If You Buy a Steam Game Instead of the Bundle Can You Buy It 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-complimentary an feel as purchasing whatsoever concrete product. Steam refunds would let you buy with confidence: if a game didn't work, wasn't as advertised, or was just plain bad, y'all could become your money back apace and painlessly without having to trade a novel's worth of emails with customer support.
Fast forward two years, and Steam refunds have struggled to deliver on that promise. Much of the refund procedure is poorly-explained or hidden from the average Steam user completely, making it tough to understand why the system works the mode it does. Fifty-fifty Valve's ain Steam refund FAQ offers merely the most bones 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 Advanced FAQ, if you lot will. Information technology addresses the most confusing aspects of Steam's refund system, demystifying them using information sourced from Valve's fragmented FAQ, official Steam Back up forum responses, and discussions we've had with game developers. With this primer in mitt, your next Steam refund should go a lot more smoothly.
How Steam refunds work, in short:
- Get to the Steam support page and click "Purchases," then click the game you'd like to refund.
- Select "I would like a refund," and then "I'd like to request a refund." You can so choose your Steam Wallet or the payment method y'all'd like to receive your refund through.
- If it'south inside 14 days of purchase and you've played for less than ii hours, the refund request is automatically approved.
- Inside a week, your purchase will be refunded.
Is it possible to request for a game outside the fourteen-twenty-four hour period/2-hr window?
Yeah, and Valve will consider it on a case-by-case footing. If the refund is well outside the 14-mean solar day limit, however, it will be rejected.
Is there a limit to how many games you tin can refund?
No. You lot can request as many refunds as you want through Steam, but if Valve believes you're abusing the system, it can revoke your correct to request future refunds.
If your refund is refused, can you challenge the determination?
Yes. If you feel your refund was unfairly refused, you can issue another request and it'll be reconsidered past a different Valve employee. A fresh set up of eyes may exist plenty to go information technology approved.
How long does it take for the money to show up after a refund has been canonical?
Most refunds are processed within 7 days of approving, but refunds for purchases fabricated using international payment methods tin 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 xiv days of buy for a game with less than ii hours of playtime will be automatically approved. If you've requested a number of refunds recently, or your refunds falls outside of the fourteen-day/two-hour window, it won't be automatically approved and will instead exist manually reviewed by a Valve employee.
How does the financial side of refunds work for Valve and the developer?
When y'all buy a game on Steam, the money doesn't become straight to the programmer. Valve doesn't distribute sales revenue to developers until the end of the month after the sales have been made, significant devs don't see money from January's sales until the end of February. Because the Steam refund window is typically only 14 days, developers technically don't lose coin from refunds—they simply never come across the sale in the first place.
Can you go a warning for refunding too many games?
Yes. If you issue multiple refund requests within a short period of time, Valve will send you lot a warning forth with your refund ticket stating that the refund arrangement is non to be used as a style of demoing games. While in that location is no official number on how many games you lot can refund before receiving the alarm, it seems to trigger after issuing around five refunds inside half dozen months. The standard alarm message is equally follows:
"You've requested a bunch of refunds recently. Delight keep in mind that refunds are non a method for trying out games. If we retrieve the refund organisation is being misused we'll pass up to grant futurity refunds."
Can people farm games for achievements/cards and so refund them?
This was a problem when Steam refunds were first rolled out, but Valve subsequently updated the Steam Trading Card system in two key ways to minimize corruption. The first modify prevents cards from dropping until subsequently you've put at least 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 fabricated a refund asking within the last few months.
The 2nd change Valve fabricated to the trading card system stops games from dropping cards the moment they're released on Steam. Instead, a game must accrue a sure number of owners and players earlier its cards will kickoff dropping. This threshold, what Valve calls its 'confidence metric', varies from game to game, and is intended to stem the tide of 'fake' 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's also worth noting that while y'all can merits a refund exterior the two-hour/14-day refund window, Valve may notice if you lot 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 two-hour refund window without issue.
How has Steam's new gifting system inverse the fashion refunds work?
Since the starting time of May 2017, gifting games on Steam works a fiddling differently. Where gifts used to exist equally items in your inventory, they must now exist sent or scheduled to one of your Steam friends at the time of buy. If a friend declines your souvenir, the buy volition be refunded instead of the game actualization in your inventory. Other than that, refunding gifts works much the same equally before.
Tin you refund a souvenir you purchased for someone else?
Yes, provided the gift has not yet been redeemed by the person you bought it for.
Can yous refund a gift that's already been redeemed?
Yes, but the refund request will need to be initiated by the gift recipient. The request will likewise demand to exist made within 14 days of you purchasing the gift, and the recipient tin can't take played the game for more than two hours. In one case the recipient has initiated the refund asking on their end, you'll exist able to submit your own request as normal.
If you lot buy multiple games in a single transaction, can you refund just one of them?
Yes, simply it's a decidedly confusing process. Bear in mind this simply applies when you buy multiple individual games in a unmarried transaction, not when you buy multiple games as part of a packet.
First, you'll need to be refunding the buy to your Steam Wallet—if you lot want to refund to your credit bill of fare or another external payment method, you'll need to refund the whole transaction or nix at all. Then you lot'll need to ignore the fact that Steam volition list every game from the transaction in your refund request and instead just cheque the total value of the refund. This should exist equal to the sum of just the games you selected to refund. Once approved, simply those games will exist removed from your library and your Steam wallet volition exist credited with their purchase price. It's a disruptive process, just it does work.
Tin y'all refund bundles?
Yes, and then long as the cumulative playtime on all games within the bundle is less than two hours. Certain bundles that include non-refundable DLC may not be eligible for a refund, and Steam will let you know this when you kickoff buy the bundle.
Tin can you refund a single game from a parcel?
No. Only complete bundles tin be refunded.
If a game goes on sale afterward your purchased it, 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 tin accept upward to 7 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 ii is legally the property of Valve and may or may not be used against yous in the time to come for the purpose of selling hats.
Just kidding.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-refunds/
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