Streaming superstar Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys was left speechless after one of her Twitch fans demanded a refund for a series of $2 donations made to the online personality over the past week.
Twitch streaming goes hand-in-hand with regular donations. Huge names on the platform like Dr Disrespect, Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel, and of course Pokimane will often get hundreds of dollars worth of ‘donos’ across any given broadcast.
For Twitch’s biggest names, regular donations accompanied by messages rolling in is normal. What isn’t, however, is those same fans asking for a refund. That meant when one of Anys’ fans demanded their $6 back, she was shocked.
Pokimane was hit with the refund request just minutes into her April 9 broadcast. While she was still just getting settled in, a $2 donation from ‘matthill’ popped up. In it, the fan revealed they had lost their job, and needed the money back.
“I hate to ask this because I really enjoy and want to support the stream,” the donation began, “but do you mind refunding the $6 I sent over three donations four days ago. Restaurant closed and as a waiter I lost my income.”
Pokimane was stunned, and sat in silence for a moment. Perhaps she was stunned by the fans’ predicament, or was simply figuring out how to reply next. Eventually, she admitted she couldn’t tell if it was a joke or not.
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“I can’t tell if you’re joking. If you’re being serious, why would you give me more money to ask me to give you your money back?” she replied, before adding it would be “so difficult” for her to dig through her donations to send it back.
“So difficult for me to find that donation,” she said. She did have some advice for the viewer though, just in case their plight was real. “The best thing you can do is just refund it through PayPal. I’ll try and accept it. I hope you’re joking though.”
Pokimane is far from the first Twitch star to have to deal with refund requests, but she may have handled it better than most — last time notoriously boisterous streamer xQc was asked to refund a donation, he exploded.
While Pokimane offered a solution for refunds, fellow streamer Lengyel said he “didn’t care” about figuring them out because the donos were so low. He also dubbed the mom who said her kid had wrongly donated a “f**king hag.”