Posted: 4/6/2013 11:49 PM
Post subject: Steam doesn't offer refunds
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nesrocks
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Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
Is it legal to do that? Sounds like a crooked deal if you can't get your money back in case the product doesn't work. As I mentioned in the other topic, age of empires 2 HD was released on steam, but it doesn't work on my pcs (and there are several people reporting the same). The same thing is happening to hotline miami. So I wanted a refund, and discovered that: "Steam Refund Policy As with most software products, we do not offer refunds or exchanges on games, DLC or in-game items purchased on our website or through the Steam Client. Please review Section 3 of the Steam Subscriber Agreement for more information. Steam Subscriber Agreement Steam Subscriber Agreement An exception is made for games purchased during a pre-order period if the request is received prior to the games' release date." That sounds illegal. What can be done besides not buying anything on steam anymore (since it can't guarantee it will work)?
aka Nesrocks http://www.youtube.com/user/UoBtExFODA https://nesrocks.com https://twitter.com/bitinkstudios
Posted: 4/7/2013 12:36 AM
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Derakon
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
I suspect it depends on the country you live in. The USA is very corporate-friendly on this kind of thing; Europe is considerably more consumer-friendly. I don't know about Brazil. Just because Steam says it can do something doesn't mean that's true, though -- companies are still, thus far, required to obey the laws in the countries they operate in. :)
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Posted: 4/7/2013 1:41 AM
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nesrocks
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Location: Rio, Brazil
Yeah, in Brazil it's also more consumer friendly. I'm not sure what can be done from here though and if it's worth the hassle... I've just openned a ticket anyway asking for a refund. It's not clear if this case fits in the exception described in the policy, since the game has not been officially released yet (it's only on april 9th), but pre-orderers are already able to play it.
aka Nesrocks http://www.youtube.com/user/UoBtExFODA https://nesrocks.com https://twitter.com/bitinkstudios
Posted: 4/7/2013 6:04 AM
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Sir_VG
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They offered refunds for people that bought The War Z some time ago (the first time that game went up). But I guess the general refund policy is much like store policy with games - when you open the box, you can't return for a refund, only an exchange. Since Steam info is digital, you can't "open" it, so I guess that's probably why. Plus Steam does do a pretty good job of offering specs of a game and you can run your computer though a site like Can You Run It? to get a better idea, so I guess I'm not bothered by it.
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
Posted: 4/7/2013 6:11 AM
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pirate_sephiroth
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New systems TAS of 2009
If there are many people complainig, the developers may release updates to improve compatibility.
"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself. It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success." - Onkar Ghate
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Posted: 4/7/2013 3:27 PM
Post subject: >=D >=] >=)
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antd
Joined: 3/18/2006
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This is why bit torrent was invented >=D
Posted: 4/7/2013 5:58 PM
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hegyak
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Steam will give a refund to people in Europe, who have NOT downloaded the game and it's been 30 days or less. US, Your SOL. Other countries, probably SOL. The only time Valve gives a refund is if a game has MAJOR issues (The War Z). And even those refunds were limited to a period of time.
When TAS does Quake 1, SDA will declare war. The Prince doth arrive he doth please.
Posted: 4/9/2013 10:22 PM
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nesrocks
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Player (241)
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
So, I got the refund after a series of tickets and getting some generic responses from them telling me to try to fix the game. They made it very clear then that steam doesn't generally offer refunds, but since the game was still in pre-order they would make an exception and give the refund. The game is already out of my game list and they said the credit card should send the exact amount back to my bank account in 3-5 days. A really amusing side of this is how some players react on steam forums to people asking for refunds. For example: http://steamcommunity.com/app/221380/discussions/0/828935672622545093/ People are willing to accept broken releases and losing money as if it was a sign of how strong they are.
aka Nesrocks http://www.youtube.com/user/UoBtExFODA https://nesrocks.com https://twitter.com/bitinkstudios
Posted: 4/10/2013 9:37 AM
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Warp
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
From a pragmatic point of view, you have to sympathize a bit with companies like Valve. After all, if there was a completely liberal refund policy, what would stop people from buying a game, playing it through, and then demand a refund? Valve would not only not gain any money from this, they would actually lose money (because of all the paperwork, server maintenance costs and so on.) Steam as a service would rather quickly cease to exist.
Posted: 4/10/2013 11:27 AM
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DrJones
Joined: 4/3/2005
Posts: 575
Location: Spain
I think an exception could be made to broken games, however the PC market is funny because there are so many different configurations of hardware and software that's impossible to ensure a game will work in all of them. This is one of the reasons developers moved from the PC to gaming consoles: you can expect most units to have the same hardware/software (with a few exceptions like the DS/DSi/3DS or Android devices).
No.
Posted: 4/10/2013 12:21 PM
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Warp
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Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
The other reason why so many game companies have moved to consoles is because there's less piracy and games just outright sell more. A friend of mine was working at UbiSoft, and he told me that the same game would typically sell something like 10 thousand copies for PC and 100 thousand for consoles. That doesn't give much incentive to develop for PC.
Posted: 4/10/2013 12:23 PM
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Atma
Former player
Joined: 9/1/2005
Posts: 803
Warp wrote:
The other reason why so many game companies have moved to consoles is because there's less piracy and games just outright sell more. A friend of mine was working at UbiSoft, and he told me that the same game would typically sell something like 10 thousand copies for PC and 100 thousand for consoles. That doesn't give much incentive to develop for PC.
To be fair, ubisoft have a terrible rep with pc gamers due to treating them like shit, so it's not really an unexpected result.
Posted: 4/10/2013 12:28 PM
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MrGrunz
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Joined: 2/8/2009
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Nintendo 3D TAS of 2014 N64/Wii TASer of 2011 TAS of 2011 N64/Wii TAS of 2011
I've onkly read the first post of this topic, so sorry if I repeat something that has been mentioned already. I haven't been able to run AoE 2 HD on my PC due to be playing on a computer with Windows XP 32-bit like many others, but this problem seems to be fixed now, because suddenly I start the game. I guess this should apply to all people that had the same problem as well. From what I've heard the game crashes during some campaigns, but maybe that has been fixed by now. It also lagged quite a lot when I played on my friend's pc online. They were also dumb enough to remove the LAN-function. Alltogether, I'm quite disappointed about the game, because I was expecting a lot more from the online multiplayer function. It is still too early to want your money back, though, because I'm positive that they are going to fix many problems within the next days.