It's always fascinating to witness, how few people understand this simple truth.

Yep, deservedly so, and the OP already got their answer or answers ... and none of it is rocket science.

And really, the best answer is - THINK BEFORE YOU BUY.

You don’t have to stand up for nothing! You’re not affiliated with GoG. The poster put up a valid post and GoG also stated they would refund ANY game that is downloaded AND played. The end.

Stop being antagonistic. This place is getting a s bad as Steam - only been there 19 years! Ever since friggin social media came on the scene everyone is a lawyer/reported/admin/moderator or a narcissist. Me,me I’m the most important person in this thread. It’s a joke…

I have asked for a (wallet) refund a couple of times, and IIRC in each case the reason was I accidentally bought the wrong edition of the game, e.g. without its DLCs, and wanted to swap it to the other edition. I got the refunds for those pretty fast, probably because they were wallet refunds I guess.

In one case GOG offered me a refund because the game wouldn't work on Windows 7 even thought 7 was listed as a supported OS, but since the game worked in Windows 10 anyway, I declined their offer and kept the game. I think it was probably Battlefleet Gothic Armada 1 or 2. I recall there was some discussion back then it didn't work for anyone in Windows 7 (so I tested it too), not sure if something has changed and now it works in 7 as it is still listed as supported on the gamecards, but I couldn't care less, I don't have a Windows 7 PC anymore ever since my old ASUS G75WV gaming laptop got broken and was replaced by a Lenovo Legion 5 Pro Windows 11 gaming laptop...
I agree GOG withholds the right to decline a refund in case they feel someone is misusing the refund policy, e.g. keeps asking for refunds repeatedly.

However, I am unsure why anyone would even go through that ordeal when the other option is just to pirate the game online. Or are there some kind of righteous pirates who refuse to actually pirate a game, but still want it for free?

I don't know why the OP asked for a refund and whether he has repeatedly asked for refunds in the past, but I guess that is irrelevant. Why not accept wallet funds though, or is this some kind of complicated money laundering operation?

This is my guess, but the answer is both obvious and not obvious. And obvious.

Obviously OP wants a refund because according to GOG's policy, he can purchase games, download them, play them, and refund them within 30 days, and everything is ok.

This is not obvious to GOG who promoted this policy exactly this way, but in the fine print, also said that they don't have to because people might abuse the system...surely not?

And yet this situation is obvious to everyone who was around at the time this policy was launched, most people said it was a bad idea, and sure enough, people legitimately buying games have to wait ages now for support while some other people clog up the system with these requests.

Bravo GOG.

I mean this is not true. This is how their refund policy starts - this is the first sentence of it. But it is definitely not how it ends. If you think the first sentence is all that matters in the refund policy then you clearly did not write this for the sake of making a good argument ...

I've seen plenty of posts like this one and usualy there is nothing really we can do. But I think it is reasonable to asume there is a problem but we don't know on which side. We got minimal information and some inconsistencies in the poster responses but it may be for the best if he does not share it all if he want his money back... Personally not the biggest fan of the refund policy exactly because of these kind of situations. He bought it here, then he bought it on steam - so the game(s) was clearly not the issue... Nobody really asked about the most important question which is how much time did u spend playing these games which I assume is the number 1 reason to not get a refund. But then how much time is too much and what if you play offline? And having a refund history is also a factor...

I beg to differ: the OP stated (quote): "One is Baldur's Gate 3 and the other is Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Premium Edition.
[...] the ones I want most refunded are BG3 and Age of Wonders.

I already own both games on Steam."

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/my_refund_hasnt_been_answered_for_more_than_6_days/post11

That tells me, that he owned the games (one a $66,- the other a $71,- game) on Steam first, and then bought them here a second time.

That's not exactly the kind of money you spend (a second time!) on games - whether you like them, or not.
Because that's a hefty sum.

Now, maybe he bought them in April, when both were discounted ($54,- and $16,24), but ~$70,- is still a hefty sum for games you already own.

