Many gamers fear going digital because they believe it is not possible to get a refund for a recently purchased game that they do not enjoy or that fails to work properly on their system. This was the case in the past, but things have changed as Steam has long allowed its users to request refunds.
How to return a Steam game and get a refund?
This feature is important because since many games do not allow potential buyers to play a demo, a person can purchase a game with surety that if they do not like it, it wouldn’t be hard to recoup their losses.
How to request a refund successfully
Note that there are a few requirements for demanding a refund for your game, and you must follow these rules or else your bid will fail. OK, so the first thing is to make sure the game was purchased within 14-days. The second is to make sure the game was played for less than two hours.
Users who meet the above requirements will have little trouble getting a refund. However, if you do not fully meet the requirements, Valve will look into your account and determine if you should be refunded regardless. Going this route is not a safe bet, so we suggest avoiding it at all costs.
We should point out that it is not possible to refund games purchased outside of Steam that were added to the platform. If you want a refund, go ahead and request it via the original retailer, and I hope they have a policy for that.
Many gamers purchase Steam keys from third-party retailers due to added savings. However, even though these keys are tied to Steam, that doesn’t mean you can go through the Steam process to get your money back, it just won’t work.
Here’s where things get interesting. If you’re the type of person who refunds a lot of games in a short period of time, Valve may view your actions as abuse and, from there, refuse to consider refund requests in the future.
Since the company does not specify what it views as abuse, we recommend users be careful and try to protect themselves as best they can.
Finally, if you buy a game today for $60 but it goes on sale for a lower price in the next few days, you can ask for a refund. However, if the game was not played for less than two hours, then collecting that refund would be more difficult.
Read: How to stop Steam launching automatically after Windows boot.
How to get your refund for games
When it comes to returning your money, we suggest opening the Steam client, navigating directly to the Help link at the top, and selecting Steam Support.
Under the section that says Recent Products, please select the game you want to get rid of. Bear in mind that Recent Products will only show titles you’ve recently played.
Alternatively, one could go to the Purchases section to view all the titles under your belt that were bought in the last 6 months.
After finding the game, select it, then click on I would like a refund > I’d like to request a refund.
Steam will now check if you are eligible for a return of cash.
If this is the case, select why you want to collect a refund, then click on the Submit Request button.
You will receive an email confirming the request. If the request has been granted, another email will appear confirming the return of your money.
Now read: How to pin Steam games to Taskbar or Desktop.
