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Asset store refund policy.......

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by lmbarns, Sep 23, 2014.

  1. lmbarns

    lmbarns

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    Unity seriously needs to look into a system for validating old assets still for sale on the store that have outdated contact information and the assets DO NOT WORK in unity 4x + lifecycle.................................


    Tired of getting my blood pressure up when I get the same f'ing response year after year to legitimate gripes.

    Me:

    Unity


    Other asset stores have live chat support that can even look at the asset with you in real time so you can explain what's wrong.........c'mon Unity, you guys charge similar prices to publishers, but you don't provide basic support....in 2014....
     
  2. BFGames

    BFGames

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    I had a refund request for my asset long ago. There is just told him to ask Unity for a refund, and they handled it. Dunno if it really changed since.

    The refund rule was something like you needed to make a request for it within two weeks of the purchase.
     
  3. lmbarns

    lmbarns

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    Yeah, everyone points the finger at someone else.

    The thing is, unity protects the seller from buyers because under these circumstances ANYWHERE else I would legally be able to put a dispute in with my credit card or paypal and resolve the issue myself, but Unity HOLDS YOUR ACCOUNT HOSTAGE and bans your account if you legally resolve the issue using common channels for a consumer.....
     
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2014
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  4. HeadClot88

    HeadClot88

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    I was recently watching a livestream of someone making a game with Unity3D. He needed a Shader more specifically atmospheric scattering shader. He took his stream offline. Came back online and said he just wasted $50.00 to me that is a major problem atleast I think with the unity asset store.

    This is a major problem...
     
    CarterG81 likes this.
  5. lmbarns

    lmbarns

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    I had it happen before, around a year ago my boss had me buy a $50 android plugin for a project(using his account). Not only did it not do anything, it didn't even throw an error....then I ran into this exact same situation, no contact info, and asset store gave me the exact same canned spiel about them not doing refunds.

    So I then had to explain to my boss how the asset store has no accountability and someone took his $50......and you can't dispute it or you lose your asset account with all your purchases, and the ability to get any asset updates.

    It's not right.
     
  6. HeadClot88

    HeadClot88

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    I try avoid using the asset store where possible because of the above reasons stated. If anything they way unity asset store treats customers is one of the reasons I will not be using Unity3D Asset store at all in future projects using unity3D.

    The risk is too high at the moment. That said - I will be more willing to go through an 3rd party seller site that has decent customer support and will actually allow us to dispute claims providing that they are legitimate. Hell I would even be willing to go through an Asset sellers website using paypal providing they provide a twitter or email to contact them at.

    If the asset does not work - I will take it up with Paypal.
     
  7. ibearjp

    ibearjp

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    Was the problem resolved?
     
  8. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    How do they do this? Edit: By which I mean to ask what specifically they do.
     
  9. lmbarns

    lmbarns

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    You violate the EULA where it says "All sales final" and in the past they've said (to justify the all sales final part) that if they allowed users to refund on their own then people would abuse it, so they use the current "all sales final" system.....

    Having spent a lot of money on the asset store over the years I hate to risk it for $20. Even if it's legal where you live to force a refund, through consumer protection laws, unity has the right to dick you because your access relies on a private agreement, the EULA.

    I emailed back to support for verification on whether it will affect my account.

    Nope.
     
  10. hopeful

    hopeful

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    Maybe plugins that haven't been updated by their dev in a year could fall into an archive bin ...?

    They'd still be available for download by those who bought the plugin, but prospective buyers would know that the product has probably been abandoned.
     
  11. NomadKing

    NomadKing

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    For the asset you linked, the sellers website works fine and has a contact email on it. What contact info are you referring to as outdated? Does the seller not respond at that email address?
     
  12. Aurore

    Aurore

    Director of Real-Time Learning

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    Have you tried contacting the seller? If you've not had success then reply to Oscar.
     
  13. Graham-Dunnett

    Graham-Dunnett

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    Unity don't offer refunds for asset store purchases. All sales are final. If, however, you are not happy with the purchase, you can contact the vendor and discuss your problem with them. If you and the vendor come to an agreement, then the vendor can contact us an ask that we issue a refund. If the vendor never responds to you within a "reasonable" timeframe, which could be 14 days, if the vendor is on vacation somewhere, perhaps, then contact the support team, attach the emails you've sent the vendor, and ask for us to intervene. If the vendor doesn't respond to us, then we'll assume the vendor is no longer active and issue a refund.

    Note that the "all sales are final" is because you as a consumer have purchased a digital asset, and there is no way for you to return the asset.
     
  14. lmbarns

    lmbarns

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    So if my local law says I can dispute the charge, and I do, what will unity to? Please clarify.

    Why is it this ridiculously long process where I have to then go out and email support and the product seller, and "hope" to hear back.......

    I emailed him. I didn't see his email on his site yesterday. I emailed Oscar last night asking for clarification on the bolded underlined above and haven't heard back.
     
