Another PlayStation refund policy complaint thread

[Niosai]

Today I was surprised to see a MASSIVE charge on my bank account for a year of PlayStation Plus Premium.

I know I'm the dumbass here for not remembering to cancel the auto-renewal, but I had some extra money last year and upgraded my PlayStation Plus subscription to the Premium tier to try out some of the new stuff like the PS1/PSP games. This year, money's a lot tighter and now the numbers in my bank account are really high! (they're also red and have a - in front of them)

So naturally, I go to PlayStation's support chat and after 2 separate chats and an escalation to a supervisor, I'm happy to report that they refused to even consider a one-time courtesy refund as their policy apparently only allows refunds for manual renewals within 14 days of the purchase, not auto-renewals.

I even tried to ask if I could simply reduce my subscription to the basic tier, and was told that yeah, I could! It just would be for next year's renewal lmao

I'm aware of the horror stories of people attempting to get refunds for PlayStation-related things but this was my first experience with this and it definitely has me reconsidering every subscribing to PS Plus again beyond one month here or there if there's something I really want to play. They sure as hell won't have my card on file anymore, though.

It's wild that this policy seems to be simply anti-consumer for the sake of being anti-consumer. I can't even think of a justification for it besides "we're allowed to do it by law *shrug*"

Anyways, sorry for this rant thread, I'm just very annoyed by this right now. Feel free to share your own horror stories so I can be mad for you, too.

(If this thread is against the rules or something please charge back my Era account and ban me from EraStation Network)


Edit: OH AND ANOTHER THING

I NEVER EVEN USED THE DAMN PREMIUM FEATURES MORE THAN ONCE AS A NOVELTY LMAO

 

[Syne]

Yep they're unfortunately incredibly Stone Age with their policies. To give an example of how things SHOULD work; I recently forgot to turn off auto renew for Amazon prime, contacted a live chat rep,

"Hey I forgot to turn off auto renew and it's charged my account can I get that cancelled"

"Oh no problem I've gone and cancelled that and put in a refund request"

"Thanks"

 

[Wtfpigeons]

Spent 15 minutes on the phone to them, got told I'd get refunded.
Then received an email after stating that I wouldn't be getting a refund, had a few pointless back and forth emails. Then told them to keep the money I'd just report it to trading standards. Next email I received was saying I'd be getting a refund. Such a frustrating process.

 

[Brando]

If you're in the US, please file a report against Playstation using the BBB. You will save so much time and effort and actually get your issue resolved.

 

[Niosai]

Yep they're unfortunately incredibly Stone Age with their policies. To give an example of how things SHOULD work; I recently forgot to turn off auto renew for Amazon prime, contacted a live chat rep,

"Hey I forgot to turn off auto renew and it's charged my account can I get that cancelled"

"Oh no problem I've gone and cancelled that and put in a refund request"

"Thanks"

Click to shrink...

I Tweeted something similar at them in frustration (like that's gonna do anything) saying that this is quite literally the only company I have ever seen operate this way. I've retroactively cancelled/changed plenty of subscriptions after an automatic renewal before. Like I said, it feels like this policy exists because they know they can get away with it.

If you're in the US, please file a report against Playstation using the BBB. You will save so much time and effort and actually get your issue resolved.

Click to shrink...

I am in the US, though how would this resolve my issue? I'm frustrated enough that I'll do it anyways, I'm just curious

 

[HardRojo]

Yeah, at this point there's no doubt Sony needs to sort their shit out when it comes to PSN refunds. I haven't had issues yet because I haven't requested refunds, but it's crazy that for physical goods you can have effortless returns, while digital stores like PSN make it a nightmare to go through.

 

[Speedstersonic]

If it's legal, it shouldn't be for them to deny that. But nobody can afford to fight them in court over it.

And it's fucked cause if you do a chargeback they ban your account and you lose access to all purchases i believe which also should be illegal.

I Tweeted something similar at them in frustration (like that's gonna do anything) saying that this is quite literally the only company I have ever seen operate this way. I've retroactively cancelled/changed plenty of subscriptions after an automatic renewal before. Like I said, it feels like this policy exists because they know they can get away with it.


I am in the US, though how would this resolve my issue? I'm frustrated enough that I'll do it anyways, I'm just curious

Click to shrink...

Reporting to the BBB does work, these companies do not like the public reports so they do go out of their way to resolve a lot of the issues reported there. Basically it acts as a way to publicly shame them through a reputable venue.

 

[CelestialAtom]

Yep they're unfortunately incredibly Stone Age with their policies. To give an example of how things SHOULD work; I recently forgot to turn off auto renew for Amazon prime, contacted a live chat rep,

"Hey I forgot to turn off auto renew and it's charged my account can I get that cancelled"

"Oh no problem I've gone and cancelled that and put in a refund request"

"Thanks"

Click to shrink...

