GENERAL REFUNDS THREAD

Note: all threads regarding refunds are merged. Some will be from studica, and some are general purpose refunds from pro. The reason for this is so that all of unity's responses are in the same place, so people can track what is going on better.

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On the assumption that there will be a few other students in the same boat as me I thought I'd post where I'd got up too.

If your a student who pre ordered Unity 5 with the educational discount then Studica (the reselller) are currently not offering refunds. I've got queries in to try and find out if this is just a lack of communication between Unity and their reseller or if there really aren't any student refunds.
Will update this thread once I hear back from them

 

I'm in the same boat.

Surely they will work something out, I refuse to believe the Unity guys would f students over by putting a full perpetual liscence up for sale that cheap, making it redundant(at least for most students) and then refusing refunds.

Thats a lot of money for a student.

 

Yeah I'm assuming its a snafu as we are an edge case, unity people I've been in touch with have been great with prompt responses.

But as you say it's a lot of money for a student, bit gut wrenching to think I might of spent it on something that changed to have little value for me

 

There is this.
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/seriously.306574/

So it looks like we are safe. I'd like to hear if anyone successfully gets a refund through Studica though.

 

yeah it does say you may be eligible for a refund not as a student you will get a refund. Anyway no point speculating, just wait and see what comes back from Unity.

 

Err WTF

Just got this reply back from Unity support

Thanks for your email.

Studica are a reseller that sell educational Unity licenses. Unfortunately educational licenses do not qualify for the refund process - it is only individual Pro license user accounts that qualify.

Best wishes,

 

Unity posted before. It is colleges and educational places that can't get a refund. Students should be able too.
It is the wording of it that messes people up.

 

Yes I know, I asked a Unity support person for help getting a student refund, they said they don't do refunds in this case see email above.

 

Not that I'm complaining (I got mine for Unity 4) but it seems the student licenses don't even give pro features? I can't use Level 11 or anything like that... The licenses have no value.

 

I think we were referring to the fully commercial perpetual unity 5 preorders from studica, they were fully featured as far as I could tell. Just like a normal perpetual license but through the reseller.

 

OK heard back from Unity support again:
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If your license serial begins with EDU then it does not qualify for a refund.

If it starts with R or U, it may qualify for a refund, but since it was bought through Studica, they must be the ones to process it.
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Also they are having a supervisor contact Studica to clarify that this is Unity's position, so I was going to wait a bit before getting back to Studica, in order to give that contact time to happen.

Off to check my licence number *crosses fingers*

 

Well that was easier to find than I expected, my purchase of an individual student licence from Studica UK has an R at the front of the serial number so according to the above 'it may qualify for a refund,'

I'm hoping that may is just to cover that people who bought Unity 3 etc. can't get a refund

 

Ah good, thanks for letting us know. Mines not EDU.

 

We are in touch with Studica about refunds what support says is correct. Sorry for the confusion, we are updating our FAQ soon with better information.

 

(1) I bought a Studica "Student Commercial" License of Unity 4 (License key starting with R3...) and later bought the Student Upgrade to "Unity 5"

(2) As far as I can see the only benefit of that version (compared to standard Unity) is the option to choose the dark color scheme in the editor UI and the option to customize the splash-screen.

I am wondering, whether the other potential benefits of a "Professional Edition" (Level 11 Asset Store, Beta Access, Pro Community Features) are simply unavailable to users of this type of license (which would actually turn it quite worthless in my opinion - as I am highly unlikely to make $ 100.000 a year on software, do not really need the dark UI and also have no need for a custom splash screen) or whether I am missing something (more or less) obvious.

Thanks a lot for any advice,

Michael

 

Level 11 and the other Pro bonuses are only available for Unity 5 owners.

 

"(2) As far as I can see the only benefit of that version (compared to standard Unity) is the option to choose the dark color scheme in the editor UI and the option to customize the splash-screen.

I am wondering, whether the other potential benefits of a "Professional Edition" (Level 11 Asset Store, Beta Access, Pro Community Features) are simply unavailable to users of this type of license (which would actually turn it quite worthless in my opinion - as I am highly unlikely to make $ 100.000 a year on software, do not really need the dark UI and also have no need for a custom splash screen) or whether I am missing something (more or less) obvious."


