With the recent news of the Epic game store, there are lots of things which can be criticized from the third party exclusivity deals, to the poor regional pricing, so the huge number of missing features even compared to Steam's "rivals" like Origin, nevermind Steam itself. I see this commonly excused on this website because "it's still new, the features aren't all there yet". I have my problems with this, but I'd like to discuss something else in this thread.
The reason being, there is one feature which they have actually implemented, yet their implementation is so bad that it is worth criticizing by itself. Their absolutely god awful refunds policy. I believe this is worthy of discussion by itself.
Their refund policy works as follows: You get exactly 2 refunds per year, and at the end of each year you get extra refund credits. These credits don't stack, so you are always limited to a maximum of 2 refunds. They also advertise this as being a "no questions asked" refund , but we know that not to be exactly true: https://www.resetera.com/threads/epic-store-non-compliance-with-gdpr-and-refund-policy-reddit.85913/
Sources:
This flies in the face of actually competent refund policies offered by practically all of their competitors, who all offer an unlimited returns policy with the only stipulations being based on the time since released and the time played.
For example, Origin offer what they call the "Great Game Guarantee", which gives allows you to refund an unlimited number of games, as long as it is before 14 days from the purchase date, or 24 hours after first opening it. However, you are not allowed to return the same game for a refund more than 2 times. Steam allows you to refund an unlimited number of games, as long as you haven't played it for more than 2 hours. Gog offer their "Money Back guarantee" , for technical problems faced within the first 30 days of purchase.
The reason being, there is one feature which they have actually implemented, yet their implementation is so bad that it is worth criticizing by itself. Their absolutely god awful refunds policy. I believe this is worthy of discussion by itself.
Their refund policy works as follows: You get exactly 2 refunds per year, and at the end of each year you get extra refund credits. These credits don't stack, so you are always limited to a maximum of 2 refunds. They also advertise this as being a "no questions asked" refund , but we know that not to be exactly true: https://www.resetera.com/threads/epic-store-non-compliance-with-gdpr-and-refund-policy-reddit.85913/
Sources:
This flies in the face of actually competent refund policies offered by practically all of their competitors, who all offer an unlimited returns policy with the only stipulations being based on the time since released and the time played.
For example, Origin offer what they call the "Great Game Guarantee", which gives allows you to refund an unlimited number of games, as long as it is before 14 days from the purchase date, or 24 hours after first opening it. However, you are not allowed to return the same game for a refund more than 2 times. Steam allows you to refund an unlimited number of games, as long as you haven't played it for more than 2 hours. Gog offer their "Money Back guarantee" , for technical problems faced within the first 30 days of purchase.