Stop it. That makes too much sense.

 

[JumbiePrime]

Auto-renewal that is on by default should be fucking illegal .

 

[HardRojo]

Yep they're unfortunately incredibly Stone Age with their policies. To give an example of how things SHOULD work; I recently forgot to turn off auto renew for Amazon prime, contacted a live chat rep,

"Hey I forgot to turn off auto renew and it's charged my account can I get that cancelled"

"Oh no problem I've gone and cancelled that and put in a refund request"

"Thanks"

Click to shrink...

For real lol, it should be as easy as this when it's clear you didn't intend to auto renew and so little time has passed since the renewal.

 

[CheapJi]

I've said this multiple times already but their support is just terrible. I lost access to my account because the two step code wasn't being sent and they literally hung up on me after waiting for almost 45 minutes. I had to pay for an international line to even call them. I just gave up since it was my second account. It just fixed itself after a few months. Horrible experience.

 

[Brando]

I am in the US, though how would this resolve my issue? I'm frustrated enough that I'll do it anyways, I'm just curious

Click to shrink...

When you file a complaint via the BBB site, they have 30 days to work with you on it. Your complaint goes to a separate department within Sony that is required to resolve these issues because they're public information and it hurts their BBB rating.

I literally filed with BBB and within 2 days had someone from Sony directly call me and they were able to help resolve my issue. This is where they wouldn't honor a refund because I downloaded a game but couldnt continue to play it due to flashing white lights which I'm extremely sensitive to.

 

[Rhaknar]

auto-renewals is really how they get you isn't it?

and by "they" I mean ALL of them btw, not Sony.

My Prime auto renewed for 1 year earlier this year, I could SWEAR I cancelled it last year because it ALSO auto-renewed, and I cancelled and they refunded me the remaining time (basically 11 months), but then somehow this year it happened again >_>

This time I just let it go, because I actually wanted to watch a few shows, but still!

 

[Fabs]

Just reminded me to double check my sub was canceled. Can't believe they continue to charge for cloud saves. Greedy company

 

[Footos22]

Yep they're unfortunately incredibly Stone Age with their policies. To give an example of how things SHOULD work; I recently forgot to turn off auto renew for Amazon prime, contacted a live chat rep,

"Hey I forgot to turn off auto renew and it's charged my account can I get that cancelled"

"Oh no problem I've gone and cancelled that and put in a refund request"

"Thanks"

Click to shrink...

Don't even need to do that. You can just cancel using the subscription page and it'll ask you if you want to cancel immediately or cancel when terms up. Pressing cancel immediately gives you a full refund if it's not been too long. Other companies should take note

 

[Romanithegreat]

If you're in the US, please file a report against Playstation using the BBB. You will save so much time and effort and actually get your issue resolved.

Click to shrink...

I wish I knew this years ago when they banned my ip admitted it was their error but refused to unban my IP then refused to refund my ps+ sub which i paid for a few days before banning my ip address as well as nba2k which i didn't play due to my IP being banned..

 

[Ouroboros]

I got charged 3 months of Plus because I forgot to do the same thing...disable the auto-renewal. I knew Sony wouldn't give me a partial refund and I knew it would be a waste of my time trying. Glad I was right.

 

[Niosai]

I just called to see if trying by phone would help. Turns out, I used my "one-time" courtesy refund back in 2020! I asked her "so if this were to happen again in 50 years, that one refund in 2020 would still render me ineligible for a refund?" "Yes, that is the case"

you can't make this up

 

[level]

That is bad. One of the reasons I don't add my card details to any gaming platform.

 

[logash]

Yeah they are terrible.

 

[Brando]

I wish I knew this years ago when they banned my ip admitted it was their error but refused to unban my IP then refused to refund my ps+ sub which i paid for a few days before banning my ip address as well as nba2k which i didn't play due to my IP being banned..

Click to shrink...

That sucks and it's a shame you had to go through that. I make the same reply in every one of these types of PSN refund/dispute threads to use the BBB. It's wild that to receive actual customer service from Sony you need to bring in a third party to hold them accountable to their bullshit TOS.

 

[Pein]

Are you me?

Woke up and saw that massive charge and was gonna call and see if I can get it reduced down to essentials later today.

Near $180 with tax, never even used the features, imma fool for not changing the auto renew.

 

[CJohn]

How do you even cancel the auto renewal? Before you could do it in the browser but now it is in the console only?

 

[Mr Evil 37]

I've learned the hard way never to have yearly plans on auto renew. Monthly, sure. But not yearly.

