Steam's New Refund Policy

[CrashFu]

For those of you who didn't catch the announcement (or just didn't read it)

Valve will now be giving out refunds for any reason within 14 days of purchasing a game as long as you have less than two hours of playtime

They've even specifically stated that they DON'T consider it an abuse of the system to ask for a refund and then re-buy a game because it went on sale after you bought it, although presumably the 14-day and 2-hour-playtime limits still count.

Of course, you'd be sending the message that you personally don't think the game's developers DESERVED full price. But if that's the message you want to send, then go for it.


I was tempted to post this in KF2 General, because it seems relevant to all the people who were crying over the 15% sale. But then I'm sure they all have much more than two hours in the game already, so it wouldn't help them out any.

 

[Paronine]

They've also said they'll look into games players have had longer than 14 days on a case-by-case basis. I'm tempted to ask for a refund on a couple games I couldn't get into, only played for less than two hours, and know I'll never play again. If I could get a bit of Steam credit back for 'em, I'd be thrilled.

 

[CrashFu]

They've also said they'll look into games players have had longer than 14 days on a case-by-case basis. I'm tempted to ask for a refund on a couple games I couldn't get into, only played for less than two hours, and know I'll never play again. If I could get a bit of Steam credit back for 'em, I'd be thrilled.

If you have any success getting refunds on those, let us know! I can only think of one or two games in my entire several-hundred-game library that I'd even want to ask a refund on, myself, but I'm curious as to how accomodating they are on refund requests post 14 days / 2 hours.


Also it just hit me... if someone gets a refund on a game, do they lose the right to write a review on it?

It always bugged me that they'd let people with like 0.1 hours listed as their playtime post reviews for any reason other than "unplayable on my OS / Hardware". Someone gets a game dirt cheap or free from a friend, they can just install and run it for three minutes, and then go write a BS bad review just to grief the developers. You might say "Yeah but people will see their lack of playtime and ignore the review" but when you've got a big group of people all doing this, all rating up each others' BS reviews, and rating down everyone elses, they completely drown out the opinions of everyone who actually HAVE played the game. Yes, I've actually seen this done before..

What I'm getting at is, if anyone can buy a game for whatever it costs, write a BS review, get an instant refund and have their review stay up... this kind of abuse is going to get way more common. Any group with a political agenda will be able to assassinate a game's review score and reputation at no cost to themselves. They'll be able to bully entire developers off of steam altogether..

 

[nejcooo]

This system sounds super abusive and I'm suprised that it even exists and will be suprised if it doesn't get "nerfed"

 

[Paronine]

If you have any success getting refunds on those, let us know! I can only think of one or two games in my entire several-hundred-game library that I'd even want to ask a refund on, myself, but I'm curious as to how accomodating they are on refund requests post 14 days / 2 hours.

Update: I purchased Divinity: Original Sin back in January, realized very quickly that I wasn't going to get into it, and hadn't played it since. I had 92 minutes on it.

Today, I requested a refund for it with the money set to go to my Steam Wallet, and within an hour, they responded and approved my request. Now the funds are pending, and they should be in my Steam Wallet within seven days.

Whether or not it helped that they knew I'd turn around and buy something on Steam with my refund, I can't tell. But I'm glad I got the refund so I can save it for a game I really want and know I'll play a lot. If there's a game you've had for a while that you played less than two hours of, I'd say it's worth a shot trying to get a refund on it. Ask for it to go to the Steam Wallet - since, come on, you'll buy something on Steam again eventually - and it might improve your chances of them accepting it.

 

[Nenjin]

That'd be an interesting data point to know. Whether "cash" refunds versus Wallet monies results in a faster refund (after accounting for the usual banking delays like the 5-Business-Day thing.) Maybe it's obvious since Steam can keep the entire transaction to refunding your Steam wallet internal.

 

[jennie888]

This system sounds super abusive and I'm suprised that it even exists and will be suprised if it doesn't get "nerfed"

True to every sense of the word.