Itemized receipts from MSFS Marketplace

Part of me considers this a bug, but there is not universal agreement on this, I’m putting this in as a feature reuest.

When using credits from the MSFS Marketplace, there is no receipt generated or available that lists what product(s) is(are) purchased. This makes it impossible to prove an item was purchased in case someone needs a refund or support from the vendor for whatever reason, even for just personal records.

There is a thread about this located here: Market Place Rip Off DONT USE.

Sample receipts are included in this thread and also Community Manager RoyalTot has posted in the referenced thread and offerred to assist one person. I placed this request here in order to assist in tracking.

As an edit, I received some feedback from a friendly forum moderator.

As a summary of this request:

The following possible changes would really help:

  • Please provide a way for Marketplace purchasers to see a record of all their purchases, including date, item purchased, and credits used to make the purchase, for Microsoft Store, Steam, and physical media users.

  • Send the purchaser an email indicating whether their purchased succeeded or failed, with an error message explaining why their purchase failed and suggestions on what to do

  • Continue to provide receipts for the purchase of credits.

Thank you so very much.

I have 6 transactions for microsoft credits in steam. Apparently I only have 4 owned items in the marketplace.

This bothers me, but what bothers me more is that as none of the receipts are itemised I have no way of proving that I bought any of these things if I decide to hose my OS and do a complete fresh install of everything and MSFS2020 some how loses track of everything I have bought.

As it is at present I just don’t feel secure using the marketplace at all. At least if I buy through external vendors I get an itemized receipt as proof of purchase. (and can in fact also make backups of the installers as well as re-download from their websites if required.)

Edit

In light of this evenings almost complete collapse of the Xbox Live server network and reports already of people losing achievement progress or flight hours that they had previously earned I think the issue of being able to prove ownership of items bought in the marketplace in the event that microsoft lose stuff needs to be addressed with some urgency.

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Adding my +1 to this.

I work in the games industry and as a perk of employment we get a $300 video game stipend. I purchased the Reno Air Races DLC this weekend and wanted to submit it for reimbursement this morning but then I saw that the Steam receipt just says I bought in-game points and doesn’t say what they were used for. In order to get my purchases reimbursed the company needs to see what was purchased with the in-game points.

Yep, this is still a very much needed feature.

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Bump.

It must be illegal not to have this itemized transactions history.

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+1

Can’t believe we still have no way of proofing what item’s we’ve bought in marketplace!
This is not rocket science. All we need is a proper receipt e-mail detailing the item that was just bought and is then visible on a PDF document we can download.

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Most of my purchases especially airports bought on sale does not show as bought items in the marketplace airports viewer. I can see the airport is installed but when I click on an airport in the marketplace viewer it does not show as “bought”.

Problem is I cannot see on my Microsoft billing what and when I have bought as proof. The invoice merely states that I have bought Microsoft credits. I therefore have no real proof on my end that I have bought anything should something happen and I have to reinstall anything.

Any ideas where I can see what I have bought officially?

Makes me not want to buy anything of the marketplace any more at this rate.

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+1 i don’t think this needs any elaboration. Purchase made, receipt to prove what was bought and how. Simples and very much essential.

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I’m relatively new to MSFS and I’m on Xbox, so my only way to install any add ons to MSFS is via the in-game Marketplace. However, I have not had any confidence to make purchases because of the myriad of reasons reported across this forum, starting with receipts.

The main reasons for me are:

  1. A lack of a proper receipt to demonstrate what was purchased, when, for how much, etc. Aren’t receipts required to be provided by law?
  2. The inability to obtain a refund for more than 2 items - that doesn’t sound legal to me, please correct me if I’m wrong on this?
  3. Constant reports of instability or crashing due to add-ons.
  4. Lack of clarity about if there is any obligation to provide a fixes within a certain time frame (for addons), or is it just buyer beware?

There are a lot of contradictions in how MS presents the Marketplace - on the one hand they want developers to offer addons to enhance MSFS and generate sales, but on the other hand they deny responsibility. That’s a problem on Xbox, where we can only purchase from MS via Marketplace, and the existing lack of receipt, arbitrary return policy, and lack of visibility on whether there is any guarantee of getting timely updates via MP when things don’t work … all add up to “buyer beware” for me.

I hope MS can see that perspective - if they want marketplace to thrive, standard purchase receipts are a must, and that’s just the start. If there is a limit on returns then they should either re-think that, or allow trial before purchase of every add-on. Even then with a pattern of Sim Updates breaking addons, MS needs to communicate what customers can expect in regard to timely updates that can only come via MP for Xbox users. Thanks. Just my opinion!

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This is an issue that needs an official solution. After you purchase an item you do get a receipt from MS stating that you bought credits and how much and when you bought them but the game offers no way of tying that receipt to anything you bought. Addons are simply listed as ‘owned’ with no date/time purchased or the amount spent.(or MS order number)

My current ‘solution’ is to make note of every purchase at the time of purchase and then save copies of the email receipts with addon name in the email file. I’ve done that for all purchases since I thought of it but I have dozens of airports purchased with no way of tying them to any receipt. I can only prove that money left me and went into MS. It doesnt feel very secure.
I have gotten into the habit of taking screenshots of all my addons in content manager for what thats worth.

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You can’t, Microsoft doesn’t provide this information.
My advice would be to stop buying from Marketplace until this is rectified.

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From my research on the Internet (take that as you will… and I am NOT a lawyer)

Is it a legal requirement for stores to give a purchase receipt in the USA?

As strange as this may seem, that would actually be a matter of a particular State’s laws on business practices in that State. There is no law on the Federal level that regulates such things.

While I cannot reasonably research the applicable law in all 50 States, I can suggest that some States have business practice laws that address such things in at least a minimal way. Many State business practice laws dictate that if a retailer requires an itemized receipt for returning or refunding a purchased item, they are then required to provide a receipt upon purchase of that item.

In short, you can’t demand one, without providing the other.

Now a little twist to this whole scenario. In most States, the law also does not require a retailer to provide return or refund on purchases. That is purely an operational decision on the part of the retailer.

Again, this is entirely dependent upon the business practices laws in a particular State.

Microsoft is still bound by the law of non-US jurisdictions it sells in. In NZ for example we are protected by the Consumer Guarantees Act.

Without a proof of purchase it is much harder to prove what we have and haven’t purchased - not ideal.

Whether or not it’s illegal here I can’t say (also not a lawyer), but it’s very much part of a major pattern of anti-consumer behavior from Microsoft with this product that drove me to do two things:

  1. Stop buying addons through Microsoft (I want proof of purchase)

  2. Pushed me to quit the volunteer moderation team.

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Adding to this topic to keep it alive. I have purchased most of my add-ons via the MSFS marketplace on my PC, along with some purchased direct from developers. I haven’t had problems with either approach, except for, as mentioned in this post, the lack of any useful details for MSFS marketplace orders in my emails and purchase history. All it shows is ‘Microsoft Flight Simulator - xxx FlightSim Credits’ with no indication what those credits were spent on in that particular order.

Because I have no clear way of scrolling through my historical purchases, I recently purchased a specific marketplace aircraft (Pilatus PC-21) forgetting that I had already purchased a different version of that same aircraft from another developer a year earlier. It was my own fault, but it was an unecessary purchase that would have been easier to avoid with access to greater detail of my purchase history.

I’m sure Microsoft/Asobo have some internal reason for this structure and approach, but as a customer it’s a perplexing implementation at best. Please please Microsoft, update the item descriptions in our purchase emails and order history to include the title of the item purchased! Thank you!

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