Steam Gift Cards Already Redeemed

[photomoto]

TLDR:
**DO NOT** buy steam wallet gift cards from bestbuy.
If you must, apply them ASAP or you might get scammed.

I ordered 2x$100 gift cards from bestbuy.com. They looked brand new and the "code" was unscratched. **BUT** Steam wont let me use them because they were somehow already been redeemed.

Long story:
Bestbuy.com had a buy one get one 15% off gift card sale after Christmas 2021.
I figured I would pick up a couple to apply toward a steamdeck when it was finally available.
Fast forward to this week. I finally get a notice that i can order a steamdeck.

I grab the brand new gift cards and scratch off the code. I attempt to input them into steam, but get an error message on both stating they have already been redeemed.
I'm not sure how that is possible. I just scratched off and reveled the code. They have been in my possession the entire time.

I contact steam support. They take 24 hours to reply.
When they finally reply they are of not helpful at all, and will not provide any info.
They simply state that the code has already been redeemed, and they are unable to issue a replacement code. They will not provide any info on when, where, or how my code was applied. They recommend contacting the seller to discuss options.

Next I contact bestbuy.com via chat, but I'm told they cannot help me over the chat, and I must call them.

So I call BestBuy support and wait on hold for an hour.
I'm told to call an additional phone number for gift card support.
After waiting on hold again for 15 minutes i'm told that the phone number only handles BESTBUY store cards, not steam cards sold by bestbuy.

So I call Bestbuy support 2 more times.
after waiting on hold for about an hour (Both times again) i'm told all they can do is verify that the card has been sent to me, and has been activated and are ready for use. Since I'm not within 16 days of purchase, they cannot issue or exchange my cards. They say their system has no other information on how/when the code was applied. I must contact the manufacturer (steam) for that info.

I try to dispute the charge via my visa credit card company, but that is not possible either, since I ordered the cards in 4 months ago in December.

If I had only applied the cards as soon as I got them. . . . but I procrastinated and didn't think the steam deck will take so long to ship.

If I has to guess, the codes were stolen via a bot. The steam wallet page for entering codes has no timeout and no captcha when applying gift card numbers. I'm sure steam could look into how my gift cards were stolen, to help me out, and prevent it from happening in the future. But based on the useless info provided by steam support they don't care, this is not a priority for them.

I'm beyond frustrated with this situation. I never imagined that steam and best buy would issue me a bad gift card.

If anyone has any ideas or help on how I could get these resolved that would be awesome.

[Nx Machina]

Can you prove to Steam and Bestbuy you did not redeem them and are not trying to scam them?

[CZI]

I had similar issue with Walmart.
Steam support explained me that Walmart did not activate the gift card before sent to me.

[no154370]

Opprinnelig skrevet av photomoto:

TLDR:
**DO NOT** buy steam wallet gift cards from bestbuy.
If you must, apply them ASAP or you might get scammed.

I ordered 2x$100 gift cards from bestbuy.com. They looked brand new and the "code" was unscratched. **BUT** Steam wont let me use them because they were somehow already been redeemed.

Long story:
Bestbuy.com had a buy one get one 15% off gift card sale after Christmas 2021.
I figured I would pick up a couple to apply toward a steamdeck when it was finally available.
Fast forward to this week. I finally get a notice that i can order a steamdeck.

I grab the brand new gift cards and scratch off the code. I attempt to input them into steam, but get an error message on both stating they have already been redeemed.
I'm not sure how that is possible. I just scratched off and reveled the code. They have been in my possession the entire time.

I contact steam support. They take 24 hours to reply.
When they finally reply they are of not helpful at all, and will not provide any info.
They simply state that the code has already been redeemed, and they are unable to issue a replacement code. They will not provide any info on when, where, or how my code was applied. They recommend contacting the seller to discuss options.

Next I contact bestbuy.com via chat, but I'm told they cannot help me over the chat, and I must call them.

So I call BestBuy support and wait on hold for an hour.
I'm told to call an additional phone number for gift card support.
After waiting on hold again for 15 minutes i'm told that the phone number only handles BESTBUY store cards, not steam cards sold by bestbuy.

So I call Bestbuy support 2 more times.
after waiting on hold for about an hour (Both times again) i'm told all they can do is verify that the card has been sent to me, and has been activated and are ready for use. Since I'm not within 16 days of purchase, they cannot issue or exchange my cards. They say their system has no other information on how/when the code was applied. I must contact the manufacturer (steam) for that info.

I try to dispute the charge via my visa credit card company, but that is not possible either, since I ordered the cards in 4 months ago in December.

If I had only applied the cards as soon as I got them. . . . but I procrastinated and didn't think the steam deck will take so long to ship.

