Why does the refund take so long?

[JuanCa~.~]

It's been over a week since I had made a refund of the GTA V game on my VISA credit card. And I still do not get the money, how is it possible that it takes so long? Sometimes I think that I will not get there or I will get to the steam portfolio, which I do not want. I want my money on my VISA card. So difficult?

[ecznos]

Refunds to CC could take up to 2–4 weeks.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

You refund by making a requests on Steam correct?
Did they replied back to you? If so, what exactly did they say to you?

It may take a few business days for Steam to refund, and few business days for your credit card *Visa* to process it. If there was an issue, check if it's on your credit card end, if not your credit card end, then contact Steam about it.

[Sim]

Most refunds towards your credit cards, not just Steam, can take from 2/3 days to 4 weeks to process, you will eventually receive a refund, don't worry. If you see that in at least 4 weeks you haven't received your refund, please first contact your bank and then Steam support.

[canes jr-iwnl-]

i hoensty hate that

[Sir_0v3rk1ll]

I dont have a problem with that. I would love it if they allow at least 3 hours of gameplay. Some games take more than 2 hours to see if you want to keep it. Especially if the game has a big updated and its counting the time sitting there downloading as part of the game time.

[Teksura]

Oh hey I get to post this again.

For anyone who wants to actually know how banks transfer money, here are some good explanations that will help you understand why it takes a week or 2 to get your refund:


https://gendal.me/2013/11/24/a-simple-explanation-of-how-money-moves-around-the-banking-system/
https://www.currencycloud.com/en-us/news/blog/how-money-moves/
https://www.quora.com/How-does-money-transfer-between-banks-and-different-countries-work



To put it as simple as possible for those unwilling to click the link and read pages and pages of this:

When you deposit money in your bank, that bank owes you money. When you transfer money to a different bank (such as through a purchase), that other bank doesn't want to owe that amount of money to whoever you pay unless they are owed the same amount as well. This works well when the 2 banks hold accounts with each other, because they can modify the balance in those accounts to cover it. But sometimes they have to go through a third, fourth, or fifth bank just to connect the two of them if they don't have accounts with each other.



Is it possible to send an instant transfer? Yes, but that system has a fee attached to it (because someone owns that system) and it's usually better to wait until a certain time when you have a whole bunch of transactions so you can just worry about the net difference between them between the 2 banks. This allows hundreds or even thousands of transactions to become 1.

And that's why it can take "up to 7 days" for the funds to actually get to where they are going. It is simply easier and more economical to deal with small transactions en masse. If we were to imagine a human being saying it it might go something like this: "Over the last week, we owe you $X and you owe us $Y so to cover this we will credit the difference of $Z to your account with us and then you will owe all this money to these accounts, and we'll owe all this money to the ones on that list you're giving us."

In those cases where you request a refund shortly after making the purchase, you may see the funds appear within 24 hours. This is because the money never actually left your account, but rather the bank put it on hold until they did that transfer, but then the refund request came in so they simply released the funds back to you.



Now, all of that said, Steam refunds to wallet do touch the banking system to some extent. When you buy from Valve, Valve then owes money to the publishers and developers of the game. Remember how it's more economical to do these small transactions en masse? Same thing. They most likely sit on it and at the end of the week (or whatever) they go to the bank and say "Please send this much to these accounts", just like the banks and many other retailers do. If they haven't done that yet, it's easy for them to deal with because it's still (kinda) internal. They just count 1 less sale for that developer when it comes time to pay them.

But what happens if the money is already moving to the developer? well, that is where I can't say for sure. But I can say it sure sounds like it complicates matters a bit. And if you actually followed my post, you'll know it was REALLY complicated to begin with. And this was the SIMPLE version.

[76561198407601200]

Originally posted by 0V3RKILL:

I dont have a problem with that. I would love it if they allow at least 3 hours of gameplay. Some games take more than 2 hours to see if you want to keep it. Especially if the game has a big updated and its counting the time sitting there downloading as part of the game time.

