[US] Dundle.com sent me an invalid Steam gift card code — here's what happened, and the pattern I found afterward

I bought a $25 digital Steam Wallet gift card from Dundle, paid via PayPal. The purchase went through and I got a code by email. When I tried to redeem it on Steam's official site, I got an "invalid code" error — Steam confirmed the code itself was bad, not a user error.

I contacted Dundle support and filed a PayPal dispute. Dundle's response was to tell me that filing a payment dispute would result in a permanent ban from their services.

Curious if this was a one-off, I looked at their Trustpilot reviews (they have ~77,000, averaging 3.8/5 — so this isn't a fringe operation). I found a recurring pattern worth flagging:

• Multiple reviewers report the exact same "invalid code immediately after purchase" issue
• Several describe being told to submit ID verification, then getting permanently banned over alleged "fake documents" — even when they maintain the documents were genuine
• Refund/resolution timelines in complaints commonly stretch 10+ days, sometimes weeks
• One reviewer described losing roughly $300 with only partial (about $15) returned

To be clear: Dundle is a real, licensed business (registered as an e-money institution), not an obviously fake storefront. But there's a documented pattern here of invalid codes, slow support, and aggressive account bans in response to disputes that's worth knowing about before you buy from them. The reviews are like a warzone between 1 star and 5 star of which I believe the 5 stars are botted.. They need to be stopped