What are you talking about.
Also, can I have a game? Pls?
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Yeah.. give me a HB Gift link freekill, Lets Bomb HB with support requests :P i mean hell they received money for the games what gives them the right to denie you support?? schouldnt it be the same then for game devlopers on whom you traded a game in steam???
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No matter what they say, I wouldn't trust the cat with a tie.
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I think by Third party distributor, they mean a middle man who gains some sort of commission. Can you clarify with them that this is only a giveaway site and not distro site? and see what they say?
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Interested to hear the answer to this. I wanna give away a game I got and don't really want from that new bundle and if that's against the rules I'll reconsider.
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yeah you should definitely reconsider it, imo. Its a dangerous move and not many have done it before, without facing horrible, horrible consequences.
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That's not what I read there, what I read is that if you gift a game to someone, the person receiving the gift can't use humble support The purchaser of the bundle seems to keep those rights,
in other words if you have trouble activating a link from humble, you won here, contact the giveaway creator, not the humble store
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I am the person who bought and who gifted the game and this the response to my ticket, not to the recipient's ticket. And they refuse to support me because the game was part of SG giveaway.
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You bought the game.. it was not even in a bundle.. right ?
If so they can't do that.. you can gift a purchased game anyway you please.
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Not, it was not a bundle. It was a HB Store game that was marked as a gift copy during the purchase.
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I already explained it numerous times. My ticket was open for almost a month and I included full set of screenshots/timestamps and perhaps over 5 pages of detailed explanation of the case. Their initial statement regarding SG was:
"We do not support the exchanging of Steam keys or the trading of games, which includes using Steamgifts. Additionally, we in no way support the reselling of games purchased through Humble Bundle as this is a violation of our Terms of Service."
After I challenged this statement since no exchange of keys was done, this was their second statement regarding SG:
"While I understand your confusion in this matter, I assure you that the use of steamgifts in this manner is a violation of our terms of service and would highly advise against using it again to distribute our products in the future."
When I aksed for further clarification what they consider as "in this manner", I got the attached statement.
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how about we send their ToS for a review to consumer protection agencies instead? Not sure about the rest of the world but in EU no ToS is above the law, and from my understanding we should be free to do whatever we feel like with stuff we paid for.
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What happened to the gift? i don't understand what happened, if you senty the link for the gift to the winner and he didn't activated or something else?
Anyway, regarding the support, if you bought the gift and didn't activated it and used it for other things they can't be blamed for it... someone give me a light here, what i got from their statements is that they can't support you because you used your keys for other things (SG doesn't give you money but raises your CV xD nad has nothing to do with steam or HB) so they can't do nothing... Now the violation part to ToS i didn't get...
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I sent the gift URL to the winner. It was unclaimed. The winner succesfully claimed the URL and he received the download(key) page. The steam key on the download page had already been used 3 days prior to the gifting.
As far as I understand they refuse to provide support as third-party website(SG) is used. Even if SG is used just for choosing the winner and the whole gifting process goes over HB own gifting system.
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What do they mean exactly ?
Is it the act of doing a giveaway here with a Humble game that is against their ToS, or sending the game via the SG key system ?
In other words, is it still against their ToS if you send it yourself to the winner's mail ?
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From what I can see any use of HB games/keys through SG will be considered against their ToS no matter whether you put the key directly in the website, send it via e-mail or even using their own gifting system. In my personal case I sent the HB gift URL via e-mail and the whole gifting process went over their own gifting system. Still, they consider it against their ToS.
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so there is no sense in the gift option in the humble bundle system, we should be free to gift games to whoever we want
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Sounds about right ... how could they offer support if you give your stuff to someone or distribute the key over SG.
(As if i ever read the TOS but - i remember, hb-games are for personal use only > thus were the support ends.)
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"HB games are for personal use, but we'll give you an option to gift them, just in case you want to send a present to yourself"
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sounds about right lol - > even if i were to give my key to a friend i wouldn't be able to know 100% without checking/asking detailed whether its his fault if there was a problem - which problem?
but mentioning Steam Gifts (some service that handles their key's/links) to HumbleBundle support - beyond TOS & help
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This is the takeaway. Never, ever, ever mention SG when contacting Humble support. Just say you were trying to give the game as a gift (which is entirely true).
