Symptoms:
- I accidentally purchased the wrong package on the Asset Store.
- I have purchased an asset that does not work as described on the Asset Store description page.
- I bought an asset I had already purchased by mistake.
- I want a refund because I am unhappy with my Asset Store purchase.
Cause:
-
Resolution:
As of March 2022, Unity has introduced a more streamlined refund process. You can request a refund of your purchase within the Order History section of your Asset Store account.
See below for a detailed guide:
| Important: The below process only applies to refund requests that fall under exceptions described in the Asset Store EULA; otherwise all sales are final and there will be no refund. If you require further support, please contact the asset publisher directly. |
- Click your initials (profile picture) in the top right corner of the page.
- Click Order History.
- Click View Order Details to the right of the order containing the asset you want refunding.
- Click the three vertical dots to the right of the Open in Unity button > click Refund request.
Note: the Refund Request option can take up to 30mins after your order is complete to appear.
- A pop-up window appears. If you are not having technical difficulties with the asset in question, click the blue Continue refund process button
- Select a reason for your refund using the drop-down menu, and write a message giving further context to your request.
Note: You must provide a reason for your request in the text box of at least 50 characters.
- Click Submit. You now see a pop-up with the message, Your request has been submitted.
Now that your refund request has been submitted, you can track the submission status inside the Order Details page of the asset in question.
A refund request has three statuses; Pending, Approved, and Declined. To check the details and status of your request, click the three vertical dots > Refund history.
If your refund request is approved, please allow up to ten days for the funds to return to your original payment method.
If your request is Pending, that means that a Customer Experience team member is reviewing your request. After investigation, the request will reach the final status of either Approved or Declined.
More Information:
Unity handles all refund requests according to the Asset Store EULA. Please note that, depending on the situation, Unity may still involve publishers in the final decision.
If you have technical or asset support-related questions, please continue to reach out to the asset publisher directly.
For more information on the different refund statuses, please see the article, 'My refund request is pending. What does this mean?'.
Comments
61 comments
I'm not sure Caleb, I couldn't even get a refund from an asset I bought, spent a lot of time using in a game I was making only to find out it was pirated from another game and therefore unusable and potentially criminalising me, lucky my game was not released yet, but still a lot of wasted time, effort and money on my part
The asset developer unsurprisingly never replied to any refund requests and Unity has a policy of not refunding if it's over a certain period, which in my case was no excuse
I buy a game from Unity and I have almost a year with it, the developer of course it's not going to refund, neither Unity, the game have a useless documentation that doesn't explain how reskin the game or add product to use with google and neither how properly include the ads
Hi all,
I thank you for the questions you have raised with us. It's incredibly helpful feedback. I am reluctant to advise each case individually due to money being involved and discussing in a public setting may not be the best idea.
I would very much welcome anyone who had any issues relating to refunds to contact us directly at Support so we can discuss this further with you.
You can do this via the ticket form here: https://support.unity3d.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=65905
The very first asset I ever purchased on the asset store -- with a $75 pricetag! -- does not function. It in no way performs ANYTHING advertised, even in a Unity version specifically called out as supported by its developer.
Now I find out there IS NO refund process?
I think this has soured me on asset store purchases of anything other than simple artwork. And considering that I do my own artwork, I can't see myself spending money in the asset store again.
Whelp... looks like I wasted 5 dollars getting an asset I could get for free because the publisher changed the color slightly. I'm new to Unity and thus didn't know about other resources... but this just killed any desire I have to further invest money into the unity site.
Hi William.
Sorry to hear you are not happy with your Asset Store purchase.
Can you send us the request with more details via via the ticket form here: https://support.unity3d.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=65905 ?
We will look into your issue further as soon as possible.
Hello Caleb, John, and Robert.
Thanks for reaching out to us. I'm sorry to hear that you're not happy with the process for Asset refund.
I'll do my best to address all of your concerns.
Firstly, I would like to say that we, Unity care a great deal about giving everyone a fair chance. That being said, a lot of publishers are third party independent developers who often make assets in their spare time. So we need to have a blanket protocol which covers these publishers too. We need to give them a fair amount of time to respond as they may not have the resources to provide a same day response time like some bigger publishers. They also may not be aware of the issues with their asset and it's very much helpful for you to reach out to them to notify them of any issues. They cannot fix these if they are not aware of them.
