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How can customers expect publishers to refund for games when they (publisher) have no guarantee it didn't work? If you buy a microwave, returning it the next d

How can customers expect publishers to refund for games when they (publisher) have no guarantee it didn't work? If you buy a microwave, returning it the next day (and a glance at the product) Walmart is pretty sure that it was not used for hours on end until it wasn't needed. Games (and other products/media) suffer from a tendency of [some] customers to use/abuse the product and its return policy. Buy a game, play it thru for 24 hours straight (or copy it), and then return it as "defective" - not uncommon behavior. Maybe not majority, but enough do it for retailers to impose limitations akin to what clothing stores do by requiring tags still be attached: returnable for refund if in a condition which indicates it in no way was used in an manner taking advantage of the retailer's return policy. Enough people _do_ try to abuse return policies that, yeah, it wrecks it for the rest of us. Hey, maybe there's a startup opportunity for verifying "the game was used in a manner which indicates there was a problem whereby a full-refund return is fair." Steam may not have an interest in such a service directly given its overall profit, but if someone can provide a third-party verification service...

graywh 15y ago
Most major retailers only allow exchanges for the same item in the case of opened media (DVD, video game, etc.).
Silhouette 15y ago
> How can customers expect publishers to refund for games when they (publisher) have no guarantee it didn't work? Well, under UK consumer protection law, goods normally have to meet certain basic guarantees, such as fitness for purpose. Moreover, the presumption is that if they fail within the first few months after the purchase, it's the vendor's problem unless the vendor can show why it shouldn't be. It might seem harsh, but that is what the consumer protection laws here say, and it's a cost of doing business here. I don't see why the same principle should not apply at least as strongly to software, particularly given that software is often relatively expensive, very often of poor quality/compatibility in ways that aren't clear to the purchaser up-front, and usually issuing a refund in such cases will cause very little actual damage to the vendor beyond losing the price of the sale. Surely this all goes at least double for a service where the vendor is providing the software entirely on-line, so their actual damage from issuing a refund is nothing but the admin overhead, and where the vendor can see whether the user has actually been able to run the software effectively as a defence against fraudulent refund claims.

graywh 15y ago

Most major retailers only allow exchanges for the same item in the case of opened media (DVD, video game, etc.).

Silhouette 15y ago

> How can customers expect publishers to refund for games when they (publisher) have no guarantee it didn't work? Well, under UK consumer protection law, goods normally have to meet certain basic guarantees, such as fitness for purpose. Moreover, the presumption is that if they fail within the first few months after the purchase, it's the vendor's problem unless the vendor can show why it shouldn't be. It might seem harsh, but that is what the consumer protection laws here say, and it's a cost of doing business here. I don't see why the same principle should not apply at least as strongly to software, particularly given that software is often relatively expensive, very often of poor quality/compatibility in ways that aren't clear to the purchaser up-front, and usually issuing a refund in such cases will cause very little actual damage to the vendor beyond losing the price of the sale. Surely this all goes at least double for a service where the vendor is providing the software entirely on-line, so their actual damage from issuing a refund is nothing but the admin overhead, and where the vendor can see whether the user has actually been able to run the software effectively as a defence against fraudulent refund claims.