GOG Launches New Guaranteed Refund Policy

[StewShearerOld]

GOG Launches New Guaranteed Refund Policy


GOG customers will now have 30 days to get their money back for games with technical problems.

While you could attribute GOG's success to any number of factors, it would probably be safe to peg its products' ease of use as one of the bigger ones. Simply put, it can be a pain in the butt to get older PC games working on newer computers. GOG's retro releases, in turn, are built specifically to eliminate the issues that keep you from enjoying your old favorites.

That said, there are still going to be cases, even with GOG products, where things don't work the way they're supposed to. That in mind, the online retailer has announced that, going forward, its customers will now be able to take advantage of a 30-day money back guarantee aimed in the case of technical failure. "If you buy a game on GOG.com and find that it doesn't work properly on your system, and our support cannot fix the problem, you get a full refund," said the site in an announcement. "It's a worldwide guarantee, and you have whole 30 days after the purchase date, to contact us about the refund."

This new policy extends beyond just technical issues, however. The company is also instituting a new 14-day refund policy for customers who accidentally purchased or "simply changed [their] mind" about a game. As long as they company is contacted within that time period it will offer a full refund. Of course, because of the DRM-free nature of its products, it would be very much possible for less scrupulous gamers to buy a GOG game, download it and then ask for a refund. That being the case, we're sincerely hoping that none of our readers would be the type do something jerky like that.

Source: <a href=http://www.gog.com/news/announcing_our_new_guarantee>GOG


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[Dr.Awkward]

And I wonder how many of those refunds are going to be for something like not understanding that a game needs DosBox, and are too stuck up to ask for help...

 

[Teoes]

Another day, another reason to love GOG. I'd love to know the specifics of this though, like how users can prove they're having technical issues with the game and therefore are entitled to the refund.

As to the 14-day cooling off period, that's nuts and surely just begging for them to be stung. That is some serious trust in the customer. Having said that and not that I'd know for definite, aren't torrent sites doing rather well for copies of games originally bought off GOG?

Huh, just saw this on their FAQ. Nice.

But what if a whole LOT of my games don't work? You know: wink, wink.

We know that, since we're the Internet's leading DRM-free gaming platform, our Money Back Guarantee offer here is open to a certain amount of abuse. If you're being a bad person who's abusing our trust of you and asking for a whole lot of your games to be refunded and we can't resolve your problems, we'll have to stop offering you refunds.

So don't be that guy. No one likes that guy.

How many games can you ask for money back? We're humans here, so there's no hard numbers. If it seems like you're exploiting us, we'll let you know and tell you that this will be your final refund offer from us.

edit:

And I wonder how many of those refunds are going to be for something like not understanding that a game needs DosBox, and are too stuck up to ask for help...

Well, GOG games are all self-installing so I've never needed to touch DOSBox to get them working. The most tinkering I've done was installing some unofficial optional fixes/mods to Baldur's Gate to bring it a little more up-to-date. Also something like this is likely high on tech support's list of things to try; so if they establish that it's a user's unwillingness to fix a problem in DOSBox to get a game working, presumably there'd be no refund issued.

 

[Erttheking]

Wow, that's pretty damn awesome of them. I'm kinda guilty I don't buy from them for often.

 

[rofltehcat]

This is pretty awesome! I love how they are also slowly adapting newer games (and still have all the old stuff), so this is just one reason more to shop there. After all, old games can make problems. I bought Thief on Steam and couldn't get it running at all

You can get refunds from Steam as well, but they tell you that it is a once in a lifetime thing. I think some games that were taken off Steam because of massive problems were still refunded without that, though.

 

[antidonkey]

Just when you thought GoG couldn't get cooler. I'm tempted to go buy a crapton of stuff form them just for the hell of it. I wouldn't get around to playing it for at least a year though.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Glad to see more online game stores are having more cohesive refund policies. It helps if somebody new accidentally spends money on a game it turns out they can't even run. And the 14-day "trial period" for games is also really cool.

Spoiler

Valve plz

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Mmmm, I wonder if they'll refund me for Postal since it gives me the rainbow graphical error with no way to solve it. Seriously have tried everything I can imagine, windowed, EVERY compatibility mode, disabled Aero... Other than that I don't have any complaints. Thanks Gog, thanks for giving me MORE games to play... like over 200 steam games, numerous bundles and other sales and my penchant for finding console games on sale haven't already given me a backlog that could power a small country with the hours I'd have to put in to play them all to completion. (damn that was a long sentence).

 

[Irridium]

So now GoG joins Origin in offering a refund policy for digital games.

Hey, Valve, why the shit don't you have one yet?

 

[Haakmed]

Hey thats cool....now where is Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy? I would not be sad if you charged me 40 bucks for that game.

 

[Jumwa]

Wish I could get a refund for Call of Duty: Ghosts. First CoD game I ever bought, and the thing is a mess. It suffers from some common bug that makes everything look blurry as hell and there appears to be no way for me to fix it, despite hours of research and tinkering.

And I wonder how many of those refunds are going to be for something like not understanding that a game needs DosBox, and are too stuck up to ask for help...

GOG games do not require you to use DosBox. They are made to run just fine on your modern system the moment you download them.

 

[Grimh]

A very cynical person would expect assholes to try and abuse this, as would a very optimistic person.

Because this is the internet.

I need to support GoG more... Anyone want to recommend a game I should buy right now?

 

[Costia]

The 14 day refund is only if you didn't download the game, so it can't be abused.

There's even more! If you bought a game by mistake, or simply changed your mind about a purchase, you can get a full refund within 14 days, as long as the game wasn't downloaded.

 

[Genocidicles]

GOG games do not require you to use DosBox. They are made to run just fine on your modern system the moment you download them.

There are quite a few games that 'require' DosBox... In that when you download the game and press start, it automatically starts up DosBox.

 

[loa]

Too late for me to refund battle realms due to the minimap not working, making the thing nigh unplayable but oh well.

 

[Clowndoe]

I need to support GoG more... Anyone want to recommend a game I should buy right now?

Have you played Dust: An Elysian Tail yet? If you're not the kind of person that throws a fit over furries (it's not even that prominent anyway) then it's a 100% recommendation from me.

 

[McKitten]

Now, i don't want to rain on the parade here, GOG is absolutely the most customer friendly publisher and distributor in the business, but the reason for this is probably not just that they're actively working on being customer-friendly. GOG, being head-quartered in the EU, and doing business in the EU is actually required by law to provide refunds within 14 days of purchase, for any stated reason even. The EU law applies to all internet (or phone/mail) based consumer sales within the EU. And before anyone comes claiming that software is a service where this doesn't apply, some companies have actually tried that argument in court, and EU courts so far always thrown that out, ruling that a product doesn't change into a service simply because the seller claims so.

Still, even if they're just doing what they're legally required to, it's pretty good to see they're actually willing to do it, and capitalize on that, instead of trying to get away with less, as so many of the scum-bags in the business do.

 

[Jumwa]

GOG games do not require you to use DosBox. They are made to run just fine on your modern system the moment you download them.

There are quite a few games that 'require' DosBox... In that when you download the game and press start, it automatically starts up DosBox.

Right, as I said, the games "are made to run just fine on your modern system the moment you download them."

You don't need to get DosBox separately.

 

[Eddie451]

Could of used that refund policy on steam after X:rebirth crashed 8 times in 45 minutes.