I couldn't find the last thread about this, so I've decided my luck at making one myself. I remember there were some European Union users here that were unhappy with being offered store credit for the Choice codes that will never be restocked.

As offering store credit instead of a partial refund on the card used for payment seemed very suspicious, I've decided to inquire with the ECC/Your-Europe-Advice and the local consumer protection authority in my country.

Your-Europe replied:

Unfortunately, we will not be able to help you in this case because your query does not fall within the scope of our Service for one (or more) of the following reasons: - Does not relate to Internal Market rights (freedom of movements of people, goods, services and capital within the EU)

And the local EU backed consumer protection authority told me they can't do anything because the merchant is outside the EU economic space and literally to "call the police" (like police is gonna do anything about this).

Personally, I think this business practice, similar to overbooking flight tickets, should not be tolerated. Either I receive the product I've paid for or give me the money back (on my card, in the currency I paid in, not USD and not store credit).

Fellow EU users, if you managed to get any help with this, how did you do it?

6 days ago*

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When Humble offered credit, did you refuse the credit and insist on the original payment method being refunded instead?

I doubt it is illegal to offer store credit, but it is probably illegal to refuse to credit the original payment source if such is requested. That's why Steam and Amazon offer both options, for example.

6 days ago
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I told them I want the money, not credit. No answer so far. However, from the other thread, someone did the same thing and they did not answer for a week. Who knows if they'll ever answer.

6 days ago
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Same. I got an auto-reply that they were looking into it and then nothing.
I'm surprised by the reply from The ECC though as their own website insists that businesses that are located outside the EU have to comply with EU consumer protection laws when dealing with EU customers.
I think it's a case of auto-reply gone wrong and they just meant it falls outside their purview as they only deal with EU businesses in an enforcement capacity.

5 days ago*
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Well, it looks like Humble isn't offering credits anymore either. I didn't receive 16 keys (most of which will definitely not have any supplies) and this is what they auto-replied (I wasn't the only one who received a letter with similar content; but this is also evident from the wording of the text itself, which clearly does not answer specific questions):

Jai (Customer Service)

Mar 14, 2025, 6:02 PM PDT

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out to Humble Bundle Support! I'm sorry to hear there have been issues with receiving keys for your order.

The keys to this product are temporarily exhausted, meaning we have depleted our current stock of keys. We receive all of our keys manually in batches, and once we acquire more keys, the affected download and store pages will be updated. Unfortunately, we cannot provide estimated times for when we anticipate receiving more keys, but we greatly appreciate your patience.

Rest assured, we are working on acquiring more keys from our partners, and we are very sorry for the delay! If you receive a key exhaustion error on your download page, you will be informed via your registered email address once more keys are in stock, though we recommend you check back on your download page from time to time. More information is available in our Key Exhaustion Errors help article.

Please let us know if you need any additional assistance with this order, as we will be happy to help as much as possible!

Regards,
-Jai
Humble Bundle

No ANY offer to solve the situation, "keep waiting" (I wait a year for some keys and of course they won't be there).
After trying to continue the conversation with them, I only received one more automatic answer:

Hi there,

Thanks for getting back in touch with us!

We are genuinely very sorry for any continued issues caused by this key exhaustion. We also understand that the long wait for keys can be frustrating and discouraging, and we want to extend our apologies for the delay you have had to endure.

Key exhaustions do not have a set time that they last, as some are resolved very quickly while others may span multiple weeks. Therefore, it all depends on how quickly we can receive additional keys from our partners to refill our key pool, and we are sorry for the wait once again. While we cannot offer an estimate of when these will be replenished, as soon as keys are available, an email will be sent to the address registered for the purchase experiencing key exhaustion.

Our internal teams are still working directly with our developer partners to obtain additional keys for all active key exhaustions. We will continue to do so until the keys are restocked; however, we're sorry that members of the Support team won't have any additional information to provide on this specific key exhaustion or expectations for when the keys will arrive.

Your unwavering patience and understanding are greatly appreciated, and please let us know if you need any additional help or action taken on the purchase in question!

Sincerely,
-Jai
Humble Bundle

After which they sent an "Y/N" form asking if I was happy with the support service and it looks like they closed my ticket. х)
That's all. Just "charming".

6 days ago
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14th of March? I submitted my complaint last week, right before the weekend, and I got credit.
Seems like it's just a case-by-case basis/random and they don't actually give credit to everyone.
Since I got the credit much later than you, I'd say keep pressuring them. It's definitely possible for you to also get some compensation.

6 days ago
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Hmm, thanks for this information!
If you remember, which branch of their support did you choose for this (I think in my attempt it was "Content Redemption Issue")?
Based on your reply to another comment and this topic directly, I'm guessing it was a "Refund Request"?

6 days ago*
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I went "Bundle/Store Purchase", then "Keys Are Temporarily Exhausted".
My original message sums up to "hey, I bought this a year ago, but still didn't get the thing I purchased, so will you either give me the games or my money?".
If it matters, the missing games were from March 2024 Choice (U-Boat, Soulstice, Afterimage). I explicitly told them I still didn't get those.

