With everything that's been said (or thrown-around?) so far, let's try to come to a bit of a resolution, here.

In my judgement, here's how I'd summarize everything:

Amerika is not entitled to a refund, because he initiated one of the downloads for the game, which set off a flag. If that flag is set, GOG will not refund his purchase, as per their policy. I don't think he ever disputed this -- and the reason he made this thread was to express that maybe GOG's policies could use some tweaking, or that their server-side metrics/tools could be improved in order to help-out customers in exceptional cases like this.

Again, I'm honestly not seeing a whole lot of wrong.

#1 reason was because you could get American Nightmare for 25% off rather than just 10% off. The other reasons are I had never bought from here and I had always heard it was a good/reliable place to get games. A while back I had never bought from Amazon's digital distribution and it turned out to be a rather nice experience. So I wanted to give GoG a try. I don't mind throwing my money around to things I've heard are good and I don't mind giving new services a try.

And they should plaster "DRM-FREE!!!11" on every game page.

I'm not sure you'll get any extras with any purchase from Steam, beside the Collector's Edition. Can someone confirm this?

Also, I don't think I am out of line with my request due to the time frame in which I made that original forum post and submitted my support ticket. A simple time stamp would show I am not lying.

But if the best I could hope for is that something gets improved with GoG then it would at least give me a bit of piece of mind even if it's not helpful to my situation, which, lets face it...is not all that dire since I still have access to the game. It is the principal of the matter and I do really appreciate companies with stellar support.
Of course I want to play the game! It's killing me to not be able to download it right now in the hopes that somebody from support will stumble upon this and go "oh, yeah sure we can help out". But if I download it right now I'll lose any hope of that. I am also a bit soured on wanting to play it right now. That will go away I know but for now I can wait.

No. You shouldn't be punished for anything. What you should be is reminded of is that you should go into any purchase with both of your eyes open, being sure that what you're getting is what you want, vs. what you assume you're getting. This isn't a slight on you, (again, I've made some bad purchasing decisions on GOG based on shoddy WINE compatibility reports) but a simple statement that you really should have made sure that you were geting a Steamworks compatible game, vs. assuming that a game was Steamworks compatible without any evidence, just because others were doing it too. The argument from ignorance is not an adequate defence. There wasn't any hard factual evidence to disprove the presence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq...so that means there had to be Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq...right?

In all seriousness, there wasn't anything stopping you from checking out GOG, their background, or their terms of sale. That's something that consumers should do in general when faced with offers or vendors from sources they haven't encountered before.

This. Caveat Emptor.

Do you have any inside knowledge whatsoever of how their backend e-commerce software and download metrics operate? Do you have any expertise in coding, managing or supporting such systems? Just because things "look easy" to a non-programmer, doesn't mean that they are.

He doesn't have a problem. He made an erroneous purchasing decision based on faulty evidence and logic, and is trying to pin the blame on GOG for an error he made. I'd be more sympathetic if this was due to some sort of glitch or technical error (e.g. PayPal/CC tomfoolery) but from what I've seen, he's complaining about the fact that he tried to buy a Steamworks game from a site which sells DRM-free games...and got a game without Steamworks. That's what GOG offered, and that's what he got. This whole business of how "it wasn't stated EXPLICITLY" is a red herring at best.

Hmm... Ok... now take a deep breath. Relax for a minute and ask yourself: Will the game itself be of any different quality if it is played after downloading it from here or from steam?

If you're not a fan of conspiracy theories, why did you write it ?

The policy was in place before you brought the game, yet you chose to suggest the possibility that GOG might be hiding behind the policy. Any number of denials on your part won't change that.

Yes. I have fully explained this in multiple posts. You chide me for not reading the entirety of the site's ToS including their refund policy and you can't even be bothered to read a couple posts up?

I also admitted to my mistake and provided the context that lead to the mistake and the reasoning behind my expectations which were not out of line. I asked for support minutes after my purchase and stated that I had clicked the original .exe that was 10 meg and another file I believe (which I think was the manual). I also thought this was a 100% Steamworks game which allowed me to download from where I bought from or from Steam. I put that in the ticket. I was responded to in a very short email that didn't include any of what I wrote by a person who apparently didn't even look at the timestamps...let alone have access to more information.

