Gift restricted without explanation?

[MVPete]

Hello everyone.

2 days ago, I wanted to offer a Steam game to my father with my Steam wallet. I already gifted him a game early January 2022 so I didn't think there was a problem.
After clicking the 'Accept' button, I get this error message 'An unexpected error has occurred. Your purchase has not been completed...'.
I decided to contact the support to get some help and I was stunned by the answer I received.
The support basically told me that my account was 'gift restricted' and they can't do anything about it. They also told me I can buy the game to gift via a credit card and since they have answered my question, they told me any other message related to that topic will be instantly locked and deleted.
So they locked my message and that's it.
I already tried contacting them once again to have further information regarding that 'gift restriction' but as they told me, they instantly locked and deleted my messages, leaving me alone with my problem.

More information regarding my account:
- I do not own the game I'm trying to gift. There's nothing related to smurfing on my (or his) account.
- I have an old computer and I mainly play Counter-Strike Global Offensive. With the rewards and drops in CSGO, I was lucky enough to have some cash on my Steam Wallet (to gift my father a game since I barely buy games - if none - for myself).
- I have no vac ban or trade ban (from what I know) and I can still sell on the Steam market.
- I have bought 2 party games last year with no problem, as well as the gift early January 2022.
- I'm trying to gift a game in the same country (Belgium), nothing related to price difference.

If someone has been in the same situation as me or have any idea what's happening, feel free to help me.

Thanks in advance.
Have a good day/night.

TLDR: I learnt by the Steam support 2 days ago my account was 'gift restricted' and I don't have any reason why, leaving me stuck with useless Steam Wallet money.

[Ⱥrtƒlø]

Maybe it can be caused by gifting too many games? Never had similar problem

Originally posted by MVPete:

With the rewards and drops in CSGO, I was lucky enough to have some cash on my Steam Wallet (to gift my father a game since I barely buy games - if none - for myself)

If you couldn't find solution, best thing you can do with steam wallet cash is to buy some items from steam market and trade them into his account (don't forget it will be untradeable for 7 days. He will lose -10% of the price while selling)

[my new friend]

Only support can look into this.

[B-o-B]

They gave you an option. They told you what to do.

[Ettanin]

If you try to use Steam wallet funds to gift games, please know that Valve can revoke this ability for the suspicion of commercial usage. (Trying to make a profit out of it by (re)selling games purchased with Steam Wallet funds while the recipient pays you real money)

Appealing against this decision is not possible.

[MVPete]

First of all, thanks for the answers.

Originally posted by Ⱥrtƒlø:

Maybe it can be caused by gifting too many games? Never had similar problem

Originally posted by MVPete:

With the rewards and drops in CSGO, I was lucky enough to have some cash on my Steam Wallet (to gift my father a game since I barely buy games - if none - for myself)

If you couldn't find solution, best thing you can do with steam wallet cash is to buy some items from steam market and trade them into his account (don't forget it will be untradeable for 7 days. He will lose -10% of the price while selling)

Well, if gifting 4 games (which were most of them less than 10$) in like 2 years is 'too many', let me tell you I find that weird.
That's the solution I thought about but it pains me to give Steam 10% while I should be in my right to gift.

Originally posted by my new friend:

Only support can look into this.

Well they don't care about my problem since I got 3 messages locked and deleted kindly and clearly asking what's going on with my account.

Originally posted by B-o-B:

They gave you an option. They told you what to do.

Wow, what a nice solution it is. I'm left with Steam Wallet cash and I can't use it BUT I can buy it on Steam with real money. Sick. I don't think it is a solution to lock my own cash and telling me to give them more if I want the game.

Originally posted by Ettanin:

If you try to use Steam wallet funds to gift games, please know that Valve can revoke this ability for the suspicion of commercial usage. (Trying to make a profit out of it by (re)selling games purchased with Steam Wallet funds while the recipient pays you real money)

Appealing against this decision is not possible.

Well I totally get that if someone is gifting again and again but I've never done such a thing. It's legit games for my father (or 'Mysterium', an online board game for my family during quarantine) I decide to gift him since I have leftovers cash on my Steam Wallet. As I've said above, I must have gifted like 4 games in 2 years and all of them were for my family, not for profit or trade against real cash.

[my new friend]

They will not go into details as to why. This helps prevent people from trying to figure out all the conditions that will trigger this restriction and use it to abuse the system up to the point before getting restricted.

[MVPete]

Originally posted by my new friend:

They will not go into details as to why. This helps prevent people from trying to figure out all the conditions that will trigger this restriction and use it to abuse the system up to the point before getting restricted.

I understand but they don't even try to help at this point. What's the point having a support saying 'well, we banned you, we can't do anything, don't try to contact us again, bye' when I'm clearly in my good right? Nothing more frustrating than that.

[my new friend]

Originally posted by MVPete:

Originally posted by my new friend:

They will not go into details as to why. This helps prevent people from trying to figure out all the conditions that will trigger this restriction and use it to abuse the system up to the point before getting restricted.

I understand but they don't even try to help at this point. What's the point having a support saying 'well, we banned you, we can't do anything, don't try to contact us again, bye' when I'm clearly in my good right? Nothing more frustrating than that.

