I tried asking for a refund, given the lack of official acknowledgement – unless you count https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/81608/updated-12-01-reported-issue-megathreads-check-here-for-your-issue, but those are issues 'under investigation by Ubisoft support' and 'not all of these issues are yet recognised / under investigation by the developers'.

This is the answer I received:

Unfortunately, in this instance no refund is possible for your Assassin's Creed Valhalla Gold Edition because your refund request does not comply with our refund policy.

For more clarification regarding our refund policy please see our FAQ:
https://support.ubisoft.com/en-au/Article/000062176/Requesting-a-Refund-for-Digital-Purchases

However please rest assured that the development team are aware of the reported issue with audio quality and investigating it. Please keep an eye on our official website and forum for future news and updates of the game:
https://www.ubisoft.com/en-au/game/assassins-creed/valhalla
https://discussions.ubisoft.com/category/25/assassin-s-creed?lang=en-US

The silver lining I guess is that this is as close as it comes to an official acknowledgement. Yet if they are investigating it, why is not reported on the list of known issues? https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/76980/assassin-s-creed-valhalla-known-issues-updated-jan-8?lang=en-US&sort=newest_to_oldest

Meanwhile I am quite incensed I paid premium price for a new game (not a preorder) with such dysfunctional audio – especially after such good reviews that gave me no indication this could be an issue for me going in. As @CaptainStarPaw said previously, I tend to dismiss the graphics/audio of online videos due to their variable quality.

It is only after running the game (which nullifies your ability to refund – how dodgy is that to begin with) I found out about the terrible audio. I feel quite cheated to be honest.

---

Ubisoft: 'Hey Valhalla players, here's a tune an official acknowledgment for you!'
Valhalla players: still waiting for sound acknowledgement

@UbiKobold I can understand the logic behind wanting to split the threads down for each specific issue. But given the lack of any solution 8 months on, it feels more like an attempt to dilute this issue down, and hope it goes away. I mean for goodness sake, the first link of your response in the original thread doesn't even work!

Please stop dancing around the issue, and give us a concrete idea of what is going on at Ubi's end. If you don't know, then tell us. If anyone at Ubi is really looking at this, then please tell us. We've been asked questions over and over, assured "the team is aware", etc. but we are yet to see any actual proof of it. We know absolutely nothing about what is going on, and the prospects of this being fixed seem to get lower by the day. Hopefully you can see this is a pretty frustrating situtation for the community?


I would also like to point out to any Australians here that under Victorian law, you're due a repair for a malfunctioning product. If the provider of the product doesn't repair in a timely manner, you're eligible to ask for a refund. Note also that this applies to a product you would not have bought if you had known about the issue before purchasing. See more at https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/products-and-services/problems-with-a-product/faulty-product: (https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/products-and-services/problems-with-a-product/faulty-product).

First you have to submit a formal complaint, which in my case support have helpfully forwarded to the relevant team. Or so they say, I didn't hear back from them in a month, by that time I had moved on with the next step of the process (I had asked for a resolution within 10 days; yeah I know right). If no repair is provided in a timely manner, then you are entitled to do a charge back on the transaction by asking your bank to do it. If the provider doesn't challenge it within a month, you are refunded.

This is how I got my refund.

Check you local legislation, hopefully wherever you are there is something similar that applies to you. It's a bit of trouble to go through, but don't be intimidated by the process, or by Ubisoft. If the law is on your side and there is a clear process about this, Ubisoft are not going to do anything. And if enough people kick up a stink about this, then maybe they will start paying attention. We have more rights as consumers than we are usually led to believe - especially by dodgy t&cs like Ubisoft's "you open the digital game you can't refund it". Well guess what, I did. And through no help from Ubisoft.

Take this into you own hands, Ubi are not going to change their practices if we take crap like this lying down.

@therealdaemon I am in Australia. We have the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to oversee exactly these kind of disputes.

As per their Repair, Replace, Refund page: (https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees/repair-replace-refund) (emphasis mine)

You can ask for a replacement or refund if the problem with the product is major.

and...

