Microsoft Is Making Changes To Refunds And Auto-Renewals On Xbox

It’d be cool if they’d let me know in my account settings how many refunds I have available for the year and when they become available to me. If they currently do I don’t know how to see this info.

I refund bad games if I have the opportunity

@Dusk_Actual I didn't even know there was a limit. Curious, what exactly are the criteria you personally use when refunding a game? I've only refunded one game on Xbox, and that was They Are Billions. A lazy console port with a plethora of problems. But the biggest issue where there were no achievements. Of any kind. I've never seen that before. so I said "screw this" and got a refund. I was barely within the refund window though.

@Medic_Alert
Was going to say, I did a refund on Xbox about one year ago for a game and it was simple and refund quick.
I’m dam if the other to do it that easy or at all?
I did try once on PlayStation and gave up.

Address some things.

But still looks to not address refunding customer for game purchases.

It is too much of a pain trying to process a refund today. Especially with recent penchants for releasing games that don't even work.

Thanks a lot Microsoft

@Medic_Alert
Yes you are correct that is what I did with one Xbox game and got a full refund in minutes.
There are rules about how many hours of play etc I think.

@Medic_Alert “A delayed refund is eventually a good game, a refund is bad forever.”
-H. Yamauchi

@Dezzy70 @Medic_Alert

And everything else listed in this post you were able to just fine previously jumping through the equivalent number of hoops.

As is, it is not user friendly at all. Most people don't even know you can refund games. It should be an option front and center on the dash.

That method also isn't guaranteed nor is it spelled out clearly. For example, it still let's you request a refund even though one or more of the prerequisites aren't met causing more confusion.

I never got my refund for a Darksiders bundle. When III was announced, it was added to the War & Fury Pack and went on sale, as a pre-order addition. This was added as a mistake, and I purchased it, expecting them to either honour it or refund it when they realised.

When the game was released, the knew they messed up and the Darksiders III should have had the War & Fury pack to that edition. Should have been something like £80, but I paid £30 for III and the remastered additions of I and II, plus all season passes. On release, I did not have access to III.

They refused to refund me, as the contents of the product had changed, plus I waited months for the pre-order to be released. Sent them evidence of the original listing - I paid for a certain product and never got it.

Left a bitter taste in my mouth, haven't ever played III now.

@Medic_Alert Having to do anything other than selecting the game on the Xbox and selecting refund is a hoop that has to be gone through. This is just one of the many highlights of their poor UX philosophy.

And furthermore, it absolutely is not. I've had games with 15 minutes of play time that I've had for 2 days denied a refund. It was only after I did a chargeback that they finally relented.

I will echo others sentiments and hope a similar investigation is applied to Nintendo and Sony and they follow suit.

Nintendo is so bad that I struggled to even get a refund on physical purchases from their online UK store recently. Literally getting blood out of stone. They tried to make me jump through so many hoops that I knew they were hoping I would just give up.

I would absolutely never buy from there again if they weren't the sole retailer for the NSO controllers. I'm hoping the N64 ones are the last they produce because I really don't want to use them again after I finally buy those controllers when they restock them.

Sony are really bad, they even avoid giving you valid invoices so there's no legal proof of your purchase. I had a lot of discussions with Sony's customer service about this in the past when I was playing on PS4 more often. They literally told me that the law doesn't force them to give me any invoice and thus I'm not entitled to claim anything. The purchases are only on my PlayStation account which is in their hands. This is one of the many reasons why I switched to Xbox. They have granted me the few refunds that I have requested.

Nintendo are known for similar issues. UK and EU have made them change their policies a few times but it's like they're always looking for legal loopholes to do what they want to do: keep abusing customers for as long and as much as possible until a judge tells them to stop and repair or refund.

Good grief! Microsoft is one of THE best online companies for refunds I've EVER used! They have a pretty fair policy that works, is automated and all online!
Sony is the second worst as you have to call them up and really really battle (beg) to get any money back.
And Nintendo are by far the worst as they just ignore the word 'refund' full stop. You bought it tough if you don't like it deal with it....

Microsoft are the last of the online game stores who needs to change anything. I guarantee Sony and Nintendo don't change a thing unless law forces them to.