Not sure why you think you won't have the other elements, that is sold as the full Pro version, which as you say means Level11 etc, whether thats worth anything to you I don't know but you should certainly have access to it. Have you considered asking for a refund on the upgrade part of your purchases?

 

Thank you for your email. I have added your information for a refund. Unfortunately it does take 10-15 business days we are working with Unity to get these resolved as soon as possible. Have a great day!

Thank you,
Studica Customer Service

 

Not sure why you think you won't have the other elements, that is sold as the full Pro version, which as you say means Level11 etc, whether thats worth anything to you I don't know but you should certainly have access to it. Have you considered asking for a refund on the upgrade part of your purchases?
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Quite simple - while I do have a license right now, whenever I go to the Asset Store (both in the Unity Editor as well as using a separate browser and after logging in and out) all Level 11 Sale items are only available for normal price. Similarly, I do not see any specific options (e.g. Beta Access or whatever) on the Unity Web site; all I can do is activate the local Unity 5 Editor using my licence key (which works fine and indeed changes the theme). This leads me to believe that the "Commercial use Unity Pro Student license" (see http://www.studica.com/us/unity/unity-pro-5-game-development-software-student-commercial.html) is indeed limited to only changing the Editor UI, the splash screen and the option to make more than $ 100,000 a year (as it also costs only half as much as the non-Student-version, https://store.unity3d.com/).

In general I like the idea of getting a number of assets for free and theoretically (in 12 months) this (and the option to get rid of the splash screen) would likely make up for the upgrade price. Also getting a refund from Studica seems to be a rather annoying process, which I'd try to avoid if possible...

Michael

 

Hi Michael.

I understand that you don't have access, I don't understand why you think that means there is a secret squirrel , unannounced ,different tier of Unity crippled for students.
As its a newly launched product there are going to be some cock ups, raise a support call with Unity and say you aren't able to access all the bits of your Pro licence.
Hope you get it sorted

 

@Reevezy Do you mind me asking if you bought through Studica UK? As I haven't heard anything back.

 

i just rang uk, they are unaware of the refund so are going to contact unity

 

Really, that's disappointing, I sent Studica UK the details I got from Unity support yesterday and they also promised me they were going to contact Unity yesterday.

Aurore gave me a Unity contact if there were issues with Studica so I will raise it with them.

 

Well, I'm not in the same boat you are because

a) I'm not a student
b) I'm not fan of preordering things. I've once preordered other kind of Unity and was really disappointed when I finally got it, then said "never again".

BUT my friend is. Thank you for this thread. I'll link him here.

 

cool let me know what happens

 

Please contact Studica directly if you have a question about a refund, we are working directly with Unity to look into your inquiries. We are available Monday-Friday 9AM to 5PM Eastern time at 888-561-7521. You can also email us at info@studica.com

 

did anyone get any news back from uk

 

I didn't, I sent a copy of the email I had sent to Studica UK to the US Studica address given in the reply above but haven't heard from anyone yet.

 

It seems there is still quite a bit of confusion going on. From info@studica.com:

 

i'll give it the weekend and give them another call see if they sorted it out yet

 

A few of us have been having issues with the refund process. Myself, the refund has been approved, but for some reason when I enter my card info and submit, I get an error. I've tried this with three different cards, two that go to my personal bank account, and one that goes to a friend's.

I contacted support about this, and I was informed that Unity won't allow purchases or refunds on debit cards, only credit cards, which is really confusing consider the card I'm using is the same type of card I used to purchase my license in the first place (a VISA card tied to my personal bank account). I highly doubt Unity is expecting me to open up a credit card account in order to get a refund, as that makes absolutely no sense. This caused me to contact my bank to see what's going on on their end, that perhaps they were blocking the refund from processing because of being from a overseas bank or possibly the larger amount. They said they saw a $0 charge going through as a security measure, and then nothing else from Unity's end. My bank obviously isn't the issue and I seriously believe the debit/credit confusion is a semantics issue.

And as I understand it several other people have been having issues as well, so I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread dedicated to this so that if anyone does get this resolved, we can all just follow the same process to get this sorted out for everyone.

 

OK I've passed this onto the community support channel and hopefully this will get cleared up. I agree a dedicated forum topic is useful.

 

Thanks. Changed the thread title to be a little more helpful and less of a complaint. These things happen, and while frustrating, it's understandable.

