right to make a judgement in Y situation".
So what is your issue exactly? That you can't resell anymore, that they banned you from purchasing for yourself or that you don't want to be the only person that got flagged? Would you feel better if all the other resellers had their accounts flagged?
Your EXACT issue is not clear, and you are just justifying all of this with different things all the time. Do you even know what it is that bothers you exactly?
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My issue is that Valve twists their own ToS as any support manager sees fit. And I don't rly care about trading anymore, but restrictions that affect using of my account seriously bother me, cause I still can't see solid proofs of me violating ToS.
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"You may not sell or charge others for the right to use your Account, or otherwise transfer your Account, nor may you sell, charge others for the right to use, or transfer any Subscriptions other than if and as expressly permitted by this Agreement (including any Subscription Terms or Rules of Use)."
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Seems legit. But still TS here was unbanned, how would you explain this? And as for myself, I didn't really resell outside of Steam, I was trading with other user in Steam and my profits were from market. So steam support called my cross regional trading as "reselling" in my case. And that same ToS says in 3-D:
"Steam may include one or more features or sites that allow Subscribers to trade, sell or purchase certain types of Subscriptions (for example, license rights to virtual items) with, to or from other Subscribers (“Subscription Marketplaces”)."
Meh, this is all so stupid.
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The selling most likely refers to the steam market which is for things like tf2 items not full games. The only people other than Valve themselves who are allowed to sell games are authorized merchants like greenmangaming or amazon, not some random dude through steam itself. If you want to sell games then open your own store and do it the legit way, don't buy a ton of copies of a game during a steam sale and resell them after the fact and think it is ok.
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http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/
The Steam client software and any other software, content, and updates you download or access via Steam, including but not limited to Valve or third-party video games and in-game content, and any virtual items you trade, sell or purchase in a Steam Subscription Marketplace are referred to in this Agreement as “Software"
G. Restrictions on Use of Software
You are entitled to use the Software for your own personal use, but you are not entitled to: (i) sell, grant a security interest in or transfer reproductions of the Software to other parties in any way, nor to rent, lease or license the Software to others without the prior written consent of Valve, except to the extent expressly permitted elsewhere in this Agreement (including any Subscription Terms or Rules of Use)
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it's ok to trade games within reasonable amount. But like TS, most of the loud ones tend to disclose their actual activities, only stating 'hey i buy this 1 silly little game to give to my friend and i got BANNED for that!!!' pretty much a threadbait. Problem is, other people has stated in this same thread 'hey, i bought and traded 6 copies of same game and im unaffected' and then there are 'hey, i also bought 20 copies of a game and got banned'. Some details are left out to help make them look like a victim instead of an exploit-maker got caught by the automated system while some actually stated out the whole situation truthfully.
I cant speak for valve, but im pretty sure they actively hinders down cross-region trading because the amount of cross-region commercial trading is at 'abusive' level, comparing to the actual 'trading with actual friends'
this is the same as if i cried foul that i can only buying 10 copies of the same game within an hour, i should be entitled to buy unlimited copies of the price-glitched evolve with no cooldown whatsoever.
furthermore, you will need to backup your talking with hard proof.
i googled "steam agreement" and this is the 2nd part which is actually affects Square Enix games in Steam. This looks pretty much the same as the original part of the ToS where they actually don';t want you to commercially profit from their games but it's all fair for personal use. I am having a hard time finding actual steam ToS that it's okay for us to trading commercially outside Steam Marketplace (which doesn't support buying/selling game gifts)
http://store.steampowered.com/eula/eula_39190
LIMITED USE LICENSE
The term “Game Software” includes the software included in this video game, the associated media, any software associated with the online mode of the video game (subject to any additional terms of use applicable to such online mode), any printed materials, manuals, any online or electronic documentation, and any and all copies of such software and materials.
LICENSE CONDITIONS AND RESTRICTIONS
(e) sell any portion of this Game Software or any copies without the express prior written consent of Square Enix.
But hey, i guess all the traders who sell their copies of FF gifts have the written consent of Square Enix somewhere in the mailbox, right?
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Good that you get it resolved quickly, I had to wait for two weeks when that happened to me.
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if they banned any game trading outside of your own country entirely and enforced it, they would see a difference in profit very soon.
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Russian resellers make so much money off of this that most of them don't really care. They'll probably just get banned again for good.
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First of all, I'm one of the Russian traders. I live in Russia, I buy games, I trade them (those that aren't region-locked) for keys, then sell the keys on the community market to buy other games.
During the last sale I was going to buy a copy of Octodad (not for sale this time, I wanted to gift it to my friend who became a father recently) when I found out I cannot do it - "An unexpected error has occurred. Your purchase has not been completed. Please contact Steam Support". I decided this is some sort of temporary glitch of Steam (when the sales start, all kind of glitches happen). The problem didn't perish the next day, so I contacted Steam Support about the matter. I wrote in English, knowing that Russian support is about 5 times slower than the international ones. Curiously enough, the answer was in Russian. I'll try to tranlate it to English as close to the original as I can:
Thank you for contacting Steam Support.
We have data that you use this account for willing violation of regional restrictions or avoiding prices based on the region.
Please, do not sell games to users who are in regions where prices are higher than in your region. Also please don't use proxy or VPN to falsify information about your region.
Original of my talk with Support on pastebin
Obviously, I didn't use VPN or proxy as I reside in Russia (my buyers didn't use it too, since I bough region-free games only), so the problem is in cross-regional trading. Seriously, I didn't know it is prohibited by any Steam rule. I checked trading FAQ and all I could find was "You can trade with anyone in your friendlist". I checked license agreement and found only "You agree that you will not use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on game content, to purchase at pricing not applicable to your geography, or for any other purpose.", which also wasn't my case.
Also a little nitpicking, but their requirement - "do not trade with people who live in regions with higher prices" is absurd. I cannot tell for sure where are my buyers from, this would require some sort of IP tracing.
I have told all the above to steam support (this time I wrote in my native language since their answer was in Russian), so now I'm unable to buy anything (both for myself and as gift) and waiting for their answer. But I already suspect that trying to reason Steam support is like trying to reason a policeman - either way you'll be the guilty one.
UPDATE:
I've received an answer from Steam Support today. It says the following (again, my translation):
Steam Support has provided to you all the nessesary information. We will not answer further questions regarding this matter. Just in case, original of my talk with support
So, they didn't answer which steam rule did I break. Curiously enough, I found out that now I can buy again. I will consider this a mistake they didn't have guts to admit and apologise. It looks like there's some automatic system now that places a temporary store ban after buying ~20 gifts per week/day/set period of time. Since I wasn't explained anything, I'll pretend the words about "not trading with people from higher-priced region" was a personal plea from this support manager, but not a new requirement.
I missed half of the sale, but at least everything returned to normal, now I can reopen my trading threads. Again, as with the visit to the police, you're happy when you have your wallet and kidneys intact after leaving.
P.S.: Did I say I'm able to buy again? I've bought AVP 2010 just to test it, so now giving it away. Thanks for everyone who read, commented and cared!
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