Requesting refunds on old Google Play and iTunes

[EXPotemkin]

What is the name of your state? Illinois

I've made many in-app purchases over the years for a particular mobile game. I violated the TOS and have now been denied access to said game and therefore makes all of my purchases totally useless.

I've contacted Apple about refunding my purchases but they only refunded a $10 purchase from a few weeks ago. I tried to refund a $49.99 purchase from July but they refused and simply said they couldn't disclose why. I asked if it was too long ago and they said no. I've reached out to Google but haven't received a response yet but I'll update when I know.

Would I have a case to get all of these charges refunded as I can no longer access the app and therefore no longer have access to these purchases?

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state? Illinois

I've made many in-app purchases over the years for a particular mobile game. I violated the TOS and have now been denied access to said game and therefore makes all of my purchases totally useless.

I've contacted Apple about refunding my purchases but they only refunded a $10 purchase from a few weeks ago. I tried to refund a $49.99 purchase from July but they refused and simply said they couldn't disclose why. I asked if it was too long ago and they said no. I've reached out to Google but haven't received a response yet but I'll update when I know.

Would I have a case to get all of these charges refunded as I can no longer access the app and therefore no longer have access to these purchases?

Would you have a case for a refund? I don't see that you have a good one.

When you purchase items to use during game play, you are expected to use these items within the rules of the game and the game site.

How did you violate the terms of service?

 

[Taxing Matters]

Would I have a case to get all of these charges refunded as I can no longer access the app and therefore no longer have access to these purchases?

First of all, it isn't Google or Apple who sells the in game items for the games on their stores. It is the game developer who does that. Google and Apple just act as the middleman to facilitate the transaction, kind of like a bank that processes the credit charges you make for things you buy. It is also the game developer who sets the term of service (TOS) for the game. You didn't identify the game, but I can tell you what things are pretty much standard in the TOS for most computer games today. You can expect that the TOS will state that you don't own anything in the game and have no rights to them. Thus in game items you purchase for the game like weapons, armor, mounts, pets, skins, banners, vehicles, or whatever are only items provided to you to enjoy while playing the game. You don't own them, you have no rights to them. The TOS will usually say money you spend on them is not refundable if you become unable to play the game for any reason. That's particularly true when the reason you can't play is that you were banned for a TOS violation. You knew or should have known what the TOS were. You knew or should have known from the TOS that the game company could ban you for pretty much any reason, but in particular you can be banned for a TOS violation. So if you commit a TOS violation and get banned, that's on you. No refunds for in app purchases. At best you get refunded for unused game time you already purchased. So unless your game has a very unusual TOS you aren't going to get a refund of that money. Remember that next time you play a computer game and are tempted to violate the TOS.

 

[quincy]

In Pokemon, you can purchase Pokemon "coins" to use toward buying game items like Poke balls and incubators and lures (if you run out of the free ones you can acquire at Pokestops).

I can't imagine anyone thinking this could be a reimbursable expense. It actually surprises me that even $10 spent on game play was refunded.

 

[EXPotemkin]

First of all, it isn't Google or Apple who sells the in game items for the games on their stores. It is the game developer who does that. Google and Apple just act as the middleman to facilitate the transaction, kind of like a bank that processes the credit charges you make for things you buy. It is also the game developer who sets the term of service (TOS) for the game. You didn't identify the game, but I can tell you what things are pretty much standard in the TOS for most computer games today. You can expect that the TOS will state that you don't own anything in the game and have no rights to them. Thus in game items you purchase for the game like weapons, armor, mounts, pets, skins, banners, vehicles, or whatever are only items provided to you to enjoy while playing the game. You don't own them, you have no rights to them. The TOS will usually say money you spend on them is not refundable if you become unable to play the game for any reason. That's particularly true when the reason you can't play is that you were banned for a TOS violation. You knew or should have known what the TOS were. You knew or should have known from the TOS that the game company could ban you for pretty much any reason, but in particular you can be banned for a TOS violation. So if you commit a TOS violation and get banned, that's on you. No refunds for in app purchases. At best you get refunded for unused game time you already purchased. So unless your game has a very unusual TOS you aren't going to get a refund of that money. Remember that next time you play a computer game and are tempted to violate the TOS.

Yes but the TOS isn't always considered legally binding even when people agree to them. I'd say most people do not read the TOS when it comes to video games.

 

[EXPotemkin]

Would you have a case for a refund? I don't see that you have a good one.

When you purchase items to use during game play, you are expected to use these items within the rules of the game and the game site.

How did you violate the terms of service?

I ran a bot on my computer to grind a currency in the game that can potentially be exchanged for the premium currency. Emulating the game on a computer is against TOS.

 

[EXPotemkin]

For those who want to know, It's Marvel Contest of Champions by Kabam.

 

[quincy]

Yes but the TOS isn't always considered legally binding even when people agree to them. I'd say most people do not read the TOS when it comes to video games.

Their game, their rules.

For those who want to know, It's Marvel Contest of Champions by Kabam.

It looks like it's time for you to find a new game to play. I recommend with the new game, you read carefully the terms of use.

 

[cbg]

Would I have a case to get all of these charges refunded as I can no longer access the app and therefore no longer have access to these purchases?

No, You would not have a case to get all of these charges refunded. It astonishes me that you got the $10.

 

[quincy]

EXPotemkin is right, though, that very few people read the terms and conditions of use for a website or an online game. Or read the terms and conditions for any contract, for that matter. They should, of course. But they don't.

 

[Taxing Matters]

Yes but the TOS isn't always considered legally binding even when people agree to them.

I've yet to see one from a major game publisher that was held by a court to be entirely unenforceable. There are a few instances where very particular parts of the TOS are held invalid. But none of those were provisions regarding the ownership and value of in game purchases.

