Modern Warfare 3 Refund Request - Denied due to 'playtime'

[Boo]

I purchased MW3 earlier today at 3:37PM, requested a refund at 4:50 PM, and have been declined by both the automated system and direct support.

What's the problem here? I know there is an issue with warzone and MW3 multiplayer being combined into the same 'game', so the playtime numbers don't match up... but come on.

I've responded back hoping to clarify more on this... hopefully it goes somewhere.

[Sasori Kigaru]

Sadly thats just how the game is built. That part of the franchise are all under one "game" technically so playtime for any of the others technically counts for them all.

The only thing you can do is do a manual ticket instead.
Steam support
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Write in detail your situation and hopefully you get your refund.

IF you don't though, which might be the case assuming I'm understanding "declined by direct support" correctly... then there isn't anything else you can do. Just gotta eat the purchase and take it as a lesson to be careful about games that are built in this kind of way.

Anyway, I wish ya luck.

[Boo]

Yeah, already went that direction with a manual ticket. Responded with the details of purchase time and refund request time. Hopefully going that direct will help.

It's a pretty predatory practice for sure, and definitely would be 'charge back' appropriate (i.e. meets all of their refund requirements, but denied). Although, given the consequences of charging back, not ideal lol

[Cathulhu]

As it is a DLC for the F2P Warzone, all playtime in Warzone or any it its DLCs since the purchase of the DLC will count against the refund.
Did you play the base game or any of its DLCs more than two hours since your purchase?

And a chargeback would be a fraudulent action on your end and Valve could file charges against you and would easily win as the contract you have with them is rock solid and tight.

Not to mention that any payment dispute will cause an automated suspension of the account in question until the dispute is resolved in Valve's favor.

[Boo]

All those statements would be factually wrong. Modern Warfare 3 is not considered DLC.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2519060/Call_of_Duty_Modern_Warfare_III/

There is no statement in here that it is a DLC.

Regardless, here is Steam's position on DLC refunds (IF IT WERE A DLC):

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REFUNDS ON DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT
(STEAM STORE CONTENT USABLE WITHIN ANOTHER GAME OR SOFTWARE APPLICATION, "DLC")
DLC purchased from the Steam store is refundable within fourteen days of purchase, and if the underlying title has been played for less than two hours since the DLC was purchased, so long as the DLC has not been consumed, modified or transferred. Please note that in some cases, Steam will be unable to give refunds for some third party DLC (for example, if the DLC irreversibly levels up a game character). These exceptions will be clearly marked as nonrefundable on the Store page prior to purchase.

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I have LESS than two hours playtime since the "DLC" was purchased. Only thing would be 'consumed', but what is that even exactly?

I played warzone for about an hour (slightly over) or so before I purchased MW today. You can even see in my profile (2.7 weeks TOTAL playtime in the last 2 weeks).

So no, it would not be fraudulent for a charge back with all this stated.

[Lithurge]

For the purposes of Steam (i.e. the way Activision have set it up, Halo Infinity had the same problem) MW3 multiplayer and single player are considered one thing. So it does count any multiplayer playtime against the single player game.

They did provide refunds in the early days for both games, not doing one now may be an oversight or it may be they think it's been out long enough people should be aware of the issue.

Whether you consider it a chargeback appropriate reason or not it will lead to Steam suspending you from buying anything for several weeks and they will block your payment card from being used on Steam in future.

[Boo]

Yeah, I understand a charge back is against the EULA and would impose a suspension. I likely will just eat the cost - never said I would do so. It's just that despite the refund denial, this would be a case of a charge back win.

MW3 is a separate game from Warzone. They have different Steam Store pages. They have different content.

The only thing is that Steam/Blizzard-Activision have amalgamated the franchise into a singular executable. It's as if Uplay had a singular executable for the Assassin's Creed franchise and being unable to refund because of an AC game you purchased a year prior.

Regardless, I fall within the 2 hour/14 day window for game or DLC refunds. Just don't understand Steam on this one. Thirteen years and I've maybe done 2 refunds in the past?

[Cathulhu]

Steam did nothing of that sort, it's all Activisions doing and they've done that intentionally. They do not like refunds of their mediocre and underwhelming games, so they trap their customers into scenarios where they can't refund.

Activision is the only publisher doing this exact shady thing where they launch all their games into one product.

[Aluvard]

Originally posted by Boo:

Yeah, I understand a charge back is against the EULA and would impose a suspension. I likely will just eat the cost - never said I would do so. It's just that despite the refund denial, this would be a case of a charge back win.

