I had this giveaway: http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/JPZEU/blackguards and one of the winners is not accepting the sent key. He was online every day as a matter of fact he is online right now but I cannot contact him. The only way to notify him is add him as a friend in steam and message him but I find this undesirable.

How to proceed?

8 years ago

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Just have patience and wait. I've had this too, maybe they are online, but on their phones or on a computer where Steam is not installed

Also:

The winner has not redeemed my gift, and I'm unable to get into contact with them. How do I proceed?

If you've been unable to reach the winner of your giveaway using e-mail and Steam after seven days of your giveaway ending, and they have not yet activated or redeemed any keys or gifts you attempted to send, please contact support to request a new winner. When creating a ticket, we ask you to include data that suggests you made an adequate attempt to contact the winner, such as screenshots of e-mails, friend requests, or gifts pending on Steam. If the request is approved, a new winner will be generated by the site.

8 years ago*
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Was the winner online on Steam? If not, they are possible away from home and can not access their Steam.
Even if you dislike it, try to add them on Steam or send them an e-mail.
Edit: Comment in an old GA of the winner, if they every given away something you can access.

8 years ago
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"Comment in an old GA of the winner, if they every given away something you can access."

Thank you for that idea! I don't know why this site has no simple messaging between the winner and the giveawayer(^-^).
I really don't want to try to friend him on Steam.

8 years ago
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Was the winner online on Steam?

That's meaningless to reference, between the fact that (in my experience) most people leave it online most of the day, family often shares the computer/account, and idling misleads gameplay activity.

I for one basically always seem to be on Steam (and often idling), but only very rarely actually am.

8 years ago
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I had and have problems with winners that are not online at Steam for several days. If they have not been online on Steam for a while, I assume they are away from home or something and had no chance to activate a game yet.

Of course multi users or idling leads to confusion ;)

8 years ago
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I've had several winners with similar issues recently.

  • One lives with his mom all week, and only visits his dad (where the PC is) on weekends.
  • Another who can't access Steam via University and can only activate on the weekend.
  • And my most recent one, who was travelling for a week, and asked if he could activate once he got back home.
8 years ago
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Oh, no, I apologize.
I misinterpreted your comment's intent as emphasizing checking if they've been online, not if they haven't been.

Obviously if they haven't been on Steam, that's a good indicator they haven't been able to activate the game yet- I merely meant the converse wasn't necessarily true as well.

8 years ago
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No apology required :)

8 years ago
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Great idea to comment on his giveaways. I wait a little before I add total strangers to my steam account.

8 years ago
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Indeed he was not online on steam since 6 days. He added all the games he won so I guess he is a legit user. I'll just have to wait I guess.

8 years ago
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Check for non-activated wins on the winner, they may be stealing keys to sell them.
If you find such history, you can provide screenshots that you sent the key and ask for forced mark received.
If not, then winner doesn't want the game (why enter for it then is a mystery), so just ask for reroll.

8 years ago
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You should wait the full 7 days before getting too worried about it. A winner has 7 days to activate and mark a win (same as the creator has 7 to deliver it).
He/she might not be able to activate or accept the gift right now (they may be on mobile) and are online checking the forums or something.

You can contact them on an old giveaway of theirs, or a comment on Steam (if possible) if you feel the need to do so.

8 years ago
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The full 7 days? Is this some kind of fixed time limit by steamgifts.com? I am not that worried but he seems very active and not accepting my key. Perhaps he is a bot?

8 years ago
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Yeah it's 7 days before support will consider a reroll unless they've broken a rule somewhere in the meantime.

8 years ago
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just saying... did the winner have access to the key yet? (did you put the key in the giveaway page or sent it via email?)

because if he could grab it, a reroll after 7 days will be risky since he could have activated it...

8 years ago
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He has not activated it yet.

8 years ago
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E-mail and contact the winner on Steam.
Take screenshots of both attempts.
After 7 days, put in a reroll request and link the screenshots within it, and ask staff to force Feedback or reroll, as needed.

8 years ago
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Unless I'm mistaken, the winner in question only has one non-activation, and it's over a year ago for an absolutely terrible game by an absolutely terrible dev. Given that he's won and activated significantly more valuable games, and given the dev in question, It seems likely that he asked Steam to remove the game from his account without realizing that it would give his account a black mark here.

Based on his otherwise clean account, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Like others have said, give him his week and it'll probably take care of itself.

EDIT: Wait, I forgot, I can't use the word "absolute" because it's not fair. By issuing this retraction, I understand that I will be sued in the state of Arizona.

8 years ago*
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