I'd say most people do not read the TOS when it comes to video games.

Most don't, but they should because when they click that "agree" button they are confirming they have read and understood the TOS. If you didn't read it, that's on you. A court will still assume you agreed to everything in it when you hit that button. I'm a bit of a gamer myself in addition to being a lawyer. I've read a lot of game TOS and I've seen a lot gamers in situations where they lost access to the game for one reason or another and are upset and want refunds for all the stuff they bought in the game. They don't succeed because the TOS makes it clear the player doesn't own those items, they don't have value, and are just available for you to use while you play.

I read through the TOS for the game you played which is available by links on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. The TOS is fairly well written and most of it should be easily understandable by most adults and teens. The TOS makes it clear that the company may terminate your account at any time for any reason in its sole discretion. It also says in very clear language that one of player actions that violate TOS and lead to a ban is botting. And it addresses the virtual currency you mentioned as well as other in game items as follows:

You acknowledge and agree that Virtual Currency and Site Items have no cash value and that neither Kabam nor any other person or entity has any obligation to exchange your Virtual Currency or Site Items for anything of value, including without limitation, real currency, and that, if your Account is terminated, suspended or otherwise modified or if your right to access the Services is terminated, the Virtual Currency, Site Items and your Account shall have no value.

(Bolding added.) As you can see from the part that I put in bold text, the TOS make it clear that you agree that should your account be terminated the currency and in game items you had have no value. Since they have no value, there is nothing to refund you. Based on that you're not going to succeed in getting the money you paid for it back.

 

[quincy]

... The TOS makes it clear that the company may terminate your account at any time for any reason in its sole discretion. ...

That is a standard condition in most Terms of Service.

 

[EXPotemkin]

They shouldn't make the game so damn grindy. Just another case of annoying you into making purchases. Of course you don't find this out until you've been playing for awhile.

 

[Just Blue]

They shouldn't make the game so damn grindy. Just another case of annoying you into making purchases. Of course you don't find this out until you've been playing for awhile.

Annoy you into buying stuff? Gotta say that has never happened to me. Now...I've been annoyed into walking away from a purchase, but never into purchasing something.

 

[Taxing Matters]

They shouldn't make the game so damn grindy. Just another case of annoying you into making purchases. Of course you don't find this out until you've been playing for awhile.

The problem with free to play (f2p) games is that they have to make money from something else since you don't pay to play (p2p). Of course that means they monetize the games with in app purchases (IAP). But how games use IAP varies widely. The best of them limit IAP to non essential elements of the game, like purely cosmetic items including different outfits or skins, extra mounts/pets, etc. You see that a lot on PC games. PC gamers are less tolerant of IAP abuses because of the history of PC games and the number of good games you can still get on PC that don't go crazy with it. But the trend has been increasingly towards developers getting greedy and doing two things that are more abusive to go for the cash grab.

The first is the pervasive use of loot boxes. Most loot boxes are essentially a form of gambling since you pay for the loot boxes but do not know what you will get in the box; the rewards are random. Most of the items you can get are pretty worthless (and in some games outright crap) while only a few items are really what players want. So if you want a particular item, you may have to buy a lot of boxes to get it. And the animation and sounds of opening the loot crates strongly mirror using slot machines. They are designed to play off the same emotional response people have using slot machines. It's not surprising then that some people have developed gambling addiction like symptoms when using them, causing them to spend absurd amounts of money on the crates. The problem is so bad in some games that several countries, including Belgium, the U.K., the U.S., and China have passed or are considering legislation that would regulate or ban the use of loot boxes at least to people under a certain age, usually age 18.

The second trend has been going for pay to win (p2w) grabs. P2W games are designed in such a way that the game is very annoying to play (or even realistically impossible to play) and progress past a certain point unless you buy items to get around it. So making a game very grindy but offering you ways to avoid the grind by buying something with real world money is a one very common way to do p2w. You see p2w far more often in mobile games. Indeed the reputation of mobile games generally is that most are pretty bad and are filled with the worst abuses of p2w. While a few mobile games are good, most are pretty much trash. But they are cheap to make and can make a lot of money as long as they can hook a few people who will pay a lot for IAP, known in the game industry as "whales". As long as they have enough whales the worst game developers won't care that the rest of the players think the game is terrible. It's a sad state of affairs and its why I avoid mobile games altogether. A lot of gamers, especially older ones that remember gaming before f2p games absolutely hate p2w. But there are enough gamers, particularly teens who have only ever seen a game market that has these games, are willing to pay up for p2w stuff. Its even worse in the Asian markets since those players have a higher tolerance for grindy games than Western players do. That's due to the history of game development in Asia.

And at the very bottom of the barrel are the developers who put the p2w stuff in loot boxes.

The game you played is one that appears to do just that: it combines both p2w elements and puts them in loot boxes. Yet it isn't the worst of these games since it came out a few years ago before the worst offenders entered the scene. When getting new games today, especially mobile games, you need to expect that most of them will have one or both of these elements to some degree. If the game starts to get real grindy and you have to buy stuff to make any realistic progress, ask yourself whether it is really worth it. You can end up spending a lot more money than you realize with IAP. They make really easy to spend the money and make it tempting when it allows to avoid hours of grinding or when you need to have the item to win and can't get it from game play at all. I wish more gamers would opt for good p2p games that lack the loot boxes and p2w elements that f2p games employ. Or even pay subscriptions for games to get rid of those elements. Those games tend to be much better, but sadly they don't actually make as much money as f2p with aggressive IAP as long as they get some good whales. And what we end up with are a lot of sub par games because players are tricked into thinking the games are "free" when in reality you have to pay out a lot if you really want to reach the top levels.