A product or good has a major problem when:
- it has a problem that would have stopped someone from buying it if they’d known about it
- it is significantly different from the sample or description
- it is substantially unfit for its common purpose and can’t easily be fixed within a reasonable time
- it doesn’t do what you asked for and can’t easily be fixed within a reasonable time; or
- it is unsafe.

I think this specific situation fits the dot points I have highlighted above.

As a tangential issue, I am pretty sure their refund policy is unlawful. To quote that same page from the ACCC's website (emphasis mine) :

'No refund' signs and expired warranties

Signs stating ‘No refunds’ or ‘No refunds or exchanges on sale items’ are unlawful, as they imply that it’s not possible to get a refund under any circumstances, including for faulty items. In fact your consumer guarantee rights still apply. Retailers don’t have to give you a refund or exchange if you simply change your mind. Always check the store’s returns policy. Your rights under the consumer guarantees do not have a specific expiry date and can apply even after any warranties you’ve got from a business have expired.

But Ubisoft's digital purchases refund policy states (bold emphasis theirs, underlined emphasis mine):

You can request a refund for a digital order within 14 days of your purchase, as long as the content has not been launched.

Return requests for digital products can be submitted by selecting the Ask for a refund link next to the relevant product on the Order History page of the Ubisoft Store. 

Purchases for consumables, downloadable content, in-game currency, digital console keys or purchases from our in-game stores are final and not eligible for refunds.

So I just reported a consumer issue with the ACCC based on this, describing the issue at hand, complemented with screenshots of my interaction with Ubisoft support.

I would encourage other Aussies to do the same.

• Ask Ubisoft support for a refund
  • Indicate this is due to the audio issues.
• If they refuse to issue a refund, file a consumer issue with ACCC on their site: (https://www.accc.gov.au/contact-us/contact-the-accc/report-a-consumer-issue)
  • Describe the audio issue as a 'major problem', link to this thread maybe and suggest a web search for more instances online
  • Indicate the fact your are being refused a refund
  • Indicate the fact that Ubisoft's refund policy is probably unlawful under Australian law.

I feel pretty bad for the devs tbh, it looks like another game that was released a tad too soon. However, there is no reason Ubisoft as a whole should get away with this without at least providing refunds where it seems more than appropriate.

@lann094 To give you the TL;DR, I have received a response from the ACCC, essentially informing me of my rights for my specific situation. They do not resolve disputes directly – that was an erroneous assumption from my part. However, they suggest to contact my local government authority to resolve this dispute, in my case the Consumer Affairs Victoria. The next step: (https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/contact-us/resolve-your-problem-or-complaint/write-to-the-people-involved) for me is to write a formal complaint letter to Ubisoft, which is a hassle and haven't gone around to it yet. But I will. If the answer (if any) is unsatisfactory I can then lodge a formal complaint with Consumer Affairs Victoria. Great fun, looking forward to it. /s

In their response, the ACCC then tell me they make note of these things to 'inform [their] enforcement work'. What that really means is if they receive enough complaints they can start lobbying the federal government to pass legislation for systemic and industry-wide remediation. For instance, you might be aware the ACCC is currently negotiating a media code with the tech giants, which the federal government supports. Or the Steam refunds I mentioned in an earlier post. This is why we need Aussies to complain to the ACCC about Ubi refusing refunds while being cagey and dodgy about the whole situation.

In other news, I have been hassling support every now and then and they are still refusing to refund me. However, they continue reiterating that the issue is being investigated and ask/thank me for my patience until this is fixed. I have asked for an ETA but said they couldn't give me one. They also persistently dodge answering why this issue is not in the list of known issues.

Best of luck in this continued and frustrating effort of patience everyone.

@cronucks Replying to my own post since I can't edit anymore...

Remember the ACCC are the ones that brought us Steam's refund model worldwide: (https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/full-steam-ahead-accc-institutes-proceedings-against-valve-for-making-alleged-misleading-consumer-guarantee-representations)!