I screwed up. I asked for help and received none nor is GoG equipped to help anybody in my situation. That's my problem. Please focus on that.
Just wondering. Have you ever seen the South Park episode that was about Apple and the creation of the "Centi-Ipad"? If you have seen it you'll probably laugh a bit.

If you can overlook the lack of steamness, the game should still work just fine. If you don't mind farther feeding my curiosity, why are you so determined to get you game tied up with Steam? What are you hoping to accomplish?

I'm trying to give him the benifit of the doubt that maybe he's just lost his temper. Most Steam users don't recognize steam as being drm, so coming across the revelation that it is drm is probably shocking. And when a site says it is DRM-free, it means DRM-free. Hopefully, he'll chill out in time and release that the PC gaming world is a little more diverse and doesn't completely revolve around Steam :)

Hopefully, a mod will step in, I think this topic could use an official two cents.

edit:
I have seen that episode of South Park, a little too much for taste especially since I was, unfortunately, already familar with the source material it derived from (thanks TvTropes >< ).

My point was that unless their tech staff have given you intimate working knowledge of their operations (not likely) you can't judge from a distance whether or not their tools for tracking downloads are faulty or not. I'd concede to you the point if you were working for say, a software store like GamersGate or a music store like Amazon's. The problem here is that you're asking GOG to take responsibility for your mistake, and more than that, you're demanding for them to give you special treatment for a problem which is effectively a non-issue from an objective point of view. And it is a non-issue because GOG didn't mislead or falsely advertise what they were selling. They didn't do anything wrong. And the moral of that story was to always, always, always be sure of what you're getting into before you hit the button saying "agree". Or "buy now".

I just like the services Steam provides. I know full well that Steam is a form of DRM but DRM is not evil by itself...it's how companies use it. I fully understand people wanting to protect their work and to be paid for what they have worked hard for and to help ensure that their future is certain so they can provide for their families.

I get that so I don't mind when services like Steam layer DRM with a ton of other features that allows games to be accessible from anywhere. I also love Valve as a company (any company that does not hire managers is good in my book) and I like supporting them.

Also, I have not lost my temper. This is a matter of principle. It's $15 dollars and it's not like "lost" the money since I have access to the game. I am not throwing a temper tantrum because I was told no and I have clearly outlined the entire situation and what lead me to my purchase, how I realized my error, what I did about it and then how I was responded to. If GoG would have emailed me and included my actual support ticket and given me the courtesy of an explanation as to why they could not give me a Steam key (at the time I didn't know if it was possible or not), a refund or store credit. I'm a reasonable guy and I make a decent living so $15 bucks isn't the issue. But when I make a mistake and I use the Support link a few minutes later to assist in correcting that mistake and they can't even take the time to type of an email to me which explains the situation? Of course I'm going to be less than happy.

So yes, It's a mater of principle. I should have let the issue drop a while ago but I guess I'm still hanging on due to my boredom of not playing Alan Wake on an uneventful Wednesday night. And do you read absolutely every single ToS on every site that you visit or purchase from in their entirety? I am not using that as an excuse but I am curious to know your answer. Does everyone on GoG go and find every single site they visits ToS and read them in their entirety?

And yes, it is fully my right to judge GoG as a consumer as I would expect them to have similar support tools to other websites who perform similar services. If they had even one of the options I described with their current tool my situation would have been happily resolved. But apparently what they use doesn't even show time stamps. I don't see how you could not allow me a little leeway in regards to being upset.

Mmhh - i think the thread now goes around in circles.

But as a sidenote u are aware of the fact that u can add non-steamwork games to the steamclient, aren't u?

Fair enough, sounds reasonable. It was mostly the tone in your posts that had me wondering if you were a bit too hot beneath the collar. It probably is for the best that you don't play the game for now, and wait a bit to see if someone official will step into the topic. No guarentee, but I think the title of topic will attract their attention. In the meantime, as I mentioned before, why don't you check out the free games here to kill some time.

As for not getting a response, reread your emails they did explain that they detected that you at the very least started the download and other people have posted a link explaining this sites policy. But, I'm not going to keep harping on this since I feel like we're on a merry-go-round as well.

I haven't used Steam much, but I did recall seeing a function where you can add nonSteam games to Steam as Asturaetus mentioned. Have you checked that out?

edit: Yep there is an option. See attached image