MW3 is a separate game from Warzone. They have different Steam Store pages. They have different content.

The only thing is that Steam/Blizzard-Activision have amalgamated the franchise into a singular executable. It's as if Uplay had a singular executable for the Assassin's Creed franchise and being unable to refund because of an AC game you purchased a year prior.

Regardless, I fall within the 2 hour/14 day window for game or DLC refunds. Just don't understand Steam on this one. Thirteen years and I've maybe done 2 refunds in the past?

Automatic refund is managed by a bot. It only checks if you've <2 hours within 2 weeks. Nothing else interests it.

[Boo]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

Steam did nothing of that sort, it's all Activisions doing and they've done that intentionally. They do not like refunds of their mediocre and underwhelming games, so they trap their customers into scenarios where they can't refund.

Activision is the only publisher doing this exact shady thing where they launch all their games into one product.

Steam makes no mention of the scenario in the product page for the MW3 product.

[Boo]

Originally posted by Aluvard:

Originally posted by Boo:

Yeah, I understand a charge back is against the EULA and would impose a suspension. I likely will just eat the cost - never said I would do so. It's just that despite the refund denial, this would be a case of a charge back win.

MW3 is a separate game from Warzone. They have different Steam Store pages. They have different content.

The only thing is that Steam/Blizzard-Activision have amalgamated the franchise into a singular executable. It's as if Uplay had a singular executable for the Assassin's Creed franchise and being unable to refund because of an AC game you purchased a year prior.

Regardless, I fall within the 2 hour/14 day window for game or DLC refunds. Just don't understand Steam on this one. Thirteen years and I've maybe done 2 refunds in the past?

Automatic refund is managed by a bot. It only checks if you've <2 hours within 2 weeks. Nothing else interests it.

I've done this through both the bot and directly with support so far.

[Cathulhu]

Product pages for Activision games are maintained by Activision. If you feel the page misrepresents the product, report the page and let Valve/Steam handle it.

[Lithurge]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

Activision is the only publisher doing this exact shady thing where they launch all their games into one product.

Except, as I already said, Microsoft did exactly the same thing with Halo Infinite.

You'd probably find the issue would be the same with the way The Quarry was initially set up. They provided a 'demo' which was basically the full game locked at a certain point, buying the game just unlocked it.

[Boo]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

Product pages for Activision games are maintained by Activision. If you feel the page misrepresents the product, report the page and let Valve/Steam handle it.

Anyways, regardless of how that all goes, I just simply don't see any reasoning on why this refund request is being declined.

https://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/

> The Steam refund offer, within two weeks of purchase and with less than two hours of playtime, applies to games and software applications on the Steam store. Here is an overview of how refunds work with other types of purchases.

> DLC purchased from the Steam store is refundable within fourteen days of purchase, and if the underlying title has been played for less than two hours since the DLC was purchased, so long as the DLC has not been consumed, modified or transferred.

Whether or not it is considered a game or DLC, I have less than two hours played since the purchase of MW3.

Purchased 3:37PM PST
Refund request at 4:50 PM PST

If this is something that publishers are going to start doing, Valve/Steam really need to figure out some SOP for these situations. It's clear they just simply looked at my overall playtime and said "Nope, over two hours".

[Boo]

Originally posted by Lithurge:

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

Activision is the only publisher doing this exact shady thing where they launch all their games into one product.

Except, as I already said, Microsoft did exactly the same thing with Halo Infinite.

You'd probably find the issue would be the same with the way The Quarry was initially set up. They provided a 'demo' which was basically the full game locked at a certain point, buying the game just unlocked it.

Yeah, it seems to be a pretty bad situation overall. I can eat the loss on $100 from this fiasco thankfully (I still think I'm well within their policy for a refund). Just sucks to see that this can happen to a good handful of people now, and certainly in the future if this type of product delivery continues.

[Aluvard]

Originally posted by Boo:

Originally posted by Lithurge:

Except, as I already said, Microsoft did exactly the same thing with Halo Infinite.

You'd probably find the issue would be the same with the way The Quarry was initially set up. They provided a 'demo' which was basically the full game locked at a certain point, buying the game just unlocked it.

Yeah, it seems to be a pretty bad situation overall. I can eat the loss on $100 from this fiasco thankfully (I still think I'm well within their policy for a refund). Just sucks to see that this can happen to a good handful of people now, and certainly in the future if this type of product delivery continues.

When you've asked for manual refund - did they respond negatively or just close your request?