@Medic_Alert UI and UX design is part of what I do. And what Xbox currently have going on is not it. When you're catering to an audience there's certain things you need to aim for. And making someone have to go to a different device is a guaranteed way to reduce usage of something.

Im not even sure why this is something being debated when this holds true in pretty much everything.

Finally, the same reason I hold anything I have stock in to a higher standard. Besides, we're not talking about Nintendo or Sony here. We'll talk about them when they have their own article. This is about Microsoft, and there's no point in deflecting.

People actually request refunds for bad games? I don't mean broken or buggy games, but just stuff they played a little and didn't like?
I've only ever requested a refund on once when a game I bought went on sale a couple of days later and bought it again at the lower price, and even that made me feel a little uneasy.
From the comments it seems like folk are using the store as a demo service and just refunding anything they don't like - someone above even requested a refund because the game didn't have achievements 🙄

@dmcc0 It's no different to anything else, if you buy clothes take them home and decide you don't like them. And you only tried them on in your home and left the labels on, you shouldn't be able to take them back for a refund? Likewise if you buy anything online law is you have 7 days to return the goods no questions for a refund, apart from software sales as they aren't covered under the U.K. distance selling act.

@S1ayeR74 so basically any games that are 6-10 hours long you could complete them in one day and then ask for a refund? Seems to me that there's a system to be exploited there

@isturbo1984
I usually just tell them I purchased by accident

@UltimateOtaku91 Nope, because you can only get a refund if you haven’t played the game, or have played it for less then 2 hours total I think it is. So you can’t play a whole game and refund it. Unless the dev releases a patch in the first few days that breaks it of course.

@Banjo- Your claims are utter nonsense. Sony don't avoid giving invoices at all. They send you an invoice for every single transaction made on their store. It goes directly to the email address associated with your PSN ID.

A second invoice is logged to your Sony account and others go to your bank account and credit card company if you pay by card. They're time stamped, dated and have a transaction ID number on every one.

I’ve never returned a game. I hardly ever return things in general. Hopefully these EU laws also change our consumer protection laws in the US. Thanks for caring about your citizens.

@S1ayeR74 Its not really the same as trying on a pair of jeans and deciding they don't suit you though - it's more like wearing them for a week and then deciding you don't like them. I could be mistaken, but I don't think the distance selling regs apply to software bought digitally - Nintendo have a statement next to the 'buy' button that basically says if you click buy you're not entitled to a refund. In any case, the UK distance selling regs say that the items can be returned 'unused' for a refund, so doesn't apply here.

I have an Oculus Quest 2 and have refunded a couple games on it, and have had no problem at all. As long as you haven't put in more than two hours of game play it is pretty much no problem to get your money back. I think all of the consoles need to implement something similar with easy to understand guidelines

Never refunded something from Xbox, but friends have (CP2077) and it's a breeze (I heard) here in the Netherlands, but tried it once with Sony, it was a nightmare, gave up, didn't want to put more time in it, time atm is my most precious commodity.

@dmcc0 Your right, distance selling regs do not apply to software sales, I've edited my post to make that clear, and that also is why it's even more impressive how good Microsoft are already with refunds.
And my analogy stands when you compare it to Microsoft's policies. You try out a game you try clothes on.

I do think though you are entitled to a refund regardless if the product is broken, different consumer rights cover you then. So if a game is broken on purchase you can request a refund, not 100% certain on it though.

@S1ayeR74 Yeah, it's definitely a very generous policy, especially compared with what I've experienced with Nintendo. We'll have to agree to disagree on your clothing analogy though - in my mind as soon as you start the game you're 'taking the labels off'. The trailer, screenshots and reviews on the product page are the 'trying on' equivalent. I've no problem with folk getting a refund for something they've never played though - that's essentially the same as taking a sealed copy back to a store for a refund.

As far as I'm aware, apart from the distance selling regs, you actually have no rights to return a product unless it's faulty - it's just that most stores individual policies do allow it if the item is unused and returned within a certain time. I've no idea what the threshold for a faulty game is though - a game not starting or constantly crashing is a no-brainer, but with framerate or resolution etc it's more subjective. I think this is why the refund option is there - so you can get a refund if you think the performance isn't up to scratch - rather than treating it as a demo service. I guess if the policy allows it then fair enough, but to me it doesn't seem right.

