Increase time allowed for refunds

[Pickled Pete]

I've had a game for less than 24hrs but I played for about 5hrs. I hoped it was going to get better but nope. It's boring and I want a refund but I broke the 2hr mark. Some games you can't figure out in 2hrs. Rules are rules but this one needs to be looked at.

[Wolf Knight]

no reason to look at it, 2 hours played and 2 weeks owned, it hasnt changed since refunding was added to steam.

changing it to 3 hours would still do you no good. and it does not matter how much time you allow for a refund, someone will always scream its not enough. a line had to be drawn somewhere.

[eram]

make it 5 hours and someone will ask to make it 6.

[Nx Machina]

You chose to play it for 5 hours whilst knowing the refund limitations.

[Tanoomba]

While the policy clearly states that you can get a refund for ANY reason within 2 hours of play, it should be noted that the refund policy exists so people can easily get a refund if their game doesn't run properly. That is the only reason someone would be legally entitled to a refund.

The reason why they accept refund demands for ANY reason is because it's much cheaper and more efficient for Valve to automate the refund process than it would be for them to evaluate each and every demand on its own merits. It costs less for them to just let people refund a game they don't like than it would to pay someone to tell them their refund request was denied. We are not, nor have we ever been, entitled to refund a game just because we don't like it. The fact that we are allowed to anyway can be seen as a bonus, a gesture of goodwill on Valve's part. But asking for more time to decide if you like a game misunderstands how the policy is designed to work.

[Crazy Tiger]

You can try a manual ticket. Find the purchase, choose the "I have a question about this purchase" option and explain politely. They can still say "no", if they do then take that as a final answer.

Your personal inconvenience isn't actually a compelling reason to change a refund policy. Neither is the policy there to demo games.

[HikariLight]

The refund system is NOT a method to demo games.

It is to see if the game will run on your system.
The fact that Valve allows refunds for any reason while you are within the refund time window is them being generous.

[Tito Shivan]

eram님이 먼저 게시:

make it 5 hours and someone will ask to make it 6.

I've read people here ask for a whole month.

[illaaa]

I think there are games you can finish in 5 hours

[Lord Bludgeon]

I recently tried to return one that took 2 hours just to set up the character and read the directions/hotkeys. I understand having limitations, but sometimes it takes longer than two hours to get to the game-breakers.

My thought is that they could extend that time period for certain conditions, ie: playing X hours in a single session, or maybe granting exceptions for Early Access games, since the whole idea of EA is to give the devs decent feedback to tune their games before full release. This policy could inhibit some folks from taking a chance on these EA titles.

I accept the current rules, but I don't have to like them. Just a thought.

[Cathulhu]

The refund system exists to refund games that don't work properly. Two hours is enough to determine that.

The refund system is not there so you can refund any game that just isn't fun enough for you.

[Tanoomba]

Lord Bludgeon님이 먼저 게시:

This policy could inhibit some folks from taking a chance on these EA titles.

As well it should! If people don't like the idea of taking a chance on an unfinished project sold as-is, they definitely shouldn't be buying EA games.

[AROCK!!!]

Tanoomba님이 먼저 게시:

While the policy clearly states that you can get a refund for ANY reason within 2 hours of play, it should be noted that the refund policy exists so people can easily get a refund if their game doesn't run properly. That is the only reason someone would be legally entitled to a refund.

Cathulhu님이 먼저 게시:

The refund system exists to refund games that don't work properly. Two hours is enough to determine that.

The refund system is not there so you can refund any game that just isn't fun enough for you.

Legalities aside, STEAM refund policy clearly states example reasons other than "running" issues.

People should really do research before posting.

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

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.

There are more details below, but even if you fall outside of the refund rules we’ve described, you can ask for a refund anyway and we’ll take a look. Consumers in some jurisdictions may have additional rights to a refund in circumstances where the game is faulty.


And further down the page.


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.

[Brian9824]

ÁROCK!!!님이 먼저 게시:

Wrong. STEAM refund policy clearly states example reasons other than "running" issues.

Not wrong, just because it also works for other reasons then broken games, doesn't mean it should be used as a way to demo games and try them out. Hence why you can lose access to refunds altogether for refunding too many.

[BJWyler]

I know within the first 30 minutes of a game whether it's going to be captivating for me or not.

Regardless, I never refund a game unless it's an unplayable broken mess, and that's very rare because I check out information on the game before purchasing (and almost never buy on launch day, week, or month), so I already know if it's a broken mess even before I buy it.

It's long past time that people take responsibility for their buying habits and ownership over the products they buy.

[Tanoomba]

ÁROCK!!!님이 먼저 게시:

Wrong. Legalities aside, STEAM refund policy clearly states example reasons other than "running" issues.

I acknowledged that. Again, the fact that Steam lets you refund a game for ANY reason within the 2-hour wndow is a generosity on their part. It's a bonus feature. It's not an entitlement, and they are certainly not going to extend the window to give us more time to decide if we like a game or not because that's not the actual purpose of the refund system.