Steam Refunds

[the gish]

We're releasing a major update to how we handle requests for refunds for purchases on Steam. You can read through all the details about refunds on Steam here, or visit https://help.steampowered.com if you’re having trouble with a purchase. We hope this will give you more confidence in trying out titles that you're less certain about.

Let us know what you think.

[Tripas]

I.... who.... when... WHAT?

Refunds? On Steam? OK, that's it, we're done, this is a clear sign of the end of times, we're all screwed. We had a good run while it lasted, but apparently Armageddon is coming for us all.

(seriously though Valve, it's about freaking time. Still, good on you )

[NateFantastic]

Bonkers

in a good way

[ACid DrinkeR]

This is really great.

The /steam_refunds page is a little unclear about the "2 hour" rule. I'm pretty sure it can be easily exploited by just going offline. Any light upon this matter?

Also, will the refund be automated or will it be routed through the customer service portal?

[thom-22]

Wow. It's nice to see a decent, consumer-friendly policy, even this:

"We do not consider it abuse to request a refund on a title that was purchased just before a sale and then immediately rebuying that title for the sale price."

[Psymon²]

"We do not consider it abuse to request a refund on a title that was purchased just before a sale and then immediately rebuying that title for the sale price."
AWESOME

[ACid DrinkeR]

Originally posted by Conker:

I like that you are finally offering refunds but i think the playtime should be extended to 3 or 4 hours, you might not run into problems in the first 2 hours of play. It also took me a long time to get the original Max Payne games to work and would show that i was playing the game even though it didn't actually open the game in a new window, so if i hadn't been trying to fix it i might not have known i was still technically in the game even though i couldn't play it.

I beg to disagree. 2 hours is a lot of time for 99% of the users to "give up" on the game. Sure there will always be people as dedicated as you, but if I can't get a 'modern' game to work in the first 30 minutes; it's useless for me.

On the other hand, 4 hours is a lot of time. There are tons of indie games which can be completed in a couple of hours. Not only that, many games just offer a couple of novelty hours and that's it. I think 2 hours is a very good, if not a generous amount of time.

Of course I'm assuming that people don't abuse it by playing in offline mode.

[Aurielle ^^]

Very big thumbs up. Great to see refunds offered also for already played games. Keep it coming!

[WubWubWonder]

get to it then, been waiting for four days with no reply

Ticket number 5062-ADLV-2546

[muckymucks]

Originally posted by samwonderuk:

get to it then, been waiting for four days with no reply

Ticket number 5062-ADLV-2546

Only four days? Sit tight, you'll be waiting at least another four weeks.Steam Support hasn't improved THAT much.

[Websteroni]

Steam now offers refunds!

http://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/

_____________________________________________________________________

"You can request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam — for any reason," the official page states. "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 reasoning doesn't seem that important, as long as a few milestones haven't been crossed in your play.

"Valve will, upon request via help.steampowered.com, issue a refund for any reason, if the request is made within fourteen days of purchase, and the title has been played for less than two hours," the company explained. "There are more details below, but even if you fall outside of the refund rules we’ve described, you can ask for a refund anyway and we’ll take a look."

The rules for most games purchased via Steam seem to be pretty cut and dry: If you played it under two hours you can get a full refund within two weeks, and it's possible you can still see a refund in other situations depending on Valve's evaluation of the situation.

DLC may be refunded at the same basic terms, although "Steam will be unable to give refunds for some third party DLC (for example, if the DLC irreversibly levels up a game character)."

If you have questions you can read the post for other edge cases, including in-game purchases and refunds on bundles, but this is a huge step forward for the service.

Steam is, by far, the most popular way players buy games online and offering refunds in this time frame will hopefully allow players to buy with a bit more confidence. It will also allow the service to monitor problem games if refund queries spike around certain titles.

"You can request a refund or get other assistance with your Steam purchases at help.steampowered.com," the company said.

- Polygon

[Noodliest]

Damn... Within 14 days and less then 2 hours played. Fml, thought I could get rid of all my trash games.

:(

[fug4life]

Its good a thing, especially since game demos are a thing of the past. Steam support office you're going to need your

[darghe]

Now if they would add a point for discontinued Early Access titles.
Maybe not even for those who actually had plausible reasons that it got discontinued, maybe sickness or the support wasnt enough. But for cheap reasons like "nah I dont feel like it anymore"...
I am looking at you, Windborne

[Miranda]

It says on the refund page that they'll look into refunding a game even if it doesn't meet all of the requirements, where do I go to do that? I ask because I bought a game well over a year ago and only played it for 30 minutes, and it'd be really nice if I could get my money back.

[SleepyKirin]

damn i was hoping to refund evolve worse purchuse iv made