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sometimims we deserve gift from ourself so seems legit to sent to ur own email by ur own account a gift, and then i will check the mail and "WOW" what an unexpected gift! i should really thank my "past" me for is great present!
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Few months ago when they introduced gift links with "if redeemed" check they said it's ok to gift your game to someone. I won't be able though to find topic where user sent this info. It was too long xD
But when I had problem with links from HB Warner Bros and explained situation they gave me just other links to give it to 2 people in Russia.
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This is ridiculous really. They don't mind if you buy something for a friend and give it to your friend as a gift, but they don't allow giving away the stuff you bought from them? How does that even make sense?
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thats the thing, we have a situation where they tell us what to do with stuff we pay for, its beyond ridiculous to begin with.
If i want to buy 12499 games from their store and then give them away to turtleloving people or trade my games for turtles, i should be able to do so without having to justify it to the store i bought it from.
And its only happening in digital games sales, and its very, very anti consumer so i believe its just a matter of time until it gets adjusted, at least in EU.
its like buying a car where they tell you who and when can drive it, or buying a donut that only you are allowed to eat. As i already said, its quite ridiculous really.
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Well I wouldn't really expect any gift receiver to be entitled to customer support even if given from one friend to another. The receiver didn't pay so if there was a problem, I'd have thought the person who did would have to take it up with them. Not sure the receiver would have a contract with Humble.
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Exactly. So, wouldn't that make HB's whole argument moot?
Edit: Upon reviewing their ToS I have yet to find a clause that mentions gifting/the gifting process at all.
Edit 2: This is from thier Top 20 FAQ page here
"Can I sell or give away my keys?" ---> Technically, gifting something is an act of giving it to someone else, thus giving it away.
"Humble Bundle products are for personal use only. We not allow sharing or redistributing keys from your personal bundles. However, you always have the option to gift your friends bundles on our website by clicking the gift option at the end of your purchase. Humble Bundle TOS: https://www.humblebundle.com/terms"
A bit contradictory perhaps? They say they do not allow "sharing" keys from one's own personal bundle ( you are allowed to gift entire bundles though according to this), yet they give you the option to gift a key once you purchase a bundle? What?
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That's what bugs me the most. They created a gifting system yet they do not acknowledge gifting in any way in their ToS.
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They don't allow you to share the key itself, only the gift link to the key. At least that's my interpretation.
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I see. Perhaps that could be the case. The thing is it's physically impossible to share the key in the literal sense of the word. However, in providing the gift link to you they are allowing you to share (give) that link to someone else which in turn is the same as sharing (giving) the actual key to that person. Right? I think they could have been more clear in their wording TBH. Just my personal opinion.
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I think you are correct. With the giftlink the key is associated with the email of the receiver.
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I did not share the key, just the gift URL. As I said everything went through their gifting system. Yet, they refuse to support me. So my interpretation is that they will refuse any support and they consider any SG involvement as against their ToS.
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As a purchaser I seek the support and I believe I have the right to do so since I payed money for this game. My winner also contacted the support on their behalf, but his ticket was swiftly rejected.
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Not really sure why is it allowed for a store to tell you what to do with a product you paid for though?
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The simple solution is just to tell them you've had a problem with the key/link they don't need to know anything about the recipient.
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Misleading topic name, gfting HB games is not forbidden, they only said that users with gifted games won't get HBs support.
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Pretty much. You seem to be the only other person in this thread that actually read and understood the posted image.
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I don't see anything misleding in the title. It is pretty clear as per their statement - using SG to distribute HB keys/gifts is against Humble Bundle's Terms of Service. As a result of this violation they also do not provide support for any issues related to such use.
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Can I sell or give away my keys?
Humble Bundle products are for personal use only. We not allow sharing or redistributing keys from your personal bundles. However, you always have the option to gift your friends bundles on our website by clicking the gift option at the end of your purchase.
https://support.humblebundle.com/hc/en-us/articles/204527298-Top-20-FAQ
Well, I don't distribute their keys on SG, I send keys via their site, I only choose whom I send it to on SG. And maybe I consider all SG to be my friends, so what they gonna do?