Our asset store team are constantly working on making the review process more refined and to make sure that the assets are to a high standard. So thank you for your feedback, I will make sure to pass this along.
Additionally, if you have any reports of an asset which is below standard, you can contact us to investigate, to see if the asset should indeed be on the store. If you would like to contact us to have a chat about it, please do.
If you have any concerns regarding a purchase, we deal with these disputes on a case by case basis.
Quite often we will be able to put you in touch with publisher quickly as they will be the ones to know how you get the best out of the asset. Or we will be able to escalate the issue to see if a refund is necessary.
I understand that you feel this isn't the best method but we are more than happy to assist you if you reach out to us directly on the email:
support@unity3d.com
I hope this information helps. As always, please feel free to reach out to us if you have any concerns. n h
If the merchant does not agree to a refund, what will customers think of the resources they have bought and cannot use?
Don't they feel cheated?
Hi dhanxmhqbx,
Thanks for the comment.
Let me take a look at your submitted ticket : #803042
This whole thing is absurd on several levels. First off, refund should be able to proceed automatically if the asset was never downloaded and is within a reasonable time period. Second, Unity feels they can lock us into a contract with them, while taking no responsibility for the content of the assets, including but not limited to viruses, false claims, spyware/malicious scripts, and even allowing people to sell assets for something that already exists within the engine! Take the $14 asset to change the FOV of the scene camera :/ glad i did not purchase it. I think any lawyer worth their salt could easily decimate the 'contract'. Don't get me wrong. I think Unity, on many levels, is great. but this really is absurd, and depending on where you are, possibly illegal. feel free to look into how well 'click contracts' have held up in the past.
Hello Hunan Bean.
Derek here from Unity Customer Service here.
I'm sorry to hear that you feel this isn't a fair process to users. I'll do my best to help clear up any concerns you may have.
There are a few things that I would like to mention to help provide a full understanding of why the refund process is the way it is.
Firstly, most Assets on our store are created by third party developers who create content for the Store for the Community. Some of them are independent developers who do this in their spare time for the interest of democratizing game development.
Out of respect for their hard work they put in, we request all refund/support requests go directly to the Publisher. The reason why an Asset isn't immediately refundable is because many of them are perhaps using this revenue as a source income. If we'd just refund it wouldn't exactly fair to them.
The most fair way to process a refund request is to have you reach out to them to see if this is okay. I know this isn't ideal for the users point of view but we would still like to give the Publisher a chance to find out why you don't want the purchase anymore for whatever reason that might be.
However, at no point are you on your own. If you discover an unsupported Asset or a broken Asset. If you have any issues with it, you can always contact us at support@unity3d.com
If the Asset falls under these three categories, then we can just refund you without the Publisher's permission.
However, to remain fair to Publisher and users, immediate regret (even if the purchase isn't downloaded) is not an eligible reason for a refund. The reason for this is the Assets should be working "Out of the box"
If you believe the Asset is not working as advertised, or in one of the other categories above. Please feel free to reach out to us and we'll investigate it. The Asset store is a humongous place and sometimes Assets can get overlooked, so with the help of our users like yourself we really appreciate you bringing any content to our attention which may not live up to the standard we aim for in the store.
I hope this message has helped. If you like you can reach out us at support@unity3d.com and we can discuss this further.
All the best.
Derek.
Unity Customer Service.
I understand what you are attempting to claim, but that is nonsense. The money has not even been transfered to the asset creator yet. This is according to Unitys payout timeframe. https://support.unity.com/hc/en-us/articles/206601765-When-and-how-will-I-receive-my-Asset-Store-payout-
That is why i mentioned that caveat 'within a reasonable timeframe'
"However, to remain fair to Publisher and users, immediate regret (even if the purchase isn't downloaded) is not an eligible reason for a refund. The reason for this is the Assets should be working "Out of the box" "
Flat out nonsense. The reason being is Unity wants to hold on to any penny they get their hands on (like most companies) Just about any other company that sells software allows a refund within a reasonable time if the product has not been transferred. You are mistaking corporate policy for actual law. Again, in general, Unity is great as a whole. This particular policy is not.
