Does Steam not like me buying games on Steam?

[李善淵]

Recently, I saw some sales and picked out about thirty games. Then, I went to each game's store page to check if there were any bundles. After selecting, adding, and removing items, I tried to check out, but I encountered the following error message:

There seems to have been an error initializing or updating your transaction. Please wait a minute and try again or contact support for assistance.

After waiting and retrying several times but still getting stuck on the error message, I tried to seek a solution from Steam support. I selected 'Purchases,' then 'I can't complete my purchase on the Steam Store.' Next, some purchase records appeared, but since I failed at the initial purchase stage, no records were shown. I could only select 'My purchase isn't listed here,' and then 'Game or other software.'

The following support options are all related to CD keys, which doesn't help at all with my issue of not being able to make a purchase. I couldn't find a way to submit a ticket to describe my situation, leaving me completely at a loss for help.

So, I started removing items from my cart one by one, but even after removing all but one item, I still encountered the error message. This was incredibly frustrating. Then, I cleared my cart and tried adding a single item again, attempting to complete the purchase.

As a result, even though I hadn't completed any purchases, Steam showed me the following error message:

It looks like you've been attempting a lot of purchases in the last few hours. Please wait a while before trying again.

This purchasing experience has been very frustrating. I don't know what kind of attacks Steam is trying to defend against, but it's clear that I have become a helpless victim of legitimate Steam purchases.

I'm exhausted.

[crunchyfrog]

Here's what you should try doing in such situations.

Split up your purchases. Not only will it make sure there's an easier time for the system to deal with the purchase, but it will help with the situation if there is a game tripping it up.

What you should NEVER do is kept bashing away and trying if you get that message as it will keep triggering the countdown for that cooldown.

Do it once if the message pops up and then leave it for an hour or so then try again.

And do make sure you have a good internet connection, wired if possible.

[李善淵]

I'll summarize what I've done this time for everyone's reference.

To put it simply, I added about thirty games to my cart during multiple sales, but I was unable to check out. After removing and checking each game one by one, I finally identified that the RMKING BUNDLE was the problematic bundle. I successfully purchased the other games by checking out one game at a time.

Using a link from VaLiuM, I contacted customer support with the appid of one of the games in the bundle. After submitting the information about the bundle, support said they couldn't see the bundle, and it disappeared from my store page. I then provided screenshots from steamdb and my cart to prove that the bundle indeed existed, but support still responded that the bundle did not exist.

Just now, I saw that the bundle was still in my cart, and when I clicked to purchase it, I was able to check out successfully and complete the purchase.

So, I don't know what went wrong in the process, and I don't know why support thought the bundle didn't exist. I don't have any suggestions for you since some people have indeed received help from support.

[crunchyfrog]

Escrito originalmente por 李善淵:

I'll summarize what I've done this time for everyone's reference.

To put it simply, I added about thirty games to my cart during multiple sales, but I was unable to check out. After removing and checking each game one by one, I finally identified that the RMKING BUNDLE was the problematic bundle. I successfully purchased the other games by checking out one game at a time.

Using a link from VaLiuM, I contacted customer support with the appid of one of the games in the bundle. After submitting the information about the bundle, support said they couldn't see the bundle, and it disappeared from my store page. I then provided screenshots from steamdb and my cart to prove that the bundle indeed existed, but support still responded that the bundle did not exist.

Just now, I saw that the bundle was still in my cart, and when I clicked to purchase it, I was able to check out successfully and complete the purchase.

So, I don't know what went wrong in the process, and I don't know why support thought the bundle didn't exist. I don't have any suggestions for you since some people have indeed received help from support.

Likely because from their end, it didn't exist.

First question I have to ask is are you using the Chinese Steam because that's obviously different.

Second question is this is obviously problematic for some reason so it might be that the bundle has been removed by the devs, which the support staff wouldn't know anything about. As far as they would be concered it DOESN'T exist.

The thing to remember is this - support are a helpline. Just like any other business helpline, they're merely frontline staff setup to help with a really limited set of problems. Usually account related.

Other queries are meant to be sorted by asking right here.

So I think you're either not understanding this, or not appreciating how the store works. Basically, if a dev or publisher does something off their own back, support won't know about it.

[李善淵]

Escrito originalmente por crunchyfrog:

Likely because from their end, it didn't exist.

First question I have to ask is are you using the Chinese Steam because that's obviously different.

Second question is this is obviously problematic for some reason so it might be that the bundle has been removed by the devs, which the support staff wouldn't know anything about. As far as they would be concered it DOESN'T exist.

The thing to remember is this - support are a helpline. Just like any other business helpline, they're merely frontline staff setup to help with a really limited set of problems. Usually account related.

Other queries are meant to be sorted by asking right here.

So I think you're either not understanding this, or not appreciating how the store works. Basically, if a dev or publisher does something off their own back, support won't know about it.

Thank you for your response. I am not using the Chinese version of Steam; I am using the global version. According to the update information on SteamDB, the bundle in question has not been taken down.

I understand that the support staff might not have the necessary permissions to view the details of the bundle. I am simply providing my situation for reference in case others encounter the same issue.

You also pointed out an issue, which is that the support staff have insufficient information. This makes it difficult for them to assist users with their transactions.

Since they come here to search for answers, the bundle ID I provided earlier or the issues I encountered during the process might give them some direction to understand the problem. That's why I responded to your question and provided the information you wanted.

Thank you for your assistance. Hope this system can become better and better.

[xarvn]

SteamDB is a great website and the info the site provides is very accurate. However, because the website is "not affiliated with Valve or Steam," some information may not be up-to-date or even accurate. The bundle may have been removed from the Steam store while not shown as such by SteamDB.
I agree with you that problems such as what you are experiencing should be fixed. It is unfortunate for everyone that Steam has to focus/expend resources on security issues at the expense of other things such as fixing errors caused by in-cart items that are not available. When the customer attempts to determine the cause of the problem through trial and error, he is punished for "too many attempts." Bundles or items that are not available for sale should not be allowed in the cart. If the items have somehow bypassed this restriction, then they should specifically be flagged so that the customer can remove the item or take other action without being punished.