Unable to buy more copies of the game

[rainbow]

Hi, I'm trying to buy a few copies of the game to give away this holiday season, but unfortunately the Humble Store gives me an error:

Order Canceled

We can only sell a limited quantity of Factorio . We have canceled your order and will not charge you. Please try again later.
If you feel this is an error, please contact our support team.

Sorry for the inconvenience. If you still have this problem after retrying, please contact us and we will get it sorted out. Our support ninjas are on duty Weekdays from 9AM to 6PM PST.

I don't know if this is a generic error and they are out of Factorio keys, or if it's a personal error for me because I bought the game too many times already. If it's the latter, I think it's a bit silly to put a limit on it.

Either way, what can I do to be able to purchase more copies through the Humble widget? I tried a different email address but that didn't work, and I don't have any other payment method to try (and unfortunately going through Steam is not really an option in my particular case).

[BenSeidel]

It's an anti-fraud mechanism.
Most sites implement these sorts of measures as the "discount" software sites get stolen credit cards and make bulk purchases that they then on-sell, effectively laundering the stolen cash.

Anyway, that's the reason. Not sure about a solution.

[Rseding91]

I'd try what the error says: contact support.

[rainbow]

Heh I thought that maybe it was a configuration option for the widget on your side. I contacted support and will see what they say.

[rainbow]

Reply from Humble Bundle support.

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you encountered while trying to purchase Factorio! We employ purchase limits to combat fraud and enforce our terms of service. These measures are entirely automated, and we’re sorry you’ve been caught up in that.

While we encourage multiple purchases for personal use and limited gifting, our Terms of Service limit how the keys can be used, and how many we can distribute. If you’re attempting to buy for multiple friends or family members, that’s very generous of you, but in this case they may need to make the purchase for themselves.

I apologize for any inconvenience caused. I hope we can make it up to you in the future with more deals on great games. Thank you again for writing in to us, and please let me know if you have any further questions.

Bit strange I think. I mean which store really limits how many times you can buy some product from them (except some very particular items perhaps, such as baby food in the supermarkets in my country). Especially because it's the factorio.com widget to purchase the game full price, and not some discount deal or bundle. A bit disappointing because I love gifting the game and now I can't, unless I first add the people to Steam as friends (ie. no surprise gifting or whatever).

[Zavian]

Well if most of people who try to buy multiple copies of a game in a short period of time are using stolen credit card data, then why wouldn't a store start limiting sales to prevent that type of theft?

[rainbow]

Well if most of people who try to buy multiple copies of a game in a short period of time are using stolen credit card data, then why wouldn't a store start limiting sales to prevent that type of theft?

I agree that some rate limiting makes sense to prevent fraud, but there is a big difference between "trying to purchase 3 copies during Christmas, when 3 copies were bought during last Christmas also", and "trying to purchase a bajillion copies at some random time" (I know it's an exaggeration, but really it's not like I was trying to buy 50 copies or something). Usually rate limiting has a timeout, they could for example allow people to buy more copies again over time (eg. "decay" by 1 per month or something like that). Prevents fraud, allows "normal people" to buy many copies over a long period of time.

[rainbow]

So apparently I misunderstood the message from the support person and asked to clarify if the limit is indefinite, but I got as a reply

The purchase limits generally do reset automatically. It can take anywhere from 24 hours to several days after the last purchase attempt.

You're more than welcome to wait until the limit resets and check back again sometime in the near future to see if you can purchase another copy.

Definitely more than 24 hours in my case, but it's good to hear know that it will reset again eventually.