Gift Card Troubles

[piece]

"An unexpected error has occurred. Your code could not be redeemed at this time." This keeps coming up when I try to redeem a gift card. Help?

[LucidSquirtle]

I agree. This is terrible customer service on their part.

[persona-non-grammar]

I just called Best Buy - big surprise, people actually answered the number (888-237-8289). I was shunted to a couple of different operators before I got someone in the "Gift Card Department," but they cannot verify whether or not a card was activated by them at the register. I had hoped to at least eliminate that possibility.

Luckily I found the receipt, but I imagine BB is going to get inundated by people tomorrow demanding their cards get activated (if Steam doesn't get their act together here, that is). I hope we can get our cards to work soon.

[Xyle Harkyn]

Steam officially stated that the cards from Best Buy specifically may not be activated. I just called their support line and spoke with a nice Representative but they are unable to activate the card over the phone. Unfortunately, you are going to have to go into Best Buy tomorrow to manually activate the card.

Unfortunately, the cards are processed through a third party (FastCard.) Steam can do nothing about the codes themselves and seeing how Steam Gift Cards purchased through GameStop are working, this is clearly not an issue with Steam. The blame completely falls on Best Buy for failing to swipe a gift card at the checkout counter.

Steam: Though there is nothing you can do regarding the codes, you might want to extend today's daily deals another day for those affected by this issue as there are a lot of unhappy people.

#BestBuyRuinsChristmas

[piece]

Xyle Harkyn の投稿を引用：

Steam officially stated that the cards from Best Buy pacifically may not be activated. I just called their support line and spoke with a nice Representative but they are unable to activate the card over the phone. Unfortunately, you are going to have to go into Best Buy tomorrow to manually activate the card.

Unfortunately, the cards are processed through a third party (FastCard.) Steam can do nothing about the codes themselves and seeing how Steam Gift Cards purchased through GameStop are working, this is clearly not an issue with Steam. The blame completely falls on Best Buy for failing to swipe a gift card at the checkout counter.

Steam: Though there is nothing you can do regarding the codes, you might want to extend today's daily deals another day for those affected by this issue as there are a lot of unhappy people.

#BestBuyRuinsChristmas

Thank you very much

[Spawn of Totoro]

XXXMasonXX:
"Then you guys should probably get your system fixed? It worked fine last night, I activated three gift cards. Then today I can't activate two of them. So it's on your end. It needs to be fixed."


JacobU (Valve)":
"We are investigating the issue and appreciate your patience. "

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3037704&page=3

Post #43

The issue is still unknown.

texscripter の投稿を引用：

I can get into all of my games, so connectivity is not an issue. It's the card, unfortunately.

Connecting to games isn't the issue. Some are having problems logging in or even downloading the client.

I have gotten this error before when using a Credit Card to buy a flash sale game. The card worked fine for a latter game pruchase.

The Valve rep. was only giving a generic response when he said it was an non-activated card. The message would have said it was invalid, not "An unexpected error has occurred.".

[Hikuro14]

Lots of people got this gift card so someone is gonna be in trouble if they don't fix this.

[Hikuro14]

The steam gift cards do not have a magnetic strip to validate them so I don't see how this is a validation problem.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Hikuro の投稿を引用：

The steam gift cards do not have a magnetic strip to validate them so I don't see how this is a validation problem.

A gift card code needs to be validated. You don't have to have a magnetic strip. All the strip does is contain the number and codes that you input anyways.

When you log into Steam. it validates your account and password too. No magnetic strip needed.

[Mahl Arannis]

I have the same problem:
I have two $20 Steam cards. Both were purchased at Best Buy. One was purchases within the last week or two. The other one was purchased the week following Thanksgiving. We have tried to activate each one across two different Steam accounts and neither card has worked on either Steam account. Not really sure what to do about it at this point. We've been trying for several hours now and would love to use them for games that are on sale while the Holiday Sale is going on.

[Cornflakes]

I'm having the same problem. $20 gift card from Best Buy.

Xyle Harkyn の投稿を引用：

Steam officially stated that the cards from Best Buy specifically may not be activated. I just called their support line and spoke with a nice Representative but they are unable to activate the card over the phone. Unfortunately, you are going to have to go into Best Buy tomorrow to manually activate the card.

Thank you for the info. Is there anywhere I can see this official statment myself?

[Spawn of Totoro]

Cornflakes の投稿を引用：

I'm having the same problem. $20 gift card from Best Buy.

Xyle Harkyn の投稿を引用：

Steam officially stated that the cards from Best Buy specifically may not be activated. I just called their support line and spoke with a nice Representative but they are unable to activate the card over the phone. Unfortunately, you are going to have to go into Best Buy tomorrow to manually activate the card.

Thank you for the info. Is there anywhere I can see this official statment myself?

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3037704

Latter they said Steam was looking into the issue. Best Buy may still not be the issue. It could still be Steams servers or Fastcard (the 3rd party involved).

[ultigamplay7]

Same problem with me too, no matter how many times i try, it does not want to take my code!

[Thiefy]

Same. I have 2 $100 dollar cards and both are not working. got mine from Best Buy as well. If all of us have the same problem, the problem is not with best buy, it is with steam or Fastcard. Maybe their authentication server is down for best buy cards. My receipt shows that it was activated and the error is not the "invalid card" error, it is the "unknown" error which means the card is valid but the server is not accepting it.

[Adven]

I GOT A 20 DOLLAR GIFT CARD AND IT RUINED MY FREAKING CHRISTAMS!!!!!!! RIGHT NOW IT IS A BAH HUM BUG DAY!!!!!!!!!!!

[B-Heart]

At least Valve knows it's a problem and someone is working on it. Here's hoping they post an update in the forums or in this thread stating what needs to be done to fix this error. I'm patient and can wait as long as my 100 dollar gift card works