They can only tell you what they are told they can tell you and that is it. Don't think they can go into anything other than that. They have rules they must follow and tens of thousands of other people waiting in line for their tickets to be replied to as well.

[Nx Machina]

Originally posted by MVPete:

Wow, what a nice solution it is. I'm left with Steam Wallet cash and I can't use it BUT I can buy it on Steam with real money. Sick. I don't think it is a solution to lock my own cash and telling me to give them more if I want the game.

You can buy "yourself" games with Steam Wallet funds but you cannot buy games as gifts with Steam Wallet funds.

You can still gift games with an external payment method such as a credit or debit card.

[MVPete]

Originally posted by my new friend:

Originally posted by MVPete:

I understand but they don't even try to help at this point. What's the point having a support saying 'well, we banned you, we can't do anything, don't try to contact us again, bye' when I'm clearly in my good right? Nothing more frustrating than that.

They can only tell you what they are told they can tell you and that is it. Don't think they can go into anything other than that. They have rules they must follow and tens of thousands of other people waiting in line for their tickets to be replied to as well.

Well, I'm not blaming the support itself but the lack of communication from Steam entirely.
I've not been told my account was specified as 'shady' until I reached out to the support.
There's no official statement regarding 'gift restriction' (from what I've found, besides the currency/country difference). It just feels arbitrary, wrong and I'm surprised that's coming from Steam.

Originally posted by Nx Machina:

Originally posted by MVPete:

Wow, what a nice solution it is. I'm left with Steam Wallet cash and I can't use it BUT I can buy it on Steam with real money. Sick. I don't think it is a solution to lock my own cash and telling me to give them more if I want the game.

You can buy "yourself" games with Steam Wallet funds but you cannot buy games as gifts with Steam Wallet funds.

You can still gift games with an external payment method such as a credit or debit card.

Thanks for your message. I understood it right but as I said, I mainly play CSGO so I don't feel like buying anything for myself. That's why I was happy to gift games to my father who actually plays multiple games via Steam.

[Ettanin]

Originally posted by MVPete:

Well I totally get that if someone is gifting again and again but I've never done such a thing. It's legit games for my father (or 'Mysterium', an online board game for my family during quarantine) I decide to gift him since I have leftovers cash on my Steam Wallet. As I've said above, I must have gifted like 4 games in 2 years and all of them were for my family, not for profit or trade against real cash.

Valve is very strict very quickly in that regard, they have to be to cover potential losses by loopholes, hence the quick restriction. If not used to pay for your own games, three or four gifts all-time, not limited to a specific time frame, are enough to trigger it.

You can still gift games using other payment methods, but you cannot do that anymore using Steam wallet balance. You can however still use Steam wallet balance for your own use.

Unfortunately there are bad apples out there and because of these folks we can't have nice things anymore.

[MVPete]

Originally posted by Ettanin:

Originally posted by MVPete:

Well I totally get that if someone is gifting again and again but I've never done such a thing. It's legit games for my father (or 'Mysterium', an online board game for my family during quarantine) I decide to gift him since I have leftovers cash on my Steam Wallet. As I've said above, I must have gifted like 4 games in 2 years and all of them were for my family, not for profit or trade against real cash.

Valve is very strict very quickly in that regard, they have to be to cover potential losses by loopholes, hence the quick restriction. If not used to pay for your own games, three or four gifts all-time, not limited to a specific time frame, are enough to trigger it.

You can still gift games using other payment methods, but you cannot do that anymore using Steam wallet balance. You can however still use Steam wallet balance for your own use.

Unfortunately there are bad apples out there and because of these folks we can't have nice things anymore.

Well, you sum up the entire thing. Unlucky nice apple me.
Thanks for your answers, really appreciate it. :)

[KS]

Same problem with yours, I tried to contact Steam support and I successfully gifted the game to my friend. Here is their reply:

Hello,

I have updated your account. Please try your purchase again.

Please let me know if I can help clarify anything else.

Thanks for using Steam,
Iryna



To contact them:
click 'Help' on the top left corner on Steam client > click Steam Support > click Purchases > click 'I can't complete my purchase on the Steam Store' > click the failed purchase that you want > click 'I need help completing this purchase' > scroll down and provide the details of the issue

The Steam support replied me in around 24 hours to 48 hours but it depends.

Hope this could help you.

[MVPete]

Originally posted by KS:

Same problem with yours, I tried to contact Steam support and I successfully gifted the game to my friend. Here is their reply:

Hello,

I have updated your account. Please try your purchase again.

Please let me know if I can help clarify anything else.

Thanks for using Steam,
Iryna



To contact them:
click 'Help' on the top left corner on Steam client > click Steam Support > click Purchases > click 'I can't complete my purchase on the Steam Store' > click the failed purchase that you want > click 'I need help completing this purchase' > scroll down and provide the details of the issue

The Steam support replied me in around 24 hours to 48 hours but it depends.

Hope this could help you.

Thanks a lot for your message. I did exactly what you told me to do to reach them the first time and they didn't even bother updating or helping me. It was 'nothing the Steam support' could do.
Sounds like they could actually do something...
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to answer me!

[RokeSnow]

This happened to me without me gifting for the whole year and 1 gift on Christmas is enough to permanently ban me from using wallet funds to gift friends... wtf steam
why do you have to succ major ass
Also it was Christmas for crying out loud