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[OCD Guy]

If this is true it is news to me. So if my Amazon account is compromised and someone orders a thousand dollars worth of stuff, then Amazon will refund me if I prove the purchase is fraudulent? I thought that would have to be taken up with my bank. Like I said I just wanted to understand the outrage, because I was always under the impression my account info and bank info is my responsibility not a seller

PayPal is linked to a bank, card etc yeah? If a fraudulent transaction happens with PayPal, then it's common for PayPal to reverse the transaction.

When I've had issues with PayPal I've dealt with PayPal, they've done the fraud investigations and ultimately reversed the transaction. I've not chased my card provider linked to my PayPal.

Again with Amazon when I've had issues with my account Amazon have dealt with and resolved the issue.

Going to the card provider e.g a credit card company is a good fall back to have but they're certainly not the people I go to in the first instance

 

[Justinh]

Shitty situation in the OP though. Sony and MS need to go the Google route and let you refund within a couple hours no questions asked.

We need to go deeper, I'd like MS and Sony (and especially Valve) allow for 24 hour no questions asked refunds on digital purchases.


Freaking EA does this with Origin. I've gotten like 3-4 refunds from them and I think everytime it was "eh, I don't think I want this anymore."

I don't get why it'd be a SCEA vs SCEE thing. I thought being in Europe, SCEE would be more likely to refund for stuff like this?

 

[Nikodemos]

Easiest way to deal with the no refunds bit would be two step auth. This way somebody would have to somehow acquire your phone number as well. Though I think some companies who have 2-step auth also have refund policies (Google does, IIRC).

 

[devonraynor]

After the Driveclub debacle, I contacted them and asked for a refund.
I got 40 euro's put in my account and could keep the game.
Thought it was a great gesture.

 

[TheLegendOfMart]

I managed to get a refund when the Vita was first out, I bought Tiger Woods PSP despite not even knowing if it was compatible with Vita, it wasn't, and Sony fully refunded me without complaint.

 

[UpDownLeftRight]

Well this is bullshit. Zero tolerance policy means absolutely no chance of a refund. Like others here I've had a refund and it was my own stupid mistake for buying ps3 dlc for a ps4 game. The fact it's as lengthy a process as it is to get a refund, let alone how hit or miss it may be, is no doubt a horrible situation that should be solved.

But zero tolerance is hyperbolic at best. Sony have issued refunds and it's a matter of how customer service are feeling that day, which also goes for a whole load of other digital service providers so to single Sony out is a bit unprofessional of them. Their research should have found cases of refunds being issued without much work because it's not hard to find at all.

i'm not excusing the frankly poor customer service that Sony have. It's shit and they need a boot up the ass to sort it out. I'm not sure pretending they're the only ones behaving this way is an accurately placed boot though.

 

[bananafactory]

I've been refunded in a few cases without incident...so it's definitely not complete zero tolerance

Does sound like they could do with substantial improvement though, according to some of the facts presented there

 

[BahamutPT]

Other companies seem to get by? Infact most companies will give a refund quite easily once they've done their "investigation"

Sony have implied that they have a ZERO tolerance policy. I can see their reasoning, they don't want to lose money to potential opportunists, but it is possible to have a policy in place that in exceptional cases of fraud they provide refunds as opposed to giving refunds to anyone that calls up.

Every other company has policies in place and procedures that dictate what they must do in a case where fraud is reported, if after the steps have been taken fraud is determined then refunds are issued. However Sony have determined fraud but still not give a refund

That's why I said I understand their reasoning. But I do not agree with it, since it may very well happen to me someday, being that I'm also under SCEE ruling.
However, I don't see how in a digital format you can be really sure it's not someone simply abusing your system. I don't think there's really a foolproof method to be sure. Even if they see that, besides the different serial, an IP from Japan (for example) was used for the purchase, it still wouldn't be 100% guaranteed it wasn't a fraud (although, let's be fair, it would be very very unlikely).

But, like I said, I think they currently SHOULD just eat up the loss, issue the refunds and move on. Add two-step and only then use a no-refund policy.

