Digital Software Purchases Unfair Refund Policy

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fitzsteve

fitzsteve

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Long time since I've posted a rant lol. It shocks me though how you seem to have zero consumer rights when it comes to software purchases online.

I bought Star Trek Bridge Crew a while back and decided to add the DLC aweek or so ago, turns out as I bought the game through the oculus store I can't use the DLC bought directly from UbiSoft even though the game requires a uPlay account. I had to go ahead and buy it again from Oculus to play.

Ubisoft say all DLC sales are final, and even though I can't use the DLC there's no refunds! I'm currently arguing the case with them and to be fair they are looking into it further.

It just amazes me they can get away with this.
 
I got stung by Microsoft Store, accidentally purchased the XBox version of Sims 4 on my daughter's PC. It was not immediately obvious to me that I had bought the wrong version (via the Windows Store, mind you). When I went to install it, I was told I didn't have any compatible devices. Within minutes I'd initiated the refund request on the Store. They came back to say that because I had installed and used the software, it couldn't be refunded. This, despite me having no compatible device to download it to, let alone play it on...

I tried several times to go back to them, but they just started ignoring my requests and closing the tickets I raised.

So, I pestered the CEO of Microsoft UK on Twitter, then wrote to her at the UK headquarters. Didn't hear anything... until... about 4 months later, I got a phone call from the CEO's office out of the blue. They apologised and refunded me directly, and (at least to my face) agreed that their customer service staff had acted poorly, and that they needed to review their processes.

AndyC 1, Microsoft Nil :-)
 
I believe if you purchase a game with dlc, that dlc should be available no matter when you decide to use/redeem. And if the developer are going to put limitations there, then there should be a use by date clearly shown, kind of like when you purchase a movie with the digital version included.
 
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Problem with DLC is it's normally an addon for an existing license, so if you buy it via a different content provider it won't be linked to the same owned game license. Annoying for sure, but hard to get around unless games returned to standalone products not linked to any delivery platforms.

The one that's annoying me at the moment is EA now being on Steam. I far prefer my games all in one place within Steam, but most of me EA games were purchased and linked to Origin, so I can't access them from Steam and would need to repurchase them again. Hoping they add a feature to add them into steam by linking the accounts at some point.

Something else really annoying is linked accounts on consoles. When playing a game on Playstation or Xbox, when you launch it you have to sign into that game's client account. For example on the Playstation to load and fully use Minecraft Dungeons you have to log into your Microsoft Xbox account. Once linked you can't change it!

Worst was my EA account. I installed Star Wars Squadrons and it doesn't even load unless you link an EA account. However I discovered I somehow have 2 EA accounts. Took me ages to figure that out and how to get into the game. Really don't want 2 accounts so really annoying as I seem to have some games linked to each.
 
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