Best of luck.

5 days ago
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Hola! I'm with exactly the same 3 keys exhausted from Mar'24. I will follow the same path, to see if I can get the refund/credit. Thanks for the information!

1 day ago
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I think it depends on the games.
There are games that are marked "out of stock" even though they know they will never get more keys and they are not telling anyone but when people open a ticket, they get store credit.
I can only assume the games you mentioned will be restocked... one day, for about 3 and a half minutes it takes for the new keys to get exhausted so they are not making the effort.

5 days ago
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No (as far as I know), most of these are games like "Fashion Police Squad", "Milky Way Prince" (to very quickly known examples of permanently missing keys) and many others of this kind, which have been lying in my "wait" status for a very long time, after I was unable to give them to the people I wanted to. In all this time, if I was attentive enough, I received notifications about the replenishment of expected games only twice, and one of these two times was after writing to support three years earlier.
I can only assume that I posted in the wrong support thread or that I was unlucky with whoever handled my ticket.

5 days ago
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I had the same experience. I asked about two games, got the reply they attempt to restock.
I asked if they'd stop trying to restock after three years, they denied that.
I quoted one reply people got here, receiving compensation for one game I was missing too. My support contact just ignored it.

Then I asked if I should just open a new ticket as they aren't helping, to get a more useful support member. Or if I should just post on Reddit how Humble treats customers very differently, for the 100% identical issue. After that they gave me some credit.

5 days ago*
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"Then I asked if I should just open a new ticket as they aren't helping, to get a more useful support member. Or if I should just post on Reddit how Humble treats customers very differently, for the 100% identical issue. After that they gave me some credit. "

I would not have bothered telling them, just would have opened a new ticket. As for Reddit, mods there are paid shills who'll ban you for speaking out. Nagging the guy did pay off in the end.

If you're in the EU, I'd suggest pressuring them to get the money on your card instead of credit, unless you would have spent it on Humble anyway. People should not let them off the hook so easily.

5 days ago
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Thanks, I really needed your advice on all the matters that I already solved to my full satisfaction.

5 days ago
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It is Scam Bundle.
The mods of the reddit of Hunble Bundle are internet water armies, and they delete all posts which are not good for Scam Bundle.

6 days ago
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It's pretty much an open secret that Reddit mods of major subs (Blizzard games, for example) are on a full-time payroll to do damage control.
I'm glad at least we can discuss these matters freely here.

5 days ago
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They said that they are unoffical reddit😂😂😂

5 days ago
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reddit died ages ago and is no longer a safe trusted site.
once you give the people who are selling shit the power to delete anything it all falls apart

3 days ago
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I don't think there's a place where there's total freedom of speech. Other places like FB or YouTube also delete messages, or somewhere are forums that less people use.
This is sad.

2 days ago
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Here from Italy.
About 3 years ago my HumbleBundle account got suspended from payements, I asked the reason without receiving answers, and after the third complain they decided to delete it without stating any reason. (Later here on this site I found out I probably got flagged for receive gift-links from other flagged accounts). But I still had 1 month credit from the monthly choice, so they actually stole it from me.
I did my research here and on reddit and decided to file a case against Ziff Davis, Inc (their mother company) on Better Business Bureau. I had screenshot of all the questions without answers from their support, and the bill for the 12-months credits. In two months I got my money back.

If it can be of any help

5 days ago
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That's interesting. Especially considering Humble is not apparently under the Better Business Bureau umbrella but I assume Ziff Davis is.

5 days ago
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Grazie! Invaluable info indeed. Glad you managed to sort it out in the end.
I would not have expected a US based consumer protection authority to do its job, but this gives me hope.

5 days ago
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Sometimes it helps to write to their support account on Twitter/X. I remember that when I made a purchase by mistake (added a game in the cart meant for the wishlist), and they were lazy in the answers

5 days ago
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I got promises and told off to wait, for the same games where at least one person got (partial) credit for.

They don't even know what they are doing.

5 days ago
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Or they are getting way too many requests for refund because the word spread and now they 86ed that whole thing.
But I think it's most likely that they actually thought they could appease people who were mad enough to make support tickets by throwing them a few bucks of "store credit" and found out that didn't help so their policy is back to saying "chill, we'll restock it... someday"

I still believe threats of bad publicity will move the needle if you really want store credit but it depends on how green the support personnel you're talking to is.

5 days ago
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Those five guys that do support for Humble must be reconsidering their career choice right about now...

5 days ago
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Yep. Support for anything is usually a pretty sh!t job... and then there's Humble.

5 days ago
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Update: Humble bundle replied.

Hi there,

I'm going to escalate your request to a specialist for additional assistance. Our specialists will work as quickly as possible to address all concerns in this ticket and provide a response once they have completed their investigation.

We appreciate your patience while we continue to work to address this issue further!

