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 dorsum in 2015, it promised to make ownership digital games as worry-costless an experience as purchasing any physical product. Steam refunds would let you purchase with conviction: if a game didn't work, wasn't equally advertised, or was just plain bad, yous could go your coin back quickly and painlessly without having to trade a novel's worth of emails with customer support.
Fast forward two years, and Steam refunds accept struggled to evangelize on that promise. Much of the refund process is poorly-explained or hidden from the boilerplate Steam user completely, making it tough to empathise why the system works the way it does. Fifty-fifty Valve'due south own Steam refund FAQ offers only the most basic of explanations as to what you 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 you volition. It addresses the most disruptive aspects of Steam'due south refund arrangement, demystifying them using information sourced from Valve'south fragmented FAQ, official Steam Support forum responses, and discussions we've had with game developers. With this primer in paw, your next Steam refund should go a lot more than smoothly.
How Steam refunds piece of work, in short:
- Go to the Steam back up page and click "Purchases," and then click the game you'd similar to refund.
- Select "I would like a refund," then "I'd like to request a refund." You tin then choose your Steam Wallet or the payment method you'd like to receive your refund through.
- If it's within xiv days of purchase and you've played for less than ii hours, the refund request is automatically canonical.
- Within a week, your purchase volition be refunded.
Is it possible to request for a game outside the 14-solar day/two-hour window?
Yes, and Valve will consider it on a example-by-example ground. If the refund is well outside the 14-twenty-four hour period limit, however, information technology volition be rejected.
Is there a limit to how many games y'all tin refund?
No. You tin request as many refunds as yous want through Steam, only if Valve believes y'all're abusing the system, it can revoke your right to request time to come refunds.
If your refund is refused, can you challenge the decision?
Yep. 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 fix of eyes may be enough to get it approved.
How long does it take for the coin to testify upward after a refund has been canonical?
Most refunds are processed within 7 days of approval, simply 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, whatever refund made within 14 days of purchase for a game with less than ii hours of playtime will be automatically canonical. If you've requested a number of refunds recently, or your refunds falls outside of the xiv-twenty-four hour period/two-hour window, it won't exist automatically canonical and will instead be manually reviewed by a Valve employee.
How does the fiscal side of refunds work for Valve and the developer?
When yous buy a game on Steam, the money doesn't become straight to the developer. Valve doesn't distribute sales acquirement to developers until the end of the calendar month later on the sales accept been fabricated, meaning devs don't see coin from January's sales until the end of February. Because the Steam refund window is typically but 14 days, developers technically don't lose money from refunds—they simply never see the sale in the get-go place.
Can yous get a alarm for refunding too many games?
Aye. If yous outcome multiple refund requests within a short period of time, Valve will send you a warning forth with your refund ticket stating that the refund system is non to be used every bit a manner of demoing games. While there is no official number on how many games yous can refund before receiving the warning, it seems to trigger after issuing around five refunds within six months. The standard warning message is every bit follows:
"You've requested a bunch of refunds recently. Please proceed in mind that refunds are not a method for trying out games. If we remember the refund system is existence misused we'll decline to grant future refunds."
Can people farm games for achievements/cards and then refund them?
This was a problem when Steam refunds were commencement rolled out, simply Valve afterward updated the Steam Trading Card system in two key ways to minimize abuse. The starting time modify prevents cards from dropping until after you lot've put at to the lowest degree ii hours into a game, past which time you're no longer eligible for an automatic refund. This brake initially applied to all Steam users, but Valve has since limited information technology to new accounts and accounts that have made a refund request within the terminal few months.
The second alter Valve made to the trading card system 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 volition start dropping. This threshold, what Valve calls its 'confidence metric', varies from game to game, and is intended to stalk the tide of 'faux' games released purely to make money from farming trading cards. For less-popular games, this can hateful cards won't start dropping until the 14-day refund window has passed.
It'due south besides worth noting that while y'all can merits a refund outside the two-hr/14-day refund window, Valve may notice if you abuse this to farm cards and forestall you from requesting refunds in the time to come.
Achievements, meanwhile, take no such farming restrictions, and tin can be earned freely during the two-60 minutes refund window without result.
How has Steam's new gifting system inverse the way refunds work?
Since the start of May 2017, gifting games on Steam works a footling differently. Where gifts used to be as items in your inventory, they must now be sent or scheduled to i of your Steam friends at the time of purchase. If a friend declines your souvenir, the purchase will be refunded instead of the game appearing in your inventory. Other than that, refunding gifts works much the same as earlier.
Can you refund a gift you purchased for someone else?
Yes, provided the gift has not nevertheless been redeemed by the person you bought it for.
Can y'all refund a gift that'due south already been redeemed?
Aye, only the refund request will need to exist initiated by the souvenir recipient. The asking volition as well need to be fabricated within 14 days of you purchasing the gift, and the recipient can't have played the game for more than 2 hours. Once the recipient has initiated the refund asking on their finish, you'll be able to submit your own asking every bit normal.
If you purchase multiple games in a single transaction, tin you refund just 1 of them?
Yes, but it's a decidedly disruptive procedure. Bear in mind this only applies when you purchase multiple individual games in a unmarried transaction, not when you buy multiple games as part of a bundle.
First, you'll demand to be refunding the buy to your Steam Wallet—if you want to refund to your credit card or another external payment method, y'all'll need to refund the whole transaction or null at all. Then you'll demand to ignore the fact that Steam will list every game from the transaction in your refund request and instead simply check the full value of the refund. This should be equal to the sum of just the games you lot selected to refund. Once canonical, only those games will exist removed from your library and your Steam wallet will be credited with their purchase price. It's a disruptive process, merely it does work.
Can yous refund bundles?
Yeah, so long as the cumulative playtime on all games within the package is less than two hours. Sure bundles that include non-refundable DLC may not exist eligible for a refund, and Steam will allow you know this when you lot first buy the parcel.
Can you refund a unmarried game from a bundle?
No. Only complete bundles can exist refunded.
If a game goes on auction after your purchased it, tin can you refund and rebuy it at the cheaper price?
Yes, although you may have to pay the cheaper price out-of-pocket since refunds can take up to seven days to process.
Tin I refund Dota 2 and get dorsum 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 non be used against you in the futurity for the purpose of selling hats.
Only kidding.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-refunds/
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