@haikuchase420 I recommend you read through https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/99892/resolved-audio-sounds-compressed-of-a-low-bitrate-poor-quality-post-here?lang=en-US

Don't let the "resolved" tag fool you. The thread was opened soon after the original game release, and Ubisoft left us in limbo for about a year until support eventually told us Ubisoft would not fix this issue that has plagued the game since its release. Then the thread was closed and marked as resolved...

There are plenty of online posts from frustrated players that describe this issue, e.g.:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/ACValhalla/comments/js3hw1/pc_audio_producer_hobbyist_here_what_on_earth/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/PS5/comments/jvn2dt/assassins_creed_valhalla_audio_is_the_worst_of/
• https://www.resetera.com/threads/did-you-realize-how-bad-the-sound-quality-in-assassins-creed-valhalla-is.354418/: (https://resetera.com/threads/did-you-realize-how-bad-the-sound-quality-in-assassins-creed-valhalla-is.354418)

Since you bought the game in AUD I'm assuming you are in Australia like I am. I ended up getting the game refunded due to this issue. If you want to go down that route, know thatUbisoft refused to provide a refund in my case, so I had to excercice my rights in Australia to get the refund. I recommend you read through my posts to get an idea of the avenues available to you:

• https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/99892/resolved-audio-sounds-compressed-of-a-low-bitrate-poor-quality-post-here/258
• https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/99892/resolved-audio-sounds-compressed-of-a-low-bitrate-poor-quality-post-here/211
• https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/99892/resolved-audio-sounds-compressed-of-a-low-bitrate-poor-quality-post-here/139

Even after getting a refund, I am still outraged this game has raked the profits it has with such a glaring issue, with absolutely no mention of it from any mainstream video game media. I still want to play the game, and it's the reason I'm still lurking to see if Ubisoft have come around fixing it, but like you the abysmal audio quality just ruins the whole experience.

This is probably not what you wanted to hear, but I hope this can help you.

@haikuchase420 I recommend you read through https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/99892/resolved-audio-sounds-compressed-of-a-low-bitrate-poor-quality-post-here?lang=en-US

Don't let the "resolved" tag fool you. The thread was opened soon after the original game release, and Ubisoft left us in limbo for about a year until support eventually told us Ubisoft would not fix this issue that has plagued the game since its release. Then the thread was closed and marked as resolved...

There are plenty of online posts from frustrated players that describe this issue, e.g.:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/ACValhalla/comments/js3hw1/pc_audio_producer_hobbyist_here_what_on_earth/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/PS5/comments/jvn2dt/assassins_creed_valhalla_audio_is_the_worst_of/
• https://www.resetera.com/threads/did-you-realize-how-bad-the-sound-quality-in-assassins-creed-valhalla-is.354418/: (https://resetera.com/threads/did-you-realize-how-bad-the-sound-quality-in-assassins-creed-valhalla-is.354418)

Since you bought the game in AUD I'm assuming you are in Australia like I am. I ended up getting the game refunded due to this issue. If you want to go down that route, know thatUbisoft refused to provide a refund in my case, so I had to excercice my rights in Australia to get the refund. I recommend you read through my posts to get an idea of the avenues available to you:

• https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/99892/resolved-audio-sounds-compressed-of-a-low-bitrate-poor-quality-post-here/258
• https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/99892/resolved-audio-sounds-compressed-of-a-low-bitrate-poor-quality-post-here/211
• https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/99892/resolved-audio-sounds-compressed-of-a-low-bitrate-poor-quality-post-here/139

Even after getting a refund, I am still outraged this game has raked the profits it has with such a glaring issue, with absolutely no mention of it from any mainstream video game media. I still want to play the game, and it's the reason I'm still lurking to see if Ubisoft have come around fixing it, but like you the abysmal audio quality just ruins the whole experience.

This is probably not what you wanted to hear, but I hope this can help you.

