EA Begins Offering Refunds for Its Digital Game Sales

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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In response to the debacle that was Sim City earlier this year, EA has instituted a seven day return policy for its Origin digital downloads for unsatisfied customers.

The newly revealed Great Game Guarantee program will put a handy "request a refund" button right on the Origin order history page for eligible games.
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wow -- so they did this out of the kindness of their heart -- 6 months after they released that pile of shit?

Amazon refunded me my money 24 hours after the whole shake up started with their servers. EA originally told me in so many words to go fuck myself I was stuck.

I get that EA is trying to be a better company - it seems within the last 2 weeks they have been making efforts to win over the community with surprisingly "good" things they are offering. Problem is they have been so shitty for so long, most people see this for what it is, pretending to be "good" for a few months doesn't make up for the years of shit they pulled.

If EA can start making these kind of decisions from the start - they will slowly win back customers. They have a long way to go though.
 
Not bad. It looks like EA is really serious about improving its relationship with gamers and with this new return policy they're off to a good start.
 
This will put pressure on themselves to make sure games work day 1. Hopefully this return policy affects Steam in some way.
A before people start posting TOS language, make sure to read the TOS of every other large corporation you buy from also.
 
The return policy is quite a good idea. However, my main question is this: How soon before people start to abuse this policy?
 
Siphric_Acid said:
Is Sim City any better now or is it still a steaming pile of junk?
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Don't know, I was one of the people that wasted their money on the game, tried to play it the first few days unsuccessfully, uninstalled the game then uninstalled Origin.
 
Look closely--there's the all-important qualifier "for eligible games." I sincerely hope EA is working to improve their products (and by extension their reputation), but they have a lot of history to overcome before I'll trust them.
 
Well done EA. Stuff like this makes it look like they're actually trying to right some wrongs and offer us better service for our hard earned money instead of just shoving more and more crap at us thinking we'll just lay there and take it. I think this is a great idea and 7 days is plenty fair. Hell I'd even be good with a 3 day policy. I can tell within the first couple hours if a game is going to suck or not but 7 days is great.

A policy like this will also make it more likely I'll buy a game sooner instead of waiting til it hits the $20 bargain bin.

So again, we'll done EA. That's a BIG step in making me a fan again like I was back in the Mail Order Monsters days.
 
Siphric_Acid said:
Is Sim City any better now or is it still a steaming pile of junk?
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The game breaking issues have been resolved, but the actual gameplay is still identical to release version for the most part aside from a few tweaks. So no, it's not better. :(
 
By game breaking issues I meant crashing, cities not loading, etc...
 
collegeboy69us said:
wow -- so they did this out of the kindness of their heart -- 6 months after they released that pile of shit?

Amazon refunded me my money 24 hours after the whole shake up started with their servers. EA originally told me in so many words to go fuck myself I was stuck.

I get that EA is trying to be a better company - it seems within the last 2 weeks they have been making efforts to win over the community with surprisingly "good" things they are offering. Problem is they have been so shitty for so long, most people see this for what it is, pretending to be "good" for a few months doesn't make up for the years of shit they pulled.

If EA can start making these kind of decisions from the start - they will slowly win back customers. They have a long way to go though.
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What's the matter? You didn't like Plants versus Zombies or Candy Crush Saga they tried to offer to apologize for their Sim City debacle? ;)
 
It would be interesting to see how it works out, because this is great for the consumer, and "bad" for the game publishers who often use pre-order to sell as many copy before people realize it's bad or they did not like it.

With this, the games on Origin will only be sold to the people who finds it good. Games like Sim City would have been refunded by like 90% of the total sold :p
 
Mohonri said:
Look closely--there's the all-important qualifier "for eligible games." I sincerely hope EA is working to improve their products (and by extension their reputation), but they have a lot of history to overcome before I'll trust them.
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My guess is that all EA games with support it. What would be the point in announcing this otherwise. I'm sure what that really applies to is non-EA games on Origin. I can see them either not allowing refunds on those, or allowing the publishers to chose to allow them.
 
I would be a hypocrite if I agreed with you ktk_ace since I have EA games on steam. I do know how you feel and I would 100% agree with you on gearbox and activision-blizzard as well. Since making money is the goal for them and we are just another sucker to steal from.
 
So, does this mean I can get a refund for the Humble Bundle games I bought and didn't play?
 
So, this will be interesting to see how it folds out. It's cool, now you can see if your toaster can handle Call of Battlefield 7 on Ultra Maximum wubwub graphics, and return it when your PC catches on fire.


But seriously, what do they consider "Abusing the refund system"...
 
Siphric_Acid said:
Is Sim City any better now or is it still a steaming pile of junk?
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Yes, it's better. Not perfect - city sizes are too small for many. But, the AI is a lot better (new version 7 is released on Thursday), you can raise and lower roads to make over/underpasses, things work a lot better. You can connect to a server 99% of the time... It's a lot better than it was. If it was released in it's current form, it wouldn't have been a bad launch.

