Steam support refuses to change country

[Commander Link]

I recently moved BACK to Australia after living in New Zealand for a few years, the store tells me that in order to change my store country I must make a purchase using a payment method from the new country. I have done this, and I recieve a message saying there is an error and I need to contact Steam Support.

Steam Support are adamant that I am living in New Zealand and need to use a payment method from that country, despite me telling them multiple times I am not, it's almost as if they are just not reading my message at all. Do they even read? Do they know english? They closed my support ticket without any resolution. What do I do now?

Following is the conversation;
Message from you on Dec 23 @ 12:48am | 18 hours ago
I cant make any purchases for anything since I moved back to Australia. I am using my Australian debit card. Why isnt it working?

Message from Steam Support on Dec 23 @ 6:55am | 12 hours ago
Hi there,

It looks like you are attempting to use a payment method registered outside your current region.

Your credit card ending (redacted) is registered in Australia and your store country is set to New Zealand.

Purchases made through Steam must be made in the region you are physically located and using a payment method associated with a local address.

Please try an alternate payment method. All available payment methods are listed during checkout.

Apologies for the inconveniences.

Steam Support
(Redacted support team member name)
Commander Link
Message from you on Dec 23 @ 12:24pm | 6 hours ago
I am no longer living in New Zealand, I am in Australia, and my payment method being used is in Australia. When attemtping to go to my profile to change my store region, it tells me "If you have moved to a new country, or are living abroad for an extended period of time, you can update your Steam country setting when you complete your first purchase using a payment method from that country. If your location differs from your current Steam account store country setting you'll have an option to change your store region while you view your cart or as you complete your purchase."

So, I am attempting to make a purchase from this region, with a payment method from this region, and I click "Yes, I am in Australia" when it prompts me asking if I have changed countries, I enter my payment method and check out, and I get this error message: An unexpected error has occurred. Your purchase has not been completed.
Please wait a few minutes and try again.
If you encounter this error repeatedly, please contact Steam Support.

thus why I have contacted you. I am stuck in a loop here, it refuses to change my country of residence

Message from Steam Support on Dec 23 @ 6:08pm | 48 minutes ago
We understand how you feel.

You will need to use another payment method.

The MasterCard ending in (redacted) was issued in Australia and cannot be used from your current location: New Zealand

Because we have provided all the information we have for your issue I'm closing this help request. If you have an unrelated issue please open a new help request and we will be happy to help.

Steam Support

[magicISO Sweden]

not much any one can do for you here this is not steam support :p

[Commander Link]

I can still yell into the void though. I am pissed because I am being basically treated like a liar. why would I WANT store prices from this region?? it costs MORE here

[AmsterdamHeavy]

Originally posted by Commander Link:

I can still yell into the void though. I am pissed because I am being basically treated like a liar. why would I WANT store prices from this region?? it costs MORE here

This seems to be becoming a regular complaint from people.

[Loggy]

They can change it for you , I have had them do it in the past

[Loggy]

you could get a vpn and circumvent the issue

[Commander Link]

bro a vpn wouldnt help with the fact that i am in australia and have to use an australian CC to buy anything. I would still need an NZ CC to buy anything since they think im there

[Ogami]

OK , just to clarify how exactly the region switch works.
Your account is in New Zealand but you are physically in Australia and want to switch to Australia.
Meaning you have a Australian IP. Ok, then you need to add a Australian payment method to your Steam account which you apparently have.
Then you need to put any game into your cart and proceed to the checkout page with the new Australian payment method selected as the payment source.
Now, on the checkout page, DONT just try to pay for the game like that, this will not work and give you an error.
Take a good look at the checkout page, next to the game listed at the top you want to buy should be a small dropdown menu that let you switch the currency.
Select Australian Dollar there and the price of the game should switch to that currency.
NOW you can make the payment with the Australian credit card and it will switch your store region after the payment.

Also, you can only switch store region once every 90 days, otherwise the small dropdown menu to select currency will be missing on the checkout page.

Maybe this helps you a bit.

[[N]ebsun]

Some ISP are present in both AUS and NZ, and share the same IP range for both locations... though I didn't think they use IP for determining location - I thought that's purely based on payment info

[Ogami]

Originally posted by Nebsun:

Some ISP are present in both AUS and NZ, and share the same IP range for both locations... though I didn't think they use IP for determining location - I thought that's purely based on payment info

They use both. The dropdown menu to switch currency on the checkout page gets determined by IP location. So its possible it did not appear for the OP because it was showing NZ instead of AUS.