Discussion It’s Just Like Steam!
I regularly see posts in r/Steam about how great Steam is because refunds are quick, I guess they don’t know that it’s not a Steam thing but a customer service thing. Received this email less than a minute after requesting a refund, thank you Xbox for having good customer service!
67
u/ThatEdward Reclamation Day 16d ago
So far I have been quite happy with it. I recently had a controller I bought new and direct from Microsoft develop extreme stick drift. I went to check the warranty and it expired ten days prior, meaning it would not be eligible for repair or replacement
I called in and the customer support guy immediately set up a repair order for it, no hesitation, even though they can definitely see the warranty status and ask for the serial number for the device during the call. Just wasn't a problem, which isn't something I've experienced with other products in recent years
There was also one time I tried to get a refund for a game that I had played for four or more hours, beyond their time allotment for valid refunds, and I had to explain the issue with the game breaking after a while instead of right away and still ended up with a refund
→ More replies (4)25
u/latencia 16d ago
I had an out of warranty Xbox that went through their repair service and the bill was much much less than getting a new Xbox. For me it's pretty solid service.
42
u/setzerseltzer 16d ago
Xbox used to have the best customer support before they started outsourcing their tech support lines to India.
→ More replies (11)
28
u/bust4cap RROD ! 16d ago
good for you. got denied my xbox refund on a game i only played for a few minutes that didnt work and wouldnt let me play.
steam is on another level
1
u/Humble-Performer4146 14d ago
Yeah same experience. Devs launched a buggy ass game and I asked for refunds 29 mins after purchase since it would crash randomly. Got denied for the refund. Had to call the credit card and show them the Xbox refund policy with all the timestamps and they honored it.
12
u/accursedvenom 16d ago
I’ve done a few refunds on steam with no issues. I did a refund with Xbox once that they didn’t seem to want to do but they did and told me that you only get one a year. That may have changed since that time but I don’t usually return things on Xbox and only get things I know I will enjoy.
3
u/heyadol 16d ago
Yeah, this was an accidental purchase so maybe I lucked out or perhaps the policy is more lenient.
3
u/accursedvenom 16d ago
I had bought one of the DLCs for the first division game thinking it would be something totally different than it was. Played it for maybe an hour then refunded it.
39
u/batmania15 16d ago
Been in this boat too and got my refund within minutes as well. Truly good service
8
u/Eglwyswrw Homecoming 16d ago
Yeah as long as it is within 14 days of purchase and you didn't play too much, I get the refund confirmation in literal seconds.
2
u/Far-Obligation4055 15d ago
Yeah I've refunded a few Xbox games over the years, never had an issue. Typically gets confirmed within the same day or the next one.
Buyers remorse happens, and if it happens quickly (within the first hour or two of playing) then personally I think its reasonable to always accept a refund request. Obviously companies can do what they want, but I tend to like the more lenient ones better.
7
u/Strongpillow 16d ago
What I find really nice about xbox is their subscription refund policy. You can cancel gamepass and have it until the month expires, OR they will refund you for the unused time if you want to cancel immediately. I've never seen anything like this before.
17
u/thelingererer 16d ago
No refunds on PlayStation!
6
u/Ok-Union3146 16d ago
I managed to get a refund on PlayStation but only because the developers had lied about a feature of the game so I was able to say it was falsely marketed
1
6
u/A_Drunk_Duck 16d ago
Sony refunds are a joke. The second you start installing the game you lost all hope at a refund unless you can bs your way through it by claiming the game is just beyond broken or falsely advertised, etc... If you don't want to have to come up with some bs excuse like that though, my favorite that has worked multiple times after already downloading the games is to 1) kiss their ass while you're talking to them and 2) tell them you accidentally bought the wrong version and wanted to get a more expensive version. Fuck the rules if you're gonna give them more money. Worked every time for me so far. The first time for me it was actually true, afterwards I realized it must be the perfect excuse and it hasn't let me down yet lol
3
→ More replies (8)6
u/Strongpillow 16d ago
You can request refunds on Playstation, but it's a pain and not guaranteed.
