So what are you pointing your finger at steam for? It's the seller's fault and the seller's responsability to provide a working key.
As far as "why would the thief who activated the game before you bought it be punished in any way?" who's to say that the person who activated the key first is a thief? They could very well have legitimately purchased the game. Steam cannot punish a person for using a perfectly legitimate game key as there are no grounds to do so.
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Then can't you put 2 and 2 together ffs? THINK for a second.
99% sure this happened: Guy who worked at the store stole key, re-sealed box.
What you've gotta do is obvious - don't for a second describe your problem to anyone working at the store other than the manager. Ask for him, and explain what happened in detail. Be polite, don't be antagonistic, and once you've given the story a second to settle in the guys' mind suggest the key was somehow brute forced or stolen from the dev (it happens), or maybe that an employee might have taken the key home with them. Heck, maybe a customer with a sealing machine at home stole the key then returned the sealed game to the store and claimed the key was already used.
If you can prove your Steam account is yours (through previous payment history), you can offer to show him on a local PC that it's your account, you don't have the game on there, and the keys' been taken already.
Whatever you do, stay polite and positive, but do not leave the store until he either gives you a full refund, or a free copy of the game.
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"Heck, maybe a customer with a sealing machine at home stole the key then returned the sealed game to the store and claimed the key was already used."
How would they know if it was sealed...?
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Ah, right. That is indeed a logic bomb. Oops.
Remove the "..claimed the key was already used" bit.
I guess I'm either too stoned, or not stoned enough. :D :P
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..Hence what I said:
"..suggest the key was somehow brute forced or stolen from the dev (it happens).."
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Ich danke
Hey wenn man nur mal nen controller braucht und keine Lust hat 3 Tage auf ne Lieferung zu warten, bei Media Markt aber den gleichen Preis bekommt geht man auch mal gerne da einkaufen und grabt sich ein Spiel vom Grabbeltisch...
Aber ich muss sagen so schlecht waren meine Erfahrungen mit Media Markt nicht.
Ich hatte mal ne Rokkat Maus und ein Rokkat headset, das Headset geht kapput und ich kriege kostenlos ein anderes meiner Wahl mit dem gleichen Preis.
Meine Maus geht kapput ich kriege kostenlos noch eine
Sie geht wieder kapput ich kriege kostenlos eine andere meiner Wahl mit dem gleichen Preis.
Also in der Hinsicht sind die ganz nett finde ich.
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You throw em away in +5years anyway [i didn't hold on to my collection of Amiga boxes,neither] and most Keyshops provide Paypal payment,for that you won't need a CC
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Go to the store you bought the game from and explain the problem - they will give you another key; And don't worry, you are not the first one to have this problem :) Plus it might be a duplicated key - you don't know for sure that the other person is a thief.
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It just doesn't make sense to me why they don't just de-authorize the key from the thief and give it to me, while punishing the thief and writing a letter to the store/company I bought it at.
It doesn't seem like a vendors way to let the customer have all the trouble.
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It's not Steam fault in this case. You should contact the retailer, and he should give you a new one
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Ganz einfach weil es neben dir noch 1000ende andere Kunden gibt die nicht verstehen wollen das Steam nicht an allem schuld ist und du genau so der Grund dafür bist das andere auch ne Woche nun warten müssen weil du ne Anfrage stellst wo du dir selbst ausdenken kannst das Steam nicht daran schuld ist. Schalt mal dein Hirn ein.
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aber der englische steam support hilft in solchen Fällen, wenn man eben beweist dass man den key rechtmäßig erworben hat, eben wie der OP gemacht hat Foto von Kassenbon und Spielhülle + Stelle des keys + einem Zettel mit der Supportnummer/steamname.
Der jetzige Nutzer verwendet das Game logischerweise unrechtmäßig egal wie lange schon, steam nimmt normalerweise das Game dann weg und gibt es dem rechtmäßigen Besitzer.
Warum der steam Support hier nicht genauso reagiert ist fraglich, evtl. hatte der Support-Mitarbeiter einfach keine Lust.Digitale Keys kann ja mal passieren wenn Ihn 2 erwischen, aber einen gamekey den man lokal erwirbt, ist doch eigtl. einmalig und muss daher von der Packung geklaut worden sein.
Und in solchen Fällen ist es eher besser Hilfe durch Steam zu bekommen, weil welcher lokale Händler nimmt geöffnete games zurück oder tauscht Sie geschweige denn um, das ist für den OP vermutlich schwieriger zu erreichen als wenn steam Ihm einfach helfen würde.
Probiers einfach nomma, evtl. erwischt du nen hilfsbereiteren Mitarbeiter.