@UbiKobold I can understand the logic behind wanting to split the threads down for each specific issue. But given the lack of any solution 8 months on, it feels more like an attempt to dilute this issue down, and hope it goes away. I mean for goodness sake, the first link of your response in the original thread doesn't even work!

Please stop dancing around the issue, and give us a concrete idea of what is going on at Ubi's end. If you don't know, then tell us. If anyone at Ubi is really looking at this, then please tell us. We've been asked questions over and over, assured "the team is aware", etc. but we are yet to see any actual proof of it. We know absolutely nothing about what is going on, and the prospects of this being fixed seem to get lower by the day. Hopefully you can see this is a pretty frustrating situtation for the community?


I would also like to point out to any Australians here that under Victorian law, you're due a repair for a malfunctioning product. If the provider of the product doesn't repair in a timely manner, you're eligible to ask for a refund. Note also that this applies to a product you would not have bought if you had known about the issue before purchasing. See more at https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/products-and-services/problems-with-a-product/faulty-product: (https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/products-and-services/problems-with-a-product/faulty-product).

First you have to submit a formal complaint, which in my case support have helpfully forwarded to the relevant team. Or so they say, I didn't hear back from them in a month, by that time I had moved on with the next step of the process (I had asked for a resolution within 10 days; yeah I know right). If no repair is provided in a timely manner, then you are entitled to do a charge back on the transaction by asking your bank to do it. If the provider doesn't challenge it within a month, you are refunded.

This is how I got my refund.

Check you local legislation, hopefully wherever you are there is something similar that applies to you. It's a bit of trouble to go through, but don't be intimidated by the process, or by Ubisoft. If the law is on your side and there is a clear process about this, Ubisoft are not going to do anything. And if enough people kick up a stink about this, then maybe they will start paying attention. We have more rights as consumers than we are usually led to believe - especially by dodgy t&cs like Ubisoft's "you open the digital game you can't refund it". Well guess what, I did. And through no help from Ubisoft.

Take this into you own hands, Ubi are not going to change their practices if we take crap like this lying down.

@lann094 To give you the TL;DR, I have received a response from the ACCC, essentially informing me of my rights for my specific situation. They do not resolve disputes directly – that was an erroneous assumption from my part. However, they suggest to contact my local government authority to resolve this dispute, in my case the Consumer Affairs Victoria. The next step: (https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/contact-us/resolve-your-problem-or-complaint/write-to-the-people-involved) for me is to write a formal complaint letter to Ubisoft, which is a hassle and haven't gone around to it yet. But I will. If the answer (if any) is unsatisfactory I can then lodge a formal complaint with Consumer Affairs Victoria. Great fun, looking forward to it. /s

In their response, the ACCC then tell me they make note of these things to 'inform [their] enforcement work'. What that really means is if they receive enough complaints they can start lobbying the federal government to pass legislation for systemic and industry-wide remediation. For instance, you might be aware the ACCC is currently negotiating a media code with the tech giants, which the federal government supports. Or the Steam refunds I mentioned in an earlier post. This is why we need Aussies to complain to the ACCC about Ubi refusing refunds while being cagey and dodgy about the whole situation.

In other news, I have been hassling support every now and then and they are still refusing to refund me. However, they continue reiterating that the issue is being investigated and ask/thank me for my patience until this is fixed. I have asked for an ETA but said they couldn't give me one. They also persistently dodge answering why this issue is not in the list of known issues.

Best of luck in this continued and frustrating effort of patience everyone.

@cronucks Replying to my own post since I can't edit anymore...

Remember the ACCC are the ones that brought us Steam's refund model worldwide: (https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/full-steam-ahead-accc-institutes-proceedings-against-valve-for-making-alleged-misleading-consumer-guarantee-representations)!

@therealdaemon I am in Australia. We have the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to oversee exactly these kind of disputes.

As per their Repair, Replace, Refund page: (https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees/repair-replace-refund) (emphasis mine)

You can ask for a replacement or refund if the problem with the product is major.

and...

