Post by leafo in How are refunds handled

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leafoPinned ReplyAdmin8 years ago (6 edits) (+7)

A buyer can request a refund by contacting support. There's more information about our refund policy on our terms of service: https://itch.io/docs/legal/terms#refunds

Since we are a DRM free website that supports downloading from your browser, we can not track time spent in a game so we can't have the same automated process other platforms might have. We try our best to make sure everyone comes out happy in the end, we'll typically ask what the issue was with the purchase before granting a refund. If necessary, we'll loop in the developer of the game to offer support directly in the email thread.

If you're a developer and you want to issue a refund to a buyer, find the purchase from your dashboard via the Earnings > Payments section. Click on the details link and find on the bottom a link that says “Issue refund…”. At this time all refunds must be approved by a staff member. In the future we may allow refunds to be issued automatically if your account is in good standing, but the instructions will remain the same.

Developers/sellers can view what payments have been refunded on their account on this page: https://itch.io/dashboard/purchases?refunded (You must be logged into the right account to see them). If the payment delivered any external keys (like a Steam key), you can click the transaction and access the key so you can disable it.

Thanks

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Lapioware8 years ago

Thanks, just the information I needed. I'd forgotten about the refunds section on the TOS.

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sitebender8 years ago(+1)

I just bought a tool and its just bad and near unusuable. Ratings are disabled and there is no way to give the developer feedback (no forum and no comments). Its not in the refund / support page you provided. Maybe I'm trying to refund it too quick, but I knew within two minutes it wasn't what I thought it was.

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leafoAdmin8 years ago (1 edit) (+3)

Send us an email from our support page with your purchase information and we can arrange the refund. Thanks

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sitebender8 years ago

Thanks Leaf. I sent an email. While I'm here I might as well ask... there's one tool I can't seem to purchase. PayPal always refuses the transaction and tells me "We can't process your payment right now, so please try again later. We're sorry for the inconvenience."

Its been a few weeks of trying. I've also asked the developer for assistance via Twitter, but never had a response. Chances are these are all red flags, but I thought I'd ask you.

Here is the tool:

https://tambalaya.itch.io/instantchip

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leafoAdmin8 years ago(+3)

That seller is using our old "direct payments mode" with PayPal, which restricts purchase to however their account is configured. I can reach out to them to see if they'd like to switch to our new mode.

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logan41796 years ago(+2)

I would like to humbly request that you PLEASE think seriously about some kind of official refund policy. I would love to support this service instead of Steam, but Steam has official, and mostly-guaranteed rules for refunds, which is extremely nice when you decide to take a chance on a game you're not sure about (which tends to be most indie games). My suggestion would be a light, optional client. If the user chooses to purchase it DRM-free, they wouldn't have the same refund options. Anyway, please consider it, because there are a lot of people who continue to purchase on Steam for this one reason. Thanks for the great service!

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leafoAdmin6 years ago (1 edit) (+4)

Since we don't have DRM (and never will), we can't provide an automated solution like Steam. That said, we very rarely block refunds. We would only block them if there's something suspicious going on, or the buyer is clearly trying to rip off the developers off.

Our official refund policy is here: https://itch.io/docs/legal/terms#9-refunds

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William O'Connell6 years ago(+10)

From the other side of things, I'd really like a way for developers to initiate a refund without going through support. It's a bit awkward to have to tell a customer that I've requested they be refunded but I don't know when it will actually happen. Plus it seems like it's just creating more work for support. I understand if there are fraud prevention concerns but maybe there could be some sort of rule in place (e.g. for every 20 copies you sell you can do 1 automatic refund, past that they get manually reviewed).

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leafoAdmin6 years ago(+2)

Something we definitely need to add! We'll likely make it work like you described, automatic until some limits or conditions are hit.

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