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As much as Steam customer service blows this isn't really their jurisdiction
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It's not the retailer's fault (assuming the package was sealed and no way to see the key).
Steam has no say in this, considering it is a retail copy.
The devs are the ones that fsked up with the keys.
It happens. I don't remember what game it was, but several users complained about it not having the key inside the case. The page that was supposed to hold the key contained only the empty placeholder.
I feel for you.
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This happened to me on Origin, I got new key from EA support without questions.
Take that, Origin haters. :D
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I also heard a story once about this game called SimCity, that didn't work properly on release, had all kinds of launch issues due to too little infrastructure behind it, and was "fixed" by EA chopping all the most key online features out of a game they claimed was "online only", when it wasn't, at all.
The story continues when people who paid money for the game asked for a refund, got denied one, then all were promised one in a press conference, which EA didn't end up honouring for all. Annoyed / angry, people said they'd do a chargeback to get the refund they not only had every moral and legal right to, but were explicitly promised by EA, whereupon EA support threatened to outright ban peoples' accounts if they did a chargeback, meaning people could lose all their Origin games if they did something that was fair, legal, and the normal course of action; "buy something, doesn't work as advertised at all, do a chargeback when a refund is refused".
That was a lovely story about your free key. I think, though, that
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They gave me my free game and a refund on Sim City. I quite like that.
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Some one here has trouble reading I see. All the hate on EA is right and just.
But if you actually read my comment properly, you would notice I said "Origin haters", not "EA haters"
Origin Actually has nothing to do with Sim City always online DRM since it were EA servers at fault, not Origin client.
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So you're saying Origin has nothing to do with EA? What's so f*cking hard to understand? EA drove the choices behind Simcity's issues, and they made that POS software Origin. If I hate them, I am going to not like or use their software. My main point was that with an Origin account, you're tied to EA and their screwed up ways of dealing with problems - who's to say there won't be another Simcity-like fiasco later on, and you yourself get stuck with "either lose the cash you spent on this game, or risk losing your entire damn Origin account with all games on it"?
Besides, there's enough other reasons to hate Origin specifically, as well. How about the wonderfully invasive scouring of your HD that it does, checking stuff like your Skype chat logs?
I repeat - screw EA, and let's also say screw Origin :D
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It's not steams place to replace keys. Sometimes duplicate keys are printed by accident. Go to the shop or the publisher and tell them what happened.
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well, is it steam's problem that you buy keys from cheap resellers? why should they give you a key for an unauthorized reseller? (and if it was autorized then it is no problem)
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I've seen this kind of crap happen before with CS anthology, people buy the game, in the coupon there is usually a 7-15 day period to bring the game back incase it doesn't work. Some smartasses used to buy steam games, activate the keys and deliver them back to the stores by showing the coupon. Perhaps the game you bought went through this?
You could always try and ask them to see if they can remove the game from the other account, you can show the key and the receipt that you bought the game and send it to them with some hope to get it on your accoutn instead. Or you can go to the retailer and explain the situation to them.
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My Prey retail key was duped, Steam just activated the game straight onto my account after I sent them a picture of my receipt and retail box with key. What game was it? (as in, how long ago could this key have first been used)
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Sometimes retailers dish out a key to 2 people... if this happens - contact the retailer as steam cannot do anything about it.
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dann kannst du eine änderung der emailadresse von dem account der das spiel hat beantragen. ich habe den fall gehabt dass die emailadresse ungültig geworden ist und ich die daher nicht ändern konnte, cd key in der packung + id des support tickets als screen und die email wurde vom support problemlos geändert. so hast du gleich einen neuen account mit mehr spielen, da hat der dieb pech gehabt :)
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I bought a game from a retailer, the code was duplicated.
So I contact steam support, I send them an image of the key with the receipt and the ticket written on the receipt, so the answer was:
"leider ist dieser CD Key bereits seit geraumer Zeit auf einem anderen Account registriert. Bitte versuchen Sie das Spiel umzutauschen, ein authorisierter Verkäufer unserer Spiele sollte damit kein Problem haben."
Translated:
"Sadly this key has been active on another account for quite some time now. Please try exchanging the game. An authorized reseller should have no problem in doing that"
So basically, they are telling me "Lol, why would the thief who activated the game before you bought it be punished in any way? Just go to your reseller and claim the seal-broken game that you bought off of them has been already activated and ask for a free new one, I am sure they will do it without problems!!!"
So, I know Steam support isn't exactly heroic, but this is just wrong, plain wrong.
EDIT:
You all keep telling me it's the retailers or my (?) fault.
Lets ignore the fact who's fault it is, but why does steam take more than a week to tell me to go fuck myself and ask somewhere else.
I contacted the developer and in under 8 hours I got help from a very friendly guy and my issue is now solved.
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