Normal business practice?

[Stumpy da Porkchop]

Hello all,
Is it normal business practice for Steam/Valve to refuse refunds? I had purchased a game from their store and then decided against it. I had not launched the game once since I purchased it, yet they refused to give me my money back. I had submitted 2-3 tickets for a refund, and each one of them was denied.

Has anyone else experienced this?

[Zest]

There is a clear refund policy, 14 days from the day of purchase and less than 2 hours played. So long as you fall into that category, you get your refund 100% of the time.
https://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/

[Stumpy da Porkchop]

Yep I am clearly in the right to get a refund according to their return policy, as I tried to refund it the next day and had not played a single minute of it since the purchase.

[B l u e b e r r y P o p t a r t]

Not saying you did this but if you refunded a bit of games they could have seen it as abuse of the system and could have revoked your refund privileges.

[wuddih]

what is the error message?

[Sleepy Yoshi]

Play time from both family sharing and free weekends count towards the 'two hour' limit. So if you play x game for 6 hours during a free weekend (or from family sharing) and then purchase it, you'd be outside the refund window.

Not sure if that applies to you, but figured it was worth bringing up as it may be applicable since you didn't say you have never played it, but only that you haven't since purchasing it.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Last purchase was on Oct 10th. A bit over 2 weeks by now.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Stumpy da Porkchop:

Yep I am clearly in the right to get a refund according to their return policy, as I tried to refund it the next day and had not played a single minute of it since the purchase.

1. Post the name of the game.

2. Make your profile public, as they are friends only by default now.

[Start_Running]

I'm getting the feeling you're not telling us the whole story OP, but here's another thing.
If the game you purchased was part of a bundle then playing any game in that bundle for more than 2 hours will invalidate the refund.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Last purchase was on Oct 10th. A bit over 2 weeks by now.

:qr:

I'm no rocket scientist, but if my math right, and even a child, or a train monkey can figure this out, this was over just about 2 months, or about 60 days ago. Just started the obvious if this is the case for OP. Which is far surpasses the 14 days mark of ownership.

[Stumpy da Porkchop]

Originally posted by Sleepy Yoshi:

Play time from both family sharing and free weekends count towards the 'two hour' limit. So if you play x game for 6 hours during a free weekend (or from family sharing) and then purchase it, you'd be outside the refund window.

Not sure if that applies to you, but figured it was worth bringing up as it may be applicable since you didn't say you have never played it, but only that you haven't since purchasing it.

It looks like this was it. I played the game while it was on free weekend a few months ago. I surpassed the 2hr limit. Is this info posted in their refund policy documentation?

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Stumpy da Porkchop:

It looks like this was it. I played the game while it was on free weekend a few months ago. I surpassed the 2hr limit. Is this info posted in their refund policy documentation?

It still falls under playtime, so does not need to be specified. If the game was in use, it counts and playtime is accumulative, even between refunds.

I suggest following Drab's post here to request the refund. Be sure to state that the playtime was during a free weekend.

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/1745605598719777923/#c1745605598719791907

[wuddih]

Originally posted by Stumpy da Porkchop:

Originally posted by Sleepy Yoshi:

Play time from both family sharing and free weekends count towards the 'two hour' limit. So if you play x game for 6 hours during a free weekend (or from family sharing) and then purchase it, you'd be outside the refund window.

Not sure if that applies to you, but figured it was worth bringing up as it may be applicable since you didn't say you have never played it, but only that you haven't since purchasing it.

It looks like this was it. I played the game while it was on free weekend a few months ago. I surpassed the 2hr limit. Is this info posted in their refund policy documentation?

https://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/
of course it is.
"less than two hours of playtime"
it is not "less than two hours of playtime after purchase.
overall playtime counts.

that this is not a mistake and you can see that on the refunds for DLC where it is specificly mentioned that it is "if the underlying title has been played for less than two hours since the DLC was purchased"

normal legal business practice would be ZERO hours

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Riedy:

https://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/

Free weekend aren't specified, as it doesn't matter how you accumulated 2 hours of playtime.

Still counts as playtime.

But submitting a ticket and explaining it (and since they can verify it as well) has a better chance of being an exception (from what I have seen).

ANY use of the game is counted under playtime.