Steam has started declining my refunds that are fully within the refund policy (14 days, less than 2 hours played)

[Fex]

Edit 16th of January: I really think that Steam should add a message to their automatic refund system decline messages that users can get their automatically declined games refunded by writing a Steam Support message.

Edit 11th of January: As indicated by Steam Support on my 4th of January interaction, I contacted them again to refund six more titles (last disappointing purchases from Winter Sale). All titles were refunded. Weirdly I was given the refund link for automatic refund as a part of the message. Seemed like a "script reply".

Here's a total summary of my Winter Campaign activities. My goal was to "purge" my bloated wishlist. I started with the worst reviewed titles to get rid most titles. Not a single title has been added to the wishlist that I wouldn't actually want to play. Every purchase was a potential game that I'd keep. I didn't purchase a single game with an intention to refund it. The game had to be disappointing to be refunded.

Purchased games: 45 (obscure indie titles)
Refunded games: 33 (to Steam Wallet)
Kept games: 12
Most expensive games kept: 12,25€ and 8,79€
Most expensive game refunded: 8,39€
Wishlist status: ~500 -> 420

I was really happy to find this many new proper games that I enjoy. I am also very happy that Steam Support told me that there was no abuse of any kind, although I started getting the automatic refund declines. They told me that I refunded games within the policy as intended and if the automatic refund system declines refunds (due to high amount in short frequency), I should simply contact them with a custom message to get the games refunded, like I did today.

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Edit 4th of January: Got a message from Steam Support where they confirm that I have NOT abused their refund system. Suck it, white knights. 🤣

Edit 3th of January: I got reply from Steam Support; from two actual humans. I was told the refunds are all automatic and when these automatic ones fail, they'll refund the games manually. And they indeed did that. Everything I wanted to refund is refunded from "current wave of purchases".

---

With Xmas vacation, I've finally had time to actively browse through my wishlist of nearly 500 games. I've been exclusively purchasing games that are NOT early access and titles that have been discounted by the Winter campaign. I consider myself a sort of a "gaming activist" as a gaming journalist and checking the stats - I've ignored over 6200 games, meaning the ratio of games I add to my wishlist to games I've checked is somewhere around ~1:13.

To me the wishlist is nothing but a list of potential good games to keep in mind. I purchase the games from the wishlist based on discounts and keep the good ones. I'm in no way trying to abuse the system. However, I do understand that majority of Steam users don't ...use it this actively. Having different mindsets is what being human is.

Now with the Winter Campaign (discounts) I started purchasing items that were the WORST reviewed from my Wishlist, yet still seemed decent enough. I fully expected to refund some of the titles and keep the few "hidden gems" I might encounter. Exactly this has happened. Vast majority of these games have been terrible disappointments and thus I've refunded them after just few minutes of gametime.

Now, out of the blue, without any kind of warning Steam customer service has started to decline my Refunds with a reason of: "We will not be granting a refund because you already have a large number of recent refunds. Please remember that refunds are not a method for trying out games."

What? It literally states on their Return Policy that you can return the games for any reason, and it's mentioned as an example if you do not LIKE them. How am I supposed to know if I like the game or not without testing it?

https://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/#:~:text=You%20can%20request%20a%20refund,It%20doesn't%20matter.

"You can request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam—for any reason. Maybe your PC doesn't meet the hardware requirements; maybe you bought a game by mistake; maybe you played the title for an hour and just didn't like it.

It doesn't matter. Valve will, upon request via help.steampowered.com, issue a refund for any reason, if the request is made within the required return period, and, in the case of games, if the title has been played for less than two hours."

---

I simply don't understand how this is fair. I feel misled. I've bought the games with no hesitation from the discount campaign since I've expected that if I don't like them, I can refund them as stated by the refund policy.

If they have some sort of "you can only refund 7 games per week", shouldn't the policy state that?

[Fex]

Originalmente postado por Piston Smashed™:

Originalmente postado por Fex:

I have had about 25 of those messages in few different styles.

Purchasing a game with hopes that it'd be a proper game that you would keep is not consider demoing.