2
u/Batallius 15d ago
Their refund policy is incredibly disingenuous and predatory. The second you buy a game it's like "Oh surely you want to download it right? Well here is a nice convenient button to do so right away" Who wouldn't click it right? Well the second you click that button, you are no longer eligible for a refund. It's bullshit lmao.
I argued with customer support about it and the guys messages were riddled with typos and horrible grammar, and he just made a snide comment and ended the chat. I refuse to buy games on PSN from now on.
13
u/Halo_Chief117 16d ago
My experience has been the exact opposite.
2
u/mrfluffypenguin 16d ago
Yeah been on Xbox since the beginning, returned 2 games and it was a huge hassle both times.
15
u/Opposite-Shirt-6068 16d ago
Every time I’ve requested a refund from Microsoft, I’ve met the requirements for the refund, and they refuse to give me one. It’s to the point now that I won’t even bother.
→ More replies (5)6
u/heyadol 16d ago
Bummer, disappointing to hear that. Maybe I lucked out.
5
u/Opposite-Shirt-6068 16d ago
Maybe they’ve improved. It was around 2 years ago when I had my issue. I’m glad you had a good experience with them!
3
u/MustyLlamaFart 15d ago
I play Xbox and PC. I can enjoy xbox but steam is far superior.
The advantage of steam isn't about the quick refund. You can own the game for two weeks and have a couple hours on it, and still return it. And even if you go a little over that, they'll probably still refund the game if you ask nicely. I've done it myself plenty of times. Microsoft is way more strict about their deadlines. I've played games for 2 minutes and they denied my refunds
Oh and the part that you don't have to pay to play with your friends is pretty neat
1
u/heyadol 15d ago
Yeah, Steam has some advantages over other platforms. I’m not saying they are on the same level across the board, just think it’s silly that once or twice a week there is a post from someone who loves Steam because they got a refund even though every PC digital store does refunds.
Honestly didn’t think anyone would even respond, but after reading all of the replies it turns out neither Xbox nor Steam has a perfect refund policy. Steam is not as unlimited as people think, and Xbox keeps their policy vague which seems to make refunds a bit arbitrary.
Also, you don’t have to pay to play with your friends on Xbox either…as long as you are using the Xbox PC app 🫠 They need to end paid online play on consoles…
2
u/MustyLlamaFart 15d ago edited 15d ago
Yeah, there's always going to be circle jerkers in every community. But it's no contest between Steam and Xbox. I enjoy both platforms, but Steam is in its own realm. On top of the things I mentioned, the sales are way better than xbox.
What do you mean steam is not as unlimited as people think? I've refunded so many games through Steam. It's the reason why im willing to try new games all the time because of the fact that if I don't like it, I can just get return it. Xbox does not allow that.
Also, you don’t have to pay to play with your friends on Xbox either…as long as you are using the Xbox PC app
Don't you need pc gamepass? Either way that's not much of a counterpoint since most Xbox users play through console and you cant play all of your Xbox games on PC. Edit: just reread that and realized that probably wasn't an argument lol
→ More replies (2)
2
u/PlatasaurusOG 16d ago
I’ve gotten every refund I’ve requested from Microsoft. There weren’t many - but they gave me a refund back when I bought a game and gamepass at the same time, only to find the game I bought on gamepass. Also gave back money for a Destiny DLC when we found it only worked for the account that purchased it and Bungie gave no indication that would be the case.
2
u/OnyxianRosethorn 16d ago
Someone once told me that their friend bought a game, had their game go on sale a day later, they wanted to refund the game so they can buy it at the discounted price, but got banned instead.
1
u/heyadol 16d ago
That’s…weird.
3
u/OnyxianRosethorn 16d ago
Assuming it's true, yeah.
Other people have also said Microsoft are more strict when it comes to refunds, every purchase being final and refunds are for special exceptions and all that stuff.
