An unexpected error has occurred

[Blanchflower]

OK, recently when I try to purchase a few games by credit card, I keep getting this message, "An unexpected error has occurred. Your purchase has not been completed. Please contact Steam Support."

I submitted a support ticket on Wednesday 19th November 2014 and have yet to hear from Steam.

I tried to fix this issue by not participating on the beta via my Steam client but to no avail. Moreover, I tried to fix this by adding ?cc=SG (I reside in Singapore) at the end of http://store.steampowered.com but it did not work either.

Has anyone else faced this problem and what are the solutions Steam support gave?

[ｖａｐｅｃｌｏｕｄ]

I have the same problem
The first 2 transactions were okay but since then i keep getting the same error that you
I also posted a ticket but nobody answered yet
https://support.steampowered.com/view.php?ticketref=7120-WRSM-0066

[Blanchflower]

Originally posted by Lafamilaestodo:

I have the same problem
The first 2 transactions were okay but since then i keep getting the same error that you
I also posted a ticket but nobody answered yet
https://support.steampowered.com/view.php?ticketref=7120-WRSM-0066

Thanks for the response. May I know when you posted the ticket and which country are you residing in?

This problem is getting more and more common on Steam.

[TheeMan]

i get same error too
your not alone my friend
i been trying to add funds for over a day now and no luck im not even trying steam support the next patch will be done before they get to ya if then.
they are just too busy
i just spend the funds i had else where.
sounds like this is happing more and more now i hope they fix it.
i can buy when i got steam funds but not paypal or otherwise.
i did use paypal on other stuff so i know its steam forsure.
i know i'm not looking to steam support for help just like anyone can do.

i tryed what Blanchflower said and it didn't work if anyone got ideas please post them thanks

[123]

same here bro

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Blanchflower:

Originally posted by Lafamilaestodo:

I have the same problem
The first 2 transactions were okay but since then i keep getting the same error that you
I also posted a ticket but nobody answered yet
https://support.steampowered.com/view.php?ticketref=7120-WRSM-0066

Thanks for the response. May I know when you posted the ticket and which country are you residing in?

This problem is getting more and more common on Steam.

:3079meh:

it is indeed, and it's down to congestion. Sadly Steam is a victim of it's own success. In the last year alone the active (i.e. made a purchase within the last 30 days) accounts have almost DOUBLED. Now, especially at weekends, you're looking at anything up to 7.5 million people onl at the same time.

Naturally, as ALL online payments have to use the CHAPS system, congestion means that the short timed window for the handshake can easily fail - and sadly this means Valve can't really do anything about it.

What you can do, however, is try and tailor your purchases to odd times of day when there's less people on (I personally go for around 2am). But you could equally go for say, the first thing when you get up.

Don't forget if you're having trouble buying through Steam, you can try using Steam through a browser.

[Blanchflower]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by Blanchflower:

Thanks for the response. May I know when you posted the ticket and which country are you residing in?

This problem is getting more and more common on Steam.

it is indeed, and it's down to congestion. Sadly Steam is a victim of it's own success. In the last year alone the active (i.e. made a purchase within the last 30 days) accounts have almost DOUBLED. Now, especially at weekends, you're looking at anything up to 7.5 million people onl at the same time.

Naturally, as ALL online payments have to use the CHAPS system, congestion means that the short timed window for the handshake can easily fail - and sadly this means Valve can't really do anything about it.

What you can do, however, is try and tailor your purchases to odd times of day when there's less people on (I personally go for around 2am). But you could equally go for say, the first thing when you get up.

Don't forget if you're having trouble buying through Steam, you can try using Steam through a browser.

Thanks for the explanation. I always purchase items on Steam via my Firefox browser. I never use the Steam apps.

By the way, when you say 2AM, does it mean US time? I reside in Singapore by the way.

Will Steam upgrade their servers to fix this problem? I am worried as the big winter sale is coming soon.

[CdTCzech]

Same error here. Changed credit card from UK to CZ and now I cannot buy anything. I submitted question to Steam Support on Wednesday 19th November 2014 with no response from them.

[(--) ۞ ۞(۞-۞-۞)۞ (-_-)]

I'm getting the same error, Submitted a ticket to support almost 48 hours ago - still can't buy anything, steam broke a whooooooole ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of people's accounts, and apparently it isn't fixed yet....there goes steam's sales numbers for this month. GG

PS regarding the congestion....I've been trying all night, it's now 6am - still can't purchase anything via cc or paypal. I really doubt congestion has anything to do with it.

