Why can't you get a refund from steam ?

jay_1978

I recently purchased a game from steam, Not sure if people are aware of what that is but its a program you use to buy games and they download onto your computer, Now the game I bought is majorly bugged and I am finding it unplayable. I have been told by mates that I will never get a refund, For all steam know I could get a refund but not uninstall the game. I always thought that everything you bought you had a certain guarantee?

fwor

jay_1978 wrote: »

I always thought that everything you bought you had a certain guarantee?

The maker's guarantee to the buyer is not mandatory, and is entirely at their discretion.

However, as the seller, Steam can't in principle get out of their obligations to you under the Sale of Goods Act. One of the requirements is that the product that they sell you must be "fit for purpose", which it isn't if it's a game and you can't play it.

~However~, Steam may try to claim that it is your computer that is at fault (e.g. inadequate hardware). To counter that you will probably need to find evidence (from online forums, for example) that significant numbers of users are having the same problem as you. With that evidence, it's hard to see how they could avoid giving you a refund, but I doubt that they will make it easy...

jay_1978

Well to be fair its not steams fault that the game is buggy, Its the games maker so will they say that its nothing to do with them ? The game is one of those that the games company releases patches months into completing the game but that means I don't really want to play it til then

fwor wrote: »

The maker's guarantee to the buyer is not mandatory, and is entirely at their discretion.

However, as the seller, Steam can't in principle get out of their obligations to you under the Sale of Goods Act. One of the requirements is that the product that they sell you must be "fit for purpose", which it isn't if it's a game and you can't play it.

~However~, Steam may try to claim that it is your computer that is at fault (e.g. inadequate hardware). To counter that you will probably need to find evidence (from online forums, for example) that significant numbers of users are having the same problem as you. With that evidence, it's hard to see how they could avoid giving you a refund, but I doubt that they will make it easy...

asc99c

jay_1978 wrote: »

Well to be fair its not steams fault that the game is buggy, Its the games maker so will they say that its nothing to do with them ?

Probably yes, but under UK law that's not an adequate answer. UK law says you take it up with the seller, and they can then take it up with the manufacturer. Which does kind of make sense - if Steam are losing money dealing with refunds, then when they take it up with the manufacturer, they will get a lot further than an individual buyer.

I should mention that along with VAT, much better consumer protection laws are a prime reason that the price in pounds of most stuff is quite a bit higher than the equivalent dollar price.

If they refuse to offer a refund, I can tell you my experience with 300mbps wireless networking stuff. When it was running slower than my old wireless (25mbps in real conditions), Netgear just stated the 300mbps is a maximum and performance can't be guaranteed. The seller told me that if the manufacturer wouldn't acknowledge the fault, they couldn't offer a refund either. As far as UK law is concerned that is total b***s***. They wouldn't negotiate so I had to file a small claims action and a couple of days after I did this, I got a cheque for the whole amount plus the small claims filing fee.

The small claims procedure was really easy. I filled in an online form, and had to post something off. But I didn't have to do anything else, attend hearings or enter into long telephone calls. Small claims doesn't pay attention to nuanced legal arguments / precedents etc. So there's no lawyers and they can't scare you off with potential legal fees.