I consider myself a pretty tech-savvy person, but my credentials took a bit of a beating this week when I made an embarrassing rookie mistake when purchasing an Xbox Series X game.
I assumed my mistake would leave me broke and feeling like a fool, but that’s when I discovered an Xbox feature that, to my delight, reversed my mistake. The Xbox Store refund policy is something the PS5 doesn’t currently match, and as someone who primarily plays on PlayStation hardware, I’m disappointed that Sony isn’t fully competing.
So let me explain to you how I was wrong and how Xbox came to my rescue to save me blushes…
I made a farce buying Fallout
I spent the last week binge-watching the TV show Fallout. It’s one of the best game adaptations ever made and I’ve loved every moment of it. After enjoying the Prime Video program, I really wanted to play a Fallout game.
Unfortunately, I don’t currently have one of the best gaming PCs. So as a console-locked gamer, the Xbox Series And to my delight, there was a Fallout sale on the Xbox Store with Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas available for just a few dollars (or English pounds, in my case).
Naturally, I wanted to go with the GOTY versions that include all the DLC, as the Fallout franchise has some of the best expansions ever made. And that’s where I made a pretty stupid mistake. I was browsing the Xbox Store on my laptop and accidentally bought Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas for PC instead of Xbox.
It wasn’t my finest moment, but in my defense, the Xbox Store doesn’t do a great job of marking the platform of each game listed. Instead of having a “PC” or “Xbox” label at the beginning, you have to scroll down to the “Playable on” p below a lot of less relevant information. However, I admit, this was a case of “user error.”
Xbox did right by me
I booted up my Xbox Series X and quickly realized my mistake when none of the Fallout games appeared in my game library. After spending about 30 seconds kicking myself for making such a stupid mistake, I started looking for a solution.
Based on previous experiences (I’ll get to that shortly), I was largely resigned to the fact that I had wasted my money without any recourse. But to my delight (and surprise), a quick Google search led me to a xbox support page titled “Request a refund for digital games.”
This presented a very easy refund process and within moments I requested a refund for my two incorrect purchases. My requests were approved quickly and the money was quickly returned to my bank account.
The process took only a few minutes and didn’t even require me to talk to a customer service representative and tell them a sob story. Speaking of which…
PlayStation not so much
The reason I was so pleasantly surprised by the ease of getting a refund on the Xbox Store is because I had the exact opposite experience when an incorrect purchase was made on my PlayStation Network account several years ago.
You will be glad to know that in this case the mistake was not mine. But rather my tech-savvy mother, who managed to accidentally spend £60 (around $75) on my PS4 when she was trying to use the console to watch Netflix. I still don’t know how.
After discovering the error (I initially thought my account had been compromised), I sought to obtain a refund and my only option was to contact Sony support directly. This involved a long wait before speaking to a customer service representative who informed me that technically Sony was under no obligation to offer me any kind of refund, but as a “gesture of goodwill” they would refund me, but only in the form of a PlayStation Store credit.
With no other options, I accepted this offer and used the credit to build up an extra year on my PlayStation Plus subscription. While I was glad to have gotten some sort of solution, the process was long and the final resolution only partially resolved my issue.
As noted, this was several years ago, during the PS4 generation, so the process may have changed since then, but based on my research, it appears to be generally the same. Furthermore, the PlayStation Support Page to request a refund it still tells you to “contact us” instead of offering a convenient online form like the one you’ll find in the Xbox Store.
Additionally, PlayStation’s main problem seems to be that once you’ve started the download process for a digital game, it’s no longer eligible for a refund. However, Xbox notes that it will consider refunds as long as you “have not accumulated a significant amount of play time,” which seems more in line with PC game launcher Steam, which offers the gold standard in refund policies.
This simple feature really matters
At first glance, clarifying this about each platform holder’s refund policy may seem arbitrary. After all, in most cases, when making a digital purchase, you don’t need to request a refund, so the ease of getting a refund isn’t a factor.
However, I would say that Xbox’s convenient refund process and consumer-friendly policy is a small victory that can make a big difference. Simply agreeing to my request without any issues has put a lot of Xbox goodwill in my books, and was a very refreshing change of pace compared to my previous PlayStation experience.
After receiving my refund, I returned to the Xbox Store and this time purchased both Fallout games on the console. In the end I had to spend a little more (on Xbox you have to buy the DLC inpidually), but I didn’t mind. Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are worth it.
- All the Fallout games you can play on Xbox, PS5, Switch and PC
- PlayStation Spring Sale Includes Must-Have PS5 and PS4 for $20 or Less
- Second wave of April Xbox Game Pass titles announced
