ByHow to Refund a Gift on Steam: a Step-by-Step Guide
Steam is an online video game distribution service offered and owned by the parent company, video game developer Valve. Steam offers digital rights management (DRM), video streaming, and social networking services to its users.
The company is considered the largest digital distribution platform and retailer for PC gaming. In 2017, they reported that their game sales revenue reached a staggering 4.3 billion U.S. dollars.
Can You Obtain a Refund on a Gifted Steam Game?
Yes, you can. You can get a full refund on any Steam game within 14 days of the purchase, provided that it has been played for two hours or less. This also applies to games sent as gifts to other people, but the gift recipient must initiate the refund request.
How to Get a Refund for a Gifted Game on Steam
If the recipient of the game hasn’t redeemed their gift, make sure to ask for your money back within 14 days of purchase. If they have redeemed the game, you can still demand a refund provided that not more than 14 days have passed since the purchase and that the recipient didn’t play the game for longer than two hours.
The gift recipient has to start the refund process. Once they have completed their part, the person who made the purchase has to follow the standard Steam procedure to get their cash back.
Here is how you can go about it:
|
Can you request a refund via | Yes / No |
| DoNotPay |
Yes |
|
| No |
| Phone |
No |
|
Letter | No |
| Website |
Yes |
|
In-person |
No |
Request a Refund on the Steam Website as the Receiver of the Gift
To help the person who bought the gift obtain a refund, follow the next steps:
- Visit Steam Support and sign in
- Go to Games and Software
- Select the gifted game from the list
- Choose the issue with the game
- Click on I’d Like to Request a Refund
- Confirm that the original Steam game purchaser should receive a refund
Request a Refund on the Steam Website as the Buyer of the Gift
Once the person you bought the gift for does their part, you can request your money back. Here is what you need to do:
- Visit Steam Support and sign in
- Go to Purchases
- Select the gifted game from the list. If the game doesn’t appear here, you are probably not eligible to receive a refund for it
- Choose a reason why you want the refund
- Hit I’d Like to Request a Refund
- Choose the refund method (i.e., the debit/credit card you used for the purchase, or simply transfer the amount to your Steam Wallet)
- You will receive a confirmation email from Steam that your request has been received
How DoNotPay Can Help You Get Your Steam Refund?
What if Steam doesn’t budge, and you can’t secure your money back? One word—DoNotPay. The process of getting your refund through our app is much simpler than going through the whole ordeal on the Steam website by yourself.
All you need to do is:
- Open the DoNotPay app in your
- Click on Get Protected under the File a Chargeback icon
- Provide answers to our chatbot’s questions (this part includes some information about your bank and the merchant you need the refund from)
- Verify your signature
- Submit the request
Once it collects all the key details from you, DoNotPay gets in touch with your bank and requests your money back. To bolster the chances of obtaining a refund, DoNotPay also cites the relevant VISA and Mastercard codes and regulations that pertain to your case.
If you prefer to contact Steam without involving the bank, DoNotPay can reach out to them on your behalf, too.
What Is Steam’s Refund Policy?
With so many video games to choose from, it can be tricky to hand-pick only the ones you’ll enjoy the most—particularly if a demo isn’t available. For this reason, Steam has a pretty straightforward refund policy. It guarantees that you’ll receive your dollars back if the game you purchased doesn’t give you much of a kick. Let’s hear it from Steam:
“You can request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam—for any reason. Maybe your PC doesn’t meet the hardware requirements; maybe you bought a game by mistake; maybe you played the title for an hour and just didn’t like it.
It doesn’t matter. Valve will, upon request via help.steampowered.com, issue a refund for any reason, if the request is made within the required return period, and, in the case of games, if the title has been played for less than two hours. There are more details below, but even if you fall outside of the refund rules we’ve described, you can ask for a refund anyway, and we’ll take a look.”
The company might make an exception to their standard refund policy in some rare instances. For example, when there is a major, disruptive bug in a game, or a game has been pulled from the Steam store.
You can submit any number of refund requests. If Steam thinks that you are abusing the refund system, they reserve the right to revoke your future ability to claim money back.
How Long Does a Steam Refund Take?
Steam’s customer service team can take up to two weeks to process your request. In the case of a favorable outcome, it might be a week or more until the money shows up on your original method of payment.
Refunds to international payment methods may take longer. If your refund isn’t in your bank account after seven days, you should contact your bank directly and inquire about any pending returns on your account.
Sign Up for Free Online Trials With DoNotPay’s Virtual Credit Card
Are you as annoyed by the auto-renewed subscription fees as the next person? Our Free Trial Card is the perfect solution for everyone that likes to explore different online services, but doesn’t want to incur charges just because they forgot to cancel their subscription. You can also use DoNotPay's virtual credit card generator to quickly create a new credit card you can use once and forget about those pesky unwanted charges.
By creating temporary and unique credit card information, DoNotPay’s virtual credit card is a must when you’re signing up for various free online trials. Because it’s not linked to your bank account, the subscription service will not be able to charge you a subscription fee once the free trial automatically runs out.
The DoNotPay Free Trial Card:
- Creates random credit card information
- Gets approved on free trial pages
- Doesn’t get approved on subscription pages
The Many Skills of DoNotPay
The reason why life may seem so overwhelming sometimes is that we don’t have the necessary resources to accomplish what we want. Whether you lack time, money to hire professional help, or merely the know-how, a virtual assistant like DoNotPay can step in and fill these gaps.
We can assist you with:
- Canceling subscriptions or memberships
- Disputing speeding tickets
- Setting up a DMV appointment fast
- Managing credit card problems
- Fighting traffic tickets
- Protecting yourself from stalking and harassment
- Suing people and companies in small claims court
- Requesting refunds for delayed or canceled flights
- Holding the line when calling customer service
- Demanding refunds from other companies
- Contesting parking tickets
- Managing bills you are unable to pay
- Tracking down scammers behind illegal robocalls
Step into a more comfortable, efficient life—DoNotPay can be easily accessed from your .
Frequently Asked Questions
When Does Steam Offer Refunds?
You can request a refund for any purchases and for any reason. Valve will issue a refund as long as the request is made within the required return period.
What's Steam's Return Period for Games?
Steam will issue a full refund if the game has been played for less than 2 hours.
What's the Fastest Way to Get a Steam Refund?
The fastest way to request a Steam refund is through their support portal or DoNotPay's File a Chargeback product.