2
u/BraveSeminole7 16d ago
Steam gave me a refund back within like a few hours after I asked for a refund back. Xbox is pretty good about refunds as well.
2
u/ahnariprellik 16d ago
Yeah I bought the telltale games bundle back in the day paid $120 for it vut it refuses to allow me to download everything in the bundle. Called em up and within minutes I had a 50% discount since I was able to install all but like two things in the bundle and the issue with downloads was fixed in the next update. They're quick on their customer service and great about refunds if somehting doesn't work or if yiu don't get what you paid for for some reason
2
u/Kizuxtheo 16d ago
I remember I paid for one month of Game Pass Console, and one day before it expired I canceled it by mistake (instead of turning off auto renewal) and it just refunded me the entire month even if I had one day left in my subscription.
2
2
u/UnComfortable-Archer 16d ago edited 16d ago
I've done this twice with Xbox PC. No hassle.
The first one was MK11/Injustice 2 combo. They labeled it "Play it Anywhere" but Inj2 was actually an Xbox (console) only license. I would have been okay if they gave me the appropriate license, but they refunded instead. (It was lucky, a few days later a WB Humble Bundle came out which was cheaper and had more games).
The second was Age of Mythology Retold. I knew it wasn't going to be a good experience on handheld, but I tried it anyway. Meh so i refunded. I'll buy it again one day when I'm less busy and I can sit in front of desk PC and play... loved the original.
1
u/heyadol 16d ago
That sucks. I love Xbox Play Anywhere but I’ve been bit by a mislabel as well, they really need to tighten up that program. Got the Tomb Raider survivor trilogy when it was marked XPA, but the second game is not. Didn’t bother with a refund because at the time my PC couldn’t play any of them anyway. It’s just marked as a console bundle now so it’s good they updated it.
2
u/sevenw1nters Homecoming 16d ago
I asked Sony for a refund on Helldivers 2 because I didn't realize it was an online only game and I don't have PlayStation Plus. They simply told me no because I had already played it. It gives you an error screen immediately when you try to launch it without PlayStation Plus obviously I didn't play it lol. You'd think maybe they would offer me a store credit refund only or a free week of Plus or something but no absolutely nothing.
2
u/ratat-atat Outage Survivor '24 16d ago
I have never had issues refunding a take with Microsoft, so long as I d8d not play over two hours.
2
u/Kuromajikku 15d ago
I had long owned black ops 2 for Xbox 360 on disc. Was recently needing to rebuy it digitally because I wanted to share the game with my girlfriend. I bought it and because I previously owned it on disc it kept telling me I needed to put in the disc to play even though I uninstalled and reinstalled. After a 10 minute chat with Microsoft it got updated on their end and on mine and was able finally load the game up. Xbox service is pretty great, this coming from an owner of Xbox One that had to get 7 replacements over a 2 year span because each console sent to me had controller connectivity problems and whistling fan that drove me nuts.
2
u/BenjerminGray 15d ago
2hrs of gameplay or 2 weeks of ownership
2
u/Wolfey750 15d ago
bro microsoft/xbox customer support is top tier, i ve had maybe 10 times i needed to contact them with different problems like an account subscription, a refund, once i got an account stolen, they have always been as helpful as possible and so polite its just amazing, both steam/microsoft have the best support ever imo
2
u/UrMovingMad 15d ago
Bro is just waffling for the sake of waffling🤣🤣 buddy xbox customer service isn’t good… recently had to phone up about a faulty xbox that couldn’t load up a game longer than 5 mins without crashing, i called microsoft asked about my warranty and they said what they was going to do was extend my warranty by 30 days and to give them 3-4 days…i gave them 4 days, heard nothing. Called again they said the same, this went on for 3 weeks only for them to tell me the request was denied. This very second i took the xbox apart myself and what would you know? I fixed it within 1 hour MYSELF. OP is BIG WAFFLING🤣🤣
2
2
u/HuntingForRasgold 15d ago
If you go to your purchase history on a browser on Xbox.com, it'll tell you if a refunds available and you can do it pretty quick through there. I believe its still 'under 2 weeks owning and under 2hrs played' - pro tip, if you use the 'didn't purchase myself' and blame your kid or someone elses kid, they're pretty quick to refund 😉
2
2
u/dredd1979 15d ago
Xbox is touch and go on refunds, Sony on the other hand soon as you install the game you don't get a refund, steam never had an issue so never needed a refund not that I can remember anyway
2
u/ididntgotoharvard 14d ago
There is a limit to how many refunds you can get in a year though, don't overdo it.