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That's exactly what I did - just chose the winner through SG and gifted entirely through their gifting system. Yet, since SG was involved obviously their consider this against their ToS and they made the attached statement.
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We can blame trade section for that. I guess. Not Giveaways portion.
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If they were honestly concerned, Steamgifts would have received a legal Cease & Desist within the last 2 years. HB have more than enough cash to afford a lawyer that can draw one up.
For that matter, Tremor Games would have been nuked ages ago.
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My guess is that they're more worried about the 'providing support' part of all that. It's a pain enough to track down issues for games you actually paid for. Imagine them trying to add on support for people who didn't get a game through HB. It'd be like posting a sign saying anyone with issues with any game please come to us. And then their support overall would be worse. :(
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This is exactly it.
Think about it like this. It's not against the law, for example, to open the case on your home video game console and insert another hard drive. But (and I don't know if this is still true now as I don't have a current gen console, it was a few years ago), by doing so you void your warranty and the company is no longer required to give you service. Because they can't know what you've been doin' in there and can't be held responsible for that.
Once you've gifted a key, that's beyond HB's ability to track who has what, and they simply cannot offer support to anyone that says "such and such gifted me a key".
There's really nothing more to it than that. If you gift (or are gifted) a key, you can't get support from HB. That's it here. Nothing else to get excited over.
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I will slightly disagree with you here.
In your example the retailer does not have a control over what you do with your console.
In HB case, however, it is different. They offer a gifting system and the gifting went entirely through their system. As such, they have a control over it and they should support it.
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It´s more like saying that they won´t help you because your friend used your console.
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Well, this seems very logical. Probably it's the correct answer
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"Humble" Bundle does not allow us to be "humble" and give away games...
This world is so lost. ahahahah Finally! =D
Nothing makes sense in my head anymore. ahahaha
Ps: I need mental assistance after this. :)
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i see on steam you from bulgaria. Mention to humble support that you from the european union and you will turn to cosumer support agencies in EU because no ToS over european law. they will be pissed and solve your issue. i love EU.
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In general, I can do that. But don't care that much for the money themselves - I already bought a new gift copy for the winner. I am simply suprised by the (lack of) quality that is provided by their support. I myself work in this sector and I wonder what my customers would say if I they receive such service.
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So what they're actually saying is, we're not allowed to use a website to pick a random receiver of the gift? Yeah, that guy has clearly no idea about SG.
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That's what I already explained. Here is quote from my side:
"Also SteamGifts is not a third-party distributor – Steam gifts neither buys nor sells, nor trades anything on its own. SteamGifts is just a totally free matchmaking site between people who would like to gift games and people who would like to receive games.
SteamGifts was used by me to select the final recipient for my gift. Your ToS does not restrict me to whoever I am willing to gift the game I paid for – I can gift it to a family member, friend or a totally random person chosen through any method I would like to use.
Everything else went through the Humble Bundle own gifting system – I myself bought a gift copy from HB Store and send the unclaimed gift URL to the user who added his e-mail address to the page and successfully claimed the page! All through your own system!"
Yet, the same response all over the ticket - "this is against our ToS"...
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So it is against their ToS to use the gifting service that they are providing? Do the support guys even pass through the ToS?
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So, what happened in first place that you had to contact support? If you used their gift link through E-mail I don't see how they found that you gave away the game.
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He brought up Steamgifts even though it had no reason to be brought up. It should have just been "I gifted it to a person and this error occurred". Steamgifts is just a platform for hosting the giveaway with a couple of distribution options (like placing the keys). Basically, their support was wrong and doesn't have a say in how or to whom you gift your links to. OP is just wording it so badly that he's losing to them.
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I personally work in the IT support field and I gave them all the information in order to get a good fast response, even including a screenshot of the e-mail that I sent to the winner. This is where they brought the Steam Gifts subject.
Yet, as I noted, I do not see anything wrong with using SG since I am using their own gifting system.
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but, what was the issue in first place? The winner got the key revoked or something?
