Short answer
Work through it in order: confirm the purchase landed on the account and region you expected, then contact the seller with the transaction reference, then the storefront that processed the payment, and only then your bank. Consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law apply to digital products and cannot be removed by a term in a policy. Keep the receipt, the timestamp and the correspondence, because every later step asks for them.
The rights that come with the purchase
Products and services supplied in Australia come with automatic consumer guarantees. They exist independently of any refund policy, and a seller's terms cannot override them. The ACCC sets out what the guarantees cover, including that products must be of acceptable quality and match their description, and that services must be provided with due care and skill.
Two practical consequences follow for games. A "no refunds under any circumstances" line in a purchase screen does not extinguish a guarantee, although it may accurately describe the seller's policy where nothing has gone wrong and you have simply changed your mind. And a guarantee is a claim against the supplier, so identifying who actually sold you the item — the game publisher, or the storefront that took the payment — is the first question to settle rather than the last.
Changing your mind is not a fault
Consumer guarantees address products that are faulty, not as described, or not delivered. Regretting a purchase is a different matter and depends on the seller's own policy. Both are legitimate requests; framing the second as the first tends to slow the response down rather than speed it up.
Charged, but nothing arrived
- Check which account received it. Purchases delivered to a second account created during a failed registration are the single most common cause. The account page explains how that happens.
- Check the region. Items bought through one regional operator do not appear on a profile held with another.
- Allow for a payment hold. Some payments are held briefly for review, particularly a first purchase or an unusually large one, and the item appears when the hold clears.
- Find the transaction reference. Your bank or card statement, the storefront's order history, or the confirmation email will have it. Nothing moves quickly without it.
- Contact the seller in writing, with the reference, the exact time and the account name. Ask for the item to be delivered or the payment reversed, and say which.
- If the storefront processed the payment, raise it there as well; storefronts run their own refund processes and often resolve delivery failures directly.
- Use a chargeback last, not first. A chargeback is a dispute raised through your bank, and some publishers suspend accounts that are the subject of one. Give the seller a genuine chance to fix the problem, and keep evidence that you did.
Anything that renews by itself
Premium accounts, battle passes and subscription services frequently renew automatically, and the renewal is easy to miss when the amount is small. Before buying one, find the cancellation route and confirm where the subscription actually lives — with the publisher, or with the storefront or platform that took the payment, because cancelling in the wrong place cancels nothing.
- Note the renewal date and the amount at the time of purchase.
- Confirm whether cancelling ends access immediately or at the end of the paid period.
- Check your statements for a foreign currency conversion fee where a price is not charged in AUD.
- Keep the confirmation email; it identifies the seller, which matters if there is a dispute.
Randomised items, and why they deserve a separate decision
Many free-to-play games sell containers whose contents are determined by chance. Whatever view you take of them, they are a different kind of purchase from a named item: what is bought is a chance, and the item that arrives may not be the one that motivated the purchase.
Two Australian references are worth knowing here. Computer games sold in Australia are classified under the national classification scheme, and the Australian Classification Board publishes its classification decisions, including the consumer advice attached to each title — that is where to check a specific game rather than relying on a storefront's summary. Separately, the eSafety Commissioner's guidance for parents covers gaming, spending and contact with strangers, and is written for families rather than for regulators.
On a shared or family computer
Unauthorised purchases by a child are common, resolvable, and much easier to prevent than to reverse. Remove stored payment details from the device, require authentication for every purchase at the platform level, and use the parental controls the operating system and the storefront already provide. If a purchase has already been made, approach the storefront first: most have a documented process for exactly this, and it is quicker than a bank dispute.
Buying from anyone other than the publisher or a storefront
Third-party markets sell accounts, keys and in-game currency at a discount. The risks are not evenly distributed: the seller keeps the money immediately, while the buyer holds an asset that may be reclaimed, revoked or attached to an account they do not control. Account trading breaches most publishers' terms, which means a closure carries no right of appeal and no refund.
Where something has gone wrong, or where an offer looks designed to move quickly, Scamwatch accepts reports and publishes current patterns. Reports also feed the National Anti-Scam Centre's picture of what is circulating, which is a reason to file one even when the money is gone.
What to keep, and for how long
| Record | Why it matters | Keep it for |
|---|---|---|
| Order confirmation email | Identifies the seller and the item purchased | At least twelve months |
| Transaction reference and statement line | The only reliable way for a seller to find the payment | At least twelve months |
| Screenshot of the purchase screen | Shows what was described at the time of sale | Until the matter is resolved |
| Support correspondence | Evidence that you gave the seller an opportunity to fix it | Until the matter is resolved, then twelve months |
| Subscription renewal dates | Prevents renewals you did not intend | While the subscription is active |
If it is not resolved
- Put the complaint in writing to the seller, stating what you want and by when. A dated written request is what every later step is built on.
- Escalate to the storefront or platform that processed the payment, if that is a different organisation.
- Contact your state or territory consumer protection agency. Each state and territory has one, and they handle individual consumer disputes; the ACCC lists them and explains what it does and does not do itself.
- Report the conduct to the ACCC where it looks misleading rather than merely unsatisfactory. Reports inform enforcement priorities even where the ACCC does not resolve individual disputes.
- For a privacy issue rather than a money one, raise it with the organisation first, then the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
A note on what this page is
This is general information about where to look and whom to ask, written for readers in Australia. It is not legal advice, and it does not take account of your circumstances. For advice on a specific dispute, the consumer protection agency in your state or territory is the appropriate starting point, and legal aid services exist in every state for matters that go further.
Related reading on this site
- Accounts and sign-in — for purchases that landed on the wrong account.
- Naval games compared — business models before you spend anything.
- Affiliate disclosure — how this site is paid, in full.