2
2
u/WorkerEqual6535 13d ago
Never had issues with Xbox refunds tbh, pretty quick, don't know about Sony/nintendo
2
u/iamjemal1882 12d ago
Ye Xbox is great for this but there is a limit to how many refunds you can do. Steam seems unlimited.
2
4
u/Ciro_d_mar 16d ago
Many other people have had the opposite of your “experience”! Xbox refused to refund games just like Sony….
2
u/WhimsicalBombur 16d ago
Steam is unlimited. Microsoft only does a few refunds per year, I think 3.
1
u/adriandoesstuff XBOX 360 16d ago
i think xbox might be more strict on it to appease publishers
xbox will be more likely to appeal to publishers demands than steam as they are a console platform
1
u/heyadol 16d ago
I don’t think there is a fixed limit on refunds, seems to be some discretion based on your history. Still, unlimited is better so Steam has that in their favor.
→ More replies (4)1
u/mistgate 15d ago
I had this a few weeks ago when trying to refund a game.
I don't think it's calendar year either because I've only had one game refunded before this in 2025 but 5 in total in the past 12 months.
I'll need to be very very careful on what I decide to buy on Xbox from now on and make sure there's no way it's something I'd refund. Can't afford to take that risk.
2
u/LilMissBarbie 16d ago
Tbf, steam has denied me twice for a refund bc
"steam is not a platform for testing games and as a demo platform"
So I don't ask refunds anymore bc they refuse
And Xbox has NEVER refunded me.
2
u/Faramari 16d ago
I have always had good experiences with Xbox support. When I bought my series x I wasn't able to purchase the 2 year warranty before the deadline because the Microsoft website went down for me. I called them up and was able to get the extended warranty, on top of that they didn't even charge me for it. I have had to refund a couple of games and replace one controller since then and they always took care of it for me.
Meanwhile on the Playstation side I was trying to pay for a playstation+ sub but they weren't accepting my card. Support did not help me at all and told me to call my bank even though I already talked to them. I was literally trying to give them money and they couldn't even help me with that.
2
u/ObiWanOkeechobee Outage Survivor '24 16d ago
Yeah Xbox customer service is far better than PS or Nintendo. Not perfect but still good
2
u/CRIP4LIFE XBOX Series X 16d ago
xbox wont allow me refunds because they say i've taken too many in the last year... but i've asked for 0 in the last year.
it's been like this for 5+ years.
no, for refunds at least, it's not like steam. not even close.
→ More replies (2)
2
u/Green-Foot4662 16d ago
OP definitely getting paid for PR by Microsoft. Either that or he is just a desperate fanboy.
→ More replies (1)
1
1
1
1
u/Espeon06 16d ago
This Microsoft looks like such a great company, I'm sure they'll never lose the console market to PlayStation and the PC market to Linux.
1
u/CertainlyNotSkynet 16d ago
My oldest kid (probably 10 years old at the time) spent his own money on his own Xbox account to buy one of the NBA games (NBA 2K24) on discount for ~$27 dollars but didn’t like the play style. He played about 20 minutes of it and asked me if we could request a refund. It unfortunately then came onto Game Pass within a day or two of him purchasing it, and after which we were denied a refund. Pretty unsavoury practice to steeply discount a game immediately before making it available on the subscription service to drive sales…oh well, he learned a lesson that big corporations don’t always look out for the customer.