  15. Graham-Dunnett

    Graham-Dunnett

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    You shouldn't "hope to hear" back. Asset Store vendors are expected to be professional and deal quickly with issues that come up. That's why, if they don't respond to you, we get involved.

    You can always issue a chargeback. That's used to instruct the seller (Unity) to refund the purchaser (you). Chargebacks are usually used for fraudulent transactions. Your card issuer will probably want to know that you have tried to resolve the dispute, and Oscar and me have both described an approach you can take to resolve the dispute. We don't want customers to be unhappy, but the onus is on vendors and customers to reach a decision.

    If your local law says you can dispute a charge you made on your card, then Unity will help you reach a conclusion with the vendor. Unity is not able to issue you a refund without the vendor agreeing. As I have said, if the vendor is non-responsive, then we can intervene. I think your wish is that when you dispute the charge, Unity will instantly refund you.
     
  16. Graham-Dunnett

    Graham-Dunnett

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    I can see that you took the time to review the asset and give it one-star. That's a good thing to do.
     
  17. Graham-Dunnett

    Graham-Dunnett

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    Sorry you feel dicked about. Digital assets are non-refundable. To help vendors and customers there is a process that they can follow, which we'll help with if it doesn't go anywhere. I don't think your Unity account is going to get blocked, or the assets you've purchased magically disappear because you're requesting a refund from a vendor. If you want to PM me to discuss the "Unity holds your account hostage" please feel free. I hope I'll be able to convince you that there is nothing in the EULA that you need to be concerned about.

    I'm tempted to say that the dispute process that eBay has is similar to the one we have. When goods haven't arrived, or have arrived damaged, or not functional, I've opened a dispute at the eBay site, and get invited to have a conversation with the seller. That usually resolves things, but, if the seller doesn't respond after some time eBay will issue the refund. Sure the details are different, but the approach is the same.

    But, anyways, I think we could do a better job of flagging up assets that haven't been updated in some time.
     
  18. Taschenschieber

    Taschenschieber

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    You could also do a better job of flagging up assets that are crud. Just saying.
     
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  19. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5

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    What if they're still functional, and still supported, it's just that they do what they're supposed to do and don't actually need to be updated?

    --Eric
     
  20. lmbarns

    lmbarns

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    Then, each year require the publisher to click a check box to renew the listing....if they've abandoned the asset, after 1 or 2 major unity releases, it should go away...

    At least for some categories, like shaders, frameworks, etc that do become broken between unity 3x and 4x and now even 5x.....
     
  21. hopeful

    hopeful

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    First, if they have had no activity in a year and go to the archive bin, it doesn't mean that the assets are known to be bad ... just that they don't appear to be actively supported any longer.

    Second, if someone has their asset in the store and they are still supporting it, it is fairly trivial maintenance to create some sort of annual activity - an updated readme file or whatever - that keeps the asset out of the archive bin.

    If an item goes into the bin and the maker updates it, then it would automatically come out of the bin.

    Some assets that don't go stale are GUI art and music. These probably wouldn't need annual updates for any functional reason. Buyers would know this, and if they saw them in the archive bin they could still buy them.

    Probably a lot of useful free assets would tend to drift into the archive bin, as well.

    The main thing is that if the asset makers are still around they can easily update any file in the kit to keep their asset out of the archive bin. So this method is a little like a roll call on the asset makers to see who is present and who is absent.
     
  22. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5

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    That's not the case if the asset is working, and gives an unfair impression.

    Seems like useless busywork; what are you supposed to put in the readme, "yep, still working!"? ;) I'm sorry but I don't care for this idea. I'd much rather see assets actively flagged as non-supported, if they actually are non-supported. Have a button: "click here if the asset doesn't work and the seller hasn't responded". This would get flagged in the seller's asset store account, so they get one more chance to clear it by responding. Give them maybe a few weeks, but if there's no response, then the asset gets outright removed from the store. This seems a lot cleaner to me: no archive bins, just working assets.

    --Eric
     
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  23. BeefSupreme

    BeefSupreme

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    Sounds good to me. Or make it so that when a new major version of Unity is released, asset authors have to check off on whether their products work on that version. Would only take a second, and would make it easy to see which assets are no longer supported.
     
  24. imtrobin

    imtrobin

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    lmbarns likes this.
  25. Zeblote

    Zeblote

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    Why not make a new account for questionable purchases? So if it turns out being broken, who cares if the account gets banned...
     
  26. Graham-Dunnett

    Graham-Dunnett

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    Sigh. Unity doesn't hold an account hostage. I have no idea where that idea came from. Accounts do not get banned because you are trying to get a refund. Accounts get suspended, or banned, if we detect fraud.
     
  27. Socrates

    Socrates

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    I'd be opposed to this simply because that trivial update then requires me to download the entire package again just to get an updated file that wasn't really updated.

