HA!

I'm guessing your job is restocking japanese vending machines then? o.0

GOG do - at least in the case of Australian laws https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees/repair-replace-refund

(sincere) wow, an apology, that's pretty rare, thanks! :)

I don't know about Australia, but that's only partially true for Denmark (and other EU countries) in case of digital goods like games/software.

You have the right to refund within 14 days without giving a reason- that's true - and on GOG you can do that, when you haven't downloaded the game yet, which is similar to refund an unopened physical copy.

But for downloaded "used" digital copies GOG / Steam / any other seller of digital software is allowed to ask for your consent to lose your withdrawal rights. Another option would be to hold back the game until 14 days are over, but that would propably hurt the sales.

Both options are within the laws, and both GOG and Steam are using the first option, but offering their own refund policies instead.

So far with the legal basics...however there is one tiny thing, and maybe that's actually what you meant, where GOG doesn't follow the danish law like they should and that's the way they're asking for our consent. It's only the small line at the bottom of the purchase window where GOG points out that you're agreeing to their user agreement (incl. refund policies) while purchasing a game. That's not enough to be accepted as a "consent" in Denmark, only if you actively tick a box, where you accept the loss of your withdrawal right, it's done by the book.

Danish speaking people can read that here: https://www.forbrug.dk/artikler/forbrug/test-og-raad/e-handel/fortrydelsesret-og-klager/tjenesteydelser-og-fortrydelse/ or here https://www.forbrugerombudsmanden.dk/media/18319/fuld-version-af-nettjek-maj-2013.pdf

Can't remember how Steam handles this, if they do the same mistake or not...

Are you guys deft?
GOG doesn't care if you downloaded the game prior asking refunds. They also can't afford to enforce that policy. It's against many EU laws and it's not something you can enforce when Steam is still alive competition.


I have downloaded, then refunded many games prior asking for refund. I was never asked if I have downloaded the game by any of the staff. I try to avoid mentioning downloading the game, but I never lied on the subject since I wasn't asked about it ever.
I was even allowed a refund of preorder after I unintentionally admitted to downloading the game by stating it's downgrade (Bard's tale IV Director's cut) in graphical sense.


Keep in mind I never back my copies and I always unistall the games prior asking for refund. I have never taken a single copy of refunded game and I don't have any files of refunded games on any of my drives. Especially since I delete remaining files on my disk if any remains.

What makes you think, they need to ask you about that?

I'm certain they have stats about which games you've downloaded from your account and how many times you did. What they can't see is what you do with the files after downloading.
Even when downloading offline installers you still have to be logged in with your account...

Jarik, exactly
If I was allowed a refund, everyone can be allowed refund under those terms.

Maybe it's because you have such a nice avatar?

I've had a few issues that have lead me to asking for a refund a few times but they were all legit. technical issues.

I do believe the refund policy's have been loosened and tightened over the time gog has had them in place.

Can't say I've been happy with every game I've brought on gog but I view it rather like paying for a movie I havn't watched yet or a book I haven't read.

Ah, I guess I misunderstood you then.

Yeah, GOG staff is not particularly strict with their own policy - not such a long time ago I asked for technical help for a game I bought. I've got offered a refund rather quickly in case I didn't wanted to go through with their suggestions to fix my problem.

Guess they don't want to waste their time with people using "technical problems" as a reason to get a refund. As you said, they can't control it anyway without breaking laws.

Lately I have been doing refunds less and less, mainly because I always think of game like that, but sometimes or more often I do terrible impulse buy.

Well, I thought it would lighten the moment and nice to see someone with a sense of humour:)

I already wrote in my earlier message:
"So, yeah, I guess GOG could still implement that kind of refund system (which will be allowed "within reason" ie. GOG might still reject it in case they feel you are misusing the system), but I guess many GOG customers don't see that as a biggie."

So I think it would be possible for GOG to have such a system even with a DRM-free model, as they can also e.g. refuse to sell any more games to any user that appears to be misusing the system (e.g. repeatedly asking refunds for games he has bought; I am pretty sure Steam has such limitation as well).. Plus, for many the fact they have the game in the GOG cloud and get support from GOG for the game is enough reason to pay for the game and not try to scam a refund.

Anyway, if anyone thinks this is a biggie, they'd probably want to buy their games on Steam instead. To me the current refund system is fine so I buy on GOG.

For technical matters, it doesn't matter to GOG if you have downloaded the game or not. Naturally you have to download and install the game first before you can see any technical problems with it. :)

I recall now that in the past I was declined a refund (that I didn't really even ask for) once, after I had downloaded the game. I don't recall what game it was (some space strategy game IIRC), but I couldn't run it in Windows 8 back then I think. I didn't actually ask for a refund but just sent the support a message if they are aware of the problem with the game on Windows 8, and if they are aware of any fixes.

They replied back stating that unfortunately I am not eligible for a refund because at that point of time the game was not supported in Windows 8, only in Windows 7 and earlier. I replied back that that is ok I wasn't really asking for a refund as I can play the game also on Windows 7, but I was just asking for information if the problem can be fixed in Windows 8. Happy ending to the story though, they later updated the game so that it worked fine in Windows 8 (and 10).

And as I said earlier, I have been given a refund for a game that I already downloaded, as I explained to GOG that I bought the wrong (base) version of the game and wanted to buy the complete version instead.

So yes, you can get a refund for a game you have already downloaded... but at least in the past they have also declined such refunds. It may be partly related to how long ago you bought the game etc., ie. if you just bought it, you have a bigger chance of getting a refund, than if you bought it a couple of weeks ago.

Well I think it's a biggie, but not the biggest problem GOG has. Even if it were not a biggie, I'd still like to see it change, for the sake of positive progress. (Unfortunately most businesses grow worse on the customer satisfaction department as they get larger.)

It's not big enough for me to abandon my ideology and buy games with DRM. I'm more likely to just quit buying games altogether.