Demoing is that you don't have any intention in any case of purchasing the item.

So you had every intention of keeping these games but thought after playing a few minutes nah I don't like it... refund.

Sun Down
Mystic Gate
FLERP
Shapebreaker - Tower Defense Deckbuilder
Monsters 'til Midnight
Towers Deck
Landnama
The Last Hex
Springblades
REPLIKATOR
Galactic Mining Corp
Bastard Bonds
Dungeons of Aether
Robot Resistors
Spelp
Project Romboid
Berserk Mode
Urban Cards
Trombone Champ
M.E.A.T.
BroodStar
Circus Electrique
Geometry Arena
Poker Quest
Gunlocked
Arcanium
For The Warp
Ravage Road

Oh yea and it's not abusing the system...

Yep. That's exactly what Steam Support told me.

I had 486 titles on my wishlist and got it down to 416 after the Winter Sale campaign.

Four more incoming on the list of recent refunds. Three games still to test out.

Out of curiosity - why do you think games are purchased?

[Brian9824]

Originalmente postado por Fex:

Originalmente postado por Piston Smashed™:

So you had every intention of keeping these games but thought after playing a few minutes nah I don't like it... refund.

Sun Down
Mystic Gate
FLERP
Shapebreaker - Tower Defense Deckbuilder
Monsters 'til Midnight
Towers Deck
Landnama
The Last Hex
Springblades
REPLIKATOR
Galactic Mining Corp
Bastard Bonds
Dungeons of Aether
Robot Resistors
Spelp
Project Romboid
Berserk Mode
Urban Cards
Trombone Champ
M.E.A.T.
BroodStar
Circus Electrique
Geometry Arena
Poker Quest
Gunlocked
Arcanium
For The Warp
Ravage Road

Oh yea and it's not abusing the system...

Yep. That's exactly what Steam Support told me.

I had 486 titles on my wishlist and got it down to 416 after the Winter Sale campaign.

Four more incoming on the list of recent refunds. Three games still to test out.

Out of curiosity - why do you think games are purchased?

The same reason food is, you don't go to a grocery store and buy 20 items to try a bite of each and return the ones you don't like.

[Fex]

Originalmente postado por brian9824:

Originalmente postado por Fex:

Yep. That's exactly what Steam Support told me.

I had 486 titles on my wishlist and got it down to 416 after the Winter Sale campaign.

Four more incoming on the list of recent refunds. Three games still to test out.

Out of curiosity - why do you think games are purchased?

The same reason food is, you don't go to a grocery store and buy 20 items to try a bite of each and return the ones you don't like.

Couldn't be more wrong there, mate.

#1: Groceries are a necessity - not entertainment. Sure, you could buy c**p, but the same applies for all food products.

#2: Grocery stores do not have a policy in place, which enables you returning any products you don't like within 14 days if you don't like them.

#3: In certain countries any purchases from the Internet are within the 14 days return right. Groceries are the one exception to that list as well as custom made products.

[Brian9824]

Originalmente postado por Fex:

#1: Groceries are a necessity - not entertainment. Sure, you could buy c**p, but the same applies for all food products.

#2: Grocery stores do not have a policy in place, which enables you returning any products you don't like within 14 days if you don't like them.

#3: In certain countries any purchases from the Internet are within the 14 days return right. Groceries are the one exception to that list as well as custom made products.

1. Replace it with any other service then and you get banned
2. Grocery stores have the same policy that excessive returns can lead to you getting banned
3. If you look into those countries you will find exceptions such as the ones the EU have where stores can waive the right to refund which is what steam does.

The facts are any store can and will ban you for excessive returns. So hey you can keep pressing your luck, just dont be surprised when it runs out.

[76561198407601200]

Originalmente postado por Fex:

Edit 4th of January: Got a message from Steam Support where they confirm that I have NOT abused their refund system. Suck it, white knights. 🤣

See, waiting for the proper response could have saved the embarassment of creating this topic. Best of luck, etc.

