Valve get it right….for once….damn it!

So in a move that, I believe, surprised everyone; Valve has made a sweeping change to their refund policy. So instead of their ‘screw you you’re not getting one’ policy, we now have a pretty good one that is actually, in ways, one of the best policies around.

I for one am shocked!

So let’s get the break down! The new policy states you can get a refund on almost anything in the store (including DLC!) so long as you purchased it within two weeks, and have played it for less than 2hours. What’s more they offer you a choice for your refund, steam wallet or back onto the payment method you used; country depending. Some countries won’t do refunds on cards apparently, for those you’re stuck with store credit.

 

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 fourteen days of purchase, and 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.

You will be issued a full refund of your purchase within a week of approval. You will receive the refund in Steam Wallet funds or through the same payment method you used to make the purchase. If, for any reason, Steam is unable to issue a refund via your initial payment method, your Steam Wallet will be credited the full amount. (Some payment methods available through Steam in your country may not support refunding a purchase back to the original payment method. Click here for a full list.)

Honestly, while I think the 2hours is a bit short, since EA actually gives you 24hours on supported games, and 72hours on new first party releases. But two hours is more than enough time to really get a feel for the game, and more importantly see if the game runs, and if it suits you.

Where Steam beats everyone else, surprisingly, is that they also include DLC, something EA excludes from their refunds:

DLC purchased from the Steam store is refundable within fourteen days of purchase, and if the underlying title has been played for less than two hours since the DLC was purchased, so long as the DLC has not been consumed, modified or transferred. Please note that in some cases, Steam will be unable to give refunds for some third party DLC (for example, if the DLC irreversibly levels up a game character). These exceptions will be clearly marked as nonrefundable on the Store page prior to purchase.

Honestly, this is bloody awesome and something that Valve honestly didn’t have to accommodate. The fact they have done so, frankly raises them in my estimation significantly. They also extend the policy for pre-orders and bundles (Steam sells a mix of game & DLC bundles as well as franchise and publisher bundles):

When you pre-purchase a title on Steam (and have paid for the title in advance), you can request a refund at any time prior to release of that title. The standard 14-day/two-hour refund period also applies, starting on the game’s release date.

You can receive a full refund for any bundle purchased on the Steam Store, so long as none of the items in the bundle have been transferred, and if the combined usage time for all items in the bundle is less than two hours. If a bundle includes an in-game item or DLC that is not refundable, Steam will tell you if the whole bundle is refundable during check-out.

Frankly, given Valves track record with refunds, this is a huge turn around and frankly one that’s long overdue. But let’s not be naive, they aren’t being altruistic with this, rather it’s a way of heading off the pending legal action in the EU that would have hit them hard. Also, let’s be honest here, no matter their motivations for this, it’s a bloody good policy and I for one can’t fault them with it!

How does Valves refund policy compare to the rest? Well that’s a good question, so let’s do a quick rundown on the various policies.

GOG.com

At GOG.com, we’re confident in the quality of the games we sell and the work that we put into getting them ready for you to play them. If a game that you’ve bought on GOG.com doesn’t work and our team of expert Support staff can’t solve the problem for you, we will give you back your money.

On the surface this policy sounds pretty awesome. However in reality it’s just GOG fancying up their policy of saying ‘screw you’. I’ve yet to hear anyone getting a refund from GOG, they’ll either try and fob you off with store credit, or tell you you’re not getting one.

It’s a disgusting policy (and frankly the same one Steam used to have) wrapped up in a nice shiny wrapper, but let’s face it a turd is still a turd, no matter how it’s polished.

Origin’s Great Game Guarantee

You may return EA full game downloads (PC or Mac) and participating third party titles purchased on Origin for a full refund. Refund requests can be made within 24 hours after you first launch the game, within seven days from your date of purchase, or within seven days from the game’s release date if you pre­ordered, whichever comes first. And if you purchase a new EA game within the first 30 days of its release date and can’t play it due to technical reasons within EA’s control, you can request a refund within 72 hours after you first launch the game instead of 24

When it was first introduce it became the embarrassment of every other digital game vendor, since they were the only one to offer a decent refund policy. A move that was frankly surprising coming from EA, one of the most hated companies in the world.

 

However there are number of important exclusions. DLC for example, if say you Buy the Sims 4, it works great, but a new DLC pack runs like arse, you’re screwed and can’t get a refund on it. Also only some of the third party games on their site are covered by the policy.

So while it was a good policy, it’s not a ‘great’ policy. While you get more time with EA, over all I think Valves policy is better.

Green Man Gaming

They don’t have policy, frankly you buy it and that’s it, no refunds at all; since they just sell the keys there’s no way to recover them. However their pre-order policy is disgusting. Unlike most companies that let you refund right up to the day the game releases (in steams case the minute), they have a limit of 1 week before release. Their argument is that they wouldn’t be able to process the refund in time for the launch. BULL SHIT!! If every other company can do it so can you!

GamersGate

One of those rare companies that, while not having a policy, actually value customer relations. Any game that you buy and is supplied by them, can be refunded if you can show valid reasons for it. I’ve had several from them over the years for several things such as DRM causing problems or other technical issues.

However they also, like GMG, won’t give refunds on games they sell that provide you with a code. Which sadly is something on the rise, a lot of their games are now steam codes. Shame really.

Conclusion

Honestly, I’m not a fan of Steam or Valve, but they now have what is frankly one of the best refund policies in the industry.