Millions of games are sold on Steam every year. As the leading video game distribution platform, Valve’s tool is on everyone’s lips and it is common for all PC users to have bought games on it at some point. After all, the offer campaigns they organize are very tempting. But sometimes, it is common to buy on reflex and not always satisfied. If you have found yourself in one of those situations, we recommend that you continue reading what we are going to tell you.
What will I be reimbursed for?
As you can imagine, there are a number of conditions that you have to comply You cannot request a refund for a game that you bought a year ago and that, on top of that, you have completely finished. Although the system that Steam offers is very generous, it obviously has its limitations.
The first thing to keep in mind is that, if you meet the minimum conditions, Steam is not going to put any trouble on you for you to get your money back. It does not matter if what happens is that you have bought the game and you have found that the requirements it has are too high for your computer to move. This is actually one of the problems that PC users have been running into forever, so it’s a nice thing that Valve is allowing refunds. After all, they might not give you the option considering that you can always check the minimum requirements before buying.
You can also ask for a refund if the game you bought was in error. Who knows what may have happened. It is possible that you hit the purchase button by mistake, that someone else did it with your account or that you made the wrong version or delivery of the game you were interested in. Maybe you wanted the latest Assassin’s Creed and bought the old one by mistake. In this type of case, you don’t have to worry either: Steam will refund the money you paid.
Other situation where the refund it is allowed is that you have tried the game and you didn’t like it. Yes, as you hear it. This, which would not be accepted in any type of traditional trade, is a valid reason for Steam to refund your money. Thus, you will be able to buy the game, download it, install it and try it. Do you think that it does not meet your expectations or have you found a different game experience than what you expected? No problem, stop playing and request a refund. Of course, remember that there is a very important requirement: you must have played less than 2 hours.
That implies that Steam allows you to give the game a second chance. Perhaps the first five minutes have been disappointing, but Valve’s platform tells you to “keep playing a little and find out”, so you can continue playing for even an hour to see if in the end it convinces you. If you are not convinced, you will only have to proceed with the return. Since Steam games have their own track of how long you’ve been played, the entire process is legal and fully controlled. On the other hand, you also have to take note of the time that can elapse from when you made the purchase until you request the refund: 14 days. Except for surprise, you will have more than enough time to request a refund.
How to request the refund?
It’s easier than you might imagine. Actually, Steam is not going to make it difficult for you so that you can’t make the refund or you are lazy to do it. Follow these steps:
Enter the Steam support page and identify yourself with your platform user account. You will see a list of topics with which to contact Support. There you have to click on “Purchases” Select the game you want to recover your money from Click on “I want to request a refund”
You will then have to choose the method through which the money will be returned to you, such as Steam balance, and select the reason for which you are requesting a refund. You will have available all the options that we have mentioned before, so you do not have to worry about anything. Then you can add a note in the text box that is included, in case you want to contribute something that may be useful when Steam understands the application request. For example, “the images of this game and this one are too similar and I got confused when making the purchase” or “I wanted to buy a pack and I bought only the single version”.
Then click on send the refund request and You will soon receive the confirmation email. You won’t have to wait long for your petition to be reviewed, as it is usually a 24-hour process. The game will then disappear from your Steam library and the money will go to your credit card or Steam wallet.
Where is the limit?
It is important to be aware that Steam refund system should not be abused. As much as it may seem to you that it is a platform with millions of users and that certain actions may go unnoticed, in reality, everything is controlled under the Valve system. For this reason, the platform itself indicates in the refund policy bases that they can take the right to block this access to people who have detected that they are abusing it.
For example, perhaps there are those who buy a multitude of games and then always request a refund after having played a little less than those 2 hours that are imposed as a limit. This is not something that is well seen, since Steam wants the refund system to be help for those who really need it. What they do specify is that there is no problem if you request a refund for a game you bought just before it went on sale at a lower price. Therefore, if you bought the latest Street Fighter for 40 euros yesterday and today it is available for 20 euros, you can request a refund without any inconvenience. When Steam returns your money you can buy it back for 20 euros and thus enjoy a fair price.
