Need help. I bought a steam activation key for a friend and it's not working.

[Cas]

Anyone know a way to contact Steam technical support?

[ShelLuser]

What the heck is that supposed to be anyway? And where did you get it?

My assumption on first impression is that you bought 'something' outside Steam which now doesn't work ergo: you probably got scammed.

Steam doesn't need activation, so an activation key makes little sense. Or is this about a specific game? If so: which one?

[Zekiran]

What game, and where, as ShelLuser says, did you buy it?


You want to gift something to a friend on Steam, buy it on steam as a gift. Period. Any other way opens you - and your friend - up to scamming.

[Cherrycat]

You can buy steam keys on greenmangaming, amazon and lots of other stores. They are perfectly legit.

If it's not working make sure they are typing the code correctly, they need to mention what the error they are getting is.

[Cas]

Originally posted by Cherrycat:

You can buy steam keys on greenmangaming, amazon and lots of other stores. They are perfectly legit.

If it's not working make sure they are typing the code correctly, they need to mention what the error they are getting is.

Greenmangaming is exactly where I bought it. So I bought Monster Hunter World for a friend. Gave him the Steam activation key. He goes to use it, and everything seems fine. Game even shows up in his library right? Next time he goes to open Steam though, it shows that he doesn't actually own Monster Hunter World, but upon re-entering the Steam Key, Steam tells him he owns Monster Hunter World already.

But here's where it gets weird. If he goes to his activation history, it shows no record of him owning Monster Hunter World, and going the to store page for the game tells him he doesn't own it either. Yet, still, when trying to put in the activation key it tells him he already owns Monster Hunter World, despite it not showing up in his library or activation history.

It's the weirdest thing.

[logicbuster]

Originally posted by Cas:

Originally posted by Cherrycat:

You can buy steam keys on greenmangaming, amazon and lots of other stores. They are perfectly legit.

If it's not working make sure they are typing the code correctly, they need to mention what the error they are getting is.

Greenmangaming is exactly where I bought it. So I bought Monster Hunter World for a friend. Gave him the Steam activation key. He goes to use it, and everything seems fine. Game even shows up in his library right? Next time he goes to open Steam though, it shows that he doesn't actually own Monster Hunter World, but upon re-entering the Steam Key, Steam tells him he owns Monster Hunter World already.

But here's where it gets weird. If he goes to his activation history, it shows no record of him owning Monster Hunter World, and going the to store page for the game tells him he doesn't own it either. Yet, still, when trying to put in the activation key it tells him he already owns Monster Hunter World, despite it not showing up in his library or activation history.

It's the weirdest thing.

looks like your card is not valid

[Hodman]

Contact GMG support.

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Cas:

But here's where it gets weird. If he goes to his activation history, it shows no record of him owning Monster Hunter World, and going the to store page for the game tells him he doesn't own it either. Yet, still, when trying to put in the activation key it tells him he already owns Monster Hunter World, despite it not showing up in his library or activation history.

Credit for this goes to @ChillChore who mentioned it in another thread. Dunno if it'll help your friend but...

Try this URL:

https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithGame

I quote: "Search for the game at the bottom and select "this game is not in my account" and continue from there.".

Maybe this can help?

[Kargor]

People and their assumptions.

Personally, I don't like Greenmangaming. I have them blacklisted. However, they are a legitimate company. Also, games don't just disappear, even for keys from shady sellers.

That guy probably just has library set to show "installed" games. Since the new game isn't installed... there you go. Possibly combined with multiple accounts; the descriptions of what shows under what conditions is rather confusing.

[Cas]

Originally posted by Hodman:

Contact GMG support.

Unfortunately they just told me to contact Steam.

[Cas]

Originally posted by Kargor:

People and their assumptions.

Personally, I don't like Greenmangaming. I have them blacklisted. However, they are a legitimate company. Also, games don't just disappear, even for keys from shady sellers.

That guy probably just has library set to show "installed" games. Since the new game isn't installed... there you go. Possibly combined with multiple accounts; the descriptions of what shows under what conditions is rather confusing.

Nope. His game library shows uninstalled games as well.

[Hodman]

Did your friend do what ShelLuser suggested in post #7?

Give it a try and report back.

[Cas]

Originally posted by Hodman:

Did your friend do what ShelLuser suggested in post #7?

Give it a try and report back.

Trying to get him on the phone now to give it a try. It's about the time he gets off work. I'll let you know how it goes as soon as it's done. Not going to lie though, I was surprised Steam doesn't have an actual legitimate tech support to handle things like this.

[Cas]

UPDATE: Alright, so had him follow the advice. He searched up the game in the helpdesk page, selected "game not showing up in library". Get this: Apparently steam is saying that he decided to literally remove the game from his account (somehow). He has no idea how this happened, I have no idea how this happened. It just seemed to be something that happened overnight. Some weird glitch. We were able to select an option to restore it to his account, and Steam is saying it's there now. So think we're all good.

[Hodman]

Glad everything is OK now.

[Satoru]

I’d be a bit wary as deleting a game is not something you can do by “accident” very easily

I’d recommend a password change , deauthorize all other steam guard devices and check if they have a steam api key defined