An unpleasant message from Valve

[Adamek]

Hello,
Recently, I bought a few games, some of which I had to return because they didn't meet my expectations. I respect my money and time, and I don’t need games in my library that I won’t play. I also believe that games in my country are very expensive, and I received the following message from Valve:
"It appears that we have recently received many refund requests from you. If you're frequently experiencing issues with your purchases, please submit another request so we can assist you in resolving them.
Please remember that Steam's refund policy is not intended to allow users to try games for free. If we have reason to believe that the refund system is being used for such purposes, we may decline future refund requests."
As a customer who doesn’t buy every piece of junk and uses the 2-hour game testing option, do I immediately have to be treated by Valve as a thief trying to test games for free? Is it okay that Steam allows tons of trash games, not even worth $1, just to take a commission from them?
And most importantly, am I facing any consequences if I continue testing games before purchasing them?
Best regards.

[Adamek]

Originally posted by Piston Smashed™:

I got told to leave Tesco's earlier, I don't understand why. All I did was keep putting back half eaten Nectarines while I tried to find the ones that fell into my requirements of how a Nectarine should be...

If you can’t distinguish between a physical product, which is yours as long as you pay for it and you can do whatever you want with it, and an online service, where even if you pay for it, you don’t own it, you have no rights to it, and the whole agreement depends on Steam's goodwill, which can shut down your account at any time if it decides you're causing harm, then I think you don’t know what you’re talking about. Of course, Steam is rather lenient and player-friendly, which is how it gained almost a monopoly as a platform. I would say that you don't really understand the situation. As for your nectarines, I would compare it more to purchasing electronic equipment online, where you have a 14-day return policy without giving a reason, according to European law.

[Adamek]

Originally posted by 76561198083019420:

Originally posted by Adamek:

If you can’t distinguish between a physical product, which is yours as long as you pay for it and you can do whatever you want with it, and an online service, where even if you pay for it, you don’t own it, you have no rights to it, and the whole agreement depends on Steam's goodwill, which can shut down your account at any time if it decides you're causing harm, then I think you don’t know what you’re talking about. Of course, Steam is rather lenient and player-friendly, which is how it gained almost a monopoly as a platform. I would say that you don't really understand the situation. As for your nectarines, I would compare it more to purchasing electronic equipment online, where you have a 14-day return policy without giving a reason, according to European law.

you dont have a 14 day return policy in european law thats just there to pacify you

In my country, there’s an option like that—14 days to return a product without giving a reason. Personally, I don’t use it, but the option exists, as well as something called a warranty, which means if the product breaks within 2 years, I have the right to return or exchange it. It’s a shame that this doesn’t apply on Steam when a game is killed off, and Russian hackers ban you, preventing you from playing the game you paid for, as happened to me with Friday the 13th: The Game, and the game developer says there’s nothing they can do about it.

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by 76561198083019420:

Originally posted by Adamek:

If you can’t distinguish between a physical product, which is yours as long as you pay for it and you can do whatever you want with it, and an online service, where even if you pay for it, you don’t own it, you have no rights to it, and the whole agreement depends on Steam's goodwill, which can shut down your account at any time if it decides you're causing harm, then I think you don’t know what you’re talking about. Of course, Steam is rather lenient and player-friendly, which is how it gained almost a monopoly as a platform. I would say that you don't really understand the situation. As for your nectarines, I would compare it more to purchasing electronic equipment online, where you have a 14-day return policy without giving a reason, according to European law.

you dont have a 14 day return policy in european law thats just there to pacify you

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/index_en.htm#:~:text=If%20you%20buy%20a%20product,delivery%20without%20providing%20any%20justification.

The limit is there in EU regulation, although it's really not related to the kind of purchases you do in Steam. And it doesn't have to do with when developers receive the money.
They most probably just translated the 14 days for make it the most similar to what people are used to here.

[Adamek]

Originally posted by 76561198083019420:

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/index_en.htm#:~:text=If%20you%20buy%20a%20product,delivery%20without%20providing%20any%20justification.

The limit is there in EU regulation, although it's really not related to the kind of purchases you do in Steam. And it doesn't have to do with when developers receive the money.
They most probably just translated the 14 days for make it the most similar to what people are used to here.

Originally posted by Adamek:

In my country, there’s an option like that—14 days to return a product without giving a reason. Personally, I don’t use it, but the option exists, as well as something called a warranty, which means if the product breaks within 2 years, I have the right to return or exchange it. It’s a shame that this doesn’t apply on Steam when a game is killed off, and Russian hackers ban you, preventing you from playing the game you paid for, as happened to me with Friday the 13th: The Game, and the game developer says there’s nothing they can do about it.

nope none of that means anything businesses dont have to care about that

you have no consumer rights and bringing up some random law thing you found on the internet or some law people said somewhere doesnt give you rights

all the business has to do is laugh at you, smirk and then call the police on you and trespass you to get rid of your 14 day whatever

What you’re saying might only make sense if the company you’re buying from has a monopoly, like Steam does. Otherwise, such a seller would quickly receive poor ratings and go out of business. Of course, the buyer’s perspective is different from the seller’s, and everyone has their own reasons, but as someone once said, “the customer is always right.” Someone has to buy all the junk released on Steam.

