Valve to start offering 14day/2hr playtime refunds for all Steam games

[darkewaffle]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/06/valve-begins-offering-refunds-for-all-steam-games/

Nice idea but customer service has never been Steam's forte either lol - could get messy. It would also be nice if it was a bit more integrated into the client - it sounds like you have to go to through the website to submit a support ticket for it. That said I'm glad to see them offering it and also appreciate them outright saying "If you abuse it, we will take it away from you."

 

[BlueWeasel]

Your post beat mine by 2 minutes.

"You can request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam—for any reason. Maybe your PC doesn't meet the hardware requirements; maybe you bought a game by mistake; maybe you played the title for an hour and just didn't like it," the policy now states. "It doesn't matter."

The updated policy applies not just to games, but also DLC, in-game purchases, pre-purchases, bundles, and even funds added to your Steam Wallet. The only conditions, generally speaking, is that the refund request must be made within two weeks of the original purchase, and the content in question must have less than two hours of playtime. And if you happen to fall outside of those conditions, it's not necessarily the end of the story: "You can ask for a refund anyway and we'll take a look," Valve wrote.

Kinda amazed at this. The 14 days/2 hours of gametime allowance is much more than I expected. Overall, I think this is very fair and hope it doesn't get abused.

 

[CPA]

Good. And thanks to Ubisoft for this. I'm sure their refund policy pushed Valve in this direction.

 

[exar333]

Thats a pretty logical and sane return policy. I like it. Also nice to have some leeway too, for maybe 15 days/0 hours or 10 days/2.5hrs or something that is close, but could be allowed per discretion.

Not sure if this was done to prevent a lawsuit, or just out of goodwill, but hopefully this sets a good precedent for other services.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

LOL, my first thought was "does this apply to previous Steam purchases made when this policy didn't exist, for up to 14 days after this new policy takes effect?". Lots of people could use their steam libraries as sort of...savings accounts if so. heh.

 

[Tsavo]

What timing. Just this morning, I wanted a way to refund Dirt Rally...and there it is.



Thanks for the heads up.

 

[JTsyo]

So now when you buy a game and it goes on sale for 50% during the weekend, you have an out? nice.

 

[Tsavo]

So now when you buy a game and it goes on sale for 50% during the weekend, you have an out? nice.

They probably don't give many outs.

 

[ImpulsE69]

They probably don't give many outs.

It says you can also apply it to 2 week lead time of sales pricing. (assuming you didn't play it for 2 hours).

 

[Artorias]

Good. And thanks to Ubisoft for this. I'm sure their refund policy pushed Valve in this direction.

Actually you can also thank Origin/EA and the European Union, I'm pretty sure Valve was going to get sued by the EU when they wouldn't offer any refunds whatsoever, but you know things called consumer protection laws exist.

 

[KeithTalent]

This is awesome.

KT

 

[OCNewbie]

Very pleased to see this

 

[smackababy]

Actually you can also thank Origin/EA and the European Union, I'm pretty sure Valve was going to get sued by the EU when they wouldn't offer any refunds whatsoever, but you know things called consumer protection laws exist.

Origin / EA did something good? No way! Unbelievable.

 

[WiseUp216]

I wonder if this will have an indirect effect on the quality of early access releases. Some of the more hyped early access games might wait until they're a bit more playable to avoid a rush of refunds.

H1Z1 comes to mind as an example of one that had a lot of hate for a couple weeks after release.

 

[Elixer]

Not sure I understand the time limitations.
You can play games in "offline" mode, then binge the game for a few days, then uninstall it, then ask for refund.

 

[shortylickens]

They wouldnt need this if they had demos.

 

[Man I Suck]

I want a refund for DayZ Standalone but every time I ask I get told to screw off. Maybe they'll oblige this time.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Not sure I understand the time limitations.
You can play games in "offline" mode, then binge the game for a few days, then uninstall it, then ask for refund.

Doesn't the Steam software still record your play time and send those stats to Valve immediately when you go online again (which I bet you have to do in order to refund).

 

[TeknoBug]

Very nice, with the flood of early access (and indie) games, half of them are utter junk and aren't worth paying $22 for, so this gives a chance to try it out within 2 hours and then dump it if it sucks.

 

[Man I Suck]

Very nice, with the flood of early access (and indie) games, half of them are utter junk and aren't worth paying $22 for, so this gives a chance to try it out within 2 hours and then dump it if it sucks.

Fat chance. I tried this and their support page basically says buzz off we don't support early access games. I even put in a ticket. It flat out tells you that early access games require going to the publisher.

This so-called "new" refund policy is turning out to be a cluster.

 

[Craig234]

"hope it doesn't get abused."

I laughed out loud.

 

[Tsavo]

Fat chance. I tried this and their support page basically says buzz off we don't support early access games. I even put in a ticket. It flat out tells you that early access games require going to the publisher.

This so-called "new" refund policy is turning out to be a cluster.

Hm. I put in a ticket as soon as I found out and got no such warning.

 

[mizzou]

2 hours sounds reasonable. There are several games I barely put 2 hours in and never went back (Looking at you, Operation Flashpoint-Dragon Rising!)

 

[Grooveriding]

Just got the Steam notice for this. This is great with the caveat that Steam's customer service is the worst in the business going on just my experiences when I've had to use it. I know there are anecdotes of it being atrocious for many others as well.

Going to have to see how the process pans out for customers who take advantage of it.

 

[Man I Suck]

Hm. I put in a ticket as soon as I found out and got no such warning.

The help site listed in the article doesn't even allow you to submit a request for games outside the 14 day period. I'm not sure how valid their "we'll look into it" approach is or how truthful that insinuation is. I did create a support account (which is different than your steam account) and submit a request specifically for DayZ Standalone. After submitting the ticket, in a big yellow outlined box, it basically said to piss off because it's marked Early Access.