Marketplace refund policy

[welsbloke]

I recently purchased the Navigon Europe product and very quickly became disapointed with the lack of UK full postcode support and the inability to find addresses namely my office and my mums house.

So knowing that Microsoft have a no refund policy (Marketplace) I firstly logged a call with Navigon with regards to the address issues and I also logged a call via Zune support.

Navigon took until yesterday to get back to me and no plans on any support for postcodes and no answer why it could not find my mums street. So the Navigon support route is now fully expired.

Now back to Zune support. The reason I tried this is that under the UK distance selling regulations I believed I was covered (And still believe). The representative although interested quoted the no refund policy (This by the way is all within 24 hours of the purchase). He supplied me with a link which just took me around and around bringing me back to him. He insisted that I contact my local office. Now this gets my goat up as this is the function of the support desk they should follow this up and it really annoys me when this sort of thing happens. I informed him that I did not consider this a good resolution and it should be considered a customer complaint.

Anyway we left it at that and once the Navigon support provided the last piece of information I then proceeded to log the issue with my nations trading body. The process required an address for the company I was making a complaint about so back to Zune support this time logging a call for an address.

What a difference a different call makes. This support rep immediately offered a full refund and claimed that if unsatisfied within 24 hours a refund was perfectly acceptable regardless of the reason.

Excellent... I have my money back but this still leaves me questioning the whole issue of no refunds. Especially now that some expensive apps are appearing. Also the 24 hours would still violate UK law.

Any other examples or thoughts on this?

 

[Boodev]

Interesting story.

The Marketplace definitely needs some sort of refund policy but how to implement it is the problem, especially when it comes to mobile games. Google changed Androids refund policy down to 15 minutes but thats always been pretty pointless.

Maybe Microsoft should have a refund support team who are able to refund customers who have been missold or have faulty applications. I don't really know what else they could do.

 

[welsbloke]

I agree, I am actually not sure how they can get away with a no refund policy. Both Apple and Android stores provide some kind of refund process although the 15 minutes does not sound like the cooling off period the distance selling act with the UK would happy rather is sounds like the reason the act was introduced.

Interesting though and thanks for the input.

 

[trafandtravel]

I think Microsoft think, because they have the 'trial' feature, refunds would not be needed? But of course not all apps have trials!

 

[welsbloke]

I think Microsoft think, because they have the 'trial' feature, refunds would not be needed? But of course not all apps have trials!

Correct and the ?50 app I purchased was exactly one of those. I am pretty suprised that more people are not complaining, maybe it is just my tight arse nature or my sense of injustice.

 

[Major]

I think a one hour trial period, after which the charge is applied, would be fair. Even better, a 24 hour trial period subsidized by ads could work.

 

[welsbloke]

MajorLonghorn, I think that works for smaller purchases but when we start seeing purchases costing ?50+ then I think things should be a lot clearer.

Is the UK unique in its distance selling laws?

 

[welsbloke]

UK:
The Distance Selling Regulations were passed to protect consumers when they shop online or enter into other contracts at a distance from the supplier. The rationale for giving consumers special protection in such deals is that the consumer does not have the benefit of meeting face-to-face with the supplier and inspecting the goods or services offered for sale.

The EU will have country specific versions.

It certainly on the face of it sounds like a purchase on Markeplace to me would be subject to UK and EU law regards distance selling.

(Answering my own question above)

 

[lumic]

There has to be a time restriction, because you can't just use the app then get it refunded once you're bored of it. I think that full-featured but time-limited trials should be mandatory for expensive apps, as well as time-restricted refunds. But only for expensive apps.