 

Did the refund process, but now I'm not sure how to remove the existing serial so that unity will run again ( n personal mode).

 

Hello my old friend, it seems we keep meeting to talk about refunds at this ungodly hour (for me anyway).

Jokes aside, I'll talk to one of the support people tomorrow morning (in about 8 hours time) to get them to visit this thread and explain. Sorry I can't be any more help with an answer right now.

 

Looking forward to the reply here. I've sent 2 emails about it more than 48 hours ago without a reply. Getting a refund to work with my debit card, or paypal as that's what I used to purchase the preorder with, would be ideal.

 

You will get seen to, will have to wait for the working week, and accept many people asked for refunds so there is a queue. Happens when you give away thousands of dollars of software I guess.

 

No doubt that it'll take some time. I guess I just expected an automated ticket reply or something. I'll wait patiently, as are many others.

 

I am also on the list of people having difficulty. I tried a debit card twice and in different browsers but it didn't work. I guess if someone knows that a credit card would actually work, I'd do it, but am awaiting some official response. I understand the folks are probably busy. I already emailed 3 times with no human response so I'm just giving them some more time. I also used paypal for the license purchase so I don't know if that has something to do with it not working. Meanwhile my actual license has been reverted from Pro to Personal already, but Unity still has my money. I'm sure they'll get something figured out soon.

Thanks for starting this thread, I was worried I was the only one having a problem.

 

No worries.

The thread will probably be completely empty of news until Monday, seeing how it's the weekend and we're not going to get any support until then.

And this thread also isn't to get really upset either. Unity will get this straightened out, I think we all know that. This is more to help them know what factors we all have in common that might be causing an issue.

 

When it gets processed you'll know because Unity will tell you that your license is deactivated. Select activate again (or whatever the non-quit option is) and from there you'll see how to choose personal.

 

Actually when I opened Unity for the first time after getting the email about the approved refund, it instantly reverted itself to the Personal version... as it opened it showed the `dark` UI skin, and then switched to the gray one by itself, so I'm presuming that means the license is already converted?

 

Ah, you're right. Thanks! I had assumed that either required a pro serial or feared that it might would attempt to re-register my serial as active and cancel the refund process.

 

Haha yea the interface is not obvious.

Anyone else planning to carelessly spend some of that refund on unhealthy food? Mmm... grease trucks.

 

I pre-ordered a fully commercial, perpetual student license of Unity 5 through Studica, and my license key begins with an R, not EDU - blah blah

Emailed Studica UK the other day, I was tired so worded things a bit poorly lol, but I got the reply:

I was then asked to give them the name of the person I "spoke to at Unity as you have been given the wrong information" - but this is because of my poor wording making it sound like I had expected a refund. Oops

Little bit annoying as it's a lot of money (for lots of people, but students in particular) and the personal edition would do perfectly for me, but at the end of the day I bought through a retailer and that's a gamble you take I suppose

 

Was this offered as a digital download? I believe you may have 14 days from delivery of the licence key to cancel. Check the consumer contracts regulations:

Cancelling digital downloads
The Consumer Contracts Regulations contain specific provisions for digital content.

Retailers mustn’t supply digital content, such as music or software downloads, within the 14 day cancellation period, unless the consumer has given their express consent to this happening.

The consumer must also acknowledge that once the download starts they will lose their right to cancel.

If a consumer doesn’t give their consent, they have to wait until the cancellation period has ended before they can download the digital content.

This is to ensure the digital content is what you want before downloading it.

 

@tweedie

Have you raised a support call via support@unity3d.com ?

Unity are definitely aware that there is an issue with Studica and refunds and are working to sort it.
I got copied in on an email at the weekend from Unity to Studica asking them to sort my refund case out, from the names on the emails it's obviously being dealt with at a much higher level in both companies than is normal for a simple refund request.

 

i just spoke to them and they said the same they don't give refunds on digital items, going to contact unity now. paying £550 for a dark skin what are people on.

 

Well to be fair the new pro version does have a lot of value for teams / professional dev studios, it fits the name much better now But as you say for hobby / solo devs the free personnel edition is just awesome!

Definitely contact Unity there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between the different levels in Studica.

 

yh I work alone so the only feature I would be interested in is the asset store 11 and dark skin, cheaper just pay monthly for level 11