standalone DMR free executables and any kind of return policy don't seem like they should go together

Who is the they that you refer to?!

- is it... THEM!

GOG has 2 return policies.
First one is a 14-day (I think, may be 30) no questions asked one, assuming you haven't downloaded any of the files. So whether the files are DRM free or not is irrelevant.
Second one is a "Game not working" policy. If the game doesn't work for you, whether you can keep the installer or not after getting a refund is (again) irrelevant.

Or do you mean a different return policy?

Why?

GOG still know if you downloaded it and if you did you can't return it, unless you can convince support you have a problem with the game that's unfixable. And if you lie that's probably not going to work more than one or two times before they catch on.

It's 30 days for both.

Well, arguably, you could get a refund for your non-working game and give the installer to friends who don't have you technical issues. Or you could get it to work on your next PC.

But I do believe you are still responsible for meeting the stated minimum game requirements. So unless you happen to know games which don't work on your configuration...

If you lie about your game not working, or give it to a friend, then you might as well just pirate the game.

The whole DRM-free installer idea is partly (large part) built on trust, so why not have a return policy built on trust as well?

ah i didn't know about the download bit, makes much more sense now. yea i guess it's their idea of an "honor" system

it seems quite easy

i you used prepaid its logical theres no way to return/refund physical money in any way, what might be done is a form of store credit, this way the cash keeps on the current site , GoG in this case.

if you use any form of 'trackable' and therefore kinda 'know who or which party bought it' (name adress bank info etc etc etc) then i assume they can if they decide to return it, refund the cash in cash , back to the bankaccount of you or creditcard.

Like a number of replies already stated: it is alway the user who must make sure that the game can be run at minimum requirements that are mentioned.

If for some reason the equipm,ent of you doesnot seem to run the game or not run well eventhough you have the min, equipment then the team can help you out, all this is explained in the terms.

So i dont understand what the problem is, take it from me that steam is much tighter in this and much more difficult to get anything back at all especially if you are from europe, seems you have to agree to some things before checking out and gamersgate, well dont think these are so loose and easy on refunding :D
All in all i think that gog is the best regarding refunds.

I think origin is also not easy, although they claim to be so helpfull in returning cash i dont quite believe origin or ubisoft for that matter.

And lastly: if you are so unsure, then wait for a sale and buy it at bottom price, i mean a donut and a coffe , costs more then a game at sales :D

I think GoG is the best regarding refunds and like they said there is a lot of responsibilty for the user itself when he/she buys a game, in some rare cases there are demos to be found, just look carefully and you will find them, there arent many but some have demos.

BTW dig your avatar. Amazon, I think Amazon, is selling some nice Eye of Cthulhu shirts right now. :D

Unless i'm mistaken I think Layarion meant that it's insane because it's too lenient. I was just pointing out that it's actually pretty solid unless you flat out lie when asking for a return. I'm sure that's not much of a problem either, as you said people that would do that will just pirate to begin with.

Not anymore. As long as you've played less than two hours you can get your money back for whatever (or no) reason.

There were quite a few threads on GOG by people complaining that GOG would not let them return their game, even though they had legitimate unfixable issues that just didn't prevent you from finishing the game.

To them, they, who are they anyway? They're just beating each other at being each other. With nothin' to say.

thanks for the info, i can only use prepaid (paysafe) , and prepaid is impossible to return cause there's no info, or it should be in store credit in this way it will be available only for purchases for the company that returned it to the acount.
But i wont ask steam for refunds cause i only buy cheap stuff, 14 cents, gave me a very nice casual hidden object game

So the return policy of any company is not the worst thing, the worst thing is the fact that many AAA games (some cost 149 euros or up, yup i have seen very expensive digital download games only) (id rather get the physical with the physical extras) so basically these badboy companies are again punishing the honest buyer who is willing to pay the price for a game, while the badboys get their games for zero and with no drm.

So based on that its somehow understandble that gog cant give back loads of cash for drm free games, drm loaded games like steam can be blocked from launching, suppose they return the cash to a steam user, with that drm stuff they should be able to prevent that game beiing launched from that certain account, drm free has no option to do that.
Personally i think DRM should never have existed in the first place :D
Ubi, EA, Activison are a few of the welknown big DRM lovers.
Securom is a bit of a laugh nowadays , but that old Tages is one mean you know what i mean :D
Tunguska 2 or 3 has that nasty tages so i hope all these secretfiles will come to gog one day so i can buy them here and dump all that drmloaded shits.