 

[Steel]

We need to go deeper, I'd like MS and Sony (and especially Valve) allow for 24 hour no questions asked refunds on digital purchases.


Freaking EA does this with Origin. I've gotten like 3-4 refunds from them and I think everytime it was "eh, I don't think I want this anymore."

I don't get why it'd be a SCEA vs SCEE thing. I thought being in Europe, SCEE would be more likely to refund for stuff like this?

Actually google does allow for 24 hour no question asked refunds for digital purchases.

 

[toythatkills]

Going to the card provider e.g a credit card company is a good fall back to have but they're certainly not the people I go to in the first instance

It depends. I had my card details used on amazon without my authority, but it wasn't someone who'd used my account, they'd just used my card on their account. In that instance your only real option is to contact the bank.

Account issues and card issues are handled differently.

This was an account issue so should have been resolved by Sony. It shouldn't have reached the point where the only option left to get his money back was a chargeback. Then the fact that they make it impossible to do a chargeback without your account being banned is gross, like you've been given this ultimatum where you can get your stolen money back or you can keep your games, but not both.

 

[Lionheart]

Good thing this happens. Their zero tolerance policy needs to be altered.

Though not as bad as the situation in the OP, I once accidentally bought a German PS Plus game that was showing up on the Dutch PS Plus monthly games page (and IIRC, it showed as Free on that page, it was a site error, right around when the update hit the store). One second after pressing 'Confirm' on the purchase page, I check and see that I made a mistake. It also showed the price on that last page, but thinking I 'bought' only free games, I didn't pay attention.

I immediately contacted support, but to no avail. No refunds whatsoever.

 

[Rich!]

Surely Sony are breaking the long distance selling laws here?

The Distance Selling Regulations no longer apply in UK law. As of 13 June 2014 the new Consumer Contracts Regulations - which implement the Consumer Rights Directive in UK law - apply to all purchases you make at a distance.

This includes shopping online, by mail order, over the phone or through a TV shopping channel.

oh wait, no:

Cancelling a digital download

Digital downloads are given their own unique category under the Consumer Contracts Regulations and are therefore not services or goods.

If you want to download something within 14 days of buying it, you will have to give your consent to waive the 14 day cooling-off period.

If you don’t give your consent, the 14 day cooling-off period still applies but you won't be able to download your digital content until this period has ended.

This is to prevent you from changing your mind after you have downloaded the content.

bullshit. meh.

 

[riotous]

Yeah count me in the group who has had a PSN refund.

I believe it was DriveClub related; just went on their chat on their web site and only took a few minutes.

It's my only experience with Sony support so is just anectdotal but the "zero tolerance" stuff is BS as others have said.

 

[ANDS]

Absolutely shit "policy".

It's not a shitty policy. It is a policy borne out of the advent of digital distribution. SONY is a business. If they treated every person like they weren't trying to get one over, how many digital refunds do you think they would be processing. Oh sure folks will say "Not everyone is scummy. . .", but how many people when some loophole drops on NEOGAF rush to their PC's or consoles to see if it still is working out (thinks back to Dying Light thread).

Fact is they have taken the extreme side of a reasonable approach which is a blanket "no refunds". Obviously your mileage may vary as folks here have received refunds for various reasons.

 

[Zomba13]

People have have gotten refunds from SCEE can you please tell us how. Exactly what you did. It might end up helping people in the future because it'd sure as shit have helped me out years ago. Rather than just saying "lol they gave me a refund, you must not be giving the whole story or it must have been your fault in some way" tell us how you went about it, email, phone, twitter, secret pass phrase, pact with a genie etc.

 

[toythatkills]

Guys, seriously, I'm glad you all got refunds but can you explain to me then why the person in the OP didn't get one? That's the issue here.

Can you justify that?

 

[BibiMaghoo]

We need to go deeper, I'd like MS and Sony (and especially Valve) allow for 24 hour no questions asked refunds on digital purchases.

