Can I Buy a Game I Refunded on Steam Again
Everything you need to know about Steam refunds, explained
When Valve introduced the Steam refund system back in 2015, it promised to make buying digital games as worry-free an feel as purchasing any physical product. Steam refunds would let you buy with confidence: if a game didn't work, wasn't every bit advertised, or was simply evidently bad, you lot could become your money back speedily and painlessly without having to merchandise a novel'due south worth of emails with customer support.
Fast forrad ii years, and Steam refunds take struggled to evangelize on that hope. Much of the refund process is poorly-explained or hidden from the average Steam user completely, making information technology tough to sympathize why the system works the way it does. Even Valve's ain Steam refund FAQ offers merely the almost basic of explanations as to what y'all can and can't refund, neglecting a number of important questions Steam users deserve the answers to.
That's why we've put together this Steam refund primer: an Avant-garde FAQ, if y'all will. It addresses the well-nigh confusing aspects of Steam's refund system, demystifying them using information sourced from Valve'southward fragmented FAQ, official Steam Back up forum responses, and discussions we've had with game developers. With this primer in hand, your next Steam refund should go a lot more smoothly.
How Steam refunds work, in brusk:
- Go to the Steam support page and click "Purchases," then click the game you'd like to refund.
- Select "I would similar a refund," and so "I'd like to request a refund." You can then cull your Steam Wallet or the payment method you'd like to receive your refund through.
- If it'due south inside 14 days of purchase and y'all've played for less than 2 hours, the refund request is automatically canonical.
- Within a calendar week, your purchase will be refunded.
Is it possible to request for a game exterior the 14-day/2-hour window?
Yes, and Valve volition consider information technology on a instance-past-example basis. If the refund is well outside the 14-day limit, however, information technology will be rejected.
Is there a limit to how many games you can refund?
No. You lot can request as many refunds as you desire through Steam, but if Valve believes you're abusing the system, it can revoke your right to request future refunds.
If your refund is refused, can yous challenge the determination?
Yeah. If y'all feel your refund was unfairly refused, you can issue another asking and it'll be reconsidered by a different Valve employee. A fresh set of eyes may exist enough to go it approved.
How long does it take for the money to show up after a refund has been approved?
Well-nigh refunds are processed within seven days of approval, just refunds for purchases made using international payment methods can take longer. Steam publishes some public statistics for refunds.
How much of the refund process is automated?
According to Valve, any refund made within 14 days of purchase for a game with less than ii hours of playtime will be automatically approved. If yous've requested a number of refunds recently, or your refunds falls exterior of the xiv-day/2-60 minutes window, it won't be automatically canonical and will instead be manually reviewed past a Valve employee.
How does the fiscal side of refunds work for Valve and the developer?
When you purchase a game on Steam, the money doesn't become straight to the developer. Valve doesn't distribute sales revenue to developers until the end of the calendar calendar month subsequently the sales take been made, meaning devs don't come across money from Jan'south sales until the end of February. Considering the Steam refund window is typically only 14 days, developers technically don't lose money from refunds—they simply never come across the sale in the first place.
Can you get a alarm for refunding as well many games?
Yes. If y'all consequence multiple refund requests within a brusk period of time, Valve will send you a warning along with your refund ticket stating that the refund organisation is not to be used as a way of demoing games. While in that location is no official number on how many games you tin refund before receiving the alert, it seems to trigger later issuing effectually five refunds inside six months. The standard warning message is as follows:
"You lot've requested a agglomeration of refunds recently. Please keep in mind that refunds are not a method for trying out games. If we think the refund system is being misused we'll reject to grant future refunds."
Can people farm games for achievements/cards and so refund them?
This was a problem when Steam refunds were outset rolled out, but Valve afterward updated the Steam Trading Card system in two key ways to minimize abuse. The commencement modify prevents cards from dropping until later on you've put at to the lowest degree two hours into a game, by which time yous're no longer eligible for an automatic refund. This restriction initially applied to all Steam users, but Valve has since limited it to new accounts and accounts that have made a refund request inside the concluding few months.
The second change Valve fabricated to the trading menu organization stops games from dropping cards the moment they're released on Steam. Instead, a game must accrue a certain number of owners and players before its cards will start dropping. This threshold, what Valve calls its 'conviction metric', varies from game to game, and is intended to stem the tide of 'simulated' games released purely to brand money from farming trading cards. For less-popular games, this can mean cards won't first dropping until the 14-day refund window has passed.
Information technology'south also worth noting that while you can merits a refund outside the two-hour/fourteen-day refund window, Valve may notice if you abuse this to farm cards and prevent y'all from requesting refunds in the future.
Achievements, meanwhile, have no such farming restrictions, and can be earned freely during the ii-hour refund window without event.
How has Steam'south new gifting organization changed the way refunds work?
Since the start of May 2017, gifting games on Steam works a little differently. Where gifts used to exist as items in your inventory, they must now exist sent or scheduled to 1 of your Steam friends at the time of purchase. If a friend declines your gift, the purchase will be refunded instead of the game appearing in your inventory. Other than that, refunding gifts works much the same as before.
Tin can you refund a souvenir you purchased for someone else?
Yes, provided the souvenir has not nevertheless been redeemed by the person you bought it for.
Can yous refund a souvenir that'due south already been redeemed?
Yeah, but the refund request will need to exist initiated by the gift recipient. The asking will besides need to exist fabricated inside 14 days of yous purchasing the souvenir, and the recipient can't have played the game for more than two hours. Once the recipient has initiated the refund request on their end, you'll be able to submit your own request as normal.
If you lot buy multiple games in a single transaction, tin you lot refund just one of them?
Aye, but it's a incomparably confusing process. Bear in mind this only applies when you purchase multiple individual games in a single transaction, not when you buy multiple games every bit office of a bundle.
Get-go, you'll need to be refunding the purchase to your Steam Wallet—if you desire to refund to your credit card or another external payment method, you'll demand to refund the whole transaction or aught at all. And so you'll need to ignore the fact that Steam volition listing every game from the transaction in your refund request and instead just check the total value of the refund. This should be equal to the sum of just the games you lot selected to refund. In one case approved, only those games volition be removed from your library and your Steam wallet will be credited with their purchase cost. It'due south a confusing process, but it does piece of work.
Can you lot refund bundles?
Yep, and then long as the cumulative playtime on all games within the packet is less than two hours. Sure bundles that include not-refundable DLC may not exist eligible for a refund, and Steam volition let you know this when you lot showtime buy the bundle.
Can yous refund a single game from a bundle?
No. Merely complete bundles can be refunded.
If a game goes on sale after your purchased it, can yous refund and rebuy it at the cheaper toll?
Yes, although you may have to pay the cheaper cost out-of-pocket since refunds can take up to seven days to process.
Tin can I refund Dota ii and get back all the hours I spent farming creeps?
No. Every hour you've put into Dota 2 is legally the property of Valve and may or may not be used against you in the future for the purpose of selling hats.
Just kidding.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-refunds/
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