If I has to guess, the codes were stolen via a bot. The steam wallet page for entering codes has no timeout and no captcha when applying gift card numbers. I'm sure steam could look into how my gift cards were stolen, to help me out, and prevent it from happening in the future. But based on the useless info provided by steam support they don't care, this is not a priority for them.

I'm beyond frustrated with this situation. I never imagined that steam and best buy would issue me a bad gift card.

If anyone has any ideas or help on how I could get these resolved that would be awesome.

did you check the steam gift cards you bought from BestBuy thoroughly to make sure it is not tempered with before "scratching" it??????

if never, then neither Steam nor BestBuy is at fault in this case.

both sides will certainly asks this

1) was the card tempered with before you buy and/or scratch the card??????

if they asks such a question, and your answer is a definite "no", then................

---------------------------------------------------------------

all i can say is this

i) you OP is very careless when buying Steam Gift Cards or anything similar to it.

if i buy physical Steam Gifts Cards, i will check first thoroughly to see if it is tempered with before purchasing them.

-_-

[J4MESOX4D]

The only logical way this could've occurred is if the staff member switched the cards and gave you resealed used ones back. Even this would be far fetched but it can happen.

It being redeemed by a bot is also incredibly unlikely because not only would it have to perfectly capture a 16 digit input, it would also have to be on a card that has been activated and before the user has redeemed them. Although you waited 4 months, the fact accounts get locked for suspected fraudulent activity for a handful of failed attempts means bot accounts would literally be locked every 15 or so seconds.

Does the serial numbers (if any) on the card match any included on the activation receipt?

[photomoto]

Thanks for taking time to reply. I appreciate the help and info!

Opprinnelig skrevet av Nx Machina:

Can you prove to Steam and Bestbuy you did not redeem them and are not trying to scam them?

Fair. I would assume thier is a log someplace for this. Steam should be able to log the user that redeemed and stole my gift cards.

Opprinnelig skrevet av no154370:

Opprinnelig skrevet av photomoto:

did you check the steam gift cards you bought from BestBuy thoroughly to make sure it is not tempered with before "scratching" it??????

if never, then neither Steam nor BestBuy is at fault in this case.

both sides will certainly asks this

1) was the card tempered with before you buy and/or scratch the card??????

if they asks such a question, and your answer is a definite "no", then................

---------------------------------------------------------------

all i can say is this

i) you OP is very careless when buying Steam Gift Cards or anything similar to it.

if i buy physical Steam Gifts Cards, i will check first thoroughly to see if it is tempered with before purchasing them.

-_-

They looked brand new and unused! I didnt take a photo before i scratched them, but they did not look suspect at all.

Opprinnelig skrevet av J4MESOX4D:

The only logical way this could've occurred is if the staff member switched the cards and gave you resealed used ones back. Even this would be far fetched but it can happen.

It being redeemed by a bot is also incredibly unlikely because not only would it have to perfectly capture a 16 digit input, it would also have to be on a card that has been activated and before the user has redeemed them. Although you waited 4 months, the fact accounts get locked for suspected fraudulent activity for a handful of failed attempts means bot accounts would literally be locked every 15 or so seconds.

Does the serial numbers (if any) on the card match any included on the activation receipt?

There is a serial number on my receipt. And they match the ones on the card.
Asside from waiting on hold for hours, best buy customer support has been at least re-assuring that they looked into this for me, and tried what they could to resolve this.

Steam customer support is slow and unhelpful. IMHO they know its a problem, but it's not a priority for them to fix it.. they dont care.. they have my money already. I must have typed the cards in 2 dozen times swapping "1/l/0/O/B/8" and not once did i need to wait for a timeout, or enter a captcha.

[Nx Machina]

Opprinnelig skrevet av photomoto:

Thanks for taking time to reply. I appreciate the help and info!
Fair. I would assume thier is a log someplace for this. Steam should be able to log the user that redeemed and stole my gift cards.

You haven't proven they were stolen but only speculated a bot got them which again is unproven.

Secondly as per your OP:

Opprinnelig skrevet av photomoto:

I contact steam support. They take 24 hours to reply.
When they finally reply they are of not helpful at all, and will not provide any info.
They simply state that the code has already been redeemed, and they are unable to issue a replacement code. They will not provide any info on when, where, or how my code was applied. They recommend contacting the seller to discuss options.

You got a reply from Steam Support and have chosen to ignore what was said.

Your issue lies with BestBuy not Steam or did you forget:

Opprinnelig skrevet av photomoto:

TLDR:
**DO NOT** buy steam wallet gift cards from bestbuy.
If you must, apply them ASAP or you might get scammed.

[J4MESOX4D]

Opprinnelig skrevet av photomoto:

I must have typed the cards in 2 dozen times swapping "1/l/0/O/B/8" and not once did i need to wait for a timeout, or enter a captcha.

Changing similar characters is one thing as users can make mistakes and this is accounted for, but bots tend to sweep either in patterns or random codes and it's that which gets the accounts locked. It is spectacularly unlikely a bot would have managed to have done this especially with two separate cards.

