Why does it take 7 days to refund?

[Mido]

I had money on my steam wallet. I bought a game using funds on my steam wallet. No card/bank account involved whatsoever.

I refunded a game. The refund was accepted. I have to wait 7 days before I receive the funds to my steam wallet.

Why?

[Cathulhu]

Refunds to your wallet are usually done in about 24 hours, not 7 days. Check the pending notice for an estimate.

[Mido]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

Refunds to your wallet are usually done in about 24 hours, not 7 days. Check the pending notice for an estimate.

It says within 7 days. I remember it was indeed 24 hours when I was doing my last refund a couple of months ago. But now it says 7 days.

[ShelLuser]

Depends on context, considering that we're in the middle of a sale period and getting close to the winter sale it's quite possible that support is very busy at the moment.

I've had refunds take around 1,5 weeks, but also 3 days. It depends.

[my new friend]

It actually tells you that "it can take up to 7 days" in the refund message. That is generally for external payment methods.

[crunchyfrog]

"up to 7 days" means exactly that. It does NOT mean "in your specific case" though.

If you don't involve any external payment sites or banks, then it will be quicker.

But even then, you're still going to be bound by how busy they are, whether it's after the weekend and so on.

[Kargor]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

But even then, you're still going to be bound by how busy they are, whether it's after the weekend and so on.

If the refund is accepted, I don't think there's any manual process after that. Steam would super-dumb to issue these payments manually.

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

Originally posted by Mido:

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

Refunds to your wallet are usually done in about 24 hours, not 7 days. Check the pending notice for an estimate.

It says within 7 days. I remember it was indeed 24 hours when I was doing my last refund a couple of months ago. But now it says 7 days.

Yes up to within 7 days. Money doesn't just magically appear and disappear on a whim. Transactions must be initiated, accepted between banks and Valve etc etc.

[Mido]

Originally posted by Damp Wizard Sleeve:

Originally posted by Mido:

It says within 7 days. I remember it was indeed 24 hours when I was doing my last refund a couple of months ago. But now it says 7 days.

Yes up to within 7 days. Money doesn't just magically appear and disappear on a whim. Transactions must be initiated, accepted between banks and Valve etc etc.

What banks?

[Mido]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

"up to 7 days" means exactly that. It does NOT mean "in your specific case" though.

If you don't involve any external payment sites or banks, then it will be quicker.

But even then, you're still going to be bound by how busy they are, whether it's after the weekend and so on.

Refunds requests are decided manually so why would they do anything else manually after that?

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Kargor:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

But even then, you're still going to be bound by how busy they are, whether it's after the weekend and so on.

If the refund is accepted, I don't think there's any manual process after that. Steam would super-dumb to issue these payments manually.

Oh sure, if it's the automated one. I was being a bit more all eoncompassing and referring to the discretionary part too.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Mido:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

"up to 7 days" means exactly that. It does NOT mean "in your specific case" though.

If you don't involve any external payment sites or banks, then it will be quicker.

But even then, you're still going to be bound by how busy they are, whether it's after the weekend and so on.

Refunds requests are decided manually so why would they do anything else manually after that?

No the AUTOMATED refund requests are decided automatically, but if the user sends in a ticket with extenuating circumstances, a human then looks it over. There's essentially two parts to it, depending on which you go down.

[vinny]

You have to realize that Steam has thousands of refund requests, you just have to have patience. I understand that it can be tedious, but if the refund request was accepted, you'll get your money back.

[Daggoth]

once a refund has been approved there is no reason for your steam wallet to have the funds as pending for any more than say an hour, as it should be automated, even with thousands or even millions of request each day, the only reason to make people wait is to prey on peoples impatience for that money and buy what they are wanting now putting more money into steam, making steam more money, its all about making as much money as possible, redunds to external is another matter, but still shouldn't take more than a few days to a week depending on where its heading.

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

on the steam customer service stats it says..

Refund Requests 247,064   52.07 minutes to 1.56 hours

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This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.