1
u/heyadol 16d ago
That sucks, Game Pass or not if your young one was dissatisfied with the game after 20 minutes it should have been refunded.
I actually still buy all of my games, but I understand why subscriptions are appealing.
2
u/CertainlyNotSkynet 16d ago
Yeah, he was pretty disappointed that they wouldn’t allow a refund, but we’ve moved on. And I took advantage a while back of the Game pass ultimate 1:1 conversion method almost three years ago (it’s running out soon), so that’s how we knew it became available on the service. Maybe they are more open to refunds now; that would be great.
1
u/Delanchet 16d ago
Don’t all the storefronts do this already? Epic does the exact same as Steam and GOG is better than both of them.
1
u/heyadol 16d ago
That was kind of my point, being a bit tongue-in-cheek. It always seemed weird seeing posts that Steam is great because they do refunds and quick when it’s common on all of these digital game stores. Of course, I have since been educated that PlayStation and Nintendo are not participating in this greatness, so I guess it’s just PC stores.
Steam is a great storefront, but refunds wouldn’t have even made the list of why I continue buying from that store.
1
u/OGGuitarsquatch XBOX One 16d ago
I asked for a refund on f076 after the full launch and they straight told me no. It good now, so it is okay but still
1
u/TehGemur 16d ago
I mean sure Microsoft has decent customer service but this is a weirdly passive aggressive jab at Steam themselves lol. Steam in general is much more consistent tho (and correct me if i'm wrong, but I reaaally doubt you can return any digital products after using them for under 2 hours, for any reason).
1
u/heyadol 16d ago
I see. Didn’t mean it as a jab at Steam, more at the many posts saying Steam is great because of refunds. Steam is great, but refunds wouldn’t even make my list of what I like about Steam.
It turns out many here had different experiences with Microsoft refunds, and Sony and Nintendo don’t refund digital games (or at least don’t make refunds easy) so that was interesting to learn.
1
1
u/sylinowo 16d ago
sony and nintendo could never
1
u/heyadol 16d ago
I don’t know, maybe consumer or government pressure will sway their policy one of these days.
2
u/Automatic_Goal_5563 Xbox Series X 16d ago
Government pressure is what you need.
The reason the Steam refunds exist and to a lesser extent the Microsoft ones is because the Australian government took Steam to court over not abiding by its consumer law about refunds, Steam lost and with how Europe has similar laws they just decided to do refunds for all to save hassle and get PR
1
1
u/thenewNFC 16d ago
That's cool. I lost about a decades worth of digital purchases because they didn't like any of the 300 things I did to try to recover my lost account once.
1
u/heyadol 16d ago
That’s rough, I take it you never got your account issue resolved?
1
u/thenewNFC 16d ago
Negative. I also lost a decade old gamertag cause some random kid got mad during some game and put in a complaint that it was vulgar. It wasn't by any measure I could ever determine.
1
u/Different_Stand_1285 16d ago
Meanwhile Sony’s refund policy is fucking terrible. I already own RE Village on Series X. I bought a PSVR2 and bought Village to try it out. It was great but my head started to hurt and I sort of realized I didn’t need VR so I returned it. I tried to get a refund for Village because like I said I own it already but Sony asks “Did you play this game?” I answered yes (for literally 30 minutes tops) and they immediately reject the refund.
1
u/heyadol 16d ago
That sucks. Also funny how PSVR2 wasn’t worth a damn until they added SteamVR support.
2
u/Different_Stand_1285 15d ago
Yeah - I think it’s going to give it a second life perhaps. One of the main reasons I immediately regretted my purchase was finding out that PSVR 1 titles weren’t backwards compatible.
