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>>Lets say you buy a game on the Steam store .... >>Somehow, I just can't imagine doing business with them anymore. "Let's say"? Is this a hypothetical? If thi

by smtddr 13y ago

>>Lets say you buy a game on the Steam store .... >>Somehow, I just can't imagine doing business with them anymore. "Let's say"? Is this a hypothetical? If this didn't actually happen then what's the issue?

CJefferson 13y ago
This kind of thing has happened to several people. Steam used to disable your access to all your games if you did a charge back, so things have got a little better.
res0nat0r 13y ago
I've heard of this actually happening. I think it is to prevent people from buying games, playing them, then trying to file a chargeback so they play the game for free. I guess the fine line from Valve is, there isn't really any way to differentiate people legitimately having problems vs. people trying to scam the system, so their default policy is if you file a chargeback your account is going to be suspended.
- lambda 13y ago
  So, why don't they just have a policy that you have 24 hours to get a refund, like the original Android Market policy? Sure, I suppose if you are really dedicated you could play through a game in those 24 hours and get a refund to play for free, but that's a marginal enough case that it's probably not worth worrying about. Or they could just limit the number of refunds you can get, to say 1 out of 10 games that you buy, and no more than one per month. Or they could just refund you any time you want. Yeah, sure, a few people will scam them that way, but it's not like they have a huge per-unit cost for delivering the games to you. If it'll make users like the above more happy and more willing to buy from Steam, it's probably worth it in the long run.
  - Goronmon 13y ago
    Sure, I suppose if you are really dedicated you could play through a game in those 24 hours and get a refund to play for free, but that's a marginal enough case that it's probably not worth worrying about. I think your underestimating the number of gamers who would pull all-nighters to play through a game as fast as possible in order to play games for free. Heck, plenty of people already do that without the ability to get a refund once they are finished. Hell, if I was still in college I would seriously consider doing it as a broke student. Allowing for refunds within 24 hours is effectively a free 24 game rental for any game in the library.
goostavos 13y ago
I went through this. Spent a total of two weeks trying to get the game to work -- even went it and bought new hardware. I went out of my way to show record bench marking results. It's not my card, it's not my power supply, it's the buggy game. 2weeks of being jerked around by steam, doing every. Single. One. Of their suggestion AND logging that I did them. No result. The end result could be boiled down to "sucks for you. We don't give refund." In the end, I ate the $60. I wasn't going to risk my entire game library over one game. I must say though, the events certainly "raised my consciousness" to the fact that owning digital things is in a really crappy place right now. What other company do we allow the right to reach into our house and pull back things that we have rightfully purchased? It's really quite absurd.
- jamra 13y ago
  I believe they won't delete your game library, however, they will lock you out of future purchases.
  - kbenson 13y ago
    Do they keep you from creating a second account for purchasing and gifting what you buy?
- ahomescu1 13y ago
  > What other company do we allow the right to reach into our house and pull back things that we have rightfully purchased? Amazon with Kindle books.
  - goostavos 13y ago
    That's true. And also why I don't buy from them anymore. I'm doing the best I can to vote with my wallet. Which means pretty much the only place I purchase ebooks from anymore is OReilly, as they give plain old, drm free pdfs.
    - owenversteeg 13y ago
jamra 13y ago
Happened to me with Rome Total War II.
Ralfp 13y ago
Most recent case when big release flopped and guys behind it were apologising that I can remember is X: Rebirth from few weeks ago. Many people asked for refund but nobody got it.
- hkolek 13y ago
  That's not true. I was one of the idiots who bought it on release day but I eventually got a (Steam credit) refund after a lot of back and forth. And there were several other people on the Egosoft forums who got a refund as well.

by smtddr 13y ago

CJefferson 13y ago

This kind of thing has happened to several people. Steam used to disable your access to all your games if you did a charge back, so things have got a little better.

res0nat0r 13y ago

I've heard of this actually happening. I think it is to prevent people from buying games, playing them, then trying to file a chargeback so they play the game for free. I guess the fine line from Valve is, there isn't really any way to differentiate people legitimately having problems vs. people trying to scam the system, so their default policy is if you file a chargeback your account is going to be suspended.

lambda 13y ago
So, why don't they just have a policy that you have 24 hours to get a refund, like the original Android Market policy? Sure, I suppose if you are really dedicated you could play through a game in those 24 hours and get a refund to play for free, but that's a marginal enough case that it's probably not worth worrying about. Or they could just limit the number of refunds you can get, to say 1 out of 10 games that you buy, and no more than one per month. Or they could just refund you any time you want. Yeah, sure, a few people will scam them that way, but it's not like they have a huge per-unit cost for delivering the games to you. If it'll make users like the above more happy and more willing to buy from Steam, it's probably worth it in the long run.
- Goronmon 13y ago
  Sure, I suppose if you are really dedicated you could play through a game in those 24 hours and get a refund to play for free, but that's a marginal enough case that it's probably not worth worrying about. I think your underestimating the number of gamers who would pull all-nighters to play through a game as fast as possible in order to play games for free. Heck, plenty of people already do that without the ability to get a refund once they are finished. Hell, if I was still in college I would seriously consider doing it as a broke student. Allowing for refunds within 24 hours is effectively a free 24 game rental for any game in the library.

goostavos 13y ago

I went through this. Spent a total of two weeks trying to get the game to work -- even went it and bought new hardware. I went out of my way to show record bench marking results. It's not my card, it's not my power supply, it's the buggy game. 2weeks of being jerked around by steam, doing every. Single. One. Of their suggestion AND logging that I did them. No result. The end result could be boiled down to "sucks for you. We don't give refund." In the end, I ate the $60. I wasn't going to risk my entire game library over one game. I must say though, the events certainly "raised my consciousness" to the fact that owning digital things is in a really crappy place right now. What other company do we allow the right to reach into our house and pull back things that we have rightfully purchased? It's really quite absurd.

jamra 13y ago
I believe they won't delete your game library, however, they will lock you out of future purchases.
- kbenson 13y ago
  Do they keep you from creating a second account for purchasing and gifting what you buy?
ahomescu1 13y ago
> What other company do we allow the right to reach into our house and pull back things that we have rightfully purchased? Amazon with Kindle books.
- goostavos 13y ago
  That's true. And also why I don't buy from them anymore. I'm doing the best I can to vote with my wallet. Which means pretty much the only place I purchase ebooks from anymore is OReilly, as they give plain old, drm free pdfs.
  - owenversteeg 13y ago

jamra 13y ago

Happened to me with Rome Total War II.

Ralfp 13y ago

Most recent case when big release flopped and guys behind it were apologising that I can remember is X: Rebirth from few weeks ago. Many people asked for refund but nobody got it.

hkolek 13y ago
That's not true. I was one of the idiots who bought it on release day but I eventually got a (Steam credit) refund after a lot of back and forth. And there were several other people on the Egosoft forums who got a refund as well.