I'm not going to name names, but I won a mass giveaway by a dev for a game that rhymes with STASH HORSE and upon trying to activate the key, received an error stating the key was a duplicate product code.

Naturally I posted this information in the giveaway thread and after doing so, noticed by far I was not alone. I figured it must have been a mistake on the devs part and it would be fixed soon enough.

Today I saw I had a reply to my post in the giveaway thread that reads as such:

"My data shows that the key was activated on Sunday 9th of the month.
Since the giveaway ended on Saturday the 8th of the month, the key you were given was not a duplicate."

My code still doesn't work and I can't even reply to the dev because I find I have been blacklisted. I opened the thread in incognito mode so I could view it and sure enough, just about every other user who said they had a duplicate code received the exact same response.

Hey [name not named but you know who you are] perhaps you should consider your data is faulty. Did everyone get the SAME key?

Well thanks for reading. What's a complaint thread without a giveaway huh?

UPDATE:

The dev reached out and it appears I am no longer blacklisted and they replaced the duplicate key I was given with a new unused key.

7 years ago*

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Kinda sounds like the dev knew what they were doing, which would be extremely shitty on there part

7 years ago
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I got not-used key. But many dup keys were in alienwaarena giveaway

7 years ago
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Maybe the dev mistakenly sent the same list to both sites.

7 years ago
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Bump

7 years ago
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7 years ago
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that sux.. just mark it not received after the one week period though.. as many people that are reporting that, there is no way support will just change feedback on you.

7 years ago
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After some investigating (I love investigating) I've found the giveaway in question.
The giveaway description says: "We are talking with Steamgifts to sort out the duplicate issue."

Not sure how they plan to resolve an issue that they are responsible for by getting in touch with Steamgifts. Not only that, but I am extremely confused as of why they would blacklist people for asking about their duplicate keys. If they were to say, "we made a mistake, we'll try to get it resolved quickly" then I'd be less suspicious of their actions, but right now I can't say this looks very professional. From denying the fact that keys are used, when it's very obvious that they are, to straight out claiming they haven't won the giveaway (which, while I have no reliable proof to confirm, I doubt that so many users would lie about this in order to try and get free keys).

All in all, I'm willing to give the giveaway creator the benefit of the doubt. I'll bookmark the giveaway for future reference.

7 years ago
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Of course you do. You're not a world famous agent for nothing...

7 years ago
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Can they even detect when keys were activated? I really, really doubt that to begin with.

7 years ago
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Even so, that is a very half assed excuse. This is very poor proof that a key would be unactivated, even if it were true (which I honestly have a hard time believing).

7 years ago
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Pretty sure they can.

7 years ago
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They can see when a key was activated, but they are not identifiable, all they know was a retail key was activated on this date at this time.

7 years ago
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Devs can look up activation time for each key up to second accurary

7 years ago
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Yes.

7 years ago
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Those "You have not won a key on this Giveaway"... lol

7 years ago
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266 out of 2,000 marked received after 6days.. yeop.. dev deff screwed up and then blamed others instead of taking responsibility.

they lost my benefit of doubt. ;)

edit: oops, this was 266 awaiting feedback instead, had that backwards. still a lot of bad keys.

7 years ago*
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Mash Lores? Crash Doors? Smash Wars?

I got nothing.

7 years ago
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Trash Whores? That doesn't even rhyme, but it feels potentially right anyway.

7 years ago
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7 years ago
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All the keys would be activated at a similar time (when the giveaway ended) . Maybe codes were used more than once here and on the Alienware giveaway hosted at the same time. If duplicates were given in the giveaway, it would be whoever activated the key first that had no problem. My key was already activated- received same response & blacklisting as original poster.

7 years ago
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Mashed Borscht?

7 years ago
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Flash Sporks?

7 years ago
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my alienware key was duped too, but they made a 2nd ga instead of user blaming lol..

7 years ago
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Man, that is really shitty. I hope it all gets sorted out... Or, failing that, word manages to get around and they wind up with a fuckload of bad PR. That would be acceptable, if not ideal.

7 years ago
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I got a good key, but, since the dev's been suspended, I don't think you will get a new key.

"Suspended: 9 months remaining", damn

7 years ago
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No he isn't?

7 years ago
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Then it's not the same giveaway, but he won that one and many people got dupes, and the dev got suspended :p

7 years ago
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Yep, not the giveaway(s) OP was referring to since he did receive his keys from that one (otherwise it wouldn't appear on OP's profile). Still no change on the giveaway or the giveaway creator OP was talking about. ._.

7 years ago
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Still no change on the giveaway or the giveaway creator OP was talking about. ._.

nah, not till those "not received" marks start flying in like the one savitar is also talking about (was a bitch to track down). xD

7 years ago
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Bump

7 years ago
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Update for anyone who cares, The dev reached out and it appears I am no longer blacklisted and they replaced the duplicate key I was given with a new unused key.

7 years ago
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nice they finally sorted it out, any explanation what was the cause of their own keys being unexpectedly used?

7 years ago
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no explanation whatsoever. looking through the giveaway, it seems they have attempted to rectify the situation with all the others who also claimed their keys weren't working.

7 years ago
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