Do Steam Gift Cards activate right after purchasing?

[Mary ツ]

Today I bought 4 steam gift cards from the grocery store. I entered one of the codes in at steampowered.com/wallet, but it said it was invalid. So I checked my receipt for the codes, and it said

"Card will be active within 24 hours- Do not redeem or attempt balance inquiry any time prior to, or card may become void."

This is weird, because I looked online and everyone said that steam cards activate right after, or at least 30 minutes after purchase (I did not wait 30 minutes when I entered in the code). So I was assuming that maybe it's just something that the individual grocery store prints up on any gift card receipt.

I would really not like to wait 24 hours, because I'm preordering a game that comes out tomorrow and I would like to get the preorder benefits. It's also the fact that I have never heard of a steam code taking 24 hours to activate.

[StickyPawz]

So it's the grocery store saying you are to wait.

Maybe their method of activation is slow.

[Organic Valley 2% Half Gallon]

Ive had the same thing but my cards never got voided. My friend however had a problem and tried like 20 times it didn't work however his 2nd card did... Maybe he just put the code in wrong but 2 weeks later he tried again and it worked

[Staplee]

I tried to redeem it before looking at the receipt scared me when it said it may be void

[Hova]

I’m having the same problem. I can’t get it to work. It’s a $100 one too and I’m pissed.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Fixx:

I’m having the same problem. I can’t get it to work. It’s a $100 one too and I’m pissed.

Wait a while since the servers are having issues.