Get error saying I tried to make too many purchases, how do I fix?

[Nasamonkey]

Pretty self explanatory. " It looks like you've been attempting a lot of purchases in the last few hours. Please wait a while before trying again. " Wants me to wait 50 freaking hours to complete. Salwe will be over then, WTF?!?!?!?!

[rawWwRrr]

where does it say 50 hours?

don't make an attempt to purchase for about 2 hours and the cooldown should expire by then. if you keep trying before the end of the cooldown, it'll just extend it further.

[Nasamonkey]

I may have tried waaaayyy to many times to purchase then and it extended it to 50 hours. What the problem was originally was I had items in my cart that I had already bought or were part of other DLC packages and I kept removing and going to the checkout to find what the items were. While this is mostly operator error, I don't know if I will keep using Steam for game purchases if I do not get the items I want during this sale.

[rawWwRrr]

When you're constantly attempting to make a purchase but don't complete it, you are very likely to trigger that cooldown.

Of all the times I've triggered it, it has only lasted less than 2 hours. I've never seen it last 50. Just don't even touch the cart to even start the checkout process for a good 2 hours and it should be reset.

[mimizukari]

if you tried too many times and it got extended then there's nothing you can do but wait. Remember, if the bundle has visuals then it's a complete-your-collection and you can own any part of it still and be fine, but if it's all text then you have to not own any part of it.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

That extended cooldown is for over a dozen attempts in a short amount of time.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

That extended cooldown is for over a dozen attempts in a short amount of time.

:qr:

Does it actually say 50?

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Nasamonkey:

I may have tried waaaayyy to many times to purchase then and it extended it to 50 hours. What the problem was originally was I had items in my cart that I had already bought or were part of other DLC packages and I kept removing and going to the checkout to find what the items were. While this is mostly operator error, I don't know if I will keep using Steam for game purchases if I do not get the items I want during this sale.

I'm afraid there's good reasons for such cooldowns - to prevent fraud. There's tons of systems that we will never fully know about for obvious reasons. So you doing this trick, although it gave you the info you wanted, was a daft thing to do as it would think you're up to no good and tries to inhibit that.

It very much is your fault though, so don't be mad about it.

For the future, obviously avoid doing this - if you ever get unsure - delete the basket and start again.

But beware of similar cooldowns or lockouts too, some of which are inherent in the banking system (and not necessarily Valve's).

If you use a debit card, and particularly if you try buying when it's busy during sale periods, it's all too easy to get payment failures. This is purely because there's so many people hitting the store, that the short window for the handshake between Steam and your bank fails.

The upshot of this is that you won't have bought the games, but the money appears to have disappeared.

What actually happens is there are certain redundancies built into the banking system and it can sometimes correct (usually in the wee hours). But most often, your money is "set aside" and hasn't disappeared. It gets held there because it's waiting to see if that correction comes through. This will stay there for around 3 working days.

So how do you get round this?

First off, NEVER buy during busy sale periods at optimum hours - like when the sale goes live and during the hours of the evening. Leave until the VERY last thing before you go to bed. I typically use between 2am and 4am, because I'm a night owl. As long as you avoid the most of the crowd, you'll be good.

But in case it does happen, all may not be lost. If your bank is decent and has well trained staff you can simply ring them and tell them this payment failed. They can see that data and return the funds for you to instantly use again. I say instant, as it usua;ly takes up to about 20 minutes.

Forewanred is forearmed and all that!