[ReamedBySteem]

I just left an unpleasant message in my underoos.

[Adamek]

Originally posted by ReamedBySteem:

I just left an unpleasant message in my underoos.

Not the first time.

[Adamek]

Originally posted by Lee:

Steam has no monopoly. Steam has competitors: Epic Store, GoG, third-party sites that sell Steam keys, etc.

Ok so 70% of gaming, virtual market

[ReamedBySteem]

Originally posted by Adamek:

Originally posted by ReamedBySteem:

I just left an unpleasant message in my underoos.

Not the first time.

: (

[Adamek]

Originally posted by 76561198083019420:

Originally posted by Adamek:

What you’re saying might only make sense if the company you’re buying from has a monopoly, like Steam does. Otherwise, such a seller would quickly receive poor ratings and go out of business. Of course, the buyer’s perspective is different from the seller’s, and everyone has their own reasons, but as someone once said, “the customer is always right.” Someone has to buy all the junk released on Steam.

say you go into a store and buy a $130 electric toothbrush, it doesnt work when you get home you call up the store they direct you to the manufacturer the manufacturer charges you $10000 to get it repaired thats clearly insane so you go back to the store to do your 14 day whatever, the store pretends youre not there and laughs at you

you put a negative review online, everyone responds to your negative review by blaming you for breaking the toothbrush, claiming all you have to do is go back to the store to get your 14 day whatever they claim you broke the toothbrush yourself they claim you didnt operate it correctly they claim the store always refunds them for broken products they post more positive reviews out of spite to increase the rating of the store even higher

yeah you really have a 14 day right

Such a store would quickly go out of business, but as you can see, Steam users are people who endure a lot—one of the toughest demographics.

[Gallows]

Originally posted by Dr.Acula:

If you buy games (especially smaller Indy ones) with online centric gameplay then check how many players are actually active within the game. It's silly to buy a game that requires multiple people to play properly when you have 10 players online per day in said game. The statistics for that exist for a reason.

And yes doing some basic research can help you avoid buying the wrong games. I will admit that I also have made some blind buys which I regretted afterwards and refunded but I try my best to minimize that which btw. also resulted in me buying considerably less games over the last couple of years.

If you get a warning from Steam not to abuse the system then you're overdoing it with the refund requests. So make the decisions on what to buy more carefully.

off topic, but love the username. dope band

[Adamek]

Originally posted by Lee:

Customers should know what the return/refund policy of the stores where they shop before buying something.

Similarly, developers should know how to release finished games when they want to charge a significant amount of money for them.

[Emilio]

I am amazed this thread is still going at this point.
This is like that gif of the guy talking to a brick wall.

[Adamek]

Originally posted by Emilio:

I am amazed this thread is still going at this point.
This is like that gif of the guy talking to a brick wall.

There are people who defend Steam, and there are people who don't like some of Steam's actions. That’s what forums are for—discussing such issues. If you don’t have anything to say and don’t like the topic, then don’t prolong it with your comment that doesn’t address the main point.

[Adamek]

Originally posted by Emilio:

Originally posted by Adamek:

We’re on a Steam thread, and I am a Steam-only user. Steam has gained the largest market position over the years and is a model for other platforms. So if you want to change something, you need to start not from the bottom but from the top. Besides, most games aren’t even released outside of Steam, so spare me the speculation. Didn’t your mom tell you not to compare yourself to others?

Come on now, you can buy most games on just about every platform on PC right now.
There are not that many Steam exclusive games so to speak.

Of course there are. It just so happens that I sometimes use Epic, mainly to get free games, and there are practically no games available there. Even if I wanted to buy them, there’s no way to do it. For example, Tekken 8 is exclusive to Steam for PC. After the backlash and boycott from players over timed exclusives on Epic, no one wants to release games there, and in reality, it was the only alternative for purchasing from a different source. There’s also the Ubisoft launcher, which, uniquely, only has Ubisoft games, the EA launcher, which has only EA games and a few indies, and then there’s GOG, but GOG is not worth discussing—it’s good for old single-player games, not AAA titles. That’s why I believe Steam is the main player, and what goes through Steam will go to every other platform. Steam, like Apple, sets trends, and others copy them.

[Aluvard]

Originally posted by Adamek:

I don't know, it's hard to count, maybe around 30 or less. I don't count free codes, giveaways, etc., because it would probably be around 50. Over the course of a year, I might have refunded around 15 games and bought about 7. I'm not very rich and don't want to spend money on games that end up just sitting in my library because I don't feel like playing them.

Long story short - if you continue to abuse refunds (ratio 2:1 in refunds is abuse), then you've 2 more steps ahead of you:

- Step 2 - even less pleasant and more direct message about potential consequences,
- Step 3 - no more refunds, forever.

You can move forward and join really "elite" club or curb your refunds and research your purchases better.