 

[thediamondage]

yeah good reminder to go through all the services you have and turn off auto renew

nintendo switch online
xbox
ps+
netflix
HBO
Disney+
Hulu
on and on and on

the only thing that should be auto on is internet and mobile. Everything else is optional. You will know immediately when your netflix app doesn't work, and its not a big deal to renew then. Hell, maybe you'll find you take a few months break and don't miss it at all. Auto renewing is just greedy corpos counting on people not having a clue what they are subbed to and paying for stuff they aren't using.

Better still I try not to use a credit card on anything, and if I do, its my cashapp card which I have locked 99% of the time. So if a renew does try to go through... blam, its blocked!

you can turn on/off renew on web for PSN, just go to store.playstation.com and then your account and subscriptions. Few clicks and logins required but you can turn it off there. Mine is off but pre-paid through till 2031, thanks $30 annual stacked a few years ago lol

 

[Zafir]

Not surprised. A lot of companies will refund if you haven't used the subscription but I didn't expect Sony to be one of them.

I had some weirdness with Amazon over prime earlier this year. Though in my case it wasn't that I wanted to cancel my prime subscription. it was that they decided to charge a completely different card than I wanted because the first one didn't have the funds on (I generally leave cards on subscriptions that don't have much funds in to avoid a subscription charge if I forget, funnily enough...). I expected it to email me asking me to update my payment method, like it does for any other Amazon orders when this happens, but it just didn't, it charged a random card on my account. I tried to contact support so I could swap which card it charged, and they gave me a lot of faff, eventually they agreed to refund so I could charge it on the card I wanted. Or at least they said they were gonna do that. They didn't, I never got the refund. I couldn't be bothered going through live chat support again so i just left it (it wasn't the end of the world, it was just I missed out on some cashback from the card purchase).

How do you even cancel the auto renewal? Before you could do it in the browser but now it is in the console only?

Click to shrink...

You can definitely do it in the browser. I did it recently because I cancelled my subscription and then bought a single month when I wanted to play something online. You just need to go to the subscription management pop out in the website and there's an option to turn off auto renewal.

 

[Tigress]

I stopped storing my credit card info with them a long time back after hearing a few horror stories of what happens if some one hacks your account and how they handle it. It does make it a huge pita to buy anything (I have to buy a gift card at amazon first) but then again, it probably stops me from making more frivolous purchases. So... while I still buy from them their idiot policies mean they get less money from me then they would if I felt i could trust them.

And that is super ridiculous they let you refund manual renewals but not automatic. That's totally on purpose (surprising they let you refund manual ones). Manual ones they could argue you meant to do so you bought, you own. But the whole reason they like you to do automatic is if you forgot and let it renew (usually I'm good about it but I ended up with another year of Disney+ cause of that. Didn't try to refund it cause I figured I was stuck). Which means they are counting on accidental renewals to keep numbers up.

 

[PyroPaperPlanes]

Yep, I've been burned by Sony in the exact same way. Auto renew enabled itself without my knowledge. It's why I refuse to subscribe for more than a month if I ever get the itch to play online via PSN (which isn't often these days).

 

[Mobius and Pet Octopus]

The thread reminded me I need to cancel amazon. They actually have a somewhat convenient pause option. What is stupid is how many screens you need to click thru lol

Amazon is actually pretty good with prime refunds though. I had to call them but they refunded me and actually fucked up and refunded way more than necessary.

I once had game pass autorenew by mistake, which was easily solved but still an unnecessary headache. I always take the time to cancel auto-renew there now.

 

[Fonst]

You left auto-renewal on, that's how ALL companies get you. I am not aware of a single company that would refund you for forgetting to turn off your auto renewal for a service.

 

[PLASTICA-MAN]

I remember back then years ago, I had auto-renewal for PS Plus activated on console and the account. I forgot to deactivate on them and it sucked money from me. No idea why back then you had to deactivate manually from eevry device you use it with PS account otherwise it tricks you to renew.

 

[inpHilltr8r]

there should be laws, but they'd probably interfere with political fundraising, and be heavily lobbied against

 

[Doby]

The fact that auto renew switches back on every time to resubscribe is soooo fucking annoying. It even does it if you redeem a code instead of paying from your wallet/card.

 

[liquiddragon]

Auto renew is there for a reason...you are consenting to getting your money taken. It sucks but take it as a lesson.

 

[glaurung]

I once discussed the auto-renewal and other questionably deceptive patterns in fintech with a proper professional in the field. He told me how he went to a VISA presentation at a conference that focused on the "let sleeping dogs lie" approach to auto-renewal and auto-upgrade payment systems. The mentality that VISA and other major institutions are nurturing is that it's okay to take the customer's money without asking as long as the level of lazy customers outweighs the level of complaining customers.