I expect a huge wait leading up to nothing, although I'd like to be pleasantly surprised for once.

5 days ago*
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That's pretty much what I got after I told them I wouldn't take store credit and still no actual response.
Oh well, you live you learn. No more Humble for me. Thanks for the update.

5 days ago
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Same here. The new draconic region restrictions and decreasing bundle quality already made me cancel my subscription. This outright illegal behavior should be the final straw for many other people. It's sad, but good things never last.

You're welcome. I'll update it again if they DO reply after this.

5 days ago
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Second update:

Thanks so much for waiting while I investigated the issue at hand! My name is Judy, and as the Customer Support Supervisor, I will be happy to address your ticket moving forward.
Regrettably, as our team at Humble Support consists of non-legal professionals, we are unable to offer insights into the laws or regulations specific to your country or region concerning your order. Such matters fall beyond the scope of the support services we provide. We understand the importance of legal considerations, and we apologize for any inconvenience. Please note that we cannot facilitate refunds, compensation, or exceptions to our policies based on requests associated with the mentioned laws and regulations. We offer refunds based on our Terms of Service and must uphold the policies in place here.
Your feedback is valuable to us, and we will relay any actionable input to our internal teams for a thorough review. We aim to continually enhance our processes and policies, and your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated. Should you have a specific legal question or a more direct report, please reach out to legal@ziffdavis.com.

So what I get is:

  1. They can't do shit about it.
  2. Their ToS is above any law when it comes to refunds.

I guess it's off to Better Business Bureau then.

4 days ago
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And
3) As soon as you mention laws and regulations that they will give the case to their legal department.

4 days ago
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They should anyway. But they won't because they're just support and the countdown to them being replaced entirely by AI has already started.

4 days ago
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lol so basically "look, we don't know the law, we just enforce the Humble law and don't care if they are illegal or not but you can ask someone else"
They really are begging for a lawsuit at this point.

4 days ago
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Yeah, I'm honestly surprised they've been getting away with so much crap for years, but this is the hemorrhoid cherry on top of the shitcake that current day Humble is.
Leaving quality of bundles and their prices aside, this and them deciding to take away old keys after 3 years (which still work if you have them written somewhere else) is outright illegal.
I'd like to see them get what's coming to them, but that's just wishful thinking at this point.

I'll give the BBB a shot and also rephrase my inquiry at ECC to accentuate how they're an entity that is allowed to operate in the EU market.

3 days ago
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lmao that image will stay with me

Bundle quality varies for users I guess. I have been pretty unhappy for the last year or so but that's what pausing is for, right? However you are right, this whole ninja TOS retroactive time limit is completely illegal, even in countries that have minimal customer protection, you can't make unilateral changes to a contract your customer agreed to without asking them to accept the changes for one thing, and you definitely can't make changes retroactive. It's forward, not backward or else what would be the point of laws and TOS in the first place?

I think they'll get what's coming to them, tbh. If the only people getting the keys from bundles are the bot farms buying thousands of them to shop them to the grey market, I think their model is pretty much over.

I'll give the BBB a shot and also rephrase my inquiry at ECC to accentuate how they're an entity that is allowed to operate in the EU market.

Yeah the ECC reply was odd tbh. I hope the BBB is more helpful. Considering everything that's protecting people against corporations in the US is being stripped and sold for parts right now, their days might be numbered. They are not governmental but they probably relied on funds to function, I dunno. Anyway good luck to you

3 days ago
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What a shitshow lol

4 days ago
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3 days ago
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Happy cake day!

2 days ago
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I would recommend forwarding info to someone like SmashJT to potentially bring more light about the issue to other people.
He would almost certainly be interested in talking more about bs involving Ziff Davis.

https://www.youtube.com/smashjt
info@SmashJT.com

2 days ago
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Thanks, will do! Never heard of this guy until now, but making this public through Youtubers will put HB's PR image in danger.

I wonder if moldman himself from Accursed Farms would also like to look at this, but he probably has his hands full with Stop Killing Games at the moment.

16 hours ago
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BBB isn't a government organization, its effectively a yelp that some companies care about dealing with complaints from.

2 days ago
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Neither are things like the British Ombudsman for example, but frankly I am running out of options...

16 hours ago
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Expected and fair for users solely want to profit off Humble. Did i say i 100% support HB on this matter?

2 days ago
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They must have worked a lot to give us that store credit and didn't just generate it out of thin air, haha.

16 hours ago
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What gets me when a bundle says one of your keys is temporarily out of stock, and after a few months it is still 'temporarily out of stock', when you go to their store page, guess what they're still selling? That's right. The game they are apparently 'out of stock' of keys for.

1 day ago
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There's laws that protect you against overbooking flights, which is similar to this.
The difference between this and overbooking is that HB's almost admitting to selling you something they don't have.
They should not get a pass for this.

16 hours ago
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Just as an FYI for everyone

You can't get even a partial refund of annual Humble Monthly subscription, if the purchase was made more than 60 days ago.

1 day ago
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