The short: I bought a Market Place (MP) item by accident. I can’t easily get a refund for it despite not having downloaded it. I’m sad on a day I should have been happy as I had clearance for 3 items from the MP. It now looks like I will be buying directly from 3rd party suppliers. Not an option for Xbox users who can purchase an item that crashes the sim and have no recourse to get their money back. See relevant wishlist below.
The long : I woke up today with the pleasant thought that the Xmas sale was on the Market Place (MP). I spent a happy hour before the rest of the family got up looking at my wishlist trying to decide what I should purchase, checking out reviews and so on. I’m cleared for 2 aircraft and the Miltech UK Carrier Strike Group (one aircraft each for Yule and the New Year – I’m not going to argue).
Buy accident I ended up purchasing the UK Carrier Strike Group bundle including the CH-47 (I have the CH-47 purchased direct from Miltech so I really don’t want to purchase it again). I work this out shortly after and see if I can get a refund. It looks like the answer is no:
I’m not so happy now. Not willing to buy any more aircraft while I wait to see how Steam responds to my request for a refund and I now need to work out who I am going to buy my aircraft from.
I have been happy to buy from the Market Palace for the convenience of having a single purchase point and I trust Microsoft to be around longer than any 3rd party suppliers. I also had issues with the one purchase I made directly from a 3rd party supplier (but to be fair the issue seems to have been resolved) that left a bad taste in my mouth. Now I will undoubtedly reassess where I purchase my aircraft.
I have looked at this in detail to understand how this happened. This may be slightly more complicated because I use the Steam edition and have to make Market Place purchases through Steam.
When I contacted Steam to ask for a refund they declined it on the grounds:
The trap is at the point of purchase where they consider you have “Removed or Consumed” the item.
This strikes me as a “legal” construct because I don’t see how I can be considered to have removed or consumed anything since I have not downloaded the addon and so did not install or use it.
If you bought a cupcake at a shop and, after paying for it, realised you had bought the wrong cupcake, how many shops would not give you your money back and let you buy the cake you wanted, even if the cupcake you wanted was cheaper?
Interestingly I asked the supplier what they would do if I had bought the item directly from them - would they offer a refund if I bought it in error? They said they would not be inclined to offer a refund as ‘… such “mistake order” would not be possible, it would be a deliberate choice [I had made] and as per our refunds policy it will likely not be eligible.’ I don’t believe that would be valid under UK or European law, but the supplier is American so I’m not sure that would be much help.
So the stuff that regulates it is the Directive 2011/83/EU (as entered into local law, or directly if not), and it has an exception from the general 14 days rule. I’ll try to unlegalese it:
Art. 16(m): The right of withdrawal does not have to apply to “contracts for the supply of digital content which is not supplied on a tangible medium” (as in, you don’t get a physical drive with it), “if the performance has begun” (performance of service, so the supply - in this case, making it available for the buyer) “and, if the contract places the consumer under an obligation to pay, where:”
“(i) the consumer has provided prior express consent to begin the performance during the right of withdrawal period” (standard clause in these contracts, all it means is that you will get your installer ASAP and not after 14 days. I can’t go into MSFS to check, but I’m 99% sure they would include that);
"(ii) the consumer has provided acknowledgement that he thereby loses his right of withdrawal" (as above, bundled together most of the time, it must be explicit enough for a layman to understand);
“(iii) the trader has provided confirmation in accordance with Article 7(2) or Article 8(7)” (this is basically about a written summary of the contract, and confirmation that you received and accepted the terms in (i) and (ii). Funnily enough I don’t see that in the one time I purchased MSFS credits, which seems like an oversight - mine of Microsoft’s)
If these conditions are not met, I guess the devil would hide in that you bought Marketplace coins, and not the app itself - thus, there wasn’t an “obligation to pay” for the add-on itself. (In fact, that’s EXACTLY what Steam is saying - you bought 104 credits, you already consumed them on an item, go away.) That’s why you always buy the game currencies as you need them, kids - the same 14 days period applies to them, too