This allows the unscrupulous to play many, many games for no cost at all. Of the AAA games released so far this gen, I would wager you can easily finish 75% of them in that time, if not half that. I wouldn't have the time to smash a game then get the refund, but many would. Multiplayer games this is no issue for. Single player games would be destroyed by it, unless they are Bioware or Bethesda epics.

 

[andshrew]

I've been in a similar situation where someone was able to access my account, load £100 into the account off of my saved debit card spend it all on games. I reported it to Sony UK and after a couple of days of investigation they removed the games and refunded the full amount to my debit card no questions asked.

So to me it really doesn't make any sense at all as to why they won't refund him if there is fraud involved. It's not even like they lose out - the fraudster's console is banned, the victims PSN account has the games removed and their money refunded to their card.

Can't say I expect much from this as nothing has ever come from any of the Playstation issues that have gone through Watchdog before.

 

[Zomba13]

I've been in a similar situation where someone was able to access my account, load £100 into the account off of my saved debit card spend it all on games. I reported it to Sony UK and after a couple of days of investigation they removed the games and refunded the full amount to my debit card no questions asked.

So to me it really doesn't make any sense at all as to why they won't refund him if there is fraud involved. It's not even like they lose out - the fraudster's console is banned, the victims PSN account has the games removed and their money refunded to their card.

Can't say I expect much from this as nothing has ever come from any of the Playstation issues that have gone through Watchdog before.

This doesn't make sense to me. Why do they do that for some but not others? It's unfair bullshit.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

Yeah count me in the group who he had a PSN refund.
...
It's my only experience with Sony support so is just anectdotal but the "zero tolerance" stuff is BS as others have said.

Are you British and using a UK (or European) PSN account?

Personally this thread is showing is SCEA are fairly lax even offering refunds to people who think the game smelled bad while SCEE have zero tolerance (or something close to it). Except it isn't clear because hardly any of the people with successful refunds wants to say what region they are in.

 

[Xion_Stellar]

Are you British and using a UK (or European) PSN account?

Personally this thread is showing is SCEA are fairly lax even offering refunds to people who think the game smelled bad while SCEE have zero tolerance (or something close to it). Except it isn't clear because hardly any of the people with successful refunds wants to say what region they are in.

So what your saying is that their policy works the same as any policy or law? That while those are in place they mean nothing unless they are enforced? so it seems to me like SCEE is the one that feels like enforcing their own policy in this scenario.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

The one time I dealt with Sony support, it was to get a refund on my Revelations 2 pre-purchase of Episode 1, and they were pretty good about it, told me it would take 2-3 days for the refund, but the credit was back in my account in less than a day.

It's unfortunate that these kind of nightmares for people are happening, and Sony really needs to broaden their policy approach to people who have stolen accounts, especially given the lack of a 2-layer authentication system on PSN. This is the kind of stuff that keeps me from putting any sort of credit card information on my PSN account, I transfer funds through Paypal when I want something, which requires me logging into my Paypal account as well.

Hopefully the more attention this gets, the more likely Sony will listen to the complaints and take a more personal approach to individual issues, not just assume a customer is guilty before proven innocent. I'm a big PS fan, but this sort of thing is pretty disgusting from a corporate standpoint, and no one should defend Sony for falling short when it comes to security and customer support, this isn't their first rodeo with this kind of thing, and it's time for them to get behind real preventative measures instead of the reactionary approach they've been running with so far.

 

[Jabba]

Nah I don't value my self worth on what console sells better or has more pixels like many here do. It is obvious which company gets more shit though on Gaf.

One of the many reasons all digital can wait without consumer protections in regions without them. The wild west territory for digital purchases isn't fair to end users. This person gets a refund, this one doesn't but both may have the same reason legit or not. Some standards are in order. Personally to me, it's really about control, on top of course, profits at most costs. Proft is fine to a point but control is a whole different issue as far as the end user perspective goes. Sony needs to really fix this to this particular consumers satisfaction. The times I've dealt with both Microsoft/Sony as many here have, customer service wise, my own problems turned out satifactory.

