Do NOT Cancel Escrow Trades or you will get a 7 day Trade Lock

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Pheace Dec 9, 2015 @ 1:07pm

Sadly people will probably not read this till after they suffer from this and a lot of people will learn this the hard way.

Cancelling Escrow trades has a severe penalty. It will cause your entire account to have a 7 day trade lock.

The trade lock has been mentioned in the FAQ from the day the mobile escrow was announced but I fear many people will either not have read it, or reading comprehension of the warning during trade will fail them as there is pressure to finish the trade.

Cancelling trades that are pending or in a trade hold will begin a trading cooldown on your account to prevent any further unauthorized attempts to trade away items.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8078-TPHC-6195&auth=43ec81a6c20ed06dd10fa46719820a21

Valve have issued a statement elaborating on why they have the 3 day waiting period and it's pros/cons here:
News - Security and Trading; Why the 3 Day Wait

Last edited by Pheace; Dec 9, 2015 @ 1:26pm

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Showing 1-15 of 94 comments

falloutdude83 Dec 9, 2015 @ 1:19pm

What's the point in all this? The only reason I activated the steam auth on November 30, is to not have any trade holds once this crap starts (today). Now I traded with a bot for cards, the trade went on hold, and I thought, hey cancel this then, because I'm using the mobile auth,I shouldn't be waiting 3 days. Now I'm suspended from further trading. Great. If I hadn't used the steam app and cancelled the 3day hold trade, would I be locked out from trading also? What's the point using this auth if it doesn't matter at all since both parties need to have it enabled to Instantly trade?

Forcen Dec 9, 2015 @ 1:20pm

You need something to stop people from canceling trades unless they really need to.
If you got any better ideas to stop this feel free to share them.

Also there is a big fat warning on the page... You made a mistake and now you learned from it.

Armani Dec 9, 2015 @ 1:24pm

big fat warning called - Escrow

falloutdude83 Dec 9, 2015 @ 1:28pm

When you trade with someone you never know whether he uses the steam authenticator. Once you realize your trade is on hold, you as an auth user should have the freedom to cancel the trade. This crap is pointless. I learned that it doesn't matter whether I use the authenticator as I will end up in trade holds all the time anyways unless everyone will be using the authenticator, which will never happen of corse. I will disable this again and turn my back on card trading from now on. Well done valve

Last edited by falloutdude83; Dec 9, 2015 @ 1:31pm

Forcen Dec 9, 2015 @ 1:31pm

Yes, adding a thing that shows if they use the authenticator on the trade thing is a great idea. Maybe a "this will take 3 days" thing.
Valve is a bit poor at warning users sometimes but this time they had a warning on the cancel page at least..

The important thing is that it is running now, all those easy hacker days are hopefully over.

Pheace Dec 9, 2015 @ 1:32pm

Originally posted by falloutdude83:
When you trade with someone you never know whether he uses the steam authenticator.

Yes you do. If your trade is going into escrow there's a mustard colored banner on the top of your window telling you so:

After both parties accept and then confirm this trade, items will be held by Steam for up to 3 days before delivery.
To remove the need for this hold, anyone losing items in a trade will need to have a Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator enabled on their account for at least 7 days. Learn more

Or, at least I think that's only there when one of the parties doesn't have it. If someone can test that?

Last edited by Pheace; Dec 9, 2015 @ 1:33pm

Forcen Dec 9, 2015 @ 1:33pm

Originally posted by Pheace:
Originally posted by falloutdude83:
When you trade with someone you never know whether he uses the steam authenticator.

Yes you do. If your trade is going into escrow there's a mustard colored banner on the top of your window telling you so:

After both parties accept and then confirm this trade, items will be held by Steam for up to 3 days before delivery.
To remove the need for this hold, anyone losing items in a trade will need to have a Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator enabled on their account for at least 7 days. Learn more

Is this before the trade? I just tested trading earlier and didn't see something like that until after the trade was done.
But yeah, maybe it is pointless to warn more since hasty people will click past it all anyway.
A simple indicator if authenticators is in play would be good still.

Last edited by Forcen; Dec 9, 2015 @ 1:34pm

Pheace Dec 9, 2015 @ 1:35pm

Originally posted by Forcen:
Is this before the trade? I just tested trading earlier and didn't see something like that until after the trade was done.

As soon as any party adds items it gives the message. Just tried again with a different friend and it had the same message except for him it was only 1 day in trade (because I've been friends for over a year). So it appears to adjust based on the restriction you have. Trying to find a friend who has his mobile enabled :)

Edit: Yes, found one where the message didn't come up at all when I added his items to the trade.

Last edited by Pheace; Dec 9, 2015 @ 1:37pm

dog Dec 10, 2015 @ 5:13pm

Need help guys. Basically i made a trade which got put on a trade hold. After this i was messing around with settings trying to get rid of the hold and i accidentally disabled steam guard not knowing i would get a 15 day ban. So im wondering, Since the trade was accepted prior to the ban i recieved, Will i get the items when the 3 days are up? Any answers are appreciated.

Pheace Dec 11, 2015 @ 3:05am

Originally posted by Fades:
Need help guys. Basically i made a trade which got put on a trade hold. After this i was messing around with settings trying to get rid of the hold and i accidentally disabled steam guard not knowing i would get a 15 day ban. So im wondering, Since the trade was accepted prior to the ban i recieved, Will i get the items when the 3 days are up? Any answers are appreciated.

That's a good question. I imagine you will still receive the items since that makes the most sense.

#10

HighlanderSteve Dec 11, 2015 @ 6:02pm

I found this out the hard way. Why should I be punished for cancelling a trade that would otherwise take over 3 days to complete? It's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

#11

HLCinSC Dec 11, 2015 @ 6:12pm

A trade that is on hold is to be canceled for unauthorized trades. If the trade is unauthorized it makes sense that the account is likely compromised. That's why the 1 week trade hold kicks in so you have time to secure your account before the bad guy can do further damage.

#12