[GREY]

Same here, first time i got this error 3 days ago. Trying to pay with my Steam Wallet money! But, it's looks like, i can buy games for myself (got Tales From The Borderlands yesterday, just to check it), but can't get a gift. Sent ticket to Steam Support yesterday... now waiting...

[(--) ۞ ۞(۞-۞-۞)۞ (-_-)]

good luck waiting, the support is possibly the worst thing imaginable. Any sensibly intelligent company would put more people on their billing and payments support, to resolve those issues quickly. Especially when people are interested in taking advantage of the LIMITED time steam sales, or purchasing games in prep for their releases.

I'm curious just how many people are being affected by this now, since it seems to be the steam update that released 3 or so days ago that screwed up most of the people's accounts who are having this problem.

[GREY]

Last time, they answered to me in 8 hours! But, i think i just got lucky
Anyway, we have no choice...

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Blanchflower:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

it is indeed, and it's down to congestion. Sadly Steam is a victim of it's own success. In the last year alone the active (i.e. made a purchase within the last 30 days) accounts have almost DOUBLED. Now, especially at weekends, you're looking at anything up to 7.5 million people onl at the same time.

Naturally, as ALL online payments have to use the CHAPS system, congestion means that the short timed window for the handshake can easily fail - and sadly this means Valve can't really do anything about it.

What you can do, however, is try and tailor your purchases to odd times of day when there's less people on (I personally go for around 2am). But you could equally go for say, the first thing when you get up.

Don't forget if you're having trouble buying through Steam, you can try using Steam through a browser.

Thanks for the explanation. I always purchase items on Steam via my Firefox browser. I never use the Steam apps.

By the way, when you say 2AM, does it mean US time? I reside in Singapore by the way.

Will Steam upgrade their servers to fix this problem? I am worried as the big winter sale is coming soon.

:baby:

When I mean 2am I mean YOUR local time as it's YOUR servers that will be experiencing the bulk of the demand. However, you do have to take into account the US time zones as the bulk of the users are US citizens. In other words, try mixing it up a bit and ee what works.

As I said before there's NOTHING Valve can do - they could buy a whole load more servers but even that won't accommodate the Winter Sale. You ARE going to get some pretty severe issues come that time. However, again, if you see such bargains, just wait until the early hours.

For example, I'm in England. I've been a Steam user for a few years. Sales were really the only time there were any major congestion issues, but of course as Steam has rapidly grown it's becoming more prevalent. I quickly realised that even last year's Winter Sale when Left 4 Dead was given away, you couldn't even bring the store page up for several hours.

But it was find when I wanted to make the day's purchases come 2 am. The point is that when people are asleep, they ain't buying :)

[Blanchflower]

Steam support finally replied to me after nearly 3 days. This is what they told me:

Hello Siva,

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

Even though you may have attempted similar steps already, please re-test the issue now using the methods below:

Note: These processes will not affect your currently installed games.

If using a PC
- Please exit Steam, and navigate to the …\Steam\ directory (by default this is C:\Program Files\Steam - if you set a different installation directory, you will need to browse to it).
- Delete all of the files in this folder except: Steam.exe and the \Steamapps\ and \Userdata\ folders
- Restart your computer and test the issue again.

If using a Mac:
- Exit Steam and go to the folder Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Steam
- Delete all of the files in this folder except for SteamApps and Userdata.
- Restart your computer and test the issue again.

For all operating systems:
- Ensure that you are not using any IP proxy or VPN software. These applications must be completely deactivated when purchasing through Steam.

If the issue still persists, try using a web browser (Internet Explorer 7 or higher on PC, or Safari if on a Mac) to make the purchase using http://store.steampowered.com/

Please let us know if you have further questions or concerns.

I am using a PC and I followed the first step. It worked!

I hope that this information will help you guys!

[Mr. Aquila]

i been getting this problem as well, on steam and the webpage, i try what blanch flower said and it didn't work. if anyone got any ideas. please say them.
thank you

[Seppuku]

I've purchased three DLC's successfully. Then as soon as I tried to buy a game that error also popped up. This is frustrating.