Feel bad for refunding games

[Cold_Lobster]

So i recently have refunded about 5 games at this point because they werent fun, and one of them just flat out didnt work. Why do i feel bad for refunding games?

[Crazy Tiger]

Talk to a therapist about it.

[BJWyler]

Do more research into a game before buying it and you might have less regrets.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Cold_Lobster:

So i recently have refunded about 5 games at this point because they werent fun, and one of them just flat out didnt work. Why do i feel bad for refunding games?

Doing this too often will restrict your ability to refund in the future.

tl;dr... The system will make it better.

[HisBangalore]

Me too, dunno why lol.

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by Cold_Lobster:

So i recently have refunded about 5 games at this point because they werent fun, and one of them just flat out didnt work. Why do i feel bad for refunding games?

Doing this too often will restrict your ability to refund in the future.

tl;dr... The system will make it better.

:winterbunny2023:

How many times before it constitutes as "too often"?

[Zarineth]

Originally posted by HisBangalore:

Me too, dunno why lol.

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Doing this too often will restrict your ability to refund in the future.

tl;dr... The system will make it better.

:winterbunny2023:

How many times before it constitutes as "too often"?

No one knows exactly. But support will give you 2 warnings, before hitting you with restrictions.

[Unn4m3d (♥AUT♥)]

Originally posted by HisBangalore:

Me too, dunno why lol.

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Doing this too often will restrict your ability to refund in the future.

tl;dr... The system will make it better.

How many times before it constitutes as "too often"?

No one can tell you an exact number, but I think the closer the refunds are together the less leniency you get.

If you refund 1 game a year for 8 years I doubt they will say something. If you try 8 in a week they might.

[N3tRunn3r]

you dont needd to feel bad for refunding a game, no one loses anything .. a temporarily generated "license key" vanishes, thats all ... but you will lose your steam account if you refund too many games ... as so your steam account becomes locked by Steam support ...

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by N3tRunn3r:

you dont needd to feel bad for refunding a game, no one loses anything .. a temporarily generated "license key" vanishes, thats all ... but you will lose your steam account if you refund too many games ... as so your steam account becomes locked by Steam support ...

Accounts are not locked for too many refunds, let alone lose the account. Worst that would happen is the user can no longer get a refund for purchases.

[GermanBarbarian]

After refunding 5 Games in 10 years especially early acess Games with either bad performance or non working elements i get this message:

"We have forwarded the refund to your payment service provider. You should see a credit note within 14 days or the original booking will be removed.

According to our records, you have requested a high number of refunds recently. If you have frequent problems with purchases, please create a new ticket so that we can assist you in resolving these issues.

Please note that the refund option should not be used to try out games for free and is against Steam's refund policy. We reserve the right to refuse future refund requests if we feel that the system is being abused in this way."


Classical. There are no Demo Versions of the Games, refund policy is shady stating that you can refund for any reason, it doesnt even state if you do it too often in a time period you will get clapped on ur hands.

Consumers are just pay piggies and big companies bend rules however they want.

I wouldnt be suprised if my comment get censored aswell because freedoom of speech also no longer exists.

Like you gotta imagine, these Companies like Valve making billions of dollars each year, and if a guy that spend lots of money on games within 10 years refunds 5x 20 dollar games in 10 years they already start to reminding the costumer: Hey this is not the way we like it , stop doing it now or you will see consequences...

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Starforge Systems:

After refunding 5 Games in 10 years especially early acess Games with either bad performance or non working elements i get this message:

"We have forwarded the refund to your payment service provider. You should see a credit note within 14 days or the original booking will be removed.

According to our records, you have requested a high number of refunds recently. If you have frequent problems with purchases, please create a new ticket so that we can assist you in resolving these issues.

Please note that the refund option should not be used to try out games for free and is against Steam's refund policy. We reserve the right to refuse future refund requests if we feel that the system is being abused in this way."


Classical. There are no Demo Versions of the Games, refund policy is shady stating that you can refund for any reason, it doesnt even state if you do it too often in a time period you will get clapped on ur hands.

Consumers are just pay piggies and big companies bend rules however they want.

A part people often overlook:
https://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/

Abuse

Refunds are designed to remove the risk from purchasing titles on Steam—not as a way to get free games. If it appears to us that you are abusing refunds, we may stop offering them to you. 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.

You can request a refund for any reason. That reason is given to the developer and doesn't really impact the refund it's self.

We don't know of any specific amount, nor a time period, we just know that can can remove a users ability to refund games. At least they give two warning before it happens, so the user has a chance to look at why they make refunds and can figure out a good way to reduce the chances in the future. It is a good practice to watch video of a game and read reviews, before making a purchase.

[GermanBarbarian]

Yeah that quote is exactly what i said they bend the rules however they want. What exactly do they mean with " not as a way to get free games " ? Do i keep the Product as a Free Game after refund? No.

Sure you can inform urself as best as possible but everyone has different hardware, software in the background that may interfer with the game or etc. you see i can bend the statement to my liking aswell, the only difference is that the users opinion doesnt matter. ^^

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originally posted by Cold_Lobster:

So i recently have refunded about 5 games at this point because they werent fun, and one of them just flat out didnt work. Why do i feel bad for refunding games?

