Steam Family With Refund Policy

[mdiph]

Just a random thought when scrolling in steam store like any other steam user, and the thought of steam family just came in mind.

as we all probably know, steam family allow the family member to share their game and keeping their account separate, basically the parents and the child can have their own progress from achievements to any in game progress through steam cloud and this work for offline.

before more thought, i never try the steam family, so maybe idk the detail, but does Steam family game have their playtime shared across other account/childs/parents?

if yes than this whole topic is pointless, but if the game that are in steam family share don't share their playtime across account, isn't this a kinda big loop hole to avoid the refund policy?, as we all know by now, the minimum playtime for steam refund is 2 hours and 2 weeks before you can't refund the game.

so just some example, the main account(parents) bought a game for their childs, that probably an alt or just a friends, the main account holder can just play the whole game in their alt/childs account for more than 2 hours, since the game is treated as a separate game, so after finishing the game, the main account can just refund the game as long as it's before the 2 weeks period?.

again im not in any steam family, so i don't know if im tripping or big braining here. but i'll read any info about this.

[SLG]

If I understand correctly, playtime is not shared. For refunds, only the playtime of the account that has the game will count.

Family share is only sharing access to the game, not the game (license) itself.

[Malfunctioning Robot]

Originally posted by Lee:

If I understand correctly, no playtime is not shared. For refunds, only the playtime of the account that has the game will count.

Family share is only sharing access to the game, not the game (license) itself.

This is incorrect, a shared games game time counts. Always has even with the old system.

And just to follow up since Valve literally covers this in the faw

What can I request a refund for?
Valve will, upon request via help.steampowered.com, issue a refund for any title that is requested within 14 days of purchase and has been played for less than 2 hours (this includes online, offline and shared library playtime). Even if you fall outside of the refund rules we've described, you can submit a request and we'll take a look at it.

bolded the relevant portion
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/5FDE-BA65-ACCE-A411

[SLG]

Originally posted by Malfunctioning Robot:

Originally posted by Lee:

If I understand correctly, no playtime is not shared. For refunds, only the playtime of the account that has the game will count.

Family share is only sharing access to the game, not the game (license) itself.

This is incorrect, a shared games game time counts. Always has even with the old system.

Ok, Like I said I could be wrong. Thanks for clarifying.

[Malfunctioning Robot]

Originally posted by Lee:

Originally posted by Malfunctioning Robot:

This is incorrect, a shared games game time counts. Always has even with the old system.

Ok, Like I said I could be wrong. Thanks for clarifying.

No problem, added the expanded data directly from steam to clarify

[mdiph]

Originally posted by Malfunctioning Robot:

Originally posted by Lee:

If I understand correctly, no playtime is not shared. For refunds, only the playtime of the account that has the game will count.

Family share is only sharing access to the game, not the game (license) itself.

This is incorrect, a shared games game time counts. Always has even with the old system.

And just to follow up since Valve literally covers this in the faw

What can I request a refund for?
Valve will, upon request via help.steampowered.com, issue a refund for any title that is requested within 14 days of purchase and has been played for less than 2 hours (this includes online, offline and shared library playtime). Even if you fall outside of the refund rules we've described, you can submit a request and we'll take a look at it.

bolded the relevant portion
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/5FDE-BA65-ACCE-A411

ahh, thank you for clarifying, so in simple way, family share game, only make your achievements, and in game progress tracked as a separate account, while the playtime is still shared across other family member correct?

[Malfunctioning Robot]

Originally posted by mdiph:

Originally posted by Malfunctioning Robot:

This is incorrect, a shared games game time counts. Always has even with the old system.

And just to follow up since Valve literally covers this in the faw



bolded the relevant portion
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/5FDE-BA65-ACCE-A411

ahh, thank you for clarifying, so in simple way, family share game, only make your achievements, and in game progress tracked as a separate account, while the playtime is still attach to the main account that bought the game correct?

The playtime is actually tied to BOTH accounts. So say you play "fun game number 97" (best game ever!) your family shared with you for 60 hours, then bought it yourself. That playtime will still count for your account. It's caused people headaches for getting refunds for those games. The automated system will only look at the playtime and reject it, you'd have to submit a manual refund request in a case like that (and still have played it less than 2 hours since purchase)

[mdiph]

Originally posted by Malfunctioning Robot:

Originally posted by mdiph:

ahh, thank you for clarifying, so in simple way, family share game, only make your achievements, and in game progress tracked as a separate account, while the playtime is still attach to the main account that bought the game correct?

The playtime is actually tied to BOTH accounts. So say you play "fun game number 97" (best game ever!) your family shared with you for 60 hours, then bought it yourself. That playtime will still count for your account. It's caused people headaches for getting refunds for those games. The automated system will only look at the playtime and reject it, you'd have to submit a manual refund request in a case like that (and still have played it less than 2 hours since purchase)

uhm, still kinda iffy about it. sure for this, if i bought the game that the family shared game already played for hours, and the playtime is transferred to my own game, and i got to submit a manual refund request if i want to for some reason refund it. but what about this.

Like the one that bought the game is the main account(parent), and the one that actually play the game is just the child, can the main account refund the game (the child played the game for more than 2 hours, and it still under 2 weeks)? technically the main account didn't play the game right?

[Malfunctioning Robot]

Then, as the link states, the parent account cannot refund the game

[Tito Shivan]

Playtime is accounted for the game. Not the accounts.
Under the former Family sharing, a game played for more than 2 hours is out of refund regardless of who played the game.

All the time the game has been running counts towards the refund limit.
-Time you've played your game? Counts
-Time someone else has borrowed your game? Counts.
-Time you've played a borrowed game? Counts.
-Time you've played a game on a free weekend? Counts.

Originally posted by mdiph:

Like the one that bought the game is the main account(parent), and the one that actually play the game is just the child, can the main account refund the game (the child played the game for more than 2 hours, and it still under 2 weeks)? technically the main account didn't play the game right?

No, as the game has been played for more than 2 hours. Mind the former Family sharing model already worked like this.

Otherwise the main account could buy the game, have family sharing accounts play it into exhaustion and be able to refund it because 'technically the main account didn't play the game'