OT

Zedge not to derail, but take a look at gaf in 2006. Sony got tons of flack after ps3 reveal and subsequent years after. There was another thread where most on gaf thought MS had this gen in the bag because of how great the 360 did. If you wanna discuss shoot me a pm.

 

[Retrocore9]

It looks like the US and UK may have different support divisions?

In the final email sent to the OP, it lists the UK support number. I'm thinking the people who did get such easy refunds in this thread were from US support. Maybe they have a more strict policy in the UK? The support agent in the soundcloud link sounded like he was from the US but again there may be an internal policy that is stricter for UK.

Sony needs to solve this quickly and refund the OP. Hopefully they'll see that Watchdog program and issue the "We're taking this seriously" response with a refund.

 

[Mikeside]

Though I got a refund, it is shameful that the rule is to say no, even if people have got it anyway.

Sony can be a really shitty company sometimes

 

[ThatHurt]

People don't get it that even if they refunded you the policy is shit.
"But I got my money back.." somebody broke the policy.
"I got a refund after my account was stolen.." somebody broke the policy.
You getting a refund does not mean the policy is not shitting all over somebody else.

Its poor customer service to have a policy that can fuck over some people but not others at the whim of your support department.

The policy should be amended to cover unauthorized purchases on a console you do not own. If you download it you own it. I understand that but they got money for a product and nobody including the person that stole it has access to it. They should have a policy to refund it.

 

[SonyToo!™]

The "professional" gaming press isn't generally interested in stuff like this as it could severely damage their relationship with Sony. Loads of gaming sites were contacted and I believe only Gamestyle were actually brave enough to run with it. That's why taking it to places like Watchdog is better because they don't have that bias.

It'll be interesting to see if any of them report on Watchdogs program and if those that do spin it in Sony's favour.

If this was MS we would have 200 page thread already. :/

Pretty shitty either way.

I like this post

 

[riotous]

Are you British and using a UK (or European) PSN account?

Personally this thread is showing is SCEA are fairly lax even offering refunds to people who think the game smelled bad while SCEE have zero tolerance (or something close to it). Except it isn't clear because hardly any of the people with successful refunds wants to say what region they are in.

No I'm American; I used the Online chat.

I do believe that during the initial DiveClub launch debacle support was told to allow refunds.

Under normal circumstances the zero tolerance policy may apply.

 

[zedge]

One of the many reasons all digital can wait without consumer protections in regions without them. The wild west territory for digital purchases isn't fair to end users. This person gets a refund, this one doesn't but both may have the same reason legit or not. Some standards are in order. Personally to me, it's really about control, on top of course, profits at most costs. Proft is fine to a point but control is a whole different issue as far as the end user perspective goes. Sony needs to really fix this to this particular consumers satisfaction. The times I've dealt with both Microsoft/Sony as many here have, customer service wise, my own problems turned out satifactory.

OT

Zedge not to derail, but take a look at gaf in 2006. Sony got tons of flack after ps3 reveal and subsequent years after. There was another thread where most on gaf thought MS had this gen in the bag because of how great the 360 did. If you wanna discuss shoot me a pm.

Oh I know. . Times have changed.

With regards to digital you are correct. Although I have gone all digital this gen and luckily have not attempted to refund anything. There are a few games I wish I could though.

In the case of fraud like this one there should be no question. Refund and sort it out. If I buy a game and decide I don't like it well that's a really grey area. If it was a physical disc I could trade it in or re sell it. I really wish we had options like this for digital.

 

[autoduelist]

They literally tell him that they know he didn't make the purchase, they're (likely) banning the console responsible, but they're not going to give him a refund anyway because their T&Cs state "no refunds."

There are other alternatives to this, you know. For example, they may have identified the machine responsible has long had his account on it (like, a friend or relative's PS4 where he logs in on occassion) that has made authorized purchases in the past.

I'm not saying this is the case, I'm just saying your reading of the Sony email is biased and potentially incorrect. All it states are that the purchases weren't made on his machine. Beyond that, there are still reasons Sony could have determined it was a valid purchase.