Hello Hunan Bean.
Thanks for getting back to me.
I can appreciate your point of view here. I'm sorry to hear you feel that this policy is unfair. I can understand why you might think that.
Just to let you know - the Publishers can see sales for their Asset happening in their dashboard as they happen. So they are generally aware of any changes to their sales/downloads/revenue etc.
Additionally Most digital products are created by the Store Providers so it would be easy for other online stores to be able to refund purchases as an immediate regret.
The Asset store however, is made up of many independent developers who use the store as a platform to sell their content. To make sure the Publishers are informed we ask users to reach out to them if there are any issues. If the asset isn't what is expected then we are more than happy to look into it.
Unfortunately at this time, this is the certain process to abide by. however, I do sincerely appreciate your feedback and will make sure you pass it on. :)
All the best
Derek.
For some reason this thread popped up again so I might as well post a wee update, years on and I still have no resolution on my pirated game assets issue ( in fact to rub salt into the wound, last year the same author was selling the SAME pirated asset again on the store.. yeah )
It has really soured me on buying any expensive assets on the store and have no bought anything anywhere near as expensive since then
With every publisher doing it differently it's quite annoying to deal with. I also agree, some form of in-store request for a refund.
Hello John.
Thanks for reaching out to us. I'm sorry to hear that your content has been pirated and still not been taken down
I can appreciate your point of view here. I can see why this may have soured your Impression of the Asset store.
If you have found content of yours being used by a Publisher on our Asset store. You can action this yourself by filing a DMCA takedown notice. To do this, follow the instructions here
We will then receive a formal action request to remove the copied content within a few working days.
For more information on DMCA takedown notices, please see the article:
My asset is being pirated, how can I get the download removed?
If you have any follow up questions, then please feel free to reach out to us at
support@unity3d.com
All the best.
Hi Derek
Thanks for the reply, I probably phrased it wrongly but the actual problem was a few years ago I bought a collection of models and textures that later turned out to be stolen assets from the a Korean MMO game, of course by that time I had used many of them in my game and spent a few months working with them.
Long story short by the time we found out the assets were pirated and therefore unusable in any commercial game and trying in vain to contact the seller, Unity was unable to refund any of the money (as it had been a year I think it was) and suggested I instead go through paypal, which of course means contacting the seller, who as you can imagine has never responded
The same seller did try selling the same assets a year or so ago and I informed Unity who seem to have taken it back down so as to at least prevent anyone else going through what I had to
Thanks
John
Hi Scott.
Thanks for reaching out to us.
I appreciate your feedback. I'll make sure to pass this along to our store team. The next time they review the refund process this information will be considered.
Generally, Publishers go by the same rules if the Asset falls into any of these categories it must be refunded.
Despite it not working straight out of the box, this doesn’t mean that it’s not as advertised. Out of respect for the Publisher we do allow some leniency in regards to that as often it just takes some slight adjusting in their project with the Publisher advice to get it working.
If you believe the Asset is genuinely not working as advertised and the Publisher is denying the refund, you can reach out to us at support@unity3d.com and we can investigate this further. At which point you will need provide us sufficient evidence that the Asset is not working and the refund can be discussed in further detail.
I'm sorry for any inconvenience caused. I appreciate your understanding.
Please feel free to get back to us there if you have any follow up questions. All the best.
While I understand your point of view ... this situation is discouraging me to shop in asset stores. So many disappointment I have experienced already.
You should take some responsibility for your business. I'm sure, you (Unity) earn money from the transactions.
As both an asset store publisher and as a developer who has been using Unity since 2012, we've always felt the refund policy is self-defeating. We regularly do not purchase assets from new or untested publishers because of it, and it has cost Unity tens-of-thousands of dollars in sales from just us alone. It is out of line with industry standards, and also just not ethical. Unity is not being a good corporate citizen here.
I understand that Unity is concerned about refund abuse, but there are easy ways to mitigate this concern. Audible, for example, has done a fantastic job balancing purchase-to-refund rates which makes users feel comfortable trying out a new author. Their lenient refund policy equates to more revenue for Audible -- Not less.