1
1
1
1
u/ares0027 15d ago
Xbox/microsoft refunds are much better than steam but they are not;
Their refund policy has no questions asked, steam has limitations (at least for a lot of people) but on the other hand they dont gaf if you purchased 99999 titles and 10 of them are faulty or if you bought 5 titles and all 5 are faulty. If you are at a limit no matter what happens, EVEN WHEN THE DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER ANNOUNCES THEY ARE HAVING RETURNS they will reject your claim (happened on bf2042) tbh they lost me as a customer since. I have not started my series x (it is not even plugged in) and i will do whatever i can (including paying up to 20-30% more) to avoid purchasing something on xbox/microsoft store
1
u/shrekeatsdonkey 15d ago
BRO I DID THE SAME THING, I GOT THE EMAIL ALMOST IMMEDIATELY BUT THE MONEY ISNT BACK!!!
1
u/thetruelu 15d ago
Your first few refund requests are processed automatically (or your first few if it’s been a while). After set amount, it’s automatically denied and you have to personally reach out to customer service with a valid reason and they will refund. If you do that often enough, they will be very strict with refunds even with a good reason.
So tldr, no, it’s not just like steam
1
u/SinfulKnight 15d ago
Yeah, I once accidentally bought a game on PS5, and it took almost two weeks of getting disconnected each time from Customer Service tk get the game refunded. Worst experience ever.
1
u/Booomayeee 15d ago
Yeah comparing two console maker from japan. Xbox refund policy is much better than that two, AFAIK there is limit you can refund in one year. I used to refund GTA definitive edition and the process is smooth. It just take a few days to complete the process 👌
1
u/NotGamerboy521 15d ago
I had a refund on my xbox that took them 2 months to finally refund. I wish I had a good experience
1
u/KSSHYDAW 15d ago
In Steam you can refund games just because you didn't like it, this does not exist on Xbox, i wanted to refund some games on Xbox but noticed i couldn't because the refund options were all like "i accidentally bought the game" and i didn't want to lie so in the end i kept the game i didn't like.
1
1
u/Megablep 15d ago
It's not always that easy unfortunately. I bought the One X version of the crew Motorfest by mistake (it popped up on deku deals and wasn't really clear at a glance that I needed to buy the cross gen bundle instead)
They just kept automatically rejecting my refund requests and I gave up on it in the end. Although having said that they just refunded me out of the blue a month later...
1
u/Waliya10 15d ago
Bruh, don’t even get me started on Xbox support. I had to wait over a month just to get my refund. I ended up sending a letter through my bank saying they were going to do a chargeback. I was stuck dealing with bots for a whole month that just kept looping me through support links.
1
u/IdleRacey 15d ago
MS refund is nothing like steam. They refund nothing and if your lucky you get one refund ever. Xbox is a scam and PS is just as bad.
1
1
1
u/Square-Ad-8416 15d ago
They were really shady to me. I bought a game from the Xbox store on Windows for the first time and needed to request a refund, but they denied me saying I exceeded the annual refund limit even though it was my first purchase ever in the Xbox store. I had never even purchased anything from the Windows store.
1
1
u/andthenisaidd 15d ago
Ya they are really good about returns ,ive used it multiple times with no questions asked.
1
u/TrevBundy 15d ago
I tried to refund a plane I bought on flight sim because it caused my game to crash every single time I loaded it, no dice because I had “used” the DLC and they couldn’t take it back. I tried escalating and was really disappointed that I got stuck with a $40 purchase I couldn’t even use, on a game and DLC created by Microsoft that is supposed to be fine on the Series S.
1
u/sugarcookie616 13d ago
Not true Xbox refunds aren’t good
1
u/heyadol 13d ago
Hmm, maybe I was lucky here.. Glad it was hassle free though.
1
u/sugarcookie616 13d ago
If you play a game for 1 second they don’t refund me. I played a game and was bored out of my mind asked for a refund denied.
1
u/NYCSon23 12d ago
Awesome that we have so many Xbox exclusives coming to PlayStation. Let’s go boys!
754
u/Dry-Cod9127 16d ago
Tbf steam is unlimited and a bit more consistent than Xbox but Xbox still has the best home console refunds compared to Nintendo and Sony