I'm pretty sure G2 did sell some russian keys that caused issues for many issues because of region locks a few years ago. I wouldn't call reselling russian keys that require a VPN to register "legit".

Nope. THe thing is that we don't have any idea of how they get those keys so cheap. Even boxed games are not that cheap. Besides, how many times have we seen these sites selling games on PRE-ORDER for a fraction of the normal price? If they got their keys from retail boxes, they wouldn't sell games on pre-order.

Remember the Natural Selection 2 keys that were bought with false credit cards and then were revoked by Steam? Remember the stolen keys for Sniper Elite 3 that were also revoked from Steam? THis is the kind of thing that happens with those shady resellers. They don't care about where the leys come from, they just get them as cheap as possible to resell them. And the consumers are the ones taking the risk of getting a stolen key that will later be revoked.

Considering how long g2play/kinguin has been around, thats actually surprisingly tame record.

Might well be...

To remind people of the evils of cross-region scams.

Sweet.

I bought a game from one of the kinguin sites, it was either G2Play or Gameholds, anyway, the key worked, then it was revoked by Steam, I got an instant refund when I contacted them and they immediately took the product off sale. This only ever happened once. YMMV.

Those are the incidents that i remember from the top of my head. There are probably many more incidents that i have never heard about. I just know about Natural Selection 2 and Sniper Elite 3 because both made the news in most gaming sites.

Anyway, what i wanted to say is that buying from these shady retailers is a gamble. You could get a cheap key that will work forever without issues, or you could get a stolen key that will be revoked the next day. In a worst case scenario, your Steam account could be banned. That's unlikely, but not impossible, especially considering the fact that Steam's TOS clearly states that you can be banned for bypassing regional restrictions.

You can't :D

I have near 50 games from kinguin and all is fine. I have had no problems. some keys arrive instantly some take between 5-30mins All ended up arriving.

I've been getting non-stop spam mails on two gmail accounts that were in the 5 million gmail leaks not too long ago and their mailer won't let me unsubscribe. This is kind of annoying.
EDIT: nevermind, I did it wrong.

Update: Spoke to Live Chat on Kinguin.net and they resolved it in minutes. Dont bother with the complaint route.


I'd seriously advise not touching Kinguin.net with a bargepole - I recently purchased an 'Evolve' key from them, I was given a key that turned out to be a completely different game. When I raised this with them they spent a week trying to convince me that they were in touch with the key seller to get me a refund (27/08/2015 - 01/09/2015). After this date i raised a paypal dispute - when Kinguin was given an opportunity to explain this was their response:

"The claimed item is a digital good. The item is ineligible for PayPal Buyer Protection because it is intangible. In accordance to Paypal user agreement (7.3 Ineligible Items. PayPal Buyer Protection only applies to PayPal payments for certain tangible, physical goods. ) This claim should not be solved in buyers favour, no money should be refunded We would also like to emphasise that a functional product has been delivered."

The 'Functional' key they refer to here was a completly different game that I have no intention of playing...ever. Unfortunately due to the nature of redeeming keys, once the transaction is completed on steam - thats it, if it turns out to be an incorrect key there is no way to reverse the process. When I reached out to Kinguin again to resolve the issue they continously told me they were in touch with the key seller - copy and paste job with every response. They obfuscated the truth by perpetually stating they were chasing it down for me when in reality they clearly wanted it to go beyond any paypal claim date. They asked me to close the paypal claim and as such, they would provide store credit. I did this on good faith (the biggest mistake I made) and I responded in kind, requesting the store credit be paid. Unfortunately this turned out to be a ruse - they stopped communication and, not surprisingly the store credit never surfaced. When I went back to paypal, as the case had been closed by myself, there was no way to reopen and I'm left out of pocket. The whole thing has been a gigantic waste of my time trying to resolve it. I may have only lost out by £20 but it's besides the point. I recognise this is just one side of the story and I'm only one example, but if anything, if this anecdote serves anyone with the insight they need to make a decision, all i'd state is - Go elsewhere, pay that couple of pounds more and stay AWAY from Kinguin.net

Been on kinguin for more than a year with a lot of games purchased and didn't had any issues with the keys at all. Although I came across two payment issues, contacted live chat, they resolved it immediately (the contact support are REALLY friendly). One support even get me a discount code because they forgot to forward the payment on time.

on topic: contact steam and explain the situation to them. You can show kinguin that you are not lying by showing a screenshot of your latest transaction. They'll see that the item you bought was from a different key. Maybe steam can remove the game from your library.

Also contact kinguin live chat. Ask for another key. Go to live support now and tell them your situation again. They HAVE to refund you at least with their own store credit.

For future purchases go to this site which has user reviews of different shops and compares the prices of different key shops:
http://www.allkeyshop.com/blog/

"on topic: contact steam and explain the situation to them. You can show kinguin that you are not lying by showing a screenshot of your latest transaction. They'll see that the item you bought was from a different key. Maybe steam can remove the game from your library."

Tried this - as described in my post, I've been going at this for over a week with them and I'm getting no where fast. I actually revoked my paypal claim on the basis of them asking me to and it resulted in nothing from them (I feel very foolish as a result) I'll try your suggestion on the live chat.

edit: Thank you Zurvan7 - the Live Chat rep resolved it in minutes by comparison to the complaint process which took over a week. I'll make sure I do this going forward. I'll leave this on here for future reference because its simply good advise for those that get stuck in what can feel like an endless loop.

DO NOT BUY FROM KINGUIN !!!!!!!!!!!

please take 2 minutes to read my story ... kinguin is bullshit and they don't care about you as a costumer !
first of all i apologize for my English, my first language is french..

it all started a week ago when i bought a product on sale ( CS:GO 5 Premium Random Skins | Kinguin Case ) for 36$.
in the product description it says that it can have a delivery delay of 1 to 72 hours ( witch is understandable since i'm not the only one buying on this site obviously ! ) so i wait ... and wait ... and wait ... 3 days later i still haven't receive nothing! so i post a first ticket asking politely whats going on and will i receive my skins soon. the reply a couple hours later with a generic pre-written message that says they have technical problems and i will get my product as soon as possible. so i dont make a big deal out of it and wait again. a day later still nothing so i ask again. and i get that same message to shut me up !!! so i wait an other day ( a week after i bought the skins) and post another ticket ! and they didnt reply yet ! the customer service is complete crap ! they dont even care about you ... they just give you pre written answers to shut you up .. i'm pretty shure the skins ill get are going to be shit and i'll be shure to post an update on that too ! i attached the discussion to this post so you guys can have an idea