Steam Refunds

[Humbug]

Kotaku raises a concern

"Games that have opted not to use Steam’s DRM, which of course is usually perceived as a customer-friendly decision, can now be purchased, copied over into a different directory, and then a refund requested. With the new no-quibble policy, they’ll get their money back, and have a working copy of the game remaining on their hard drive. It is, essentially, the same shady antics that were possible when brick-n-shelving game stores would provide refunds on DRM-free boxed PC games. It was, in fact, a huge reason why boxed PC games had DRM.”

http://steamed.kotaku.com/steam-refunds-could-cause-some-big-problems-1708523970

[Bleedman0xx]

Kotaku raises a concern

http://steamed.kotaku.com/steam-refunds-could-cause-some-big-problems-1708523970

 

Quite a few good points. I doubt Valve haven't thought of all that given the fact that they reserved the right to ban users from the refund process. And in the case of returning DRM-free games, Valve gave devs the ability to disable refunds, I believe.

 

And just to stroke my ego, my name got mentioned in the WAN show. Yayy~

[Scionyde]

Quite a few good points. I doubt Valve haven't thought of all that given the fact that they reserved the right to ban users from the refund process. And in the case of returning DRM-free games, Valve gave devs the ability to disable refunds, I believe.

 

 

 

 

Source on that? If so, that's a pretty serious drawback to the refund program. If anything, I feel like Valve could tell devs that the only protection against this user dishonesty is to use Steam's DRM. But if Steam's DRM - which is generally fine - is the cost of a pretty fair refund policy such as this, then I'm fine with it.

 

Anyway, to address Kotaku's original point, GoG has had a DRM-free refund policy without issue. At least I assume it's been without issue, I haven't heard of any problems... Granted, Valve's a much bigger player, and so problems will become more readily apparent.  

[ofr057]

gamesutra did a good write up.

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AndrewPellerano/20150604/245208/Steam_Refund__Friend_or_Foe.php

[Clyne]

BTW they take up to like 7 days to refund your money back

[Bleedman0xx]

BTW they take up to like 7 days to refund your money back

Yup. Valve said as much when they announced this on day one. All you had to do was read.

[Psykomantis00]

I bought planet explorers and HATED it. Within 20 minutes I refunded the game. It's going to take 5-7 days to get a refund... wat... I actually ended up buying the game again because my friends like it and I'm now hosting a server for them but I now had to pay for the game twice because the refund takes a year to process. The payment was instant, the refund should be instant. 

[Adriel]

just to let you know, steam said no for GTA V refund there reason was i played more than 2 hours, what a shame

 

Not neccessarily, I played the game for 2 hours 38 minutes and managed to get a refund, so it's definitely not a hard line but rather a guideline. I suppose it also has to do with why you're refunding it. I struggled to get it to run on my laptop (fools mission, but I had high hopes) and the cpu wouldn't render the roads and buildings quick enough while I was driving. So I gave up, thought I wouldn't get a refund because 2h limit, but tried anyway. Just got the money back today, took 4 days, Friday until Tuesday.

[Nexxus]

I bought planet explorers and HATED it. Within 20 minutes I refunded the game. It's going to take 5-7 days to get a refund... wat... I actually ended up buying the game again because my friends like it and I'm now hosting a server for them but I now had to pay for the game twice because the refund takes a year to process. The payment was instant, the refund should be instant. 

Ya I had to wait like a month to get refunded on a laptop I returned...getting refunds instantly isnt how things work when you buy things online.

[Psykomantis00]

Ya I had to wait like a month to get refunded on a laptop I returned...getting refunds instantly isnt how things work when you buy things online.

I mean I get that, you have to mail a physical object back to them. Electronic purchases on digital goods should be instant though. 

[Nexxus]

I mean I get that, you have to mail a physical object back to them. Electronic purchases on digital goods should be instant though. 

it had nothing to do with them getting the product back I was still waiting for weeks past when they got it.