Makes you think: "what's the dfference between the GOG version of a game and the Steam version of a game?"
Hm...let's see...
Ah: "DRM-freeness! - that's the difference."

The GOG version - one can download, then ask for a refund.
And then start gifting copies of the downloaded game, to one's brother, one's best buddy, one's second cousin...

I have only refunded one purchase on my previous account and was surprised at how smoothly the whole thing went. On one hand this is great for people who will respect that they no longer have legal ownership of any games that they have refunded (meaning that they delete them) but this system is so easy to abuse for bad actors.

That is true. That is why I mentioned the refund history may come in play here too. But for BG3 specifically- isn't the game DRM free on steam too? Cant you do the exact same thing there - you can make a copy of your game folder to anyone - and then even refund it ... and on top of that I think the game is part of the family share program which means you can even legally share it with "others"(that are often not family so why bother getting it here too?

I have the impression that you didn't read the posts properly or didn't understand them properly. I have not been antagonistic or rude in any way. Or maybe you just like to play the noble knight for no good reason? ;-)

Of course I'm connected to GOG. I am a customer and even a long-time one. :)

And of course I also have the opportunity to help, I am in contact with GOG employees and we all here could definitely ask them with a PM.

And when people asked for help (whether to me personally or the community in general), it is certainly appropriate to find out whether you can or want to help at all. You should always be careful, especially on the anonymous Internet. The fact that purchases here on GOG were made by the thread creator even though the games are already in the library on Steam is definitely a reason to be skeptical.

If GOG is harmed by unfair intentions, which I "DO NOT" want to imply here, it harms all honest customers.

Maybe you should reflect on that again.

But the OP put this question to the community because they wanted community pressure put on GOG to speed up their refund, right?

Otherwise they would have waited for the GOG response without making a forum post.
Similarly I refund very rarely (as I try to be careful with my purchases. and refunds are never and should never be a sure fire thing)

As a result of buying many games and refunding few games, every game I've tried to refund, either on GOG or Steam has usually gone through without hassle.

I refunded Hades on Steam because it was a 95%+ reviewed game and despite it not being my thing I thought it might break the mould...it did not.

I refunded two Rimworld DLCs on GOG because it was cheaper to buy both the base game and those two DLCs on steam (not because of discounts, because of regional pricing), and because I didn't want to be locked into 150% price markup for future DLCs too.

The only refund I've had rejected was for the Halo bundle on Steam, which requires a third party login to a Microsoft account, and the account was accepted at first, and then required a phone number registered after;a few days otherwise it wouldn't log in.

That was horrific and I didn't buy anything on Steam for a year after that but the issue resolved itself when I tried a year later.

I've probably refunded about the same number of games in my lifetime also. Like you say, the best approach is to simply be careful with what you purchase. I guess the nice thing about GOG is that even if my refund got rejected I would at least own the game indefinitely which can't be said for other services.

My only requested refund was legend of kay, it was listed as working on mac and, at that time, I was using a mac and it did not work.
It was a bug.
At that time the policy of gog was to refund games only if they were not working and they could not fix them.
So I got the refund.

I also requested a refund for the witcher 3 because the updated version got a drm.... and the download of the old version was not working.
They fixed the download of the old version so I decided to abort my request of refund.

I also requested a refund for Deus Ex MD, I don't remember if I got it before they removed the drm or not, but I bought it again after it was drm-free.

Outside of gog I requested a refund for one kickstarter game that was really late on the release date. I got it that time (I know they can keep the money if they want, that's why I don't usually crowdfund anything).

I usually do not request a refund, I only buy games that I want to play so I only ask for a refund if things are not working as expected, and I hate to request a refund.

People who buy games and ask for a refund just to play them for free for me are just stupid... expecially on gog... piracy for piracy no reason to buy/request a refund in the first place, just download it from the internet if you want to pirate the game anyway. I really cannot understand people like that.

One word: viruses.

Hahahahahahah....good one
(I don't mean re: the OP post)