[Leonardo Da Pinchi]

Refunding one or two games every few years because they were bad is one thing...but en mass like it seems OP tried to do, is quite literally just abusing policy.

[Sigma957]

OP buys rubbish games. I recognize NONE of those on their list.

[Fex]

Originalmente postado por Sigma957:

OP buys rubbish games. I recognize NONE of those on their list.

These have indeed been very obscure indie titles that I picked up from the Winter Sales as I wanted to "clean up" my wishlist. They looked good to me.

Some of those refunded were rubbish, some simply were mere 'meh' disappointments.

I was essentially sure I'd find some hidden gems in there - and that turned to be true as well:

- Critadel
- Dead Estate
- Indies Lies
- Luck to be a Landlord
- Nitro Kid
- SNKRX
- Vivid Knight

[Fex]

Originalmente postado por Leonardo Da Pinchi:

Refunding one or two games every few years because they were bad is one thing...but en mass like it seems OP tried to do, is quite literally just abusing policy.

Except it isn't abuse, as indicated by the Steam Support.

Not tried, but did. I had all of the titles I wanted to refund, refunded.

[Fex]

Originalmente postado por The Living Tribunal:

Originalmente postado por Fex:

Edit 4th of January: Got a message from Steam Support where they confirm that I have NOT abused their refund system. Suck it, white knights. 🤣

See, waiting for the proper response could have saved the embarassment of creating this topic. Best of luck, etc.

This turned to provide some good entertainment. So many experts knowing the situation in-depth and calling me an abuser of the policy - just to be smitten by Steam Support. ;)

[MancSoulja]

Originalmente postado por Fex:

Originalmente postado por The Living Tribunal:

See, waiting for the proper response could have saved the embarassment of creating this topic. Best of luck, etc.

This turned to provide some good entertainment. So many experts knowing the situation in-depth and calling me an abuser of the policy - just to be smitten by Steam Support. ;)

You're just a troll flexing that there's clearly different rules for you compared to everyone else. Well done, you can game the system and everyone else can't. Happy now?

[Fex]

Originalmente postado por MancSoulja:

Originalmente postado por Fex:

This turned to provide some good entertainment. So many experts knowing the situation in-depth and calling me an abuser of the policy - just to be smitten by Steam Support. ;)

You're just a troll flexing that there's clearly different rules for you compared to everyone else. Well done, you can game the system and everyone else can't. Happy now?

Now I AM a troll? 🤣

If you read my original opening post again you'd understand that the post is about transparency and weirdness of the policy. Here's one user from the thread that has understood that. Maybe you could try as well?

Originalmente postado por Nebula°Thorn:

Steam's sudden refusal of refunds, despite adherence to their policy, is both frustrating and misleading. The lack of clarity on refund limits raises questions about fairness and transparency in their system.

[Seretti]

Originalmente postado por Fex:

So many experts knowing the situation in-depth and calling me an abuser of the policy

Because you are. Don't you have any better things to do than this thread? Maybe abuse some other policy or something?

[Fex]

Originalmente postado por Seretti:

Originalmente postado por Fex:

So many experts knowing the situation in-depth and calling me an abuser of the policy

Because you are. Don't you have any better things to do than this thread? Maybe abuse some other policy or something?

Except I am not, as indicated by Steam Support.

You might think so, but that doesn't matter a thing.

My goal is to play great games. <3

[m99noble]

Originalmente postado por brian9824:

Originalmente postado por Fex:

Yep. That's exactly what Steam Support told me.

I had 486 titles on my wishlist and got it down to 416 after the Winter Sale campaign.

Four more incoming on the list of recent refunds. Three games still to test out.

Out of curiosity - why do you think games are purchased?

The same reason food is, you don't go to a grocery store and buy 20 items to try a bite of each and return the ones you don't like.

What? Thats not the same thing at all. OP is totally in the right to buy as many games as they want and if they dont like them get a refund according to the policy. Its literally not abuse to buy 1000 games and then refund them reason irrelevant. Again according to the policy. The only abuse would be if they somehow tried to keep the game after getting a refund.