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Somehow the game key had already been used by the time the winner redeemed the page. Obviously, the page was unclaimed so it is still unclear to me how that key had been accessed and had been used. In the end, I simply bought another copy of the game for the winner.
I did not received details what is the root cause of the issue, besided that they have taken steps towards it.
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Oh, I see, it happened to me a few times (trading), really weird :/
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- Someone typed in random numbers and letters and got this exact copy of the game.
- He used it on an alt account or gave it to a friend and lied to you.
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1 - Maybe, but unlikely as they use 10+ character strings with numbers and letters. I don't see how somebody could randomly guess and I suppose that they have some kind of brute force protection.
2 - Impossible. Somehow the key had been accessed and used 2 days prior to the giveaway end - even before the winner was chosen. That already slipped through another HB support member's mouth.
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Both things happened to me so they're not impossible. Just exchanging my experience.
2 days before the ga ended? Well... That's weird.
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Yep - I got a screenshot of one of their support members saying that the key was accessed and most likely used 2-3 days(as she has not specified timezone) before my giveaway even ended...
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People will still give away bundle games and Humble Bundle can't really do anything against it except by removing the gift feature or by not using Steam Keys as distribution way. Besides that, it would be quite difficult for them to proove that someone won a game on a giveaway website. So yeah, we shouldn't be scared.
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"The gift recipient in question has been taken care of."
Something about that phrase bothers me... is that just me?
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You can see the key, so send the key with SG, not the link.
Problem solved.
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A key is a key is a key. Humble doesn't give a flying f*ck where the key that you'll get ends up. Neither does it matter if you hand out the gift link directly. They have to say that promoting their gift links through a third party website (being SG in this case) is against their ToS (like it would be when selling it on Kinguin or G2A), but eventually they don't have any legal ground to act on as you're not selling the key/link/whatever.
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I think i read somewhere that steam keys are not for trading/giving away anyway.
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https://support.humblebundle.com/hc/en-us/articles/202712460-Gifting-Steam-Keys-From-Your-Bundle
It's really just about this site being a 'third party'. Gifting any game purchased from HB is perfectly fine.
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TLDR: Check the attached image at the bottom.
Hello All,
As I recently got a case with HB support regarding a problem with a purchase I got a formal statement from their support and Steam Gifts.
Overall, for me it was obvious that gifting HB keys directly through SG would be classified as a breach of HB Terms of Service. However, since HB introduced their own gifting system I though that it is fine to just select your winner through SG and complete the gifting process via HB gift. It seems that I was wrong.
Edit: The long story:
I bought the game as a gift copy(gift checkbox) from the Humble Store(not a bundle) and sent it over my e-mail prior to creating the giveaway. Then I made the giveaway and once it ended, I sent the gift URL I received from the HB to my winner. I double-checked that the gift URL page is not used(I even got a screenshot from Yahoo!'s automated preview that also proves that the page was unclaimed - "Lucky you! A friend sent you a gift through Humble Bundle"). My winner used the gift URL link, entered his e-mail address in it and successfully claimed the page. He then received an e-mail containing the download page - the actual page where the Steam Key is stored. So far everything went smooth.
Upon following that download page link the winner got an "Unknown Key error". He informed me about it opened a support case. According to SG support he had deleted the download page(?!) so they restored his access to it. Once done, he found out that the actual Steam Key had already been used. When he contacted support again, it slipped through their mouths that even tho the gift URL page was unclaimed, the download page had been access 3 days earlier and most likely the Steam key had been used at that time.
So I took over from here and I opened my own support case with HB. I myself work in the IT support so I give them all details possible - literally - full timeframe and description of all events, screenshots of error, the e-mail I sent where they can clearly see that the page was still unclaimed, etc. Everything. I even left them my phone number in case they want to contact me to resolve the issue faster.
As they could see SG being mentioned in the e-mail they stated they would not support me. I challenged them and we exchanged several messages over the last month. All I got on topic was "I am aware of the original subject of your ticket. We previously located the issue in question and have taken steps towards it, however I cannot elaborate on this due to privacy reasons". All the rest was claims that they do not support this as a third-party "distributor" - SG - was used up until their final statement that you can see attached.
BTW I got full screenshots of my entire ticket(over 10 full screens :D).
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