Bad part - DLC. You want dirigibles? $10. Free? Nissan Leaf plug in stations. Yay.

Still a very fun game that I keep going back to.


It's a step in the right direction for EA. But, after being screwed so many times, I can't just run back to them with my wallet open. I'm going cautiously.
 
Took long enough.

Instead of the usual moaning and complaining, I'd just like to say this is where a demo would have saved a lot of headaches.
Games like Sim City are the reason people pirate, no demo, suck ass, refusal of refund for months....
Great business model, unfortunately its too little too late to get any real good will out of the gesture.
 
"FOR ELIGIBLE GAMES"

Fine Print: Games sold on Origin or games produced, developed, or published by EA are not eligible for the Great Games Guarantee. Guarantee void in the 48 continental states, Hawaii, and Alaska. Refund cannot be requested on a day that contains the letter "A".
 
EA will only win me back when they start releasing Madden titles again for PC.
 
LiNKiN said:
EA will only win me back when they start releasing Madden titles again for PC.
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Not only has EA lost my PC gaming business, but my console sports gaming as well. I have walked sadly by Madden multiple times in the last week, knowing full well I couldn't bring myself to support that shitty company with another dime of my money.

It's going to take more than a 24 hour window to return a select few games that don't play well to win my business back. I honestly don't ever see that win happening....
 
MacLeod said:
Well done EA. Stuff like this makes it look like they're actually trying to right some wrongs and offer us better service for our hard earned money instead of just shoving more and more crap at us thinking we'll just lay there and take it. I think this is a great idea and 7 days is plenty fair. Hell I'd even be good with a 3 day policy. I can tell within the first couple hours if a game is going to suck or not but 7 days is great.

A policy like this will also make it more likely I'll buy a game sooner instead of waiting til it hits the $20 bargain bin.

So again, we'll done EA. That's a BIG step in making me a fan again like I was back in the Mail Order Monsters days.
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According to the article you only get 24 hours to refund once you begin playing the game. The 7 day return period would be if you purchased but did not try the game yet.
 
Seventyfive said:
"FOR ELIGIBLE GAMES"

Fine Print: Games sold on Origin or games produced, developed, or published by EA are not eligible for the Great Games Guarantee. Guarantee void in the 48 continental states, Hawaii, and Alaska. Refund cannot be requested on a day that contains the letter "A".
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I started reading that and was getting pissed. WTF?!? REALLY?! Oh... He's joking. *WHOOSH!*. :D
 
Ur_Mom said:
I started reading that and was getting pissed. WTF?!? REALLY?! Oh... He's joking. *WHOOSH!*. :D
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Same here. Which is sad knowing EA's track record, it could go either way. Obvious satire isn't obvious with EA.
 
wouldn't this lead to abuse I mean someone can play the game finish it in a few games and ask for a refund :rolleyes:
 
Sickb0y said:
wouldn't this lead to abuse I mean someone can play the game finish it in a few games and ask for a refund :rolleyes:
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7 days if you haven't played the game or 24hrs from when you first start the game. Folks better be good at finishing games quick if that's what they're aiming to do. Knowing EA though, they'll probably just ban anyone that they suspect of abusing the policy.
 
collegeboy69us said:
wow -- so they did this out of the kindness of their heart -- 6 months after they released that pile of shit?

Amazon refunded me my money 24 hours after the whole shake up started with their servers.
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Be very careful with your Amazon refund requests.

Amazon keeps a digital track of your profitability, and taxes "concession costs" heavily.

People on slickdeals that are always buying sale items and cancelling their subscribe and save after the cheap price that have low profitability indexes are apparently finding that it takes only a handful of returns before Amazon bans your account.

Once banned, you lose all giftcards, all remaining prime shipping, and can't even login to view your previous orders should you need to warranty something.
 
BTW, I wouldn't be surprised if you have your Origin account banned if you constantly "try out" games for free for a week and do lots of returns.
 
Mohonri said:
Buying a game, playing through it in 6 days, and asking for a refund.
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why do you think there's this always-online DRM requirements? They'll track your game progress and decide that you're trying to cheat their refund system.
 
Neb said:
7 days if you haven't played the game or 24hrs from when you first start the game. Folks better be good at finishing games quick if that's what they're aiming to do. Knowing EA though, they'll probably just ban anyone that they suspect of abusing the policy.
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I would be surprised if they DIDN'T track your game hours and achievements to determine if you'd played the game through and not allow you a refund.

Just throw in a "game completed" achievement for finishing the last level or last boss or whatever, then if someone has that achievement, don't allow them to refund the game.
 
Ducman69 said:
BTW, I wouldn't be surprised if you have your Origin account banned if you constantly "try out" games for free for a week and do lots of returns.
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I have no doubt that there are provisions in place that track game time/game completion and factor into the health of your user account. EA may be doing something relatively generous here (comparatively speaking), but they aren't stupid.

As was said earlier though (multiple times), it's a 24 hour window from the time you launch the game, not seven days.
 
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