And all these subscription services follow suit.

 

[Necron]

Yeah, that's how most companies get you sadly.

I generally always make sure to cancel the sub immediately upon subscribing so that it doesn't automatically renew (both for game pass and PS+).

 

[bes.gen]

do they even have a refund policy, they are probably the worst of the bunch. (sure ninty is up there as well, didnt deal with them much)
and yeah auto-renew isnt going anywhere on anything, as long as its allowed by law. its probably main driving force for each and every subsricption service out there. my guess whole model would collapse without it.

 

[Dunlop]

Yeah, that's how most companies get you sadly.

Click to shrink...

Get you yes, but Sony is the only gaming company that absolutely refuses to provide refunds regardless of reason. Most other places will just credit it if you catch the issue quickly

 

[Niosai]

Are you me?

Woke up and saw that massive charge and was gonna call and see if I can get it reduced down to essentials later today.

Near $180 with tax, never even used the features, imma fool for not changing the auto renew.

Click to shrink...

Yep, same charge, same price.

You left auto-renewal on, that's how ALL companies get you. I am not aware of a single company that would refund you for forgetting to turn off your auto renewal for a service.

Click to shrink...

I've actually had plenty of companies refund me for this kind of thing over the years. It's pretty common practice in my experience. Not to turn this into a console war thing, but I'm fairly confident I've even refunded an Xbox auto-renewal charge before. At least in the US, Sony/PlayStation seems like a pretty big outlier.

 

[Jawmuncher]

If you put a complaint with the BBB, they might actually do something

 

[Phoenom]

They got me years ago when I tried out Psplus for a year on my PS4. Tried getting it cancelled straight away, they wouldn't let me. Taught me a valuable lesson though, I always check for an autorenewal option and make sure it's off, oh and also not to go for Psplus again.

 

[senj]

Sony is so dogshit about this stuff. I work for a tiny company whose annual revenue is a rounding error compared to any Sony department, and if you contact us looking for a refund on an autorenewal we're incredibly likely to give you one even if it happened months ago (basically the only grounds for denying it are if our internal logs show you came in and heavily <used product resources, have to be vague sorry> for a while before asking).

But somehow even an immediate refund is a bridge to far for megacorp Sony.

You left auto-renewal on, that's how ALL companies get you. I am not aware of a single company that would refund you for forgetting to turn off your auto renewal for a service.

Click to shrink...

No, plenty of companies will refund you on an autorenewal. It's actually very common. Companies would generally prefer to refund unhappy customers in these kinds of situations because if they get a lot of chargebacks their payment processor will punt them into a higher risk threshold, which means higher fees paid out on every single transaction.

 

[Kotetsu534]

All I can say is that it's amazing how much more responsive companies can be on consumer issues as soon as there's any perceived reputational threat, so if you kick up a stink/escalate effectively you might well get it refunded.

I utterly detest the spread of auto-renewals all over the place and have more or less nothing on them. Even insurance policies I manually renew.

 

[XSX]

Everything about PSN is a fucking clown show.

I got caught with this auto renew bullshit once but they refunded "one time only" lmao. So they have the ability to do refunds…..joke service.

 

[Niosai]

Submitted a complaint with the BBB. Hope that helps and doesn't lead to them banning my account in retaliation lmao

Everything about PSN is a fucking clown show.

I got caught with this auto renew bullshit once but they refunded "one time only" lmao. So they have the ability to do refunds…..joke service.

Click to shrink...

This is what gets me. They have the ABILITY to do it, but CHOOSE not to. For no reason.

 

[Ant_17]

That happened to me, but i got a refund cause EU laws negate their policies.

 

[Socivol]

My biggest issue with PS+ is you HAVE to opt into the autorenewal for purchase. I wish they would let you uncheck a box for autorenewal when you are purchasing it.

 

[Niosai]

I just saw their email outlining my support request and this is the line that tickles me:

"After investigating your request, we have identified that it is more than 14 days since you made your original purchase. As a result, you do not qualify for a refund under our Cancellation Policy." (bolded and underlined by me)

Yes, it has been at least 14 days since...2011? When I first started my subscription? It's disingenuous at best.

 

[Papercuts]

The way companies force auto renew on should not be legal. I always get in the habit of immediately cancelling everything but it's ridiculous to deny someone when it happens.

 

[IIFloodyII]

Auto renewal shite was a big reason I took my credit card off the account (main reason was I was buying way too much shit that I didn't play). Auto renewal shouldn't be allowed, one that reactivates itself especially.