The fact you bought these online also gives an opportunity for an inside job - a staff member could have had cards re-sealed after noting down serials and then just redeemed the correct code(s) after the cards were activated.

Covering up the code and any serials, it may be worth taking a photo of anything left of the seal and maybe we can see if it's legit or looks resealed.

[my new friend]

Opprinnelig skrevet av J4MESOX4D:

The fact you bought these online also gives an opportunity for an inside job - a staff member could have had cards re-sealed after noting down serials and then just redeemed the correct code(s) after the cards were activated.

There are many hands they go through when purchasing physical cards online. The amount of mail carrier staff taken into account can increase that number to a dozen easily.

[photomoto]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I really do appreciate you all taking the time to try to help out.

My cards were stolen from me, and it sucks.

If you do purchase steam gift cards redeem them ASAP.
This is because it allows you options to resolve any issues. Refunds can be issued with the retailer, or via a credit card company.

The cards were shipped via 2 day shipping via UPS. The package appeared untampered with.

The cards looks like the cards i'd purchased in the past as gifts, and looked untampered with. Nothing that would raise a redflag.

I have no idea how they were stolen. Whether an inside job at bestbuy, or UPS, or generated by a bot. I have no idea. because **STEAM customer support* or the third party that handles gift cards do not provide any logs or info to the end user how how, whom, or when the card was redeemed. They dont seem to care...

Bestbuy can only confirm the card was activated, and was shipped.

[crunchyfrog]

Thing is, it really ain't down to Steam.

You brought from BestBuy. Your contract is with THEM. It is always down to going back to the place you bought it.

So while Valve might be able to say "this did or didn't happen" that's about all they can say, as they only have THIER data to go on nothing more.

So all you can do is go back to where you bought this, and take it up with them. If you don't get service, then feel free to escalate it.

And even if the manager plays the arsehole you can always write a good old-fashioned letter to the head office. That always works wonders. Remeber to address it "FAO the CHief Executive".

Simply because if you send it to them, their secretary will likely open it, and pass the details on. So it will get passed down and down and each management will be pissed off to have to deal with it and make it right.

And that's why it's so effective.

[J4MESOX4D]

Opprinnelig skrevet av photomoto:

I have no idea how they were stolen. Whether an inside job at bestbuy, or UPS, or generated by a bot. I have no idea. because **STEAM customer support* or the third party that handles gift cards do not provide any logs or info to the end user how how, whom, or when the card was redeemed. They dont seem to care...

If the cards were tampered with then it would've happened at retail level but people handling them, knowing when to strike and how to distribute them without causing suspicion or where it can be traced back to them.

On the flip-side, retailers also have to be very careful against scams from customers against them which is why they don't give away info or investigate too deep. Someone could easily buy $100, give the code to his friend, pretend the card was used and then try and get the money back. Not saying you did this but it can happen and with these being a service rather than something to profit from, it can tot up as a big loss to retailers if they start throwing money back.

It may be worth notifying the retailer of a possible security issue with these cards surrounding their handling and distribution because assuming you are telling the truth (which I believe you are) then that can really be the only possibility.

[photomoto]

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to reply and offer advice I appreciate it.

I'm not sure how widespread this issue is, but my cards got stolen, it sucks, and makes me sad. I have no idea how this happened. the cards looked untampered with.

But spread the word.
***Steam Wallet Gift cards need to be redeemed ASAP.***
Based on my personal experience If there is a problem with the gift card:

1) steam support will not help you. All they will do is tell you it was already redeemed.
2) The retailer cannot help you past their standard return window (2 weeks at most retailers) All they will do is confirm it was activated.

If you purchased via a credit card, they might be able to help if you are within 60 days of purchase. (dispute/chargeback the payment)

My only mistake was waiting till my steamdeck order was ready to ship (delayed many months), before applying the cards to my account.

[PetRiLJoe]

I'm sorry you lost that money man. If I was out that amount of money, I'd be upset. And I have lost more money than that in the past, at a time I desperately needed it, so I know how it is.

I can't help recover it but I hope things get a lot better real soon!

[Crazy Tiger]

Yeah, it surely sucks. I have the habit of redeeming things as soon as I can, whether it's such codes or keys I bought in bundles on sites like Fanatical/Humble. No reason to run the risk.

But it surely sucks.

Opprinnelig skrevet av photomoto:

1) steam support will not help you. All they will do is tell you it was already redeemed.

To be fair, there isn't more they need or should do. In the end you didn't purchase the cards on Steam and they can't help you find out how the cards got stolen. All they can see is that the codes got redeemed, not to whom they got sold and whether it was the correct person redeeming them.

Their response that you should contact the seller is the only correct response they can give, as the reality is that it's an issue between you and the seller.