How do you deal w/ player refunds on gaming currency?

When I finish my online game in a few months, I'm going to implement a No-Refund policy for my virtual currency. This is because I'm going to be processing them thru PayPal which takes 3% and if players want a refund on their payments, I'd have to cover BOTH their costs and Paypal's costs. Can you imagine what it'd be like if 1000 people wanted a refund?

What I'm worried about, though, is the following scenario:

• The player buys $399 worth of gaming coins.
• A few hours later, he calls in to complain that he intended to buy only $49, but somehow our system selected $399 instead. Then he goes around spamming the forums about demanding a refund and how he "got scammed."

Now, who's right and who's wrong in this situation? Assuming my purchase buttons are all through PayPal, it would be pretty hard to click $49 and get charged $399. But then again, nothing's perfect. Of course, the customer could also simply be lying and regrets his purchase. Or maybe he's from a competitor's game and came over to try and tarnish my reputation.

How are some of you preparing to deal with stuff like this?

Or maybe he's from a competitor's game and came over to try and tarnish my reputation.

This is delusional. No 'evil enemy competitor' is going to waste their own money like this. Is your game really going to be this uniquely special?

Ok, that over, Haven't you seen those tele-commercials selling all kinds of junk. Take your inspiration from their terms & conditions if you're bothered by this.

I've yet to see anyone with a policy that formally "allows" refunds on virtual currency.

That being said, you should treat each complaint individually. Is it that big of a deal to refund that money? Did they spend any of it before asking for a refund?

Personally, I think a "no refunds" policy is a great idea. That being said, I seriously doubt you should allow single purchases of over $100 at any time. I suggest you don't even provide currency packages of over $20 to start with, simply because buyer's remorse will increase with the newness of the games/company, thus incraesing the chance they may want to back out of their purchase.

I do remember reading about a case where the developer did refund one player. It was after the guy emailed the developers telling them his kid got his hands on the device and randomly bought tens of the most expensive currency packages.

I believe this lead the developers to incorporate a daily limit of how much money you can spend on IAP.

As far that scenario, if it's an isolated complaint and you know you code is fine, you would just direct them to the third party that handles the in app purchases (google, apple, etc.).

In your case I guess that would be Paypal but I don't know how useful that would be. At the end of the day it's up to you and your policy whether or not you will refund your customer.

As far that scenario, if it's an isolated complaint and you know you code is fine, you would just direct them to the third party that handles the in app purchases (google, apple, etc.).

In your case I guess that would be Paypal but I don't know how useful that would be. At the end of the day it's up to you and your policy whether or not you will refund your customer.

f you are talking PayPal, that depends on, like you said, whoever controls the purchases. Because Paypal actually has a handy refund function, however, if you are receiving payments from that 3rd party, rather than from the customer directly, like you said, you'd need to direct them to that 3rd party.

As Datapaw says, PayPal is pretty good about refunds, their fee gets refunded too.

I think you are MUCH more likely to get bad press from someone you refused to refund than someone who feels they paid too much.

They are giving you a gift by buying from your game, don't treat them as adversaries from the start.