I got an email confirmation a few minutes later that my request is pending. That was easy! It would probably take you longer to find the customer support phone number on your internet provider’s website. Submitting your refund request reinforces that you must wait to be reviewed. Is this nebulousness (it’s a word, I checked) something Steam and developers need to address?įor now, let’s get back to the refund flow. There’s obviously no correct answer Steam is sometimes both, and sometimes it’s neither. What exactly is Steam? Is it a middleman that aims to connect developers to customers and charge a matchmaking fee? Is it a retailer where developers provide inventory that Steam can then sell to its customers? Your opinion of a refund program is colored by where you see Steam on this spectrum. To developers, it’s the difference between getting paid or not. Steam’s own literature on the refund program states "we hope this will give you more confidence in trying out titles that you’re less certain about." Sure you do, Steam, because to you this refund program is a way to increase sales by lowering purchase barriers. Steam’s actually got no skin in the game! They are getting their money no matter what. Steam and developers are not equal partners in offering refunds. You can request other forms of refund, but most users will likely go with the default. So Steam has still made their $6, at least. Nearly any way you spend that $20, Steam is taking their 30% cut or more. But Steam has $20 locked into your Wallet.Steam defaults to placing the $20 back into the player’s Steam Wallet.Standard Steam split means Steam gets $6 and the developer gets $14.The next thing you might notice is the drop down list, which by default will place the refund in my Steam Wallet. It could just be this guy on the other end. Theoretically Steam would see a wave of refunds for a single game and do some investigation. This may calm some of the concerns about a small amount of malicious users coming up with all sorts of clever ways to abuse the refund program. The literature made it seem like refunds were now entirely automated but it appears that someone will have to approve my refund. First, I was surprised that this is only a request for a refund. Here’s the juicy shot you’ve been waiting for. With my pride still intact, I clicked to request a refund. I appreciate that one of the options wasn’t "How on earth did you accidentally make 15 very precise storefront clicks followed by accidentally entering your PayPal credentials?" You can tell that Steam doesn’t fully believe me though, because it asks again if I’m sure this isn’t an embarrassing technical issue. Let’s just say we purchased this by accident. While a refund is not listed on Steam’s top level support page, subsequent pages are quick to suggest refunds as a resolution. The technical issue page also has a block at the top telling you that if nothing here will solve your problem you can request a refund. If you have a technical issue for example, you can click that option to get a list of links where help is available. Steam makes an honest effort to do some basic troubleshooting. ![]() ![]() Once it was added to my Library, I clicked on the entry and followed the Support link to this page. It cost me $4.99 USD and I paid entirely from my PayPal account. ![]() When I launched Steam there was a big banner explaining the refund program. I didn’t want to cause grief for a smaller developer or new title. It was the first game I saw in the list of best sellers that was inexpensive, old, and provided by a major publisher. Last night I "accidentally" purchased Assassin’s Creed III. Let’s go through the new refund flow together. It would be prudent to know exactly what Steam added. But the sudden manner in which the refund program was announced and implemented has many developers asking: "Is this good for me?" And it will certainly do right by players in every other country. On the surface this change brings Steam up to code in many European countries that require this by law. On Tuesday Steam added a refund procedure that allows you to get a full refund on any Steam game you’ve purchased in the last 14 days, for any reason, as long as you’ve played the game for less than 2 hours.
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