    As a customer, I already do enough downloading of packages that don't seem to have any actual changes to them. It seems like every time the price changes, I have to download again. It is clear that some sellers do a bunch of "trival" or "non" updates every so often just to put their stuff back to the top of the lists. I really don't want to add having to re-download every package I own once a year just to prove the asset seller still exists.

    Personally, I just don't buy really old code assets until I can confirm they work with the current version of Unity that I am using. If you aren't sure, then contact the vendor before buying. If they don't reply or can't give you a good reply, don't buy the package.
     
  28. randomperson42

    randomperson42

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    Updates don't bump packages to the top of the popularity rankings though. I think they can give it a slight boost.
     
  29. Socrates

    Socrates

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    I didn't mean the popularity lists, I meant just the category list.

    When I'm browsing for new releases that I might be interested in, I obviously sort by "Release Date". Some vendors clearly like to bump their offerings to the top of that sort field.
     
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  30. jonjons

    jonjons

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    Same thing here...
    Ive bought an asset then asked for a refund...
    now i cant get in the editor it just wont pass the license manager... doesnt show errors nothing...
    Its been 4 days with this and still no replys from the support...
    Ive tried all possible ways i could google to pass this... but nothing works...
    Its the last time i ask for a refund on something believe me...

     
  31. LaneFox

    LaneFox

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    This has nothing to do with asking for a refund.

    Reinstall unity.
     
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  32. jonjons

    jonjons

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    I already reinstall it... It was one of frist things i did...
    I think the problem here is that something may be in the win regedit the asset ive bought had 1 license per machine
     
  33. Ryiah

    Ryiah

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    One license per seat is not one license per machine.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per-seat_license

    To my knowledge (and a quick registry check) nothing is done in Unity to enforce it.
     
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2017
  34. LaneFox

    LaneFox

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    This has nothing to do with your assets or the refund. There is virtually zero enforcement of asset licensing and certainly nothing as draconian as locking you out of Unity.
     
  35. jonjons

    jonjons

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    ive exhausted all possible ways i could find
    I guess i can try reinstall unity along with monodevelop and Vstudio
     
  36. Ryiah

    Ryiah

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    Have you tried running Unity as administrator? Or temporarily moving the ULF license file out of C:\ProgramData\Unity?

    Both of those were possible solutions according to an old entry (approximately 2015) on Unity Answers.
     
  37. jonjons

    jonjons

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    i did a search in the hhd
    deleted all unity folders, and reinstalled unity, but it doesnt seem to work
    ive tried however run it on diferent pc that has a 32bit version
    and it worked i can log in and open the editor... it seems changing to a diferent version of
    unity works.
    This was the option i was trying to avoid, since iam using the 2D experimental preview.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2017
  38. jonjons

    jonjons

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  39. CarterG81

    CarterG81

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    Ergh, on mobile, didnt see this was a necro, damnit!

    Unity has clearly fixed their refund policy. I have always gotten refunds from Unity w/ no questions asked.

    ignore this - as some dummy necro'd 2014 post. I thought ppl were being scammed by a change in refund policy.
    I am not sure this is correct.

    I have contacted Unity multiple times asking for a refund. For reasons as simple as "I dont like it." and got a full refund.

    That level of customer support has allowed me to buy an enormous number of assets.

    If at any point you guys replied to me, "All sales are final. No refunds.", i.e. "You are not satisified? Go fk yourself!", then I would never again buy any assets from you.

    You really need to change your refund policy to allow refunds for any reason. It makes people to feel safe to purchase, keeps them happy, and is the moral thing to do.

    But like I said, I already get that type of service. Idk why, as your policy sounds like the opposite of what I experienced. Which is simply ludicrous. This is 2017. Refunds for disatisfied customers are mandatory. You're just losing money by not updating archaic policy.
     
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  40. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Hi,

    Is it possible to add this explanation directly in the link to the asset store page where users click to see the refund policy ?
    Because i still get so many requests with users that buy the asset to try it, is just not clear to them how it works.

    Thanks


    E.g.


    2.9.3 Unity don't offer refunds for asset store purchases. All sales are final.

    You may only request a refund from a Provider in the following circumstances:

    (a) within 2 weeks of purchase of a license to an Asset where,

    (i) the Asset was not as advertised (including any demo made available);

    (ii) the Asset is not compatible with the most recent official release of Unity and no information was provided at the Unity Asset Store to indicate that Asset is so incompatible; or

    (iii) the Asset includes unauthorized intellectual property.

    (b) the Asset is removed from the Unity Asset Store within 4 weeks of purchase of a license to an Asset and,

    (i) the Provider caused the removal; or

    (ii) Unity removed the Asset because it is or is alleged to be defective, malicious, infringes intellectual property rights of another person, defames, violates a third party's right of publicity or privacy, or does not comply with applicable law.
     
  41. JohnnyA

    JohnnyA

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    Holy necro, Batman!