The sad thing is that I know I'm not making new arguments here. I'm sure your own employees have been saying this, probably for over a decade. I assume the policy will never change until the CEO changes.
I'm tired of losing my money, the Unity team tells me to contact the developer and wait 2 weeks. Did you know that we developers have a time frame to finish our projects? I can't wait a day, if the asset doesn't work I have no other option than find another asset, losing money.
All because of their greed to retain money, their policies are very outdated, in other sites you get easily a refund of your credits. I do not plan to order again and I will request a dispute in PayPal.
Hello Péter Nádasi, Dante, and Damien.
Derek from Unity Customer Service here. Thanks for reaching out to us via this Knowledgebase comment.
Firstly, I'd like to acknowledge your valuable feedback. We realize that the refund process does make things difficult for developers and can appreciate users and professional developers are generally working to a deadline. Whilst the process for requesting refunds does take time. There is a reason for this, and we have to keep in mind to make a process that is fair to everyone including our third-party developers who contribute to making assets for our community (some of which are doing this in their spare time as a hobby)
I can completely appreciate that this currently isn't the most ideal process for our customers and we are constantly trying to improve the refund process. So this feedback will be passed on and filtered throughout this company to make things better for everyone.
Damian. In regards to your question, If you a unity Publisher and would like to approve a refund request, you can reach out to us at support@unity3d.com and we will process this for you. Please make sure you are signed into the account which is linked to your Publisher ID when submitting the request.
Again, thanks everyone for their feedback. I wish you all the best.
In my opinion if an asset is broken we should be entitled to get a guaranteed refund, that's not a whim.
You should also stop banning people for opening legit disputes in PayPal, in my case my account was suspended despite providing evidence that the asset was broken in the required version that the publisher put.
I lost almost $3,000 in assets in 8 years, after that insult will never renew Unity Plus or buy any asset again.
The addition of this new built refund request is a much needed feature. Too many assets in my library that should have been refunded due to bugs or no support available. I hope this new design is to help refund when developers ignore us.
Hello Dante.
Derek from Unity Customer Service here. Thanks for getting back to us and I'm so sincerely sorry for the delay.
I completely agree that if an Asset is broken then you should get a refund. In these cases, if you contact us with a full description of how the Asset is not as advertised along with accompanying screenshots, we can look into the Asset and potentially refund. This is provided you've reached out to the Publisher first. They usually can help the best since they know the Asset the best.
In regards to banning Unity Accounts due to Chargeback disputes. Unfortunately, this isn't something we're planning on changing.
Unfortunately, your account has been suspended due to the number of chargebacks which were made. Unity takes chargebacks very seriously and is meant as a safety net for victims of genuine, fraudulent payments.
As I'm sure you will understand, any account flagged as potentially fraudulent is immediately suspended to avoid further charges for the victim.
In order to have your account activated again, you will need to cancel these payment disputes with your bank. Once this is done, please get back to us and we will be able to activate your account again.
If you have any further questions about this please feel free to reach out to support@unity3d.com
All the best.
Hi Scott.
Derek from Unity Customer Service here.
I completely agree. If an Asset is broken then you are entitled to a refund. As I mentioned in my response to Dante if you contact us with a full description of how the Asset is not as advertised along with accompanying screenshots, we can look into the Asset and potentially refund. This is provided you've reached out to the Publisher first. They usually can help the best since they know the Asset the best.
If you have any follow up questions, please feel free to get in touch at support@unity3d.com
All the best,
Derek
Good day! I applied for a refund because the asset does not match the description and contains errors. Technical support from the developers of the asset is not responding. I have been waiting for 15 days for a response to my application. What's happening? Why is there no response to my application? how much longer to wait for a response from you?
Hi, I can't see the three dots for a package I bought 3 days ago (Today's 2023-03-13).
Is it because I bought it during a 70% sale?
Should I/Shouldn't I download the package before asking for a refund?
I used a voucher in a purchase, then I want to refund that purchase. If the refund request is accepted, will my voucher be restored?
Many time try but same notification open
Your refund request could not be submitted at this time. Please try again later. If this issue reoccurs, contact Customer Support.
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