 

[DidntKnowJack]

You guys ever try to return an open video game to a brick and mortar store? They don't let you do that either. That's not to say I think Sony shouldn't issue refunds where warranted, I think that they do at times as several people have stated, but I think the guy who wrote this article got a bad customer service rep or someone who was mismanaged. Some reps are shrewd enough to determine if someone's on the up and up or completely full of shit. This rep seemed to lack that kind of cognitive reasoning.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

It's not a shitty policy.

Taken at face value, the information in the OP does in fact make this a shitty policy.

 

[toythatkills]

You guys ever try to return an open video game to a brick and mortar store? They don't let you do that either. That's not to say I think Sony shouldn't issue refunds where warranted, I think that they do at times as several people have stated, but I think the guy who wrote this article got a bad customer service rep or someone who was mismanaged. Some reps are shrewd enough to determine if someone's on the up and up or completely full of shit. This rep seemed to lack that kind of cognitive reasoning.

This wasn't one rep, this was various reps all giving the same message until eventually it was escalated and he received the "you're not getting a refund, this is our final position on the matter" email.

This isn't an issue with the staff at SCEE, it's an issue with what SCEE are telling the staff to do.

There are other alternatives to this, you know. For example, they may have identified the machine responsible has long had his account on it (like, a friend or relative's PS4 where he logs in on occassion) that has made authorized purchases in the past.

I'm not saying this is the case, I'm just saying your reading of the Sony email is biased and potentially incorrect. All it states are that the purchases weren't made on his machine. Beyond that, there are still reasons Sony could have determined it was a valid purchase.

If Sony determined that it was a valid purchase, they wouldn't have "taken action" against the offending console.

 

[Steel]

You guys ever try to return an open video game to a brick and mortar store? They don't let you do that either. That's not to say I think Sony shouldn't issue refunds where warranted, I think that they do at times as several people have stated, but I think the guy who wrote this article got a bad customer service rep or someone who was mismanaged. Some reps are shrewd enough to determine if someone's on the up and up or completely full of shit. This rep seemed to lack that kind of cognitive reasoning.

I have returned opened games to gamestop before, and they do let you do that.

 

[Hendrick's]

Don't the CC companies usually handle fraud such as this?

 

[toythatkills]

Don't the CC companies usually handle fraud such as this?

Sony ban your account if you go to the CC company. You'll lose your PS+ sub, all your downloaded games, etc.

 

[Meaty]

Relevant: I've just put in a refund request with SCEE citing the new Consumer Rights Act, so I'm curious as to whether they give one to me but not to someone that's been a victim of account theft.

Man I want to know what happens afterwards. will you post it on the SSF thread?

 

[Elandyll]

Nah I don't value my self worth on what console sells better or has more pixels like many here do. It is obvious which company gets more shit though on Gaf.

Yep..
#SonyGaf.

Poor form in this specific circumstance, but I have heard of several instances of Sony doing refunds (in this very thread even, but before as well).

I guess they want to avoid systematics, and treat it on a case by case, with the default stance being a strong "No".

 

[Three]

This isn't an issue with the staff at SCEE, it's an issue with what SCEE are telling the staff to do.

And what exactly are they telling them to do? because we have established that this part of your OP:

The issue is "no refunds." Now, SCEE aren't the only digital service which insists there are no refunds when you make a purchase, but they're the only service which has basically a zero-tolerance approach, "no refunds" means "no refunds" regardless of the circumstances.

Is completely wrong. They have offered refunds and all the companies you've listed in your OP have sited the no refunds policy in their ToS against people and refused refunds.
I agree though that they should offer a refund, but I don't agree with your obvious hyperbole of the situation.

 

[Garrett Hawke]

Their system is really weird as well, if you DO manage to get them to refund something they state you won't be able to buy it again (but sometimes you can).

Bizarre, and yeah they should be held accountable for it. Although Steam is terrible too. MS seems to be the best of the bunch.

 

[system11]

Sony ban your account if you go to the CC company. You'll lose your PS+ sub, all your downloaded games, etc.

This should be illegal, they're actually stealing from you by doing this.