A product or good has a major problem when:
- it has a problem that would have stopped someone from buying it if they’d known about it
- it is significantly different from the sample or description
- it is substantially unfit for its common purpose and can’t easily be fixed within a reasonable time
- it doesn’t do what you asked for and can’t easily be fixed within a reasonable time; or
- it is unsafe.

I think this specific situation fits the dot points I have highlighted above.

As a tangential issue, I am pretty sure their refund policy is unlawful. To quote that same page from the ACCC's website (emphasis mine) :

'No refund' signs and expired warranties

Signs stating ‘No refunds’ or ‘No refunds or exchanges on sale items’ are unlawful, as they imply that it’s not possible to get a refund under any circumstances, including for faulty items. In fact your consumer guarantee rights still apply. Retailers don’t have to give you a refund or exchange if you simply change your mind. Always check the store’s returns policy. Your rights under the consumer guarantees do not have a specific expiry date and can apply even after any warranties you’ve got from a business have expired.

But Ubisoft's digital purchases refund policy states (bold emphasis theirs, underlined emphasis mine):

You can request a refund for a digital order within 14 days of your purchase, as long as the content has not been launched.

Return requests for digital products can be submitted by selecting the Ask for a refund link next to the relevant product on the Order History page of the Ubisoft Store. 

Purchases for consumables, downloadable content, in-game currency, digital console keys or purchases from our in-game stores are final and not eligible for refunds.

So I just reported a consumer issue with the ACCC based on this, describing the issue at hand, complemented with screenshots of my interaction with Ubisoft support.

I would encourage other Aussies to do the same.

• Ask Ubisoft support for a refund
  • Indicate this is due to the audio issues.
• If they refuse to issue a refund, file a consumer issue with ACCC on their site: (https://www.accc.gov.au/contact-us/contact-the-accc/report-a-consumer-issue)
  • Describe the audio issue as a 'major problem', link to this thread maybe and suggest a web search for more instances online
  • Indicate the fact your are being refused a refund
  • Indicate the fact that Ubisoft's refund policy is probably unlawful under Australian law.

I feel pretty bad for the devs tbh, it looks like another game that was released a tad too soon. However, there is no reason Ubisoft as a whole should get away with this without at least providing refunds where it seems more than appropriate.

I tried asking for a refund, given the lack of official acknowledgement – unless you count https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/81608/updated-12-01-reported-issue-megathreads-check-here-for-your-issue, but those are issues 'under investigation by Ubisoft support' and 'not all of these issues are yet recognised / under investigation by the developers'.

This is the answer I received:

Unfortunately, in this instance no refund is possible for your Assassin's Creed Valhalla Gold Edition because your refund request does not comply with our refund policy.

For more clarification regarding our refund policy please see our FAQ:
https://support.ubisoft.com/en-au/Article/000062176/Requesting-a-Refund-for-Digital-Purchases

However please rest assured that the development team are aware of the reported issue with audio quality and investigating it. Please keep an eye on our official website and forum for future news and updates of the game:
https://www.ubisoft.com/en-au/game/assassins-creed/valhalla
https://discussions.ubisoft.com/category/25/assassin-s-creed?lang=en-US

The silver lining I guess is that this is as close as it comes to an official acknowledgement. Yet if they are investigating it, why is not reported on the list of known issues? https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/76980/assassin-s-creed-valhalla-known-issues-updated-jan-8?lang=en-US&sort=newest_to_oldest

Meanwhile I am quite incensed I paid premium price for a new game (not a preorder) with such dysfunctional audio – especially after such good reviews that gave me no indication this could be an issue for me going in. As @CaptainStarPaw said previously, I tend to dismiss the graphics/audio of online videos due to their variable quality.

It is only after running the game (which nullifies your ability to refund – how dodgy is that to begin with) I found out about the terrible audio. I feel quite cheated to be honest.

---

Ubisoft: 'Hey Valhalla players, here's a tune an official acknowledgment for you!'
Valhalla players: still waiting for sound acknowledgement