Edit: just to add, when you request a refund and you're asked for a reason, there is no option for "tried it, but didn't like it" or similar, so I'd say definitely not in the spirit of the policy to try-before-you-buy.

All fare points and changes that are needed imo it was "made" difficult and should not have been good changes for me.

What needs to happen with auto-renewals is to have an option to opt out before you even pay to begin with.
Too many services have options where you can only choose to pay for auto-renewals, and you have to cancel it through jumping through hoops after you pay.

@Shigurui Before you accuse me of utter nonsense, ask me or educate yourself. Those are not legal invoices and can't be used for legal claims, I tried. If you're such a pony that don't believe that Sony would do and say that and that I made this up, I can send you their replies.

Back on topic, I don't think people should abuse the system, it actually has restrictions but I like it the way it is. It's not playing games and then ask for refunds. I've bought some games full price or half price that I still haven't played at all (Bioshock collection) and then I see them 80% off, I think what a pity but don't ask for a refund and most of the times a long time has passed anyway. There are a few games I have asked for a refund, one was a game that wasn't backwards compatible before backwards compatible games appeared on the console store and you had to use the marketplace website (I have never owned an Xbox 360), another was Snake Pass that I just wasn't able to play it. Controls are awful in my opinion, it didn't have a demo and Game Pass didn't exist.

On the console, Settings, Account, Subscriptions, you can see if your subscriptions have recurring billing on or off and when they expire. You can turn them off and on on there so Microsoft is not forcing you to use your computer or phone. For refunding games, yes, but if there was a button besides games on the console to refund games as someone suggested above, wouldn't it be abused? If you want to ask for a refund you shouldn't have to hold the line for 15 minutes like someone suggested but it's not like that either. It used to work via customer service representative but now it's automatic on Microsoft's website. On Sony and Nintendo the option doesn't even exist. Nintendo's wording is illegal in UK and EU, don't know if they have updated it. Last thing I heard was they now allow consumers to ask for refunds of pre-orders up to seven days before the game is available and only because a judge forced them to do that. Unbelievable but true.

@Banjo- I'm not sure if you're trolling but a request of payment to a bank account is an invoice. You then receive a receipt with the details of the purchase, this is confirmation of the transaction.

As for not being legal. I have personally used a receipt to claim a refund from Sony for Afro Samurai 2 which was an episodic game pulled from sale by the developer. Sony were dragging their feet with EU refunds for the game and they constantly tried fobbing me off to get a refund from the developer, not them.

I took my complaint to Trading Standards and my receipt from Sony was used by them as a legal document confirming my purchase and holding them responsible for the refund.

Like I said, you're talking nonsense.

@Shigurui Basically, not believing me and calling me a liar and troll because that hasn't happened to you, you're proving that in reality it's you who is a pony or troll. As I said, those are not legal invoices. Microsoft's are. I don't question your experience, don't question mine.

@Banjo- I said you're wrong, not a liar. Grow up with the name calling, you're embarrassing yourself.

@Shigurui Good for you, I told you what happened to me. This is the first day that you reply to me and you do it to tell me that I speak utter nonsense and don't believe me so I'll ignore you. As I said, those are not legal invoices but receipts that didn't serve as proof and Sony told me that they are not forced to give legal invoices to me (I still have that email). If your experience is different, good for you, that doesn't mean that you can call me a troll and that I speak utter nonsense. On top of that, you dare to say that I use names when you're the one to do it first. That is real nonsense.

@Banjo- Jesus dude, were you dropped on your head? At no point did I call you anything. Regardless. You're wrong here, just suck it up and do me a favour and make sure to press the ignore button.

@Shigurui

Hol up…..

There was an Afro Samurai…2????? This is news to me

@Dusk_Actual Yes mate, it was meant to be an episodic trilogy but got canned after part one. I think it was released on PS4 and PC only. Xbox was supposed to get it but the whole thing was pretty much DOA.

I hate auto renewals being turned on , on its own after you subscribe. I always turn it off everytime I subscribe to something. But yeah, it should ask you if you want to turn it on. My answer will always be no. I like to renew things manually.