I hope they get a roasting.

 

[Birgitte2004]

If Sony determined that it was a valid purchase, they wouldn't have "taken action" against the offending console.

Sure they would.

If I have a PS4 that I sell and forget to remove credit/account details from, and I call Sony, Sony will "take action" against that console at my request, even though every prior purchase was 100% legit.

 

[toythatkills]

And what exactly are they telling them to do? because we have established that this part of your OP:

...

Is completely wrong. They have offered refunds and all the companies you've listed in your OP have sited the no refunds policy in their ToS against people and refused refunds.
I agree though that they should offer a refund, but I don't agree with your obvious hyperbole of the situation.

Okay, you don't agree with the hyperbole, that's fine. I'm cool with that.

It doesn't change the events as they occured in the OP though, and my hyperbole has no effect upon them.

Sure they would.

If I have a PS4 that I sell and forget to remove credit/account details from, and I call Sony, Sony will "take action" against that console at my request, even though every prior purchase was 100% legit.

Listen to yourself.

Even that ridiculous scenario would still mean they accept the transaction as detailed in the OP was fraudulent.

 

[Malcolm9]

Poor customer, Sony knows he did not make the purchase but they won't refund him. They are beginning to be really shady. I bought a year of PS+ instore and when the subscription expired they charged my CC for another year without my authorization. I didn't know that buying something instore gave them the right to charge my CC a year later for it. Pretty sure it was illegal here too according to QC customers protection law so I complained on their chat thing and they gave me funny wallet money as a refund. Better than nothing I guess.

Did you untick the auto funding renewal option?

 

[Hendrick's]

Sony ban your account if you go to the CC company. You'll lose your PS+ sub, all your downloaded games, etc.

That's doubly bad then. Sony needs to be beat up a bit on this it seems.

 

[Three]

Okay, you don't agree with the hyperbole, that's fine. I'm cool with that.

It doesn't change the events as they occured in the OP though, and my hyperbole has no effect upon them.

They sure don't which is why it had no effect on the fact that I thought he should get a refund, however that does not excuse the incorrect statements you're throwing around.

Even that ridiculous scenario would still mean they accept the transaction as detailed in the OP was fraudulent.

whether a transaction was fraudulent does not matter unless it can be shown who was responsible for negligence. The same applies to fraudulent bank transactions. Whether they accept it is fraudulent or not makes no difference on the outcome.

 

[hodgy100]

good. I went through this. got a refund after 6 months of court proceeds though ( they settled with me right before court dates were due to be set)

EDIT: for details. Someone logged onto my PSN account via the webstore (where there is less security, this was before the pin authorisation what implemented there) they bought 10 games which amounted to £598 ($916)
I went through the proceeds as described in the OP. they took a load of details from me about the purchases and my hardware and after a month of little information was told I was refused a refund. I sent multiple complaint letters to them about how this was not acceptable as it breaches the UK's consumer rights laws (that state you have rights to a refund even on digital purchases) and that they were also breaking the unfair contract terms act which states that a contract containing a clause that attempts to remove a user's rights is classed as invalid. So I was pretty certain I would have a case at court.

So I proceeded to file a claim against sony at small claims court. they really dragged their heels with it and it seemed that they would let it continue through to court. but at the last minuite they contacted me and offered to settle. for a full refund.

 

[gooner4life_uk]

I accidentally bought the PS3 version of Fifa14 on the web store on Boxing Day the Xmas PS4 came out, never downloaded it as I didn't have a PS3 setup anymore, immediately bought the ps4 version thinking Sony would refund the erroneous purchase but to this day they have steadfast refused to refund me.

Sony's support and support structure is terrible, not being able to speak to an escalation team is ridiculous, you basically have to go via the middle man all the time, and they have stopped escalating my Fifa14 issue, I emailed the CEO and it's the only company I've ever dealt with that didn't respond to a CEO email.

Disgraceful.

 

[Pockets]

I am the person mentioned in the OP. I wasn't going to bother replying here as I've gone through all of this so many times that I'm just sick of it but feel I should point a few things out.

