Valve’s Steam service has been great for the six months or so I’ve had it. I’ve been able to buy games and play them without needing to wait for a delivery. That changed last evening when I attempted to buy a game. that was on sale. (UPDATED 5/26/10)
I tried to purchase Majesty 2 via Steam, which was on sale for $7.50. I had money in my Paypal account for this purpose so I added the game to my cart and went through the checkout process. 
I chose Paypal as my source for payment and completed the Paypal checkout. When returned to Steam, I clicked Purchase and was greeted by an error stating:
Your purchase has not been completed.
The payment processor has reported an authorization failure. Please select a different payment method
Paypal failed
Odd. I knew my balance was good. I checked Paypal and there weren’t any problems with my account. Today, I decided to take another swing at it with my credit card. This time I was told my card had been declined by the credit card processor and I might want to contact the issuer to find out why. I called them and they said they never saw the charge come through.
credit card failed
Immediately after the first problem with Paypal, I had submitted a question to Steam’s tech support (annoyingly the only way to contact them) and up until now, almost 18 hours later, I still haven’t received a response. I am also still unable to purchase games via Steam. Maybe they don’t want/need my money?
Has this happened to you? If so, were you able to get it resolved?
UPDATE 5/26/10:
My account has been “unlocked” and I can now successfully purchase games on Steam.
I received an email:
I have removed the lock on your account. Due to the risk of fraud our billing system is automated, and will put a lock on any account that fails authorization at any point during the verification process. We do apologize for the inconvienience this may cause, but appreciate your patience in the issue. If this issue requires further investigation, please reply to this message within seven days via e-mail or re-open this case by logging into the Steam Support Site to receive an expedited response
Figures, I’m a first time customer(maybe not now) and I get this bull***, 2 credit cards, 2 paypal accounts, 2 steam accounts…and I still cannot purchase stuff, due to steams wacked out settings.
Even if I don’t argue with piracy with steam being the only other option on many games, I can understand it… It won’t even let me legally buy games during a sale. -_-
I’m having the same problem, I tried countless times and I’ve done some research into my funds, which are fine. Hoping this works just like yours did. Thanks for the help and the update.
you could have gotten youself a second account and then you could have gifted it to your main account.
ive been trying to get killing floor, and its on sale for 5 $ right NOW, ad steam keeps giving me errors! my gift card im using still has 13.89 on it (mastercardvannilla) and killing loor is 5$…. it says creditcard failed. anyone know a soulotion?!?!?!
I contacted Steam and they refunded my money. I was not able to get at discounted price however which annoyed me slightly. However, I will continue to trust and use Steam
It took them about a day and a half to get back to me.
it sounds like my friend is having this same problem… he hasn’t got a response from steam support back yet though…
I hope they hurry, I need to play DoW with him!