CD Keys - how to get a refund?

RussellEngland

I bought an Age of Empires IV key from https://www.cdkeys.com/ for Steam for £29 (RRP £49)

I added the key to Steam but immediately got a message saying the game won't work on my platform

I wrongly assumed that Steam was platform independent but this game requires Windows 11

So I contacted customer support at CD Keys straight away, within 30 minutes of purchase.

They kept fobbing me off, telling me to contact Steam (who said contact the retailer) and CD keys eventually said its their policy not to refund activated keys

"8.6 We offer refunds on a discretionary basis, and each refund request is looked at individually. We do our best to provide a refund where possible, but please note that games that have been played or keys that have been redeemed are ineligible for a refund. Refund requests have to be submitted within 7 days of the delivery of the key by the Vendor to the Purchaser or Customer."

If I had bought a physical game, then I could have gone to the shop and got a refund.

Any ideas how I can get a refund for a digital key?

I expect there's no chance of getting a refund, but just thought I would ask anyway.

MattMattMattUK

RussellEngland said:

I bought an Age of Empires IV key from https://www.cdkeys.com/ for Steam for £29 (RRP £49)

I added the key to Steam but immediately got a message saying the game won't work on my platform

I wrongly assumed that Steam was platform independent but this game requires Windows 11

So I contacted customer support at CD Keys straight away, within 30 minutes of purchase.

They kept fobbing me off, telling me to contact Steam (who said contact the retailer) and CD keys eventually said its their policy not to refund activated keys

"8.6 We offer refunds on a discretionary basis, and each refund request is looked at individually. We do our best to provide a refund where possible, but please note that games that have been played or keys that have been redeemed are ineligible for a refund. Refund requests have to be submitted within 7 days of the delivery of the key by the Vendor to the Purchaser or Customer."

If I had bought a physical game, then I could have gone to the shop and got a refund.

Any ideas how I can get a refund for a digital key?

I expect there's no chance of getting a refund, but just thought I would ask anyway.

You aren't entitled to a refund unfortunately. Steam would have given you one if you purchased direct and had played less than thirty minutes, however they can't refund a CD Keys code and CD keys can't refund an activated code.

Steam is platform independent,  games however are not. However... AoE IV does not require W11, it will happily run on W10, so you should be fine?

EmJHall97

I've never had issues with CD Keys but I've read online that people have, so I always purchase using my credit card (paypal might refund you too but I've only ever tried on fraudulent ebay purchases) so I can do a charge back if something does go wrong. Really they should have issued you with another key. Did you screenshot the error code that was given to you too?

Mirkou

WOW! I didn't know it is possible to get a CD key refund

MarieJB

CD Keys has always been great for me. Used them for the past few years and on the few occasions I've required a refund I've managed to get it in under 24 hours. 

teddysmum

I've only had refunds(4) from Gamivo, who are  the cheapest over all, though they add an admin charge which is relatively cheaper the more you spend (about 75p on one game under £1, yet a couple of £s on £20). You have to beware of their selling gimmicks, which several, including myself ,have openly complained about You need to switch off SMART or they make an annual club charge, meaning cheaper games, but in retrospect I should have taken the offer as for about £2/month I could have saved quite a lot and the other necessary is to switch off the insurance, which is not needed.

For the three keys that would not register on Steam, I had to send screen snips showing the key typed in on the Steam site, the refusal reply and the recent entries on my Steam register page. I printed the Steam messages over their sale page for the game, showing that there was no 'This game is already in your library' text. They refunded, but asked for time to contact the seller first.

In the 4th case, Steam told me that I had already bought the game, which was in my account, so being my fault, I didn't expect any refund, but asked anyway. The answer was a 'yes' provided that they could resell my key code. I sent similar to the above, but with the page showing the already owned message and my register page showing my purchase date. I was refunded within about 10 days.

Had Steam accepted a key, which would be OK as far as they were concerned ,then there would have been no refund, as I could have downloaded the game while making an excuse for a refund, but having none of the proofs, which they do ask for.