1. I'm in the UK, my understanding is that the service in the US is generally much better.

2. I phoned and spoke to 4 or 5 different people, all but one were nice enough but all saif the same thing and that they couldn't do anything. The last one, when I asked where the money was now, after all they'd banned the offending console and revoked access to the game, reluctantly admitted Sony had it. When I asked why they couldn't give it back she explained it was my 'punishment' in case I had been trying to trick them.

3. Some people have had refunds from Sony for other things and I can only speak about my experience with this particular issue.

4. It's not that big of a deal, I get it. Normally I'd let shit like this go and put it down to bad luck but the attitude of Sony was so appalling it actually made me laugh. I genuinely couldn't believe some of the things they were saying and it was just amusing. Ultimately, it's £40 on a videogame that a 35 year old bloke lost, who cares? But this has happened to a lot of people, that money adds up. What if some kid gets a PSN card for his birthday and has that money taken?

5. This was pre-paid credit on my account, I had no debit cards or anything attached. As such, I couldn't do any chargebacks (which Sony ban you for) if I'd wanted to.

Finally, as an additional point, about two weeks after Watchdog started investigating, which involves their lawyers talking to Sony, I received my refund. It was £40, not the £39.99 so definitely not a coincidence. This is useless to me as I sold my PS4 back in January. This brings me onto the fact that, yes, I sold the machine, for various reasons, not just this. Watchdog wanted to film me playing a PS4 so brought one with them. I was uncomfortable about this but just don't care enough to argue at the end of the day.

You can look at this two ways, Sony are all fine because, hey, they did refund me in the end, or you can view it as pretty bad that it took 6 months, multiple calls and emails and a TV investigation before they cynically refunded me so they can say "the affected users have since been refunded, we regret . . ." on TV when they're asked about it.

 

[joecanada]

I am the person mentioned in the OP. I wasn't going to bother replying here as I've gone through all of this so many times that I'm just sick of it but feel I should point a few things out.

1. I'm in the UK, my understanding is that the service in the US is generally much better.

2. I phoned and spoke to 4 or 5 different people, all but one were nice enough but all saif the same thing and that they couldn't do anything. The last one, when I asked where the money was now, after all they'd banned the offending console and revoked access to the game, reluctantly admitted Sony had it. When I asked why they couldn't give it back she explained it was my 'punishment' in case I had been trying to trick them.

3. Some people have had refunds from Sony for other things and I can only speak about my experience with this particular issue.

4. It's not that big of a deal, I get it. Normally I'd let shit like this go and put it down to bad luck but the attitude of Sony was so appalling it actually made me laugh. I genuinely couldn't believe some of the things they were saying and it was just amusing. Ultimately, it's £40 on a videogame that a 35 year old bloke lost, who cares? But this has happened to a lot of people, that money adds up. What if some kid gets a PSN card for his birthday and has that money taken?

5. This was pre-paid credit on my account, I had no debit cards or anything attached. As such, I couldn't do any chargebacks (which Sony ban you for) if I'd wanted to.

Finally, as an additional point, about two weeks after Watchdog started investigating, which involves their lawyers talking to Sony, I received my refund. It was £40, not the £39.99 so definitely not a coincidence. This is useless to me as I sold my PS4 back in January. This brings me onto the fact that, yes, I sold the machine, for various reasons, not just this. Watchdog wanted to film me playing a PS4 so brought one with them. I was uncomfortable about this but just don't care enough to argue at the end of the day.

You can look at this two ways, Sony are all fine because, hey, they did refund me in the end, or you can view it as pretty bad that it took 6 months, multiple calls and emails and a TV investigation before they cynically refunded me so they can say "the affected users have since been refunded, we regret . . ." on TV when they're asked about it.

ya i think its not so good, probably the TV show helped you out with refund, as another poster pointed out they settled just before court in his case...

I think most people even the ones who say they've received a refund are saying that it sucks but that there are situations where people have gotten refunds, not to diminish your story but just to question if the policy is clearly
'no refunds"