Refund is as
not buying a product, but you definitely know why.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Starforge Systems:

Yeah that quote is exactly what i said they bend the rules however they want. What exactly do they mean with " not as a way to get free games " ? Do i keep the Product as a Free Game after refund? No.

Sure you can inform urself as best as possible but everyone has different hardware, software in the background that may interfer with the game or etc. you see i can bend the statement to my liking aswell, the only difference is that the users opinion doesnt matter. ^^

Some try to, yes. Some will buy a game, rush through, then refund it.

Except the issue was the OP didn't like them, not that they didn't work, so you really didn't "bend" anything. Only one didn't work and that was a reasonable refund.

i recently have refunded about 5 games at this point because they werent fun

And yes, we different hardware and software, but as long as you meet or exceed the system requirements, the game should be fine. Learning about your own system is always a good idea and you can estimate the performance with that as well. Software can be changed, such as an overly aggressive anti-virus can be toned down if it is interfering with the game. Reading reviews and the discussions will even give you an idea of others who use X software are also experiencing the issue.

So, again, it is a good practice to watch video of a game and read reviews, before making a purchase.

[Coffee]

Originally posted by BJWyler:

Do more research into a game before buying it and you might have less regrets.

I kinda get what you mean. But it just doesn't work in 2023 and 2024 to research games.

Do you research youtube? Tons of clickbait, ragebait and overhyped videos. Spend more time looking for a legit video than spending the money and seeing the game for 2 hours

do you read steam reviews? EVEN WORSE THAN YOUTUBE. Granted, for a little period I made junky meme reviews, but I switched to more legit ones if I review a game since don't need to be part of the problem.

Do you read game website reviews? I'd rather watch ragebait than that, at least ragebait I'd get a semi-real take on the game even if its acting for clickbaits lol. Even an AI generated review is better than a game website review.

do you read reddit? Just as bad as youtube if not worse

Do you ask people their thoughts? Get a bunch of hate or tons of downvotes or/and told "try the game for yourself"

The good take is every game should have a demo that lasts 2 hours, and the refund process done purely for games that actually don't work or whatever it happens to be (so the refund would be far more strict, the demo process being far more open)

and by demo, I mean a real demo of the game.

Play the game literally 2 hours, no special level made for the game, no switch and bait, the real game for 2 hours. So lets take skyrim. You can play skyrim for 2 hours however you want, then after 2 hours gotta buy the game. Or AC valhalla/odyssey/origins...again...2 hours, play however you want to see how game is, runs etc, if even like it.

How would that work for a game like helldiver 2? THE SAME EXACT WAY

An MMO? Offer 2 hours to play an MMO however you want. Though MMOs don't tend to be refunded nearly as much, since it takes dozens or hundreds of hours to actually see the game.

Doing it like that would actually solve a lot of the steam overrefunding problems.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Artoria:

Originally posted by BJWyler:

Do more research into a game before buying it and you might have less regrets.

I kinda get what you mean. But it just doesn't work in 2023 and 2024 to research games.

Do you research youtube? Tons of clickbait, ragebait and overhyped videos. Spend more time looking for a legit video than spending the money and seeing the game for 2 hours

do you read steam reviews? EVEN WORSE THAN YOUTUBE

Do you read game website reviews? I'd rather watch ragebait than that, at least ragebait I'd get a semi-real take on the game even if its acting for clickbaits lol. Even an AI generated review is better than a game website review.

do you read reddit? Just as bad as youtube if not worse

Do you ask people their thoughts? Get a bunch of hate or tons of downvotes or/and told "try the game for yourself"

The good take is every game should have a demo that lasts 2 hours, and the refund process done purely for games that actually don't work or whatever it happens to be (so the refund would be far more strict, the demo process being far more open)

and by demo, I mean a real demo of the game.

Play the game literally 2 hours, no special level made for the game, no switch and bait, the real game for 2 hours. So lets take skyrim. You can play skyrim for 2 hours however you want, then after 2 hours gotta buy the game. Or AC valhalla/odyssey/origins...again...2 hours, play however you want to see how game is, runs etc, if even like it.

How would that work for a game like helldiver 2? THE SAME EXACT WAY

An MMO? Offer 2 hours to play an MMO however you want. Though MMOs don't tend to be refunded nearly as much, since it takes dozens or hundreds of hours to actually see the game.

Doing it like that would actually solve a lot of the steam overrefunding problems.

You assume there is an "overrefunding" problem. There isn't. The issue is people who try to abuse the system and use it for what it is not intended, often causing harm to a developer.

As an example: https://www.thegamer.com/steam-two-hour-refund-policy-emika-games-summer-of-58/

I have found many good videos and review for many games. I really don't see how it is hard to do.

Demos are up to the game's developer. Valve will not force them as demos cost extra money for a developer to make. Many studios can't allot fund and manpower to make a demo either. It is more difficult then you would thing, to cut a section of a game, tie up the ends and get it working.

Developers can also have free weekends. That works well for long, multiplayer games and doesn't cost any extra, but it is still up to the game's developer to do.