Question Regarding Gemstore Gifting

I have a very casual friend I play with on occasion. And I mean very casual as in he just barely upgraded from FTP to a core account and he is only lvl 47. I mentioned to him that there was the free Halloween Fortune Fireworks event going on and he could use it to get a free gemstore item. He wanted to gift me this item because "You'll get more use than I will." However we found out that even though he is a paid core account, he still cannot gift the gemstore item.

I looked everywhere to figure out what restrictions are in place and I can't seem to find any.

A little information to help get a good answer. I'm looking for the restrictions on accounts for gifting items. He upgraded last month to a paid account. He's been "playing" very sparingly for the better part of 5 months now.

The exact message is "This feature is currently disabled. Please try again later."

Any additional information would help me understand why he can't gift? Thanks!

Is it only this item he can't gift? Or is it everything? It might be that the restriction isn't on his account but on free items, so people with multiple accounts can't stock up on them on their main account.

My second account (which started as a free account and was upgraded) can gift gem store items, and the highest level character on it is level 39 and I've never bought anything from the gem store, so I think it's not something that needs to be unlocked. I didn't think to check with the fireworks but I seem to remember there were free items before which I wasn't able to gift to my main account.

He can still gift it to you in a way, it's just less convenient - he can claim it himself and then use the fireworks when you're around too, so you get the magic find buff from it. For best effect do it in Lion's Arch or the Mad King's Labyrinth so lots of people get it.

@Danikat.8537 said:Is it only this item he can't gift? Or is it everything? It might be that the restriction isn't on his account but on free items, so people with multiple accounts can't stock up on them on their main account.

To clarify his entire account is restricted from gifting. I also talked to someone in the Labyrinth a week ago and they said they were able to gift the 100% free fireworks to their main account for farming. So anecdotally it shouldn't be restricted just because it's 100% off.

It depends on the items and the type of account. Some free items can be gifted; some can't.

When you say "entire account is restricted from gifting," what does that mean? Do they have gems? Can they (begin to) purchase items for themselves? Do they see the gift box icon? (If yes, what happens when they try to select it?)

I suspect that there's something else going on than just "can't gift."

Yes you can begin to purchase something with 0 gems. It will at least if I recall correctly, prompt you to purchase gems for the transaction. If they select the gift icon it says "This feature is currently disabled. Please try again later." and as I said earlier, every item that is giftable says that.

I'm looking to narrow down the cause because the wiki isn't very clear on how the gemstore is restricted to new or lower level accounts.

To prevent scammers and other illicit party from abusing accounts bought with stolen credit cards and such, accounts have many restrictions that slowly get lifted as time passes. It’s to prevent things like buying tons of stuff with stolen card, then gift/mail everything before anet finds out and bans the new account. Things like gifting, mailing, sending gold, etc. all take between 3~30 days to unlock from the moment the account was upgraded from free account (not when the free account was created).

Mailing gold is the longest wait and requires waiting 30 days before you can mail more than 1g. Maybe gifting gem store items requires waiting 30 days just like mailing gold? I’m almost certain I could gift before 30 days, but this could be a different situation or things may have changed.

@BlueJin.4127 said:To prevent scammers and other illicit party from abusing accounts bought with stolen credit cards and such, accounts have many restrictions that slowly get lifted as time passes. It’s to prevent things like buying tons of stuff with stolen card, then gift/mail everything before anet finds out and bans the new account. Things like gifting, mailing, sending gold, etc. all take between 3~30 days to unlock from the moment the account was upgraded from free account (not when the free account was created).

Mailing gold is the longest wait and requires waiting 30 days before you can mail more than 1g. Maybe gifting gem store items requires waiting 30 days just like mailing gold? I’m almost certain I could gift before 30 days, but this could be a different situation or things may have changed.

Thank you, however I do believe his account upgrade has been applied greater than 30 days ago. We will see if it gets unlocked and when. I was wondering if it was level restrictions on the gemstore or TP because he's only lvl 47 but I think he has already unlocked those for his account.