Today, the DRM-free store GOG announced a few changes to how they will handle refunds for games purchased through them.
In short you will now get 30 days to refund a title from GOG, which includes games currently in development which previously only gave you two weeks. Even if you've downloaded it and played it, GOG say if it's within 30 days of asking they will give you a refund.
A good policy, 30 days is a pretty good amount of time to refund a game. However, it can be open to abuse of course. Sounds like they will keep an eye on people doing it often though, as they said "we reserve the right to refuse refunds in individual cases".
With how they're handling them now, this might actually be the most consumer-friendly refund practice for an online store. From looking it over it definitely seems better than Steam, Humble and itch in terms of how friendly it's presented. Steam is locked down to two hours playtime and two weeks, Humble Store don't give a timeline on it but they do accept refunds of course (they've refunded me personally multiple times), itch.io also don't state if there's a particular amount of time, Epic Game Store is the same as Steam and Origin is also two weeks and without playing any.
See their announcement here and FAQ here.
I then contacted GOG support and explained the situation, and I asked for a refund to my GOG Wallet for SS4 and the DLC, which would be put towards the purchase of SS4: Complete Collection. GOG support stated that while they "treat orders made more than 30 days ago as final and non-refundable", given the circumstance, they were willing to make an exception even though it had been over two months since my purchase. I was quite pleased with GOG's customer support, not just in terms of the outcome, but also the diligence and affable disposition of the representative with whom I communicated (thanks Irrehaare).
I considered this a win-win outcome. As a customer, I was able to purchase the goods I wanted. Kalypso Media made a little bit more money from my purchase of the Complete Collection (the Complete Collection was more expensive than the refund I received for SS4 and the DLC), GOG got its cut, and I was so pleased with the experience that during the transaction I went ahead and purchased an additional video game on GOG.com which I hadn't planned on purchasing at the time.
Last edited by vector on 4 March 2020 at 7:29 am UTC
See more from me