Australian Consumer Watchdog Takes Valve To Court 139
angry tapir writes The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, a government funded watchdog organization, is taking Valve to court. The court action relates to Valve's Steam distribution service. According to ACCC allegations, Valve misled Australian consumers about their rights under Australian law by saying that customers were not entitled to refunds for games under any circumstances.
Welcome to Australia, Ferengi. (Score:5, Informative)
Bad business practice (Score:2, Informative)
I bought the AVGN Adventures game from within the Valve software on my Mac. After downloading the game using the Valve software, the software said the game was Windows only, so I could not install it.
At the support forum I asked for my money back, since it is ridiculous to sell a game using Mac software and then it will not run. Support refused to return my money.
I complained so many times, the support time cost them more than the actual game cost ($10).
Idiots.
Re:Welcome to Australia, Ferengi. (Score:5, Informative)
It's pretty straight forward, if it breaks within the expected tolerances and lifetime that the average consumer would expect, and is critical to the operation of the device, they must repair, replace, or refund it. If it's a major fault that would've prevented its purchase in the first place, they must refund. If it costs over either $10,000 or $40,000 (I don't recall which off-hand, as it's rarely relevant) then it falls under different warranties, but anything under those is protected.
It basically says "buyer beware" is bullshit and sellers are responsible for providing quality products, not misleading people into buying crappy ones. Though you can still provide crappy products that work just well enough to not be considered broken - they're usable, at least.
Re:Bad business practice (Score:4, Informative)
it is ridiculous to sell a game using Mac software and then it will not run
Doesn't the Steam page for each game explicitly list which operating systems it is compatible with in the information box with all of the other info?
It seems that in his case the store page incorrectly claimed that the software has also a Mac version, but when he purchased it, he found that it's Windows-only.
The store page for AVGN Adventures [steampowered.com] seems to show correct information right now: only a flag symbol showing that it's Windows software. Maybe previously that page had both a flag and an apple symbol? That's how I interpret the situation.
Re:Don't see what Valve's problem is ... (Score:4, Informative)
They already can process refunds, I know that.
The case is in regards to them advertising that there are no refunds allowed, they are most certainly NOT allowed to do that. Note, if the product is not of merchantable quality, they can also be refunded (so no more buying a game that runs terribly or crashes a lot).
Re:Bad business practice (Score:2, Informative)
If you want what the devil has, you get to deal with the devil, like it or not.
I don't like it. I decided not to buy Portal 2 for just $5. The only Steam games I buy any more are indie titles. I did buy FFVII on Steam, because it was on sale, but then I torrented the non-steam version because fuck having to be always online to play a console game of yore.
Steam is shit.
Re:Welcome to Australia, Ferengi. (Score:5, Informative)
Apple tried this in Europe - in Denmark, a government body created a letter people could print out and take to the stores to remind the company about legal requirements and rights.