Can You Get a Refund on Gifted Steam Games?
Steam, the online gaming forum, allows users to buy and gift games to others, providing an enjoyable way for someone to pass on their love of gaming to friends and family. But if you’ve gifted a game, what if the recipient isn’t satisfied? Can you get a refund for gifted Steam games?
Refund Rules for Gifted Steam Games
Fortunately, Valve (the company that operates Steam) provides a refund policy on gifted games just as it does for games purchased directly. However, it comes with a few qualifications, for example:
- The game must have been purchased less than 14 days ago and must have been played for less than 2 hours. This applies not only to the direct purchaser of the game, but also to the recipient of the gift as well. Even if the game was gifted years ago, if the recipient has logged more than 2 hours of gameplay, they will not be eligible for a refund.
- The refund must be requested within 14 days of purchase. Here again, the clock starts at the time of purchase. Even if the gift was bought months ago, if the refund is requested within 14 days, they should be eligible.
- The game must still be installed on the system. For instance, if the game was bought in 2011 but the hard drive was completely wiped in 2014, the Steam client would no longer detect the game and thus would not be able to verify it for a return.
Conclusion
In general, the same rules for refunding directly purchased Steam games also apply to those given as gifts. However, these rules do sometimes make it tricky for the recipient of a gift to request a refund, so be sure to advise the person you are gifting the game to of their options in case they’re not satisfied.
