4 ms·

Maybe if you're a total jerk about it?... I purchased the full iD collection once for like $90+, and the next day I requested a refund because several of the ol

by gfosco 13y ago

Maybe if you're a total jerk about it?... I purchased the full iD collection once for like $90+, and the next day I requested a refund because several of the old titles didn't want to run. Despite the no-refund policy, they reversed the transaction. I've heard more positive stories than negative ones.

gcb0 13y ago
it still only takes it happening once to you to lose your titles.
simias 13y ago
Are you in Europe? Because I'm pretty sure european law forces them to refund you in that case.
- onli 13y ago
  Sure, but they ignore the law. Had that with GTA 4, which didn't run fully because the integrated Microsoft-Always-Online-DRM didn't work. Got the "no refund" answer despite having a 8 year old account (at that time) and a not so small, albeit not massively large, library, and without ever having requested a refund before. I'm still angry about that and minimized my purchases there. Edit: This also means, to the original comment, that Steam does not necessarily make it especially easy to evade SecuROM Hell or other DRM methods, as games on Steam can still have their own protection schemes. It only makes it easier insofar as those are normally marked and games have with Steam only another, better option. Maybe that was meant.
- Silhouette 13y ago
  The trouble with laws like that is that they are only worth anything if you have the means to enforce your legal rights under them. If Steam -- or any other supplier or on-line service you use -- is based in one jurisdiction and you're based in another, the cost of actually taking them to court to force compliance could easily be prohibitive. I'm a little surprised that they haven't been dinged by the card companies yet if reports of whole accounts being blocked based on one chargeback are true. Even Valve are just another retailer to the likes of Visa and Mastercard, and the card services tend to take a very hostile view of merchants who try to evade their obligations under the card service policies if something comes to their attention. I'm also surprised there haven't been more legal cases considering the implications of SaaS, on-line media library services, software that requires phone-home activation/DRM, and the like. There are obvious ways that such systems/services could provide unfair leverage against consumers in the event of any dispute, and as you mentioned it seems very likely that they would fall foul of the law here in Europe, or at least in several national jurisdictions within Europe. The US tends to give businesses a lot more slack to play with on such matters, though.
threeseed 13y ago
Do you seriously not understand the situation ? It's great that you had a good experience with your particular customer service agent. But what if you request a refund from someone who is feeling unwell that day, had a death in the family or is just feeling like being an asshole. Then you're account could be blocked with limited recourse. In this day and age there really is limited point to DRM. Everything becomes available on Torrent sites anyway and all it ends up doing is treating legitimate, paying users as second class citizens.

by gfosco 13y ago

gcb0 13y ago

it still only takes it happening once to you to lose your titles.

simias 13y ago

Are you in Europe? Because I'm pretty sure european law forces them to refund you in that case.

onli 13y ago
Sure, but they ignore the law. Had that with GTA 4, which didn't run fully because the integrated Microsoft-Always-Online-DRM didn't work. Got the "no refund" answer despite having a 8 year old account (at that time) and a not so small, albeit not massively large, library, and without ever having requested a refund before. I'm still angry about that and minimized my purchases there. Edit: This also means, to the original comment, that Steam does not necessarily make it especially easy to evade SecuROM Hell or other DRM methods, as games on Steam can still have their own protection schemes. It only makes it easier insofar as those are normally marked and games have with Steam only another, better option. Maybe that was meant.
Silhouette 13y ago
The trouble with laws like that is that they are only worth anything if you have the means to enforce your legal rights under them. If Steam -- or any other supplier or on-line service you use -- is based in one jurisdiction and you're based in another, the cost of actually taking them to court to force compliance could easily be prohibitive. I'm a little surprised that they haven't been dinged by the card companies yet if reports of whole accounts being blocked based on one chargeback are true. Even Valve are just another retailer to the likes of Visa and Mastercard, and the card services tend to take a very hostile view of merchants who try to evade their obligations under the card service policies if something comes to their attention. I'm also surprised there haven't been more legal cases considering the implications of SaaS, on-line media library services, software that requires phone-home activation/DRM, and the like. There are obvious ways that such systems/services could provide unfair leverage against consumers in the event of any dispute, and as you mentioned it seems very likely that they would fall foul of the law here in Europe, or at least in several national jurisdictions within Europe. The US tends to give businesses a lot more slack to play with on such matters, though.

threeseed 13y ago

Do you seriously not understand the situation ? It's great that you had a good experience with your particular customer service agent. But what if you request a refund from someone who is feeling unwell that day, had a death in the family or is just feeling like being an asshole. Then you're account could be blocked with limited recourse. In this day and age there really is limited point to DRM. Everything becomes available on Torrent sites anyway and all it ends up doing is treating legitimate, paying users as second class citizens.