That's because the 2 hour time limit allows you to discover and hopefully fix any bugs before resorting to a refund. If you are capable of typing on a forum, you are capable of researching a game before purchasing.

[Hung Wang]

why didnt u like the game? why u no read reviews?

[Sir_0v3rk1ll]

Originally posted by The Living Tribunal:

Originally posted by 0V3RKILL:

I dont have a problem with that. I would love it if they allow at least 3 hours of gameplay. Some games take more than 2 hours to see if you want to keep it. Especially if the game has a big updated and its counting the time sitting there downloading as part of the game time.

That's because the 2 hour time limit allows you to discover and hopefully fix any bugs before resorting to a refund. If you are capable of typing on a forum, you are capable of researching a game before purchasing.

that has nothing to do with download time with patches while game is running which is a big problem with 2 hour limit or you didn’t read all my post? IM guessing you didn't. Ok well, For example elder scroll online. more than two hours of patch download right there and I have 50MBps down. By the time I got to make my account I already passed 2 hours. By the time I asked for the refund it was too late. Please next time try to understand others. have some empathy instead of jumping to your snappy attitude of making fun of others like if you knew more than anyone. I’ve been in steam longer than you so don't lecture me about steam. Anyway I said what I want to say, Unsubed.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by 0V3RKILL:

that has nothing to do with download time with patches while game is running which is a big problem with 2 hour limit or you didn’t read all my post? IM guessing you didn't. Ok well, For example elder scroll online. more than two hours of patch download right there and I have 50MBps down. By the time I got to make my account I realized the game was not for me. By the time I asked for the refund it was too late. Please next time try to understand others. have some empathy instead of jumping to your snappy attitude of making fun of others like if you knew more than anyone. I’ve been in steam longer than you so don't lecture me about steam. Anyway I said what I want to say, Unsubed.

It makes no difference how long the playtime limit would be. No matter how long it would be, even if more than 2 hours, someone would always complain and want more time.

Not sure why that ever needs to be explained. Someone will always just be baaarely over the limit, and say they need to allow "special consideration" for their case.

2 hours is plenty of time. You agreed to the policy when you purchased any the game on Steam, at the checkout page. There, it clearly tells you, from the SSA linked that you have to agree to, that you will get 2 hours. Pretty ironic, as you seem to go on about others not reading something.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

Originally posted by 0V3RKILL:

that has nothing to do with download time with patches while game is running which is a big problem with 2 hour limit or you didn’t read all my post? IM guessing you didn't. Ok well, For example elder scroll online. more than two hours of patch download right there and I have 50MBps down. By the time I got to make my account I realized the game was not for me. By the time I asked for the refund it was too late. Please next time try to understand others. have some empathy instead of jumping to your snappy attitude of making fun of others like if you knew more than anyone. I’ve been in steam longer than you so don't lecture me about steam. Anyway I said what I want to say, Unsubed.

It makes no difference how long the playtime limit would be. No matter how long it would be, even if more than 2 hours, someone would always complain and want more time.

Not sure why that ever needs to be explained. Someone will always just be baaarely over the limit, and say they need to allow "special consideration" for their case.

2 hours is plenty of time. You agreed to the policy when you purchased any game on Steam, at the checkout page. There, it clearly tells you, from the SSA linked that you have to agree to, that you will get 2 hours. Pretty ironic, as you seem to go on about others not reading something.

^This, and sometimes they do exceptions for those two hours, but indefinitely not for the 14 days period of owning the product that's a firm stance agasint anyone wanting a refund after 14 days of owning the product, which is way more than enough time to even download the game, and start it up at some point.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

^This, and sometimes they do exceptions for those two hours, but indefinitely not for the 14 days period of owning the product that's a firm stance agasint anyone wanting a refund after 14 days of owning the product, which is way more than enough time to even download the game, and start it up at some point.

That's true, as sometimes exceptions are made as you exampled. Thanks.