They do not specify that in their policy so I think it might depend largely on their mood and/or your country of origin. For example, in my country online sellers are required by law to offer a full refund within a period of two weeks after purchase for any reason at all. And since their policy (obviously) states that they comply with regional laws I figure I would get one should I go that route.

That's not how it works. You waive your right to refund if you start using the product, e.g. open the box, or access the digital download. Afterwards, any refunds are discretionary. In fact that's why the document you linked to is called "Voluntary Refund Policy."

Separately, when you pay by credit card, merchants get charged for processing a chargeback, so they would be losing money in this case. And for this very reason they might only be inclined to offer you store credit, if anything at all.

Just a thought, in my opinion people who are asking for any changes need to be mindful that CDPR is a company where human beings exist. They are not on another planet. They too have to deal with the insanity that we are dealing with in 2020. The "human malware" issue from Wuhan, stock markets going bonkers, employment issues (people working from home, not being able to travel at all (I literally cannot leave Japan right now), major companies that ship out discs having uncommon/major shipping issues... I mean the list could go on and on.

I think some people are thinking of themselves a bit here, and forgetting that if you REALLY like CDPR and the games they make, maybe we should be a little more mindful and forgiving of what they are likely dealing with (all developers for that matter). I have enjoyed watching their youtube discussion videos, where they seem like genuine artists that want to make a real game and not just another "cash cow" game. I want them to stay healthy and safe so they can continue to do what they do.

Let's give them a little breathing room maybe? Maybe not make assumptions about what they can and cannot control right now (especially in 2020). I know I made some assuming/strong statements, but let's just not forget what is going on around the world right now. Other people are dealing with it just like we might be, even if we don't see it.

Gorgie, first off, calling out a company is not the same as criticizing its constituent individuals and if the employees feel personally attacked by the former then that is their issue that they have to figure out.

It is bizarre that in this day and age they still have not taken the necessary steps to ensure that they do not discriminate against their retail customers. Offering the preload (which is already encrypted anyway) to anyone would be one such solution since actually accessing the game would still require a GOG code that someone who bought it physically would have. The infrastructure exists, all that is lacking is ... I don’t even know what. Surely not the brains to arrive that is conclusion. The will, clearly, but I have no idea why.

It is how it works here. If you find a broken product inside the packaging you get to return it even though it is opened. Without downloading you cannot assess this for yourself. Besides, the preload (the only thing of interest to us here) would not even constitute a full download since it misses the last parts of the games and is encrypted to boot. Furthermore, actually installing and starting the game is generally what is considered use in the case of software which is why many return policies specify play time as a criterion.

tl;dr: This workaround would not invalidate one’s right to a refund, especially not where I live.

With a couple of exceptions, why would it even matter where you live? If you think the laws of Germany would automatically apply, that's not the case. This is what you agreed to: https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212632089-GOG-User-Agreement And more importantly: In any case, no need to prove anything to me, I don't care. I was just trying to save you the disappointment. You willingly entered a contract, and agreed to be bound by the user agreement. You might still get a refund if you do what you describe but it would be on compassionate grounds. Your best bet would be to say your computer is too crappy to run this game, and that you didn't know it in advance. But legally, you have no case here.

That is not to excuse the way retail PC pre-orders are being handled, which could have been better. But it was clear from the start that it was going to work like that. Some other solutions could include: (1) contacting the store to send you the code or the whole pre-order earlier, or (2) buying the game again on GOG, and gifting or selling the code from the physical pre-order to somebody else.

Could have at least let us preload. For people like me with bad internet, that would have been so great

Good news! Maybe a moderator saw this forum, or someone enacted my support ticket, but I got an email this morning from GAME, the exclusive distributor for the UK, saying my Collector's Edition is being shipped today with 24-hour delivery. Which means I will get it tomorrow (Wednesday), will be able to preload the game, and will be able to download the rest at midnight!

I can only hope CDPR took my advice generally, and that all physical copy purchasers also got/will get an email today saying their copy is on its way too!

Damn for real? I hope they make some official statement or something, I hope this not gonna happened only in UK but for every country tho.

Me too! Good luck! Where are you in the world? If Eastern Europe, there will be CDPR involvement, so you have a better chance, I hope!

Well where im from is written under 2 row of my profile pic on the thread, yea so im still possibly not getting any help.

Excuse me for being an idiot!!!! Yea, Malaysia don't know. Hopefully an early delivery on the 10th! :)

For those that have purchased the game from GOG did you get a "retail" code to allow preloading? Cause I didn't. There is a code to buy some gear cheaper but that is all I can find. The platform knows I own the game so that is not an issue.

If you bought CP direct from GOG it should show in the GOG Galaxy library from where you can preload.

The case is we bought the physical version from the official website of CP2077 that gave us option to buy from retail. If you are thinking we bought from blackmarket or some untrusted source, we are not. The problem now is, the code that in the physical copy is needed to redeem from gog, we are buying from gog, but there is no way that we know what the code is thus we cant have the game in gog library. And now even you pre-load, you will still stop by Johny and tell you go back to sleep, that means no people can play the game even its preload. Every buyer get to preload even for physical version for console but not pc.