GameFly Sucks
Yes, I signed up for a GameFly account a few months ago. I thought, hey, my enjoyment of my relatively new Xbox 360 (and my gamerscore) could benefit from the membership, so why not. I set up my account with dreams of playing the latest and greatest games in existence floating in my head. What was delivered, again to be clear, was far from that pipe-dream.
I started by putting Just Cause in my number 1 slot (hey, I played the demo and was somewhat interested). I them placed a number of secondary games in my queue. I got Just Cause and played it for a month of so. I liked the idea of taking over regions as I had done with Saint’s Row, so I was in to it. But, fairly quickly the game began to drag on (hell, those cut scenes sucked, sucked, sucked). So, back it went to GameFly.
And what did I receive back from GameFly? None other than the third game on my list! A game I had placed on there basically just to have something in my queue. (I mean I owned the great games for the 360 and was using GameFly to spread my wings a little.) I wasn’t miffed or anything. I just tried to play the game, was barely interested and sent it back.
Then, I once again received the third game on my list. (I can’t even remember what it was, it sucked so bad.) So, after a couple attempts at playing it, I sent it back…
Then, I once again received the third game on my list! WTF is the problem with sending me some Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas!?! I want it. I’ve been wanting it. And yes, I still want it! But no, they sent me Enchanted Arms! Have you played this game!? It’s horrible and the voice acting could single handedly make anyone hate video games. After about 20 minutes of attempting to play this game, I packed it up and sent it back.
Than, I once again received the third game on my list!! No Kidding! Yes, Phantasy Star Universe was on it’s way to me. When you think about it, this game wasn’t really number 3 on my list, but actually something like number 6! It only became number 3 after I received a bunch of other game I had little interest in.
As you can imagine, I was miffed. I filled out the form on GameFly complaining. On February 2nd, I wrote:
I’ve consistently received the 3rd game in my queue rather than the first ones. This is very disappointing and I expect I’ll cancel my service if I can’t get the games I want.
On February 5th, I received the following:
Dear Patrick,
If you would rather wait for the game to become available and NOT have the next available game ship, keep an open rental slot by removing all other available games from your GameQ and return a game. When a copy does become available, it will get sent to the member who’s had it in their GameQ the longest and has an open rental slot at that time.
Please note that we do not recommend removing all other games from your GameQ as you would be missing out on receiving games and we will not credit for unused service time.
Wait a second. Did they just say that they’ll ship the first game when they’re good and ready and instead of receiving my 3rd in line, I should just wait for my number one and keep paying monthly dues!?!
Am I wrong in thinking that I pay monthly dues to receive games I want when I want them, and not wait for months (it has been that long) to receive the game in my first slot? I didn’t think so, so I went to their site to cancel my account.
This was additionally fun.
First when I started to cancel my account, I received the following:
Patrick, you still have 12 days left until your next billing period. If you choose to cancel your account now, your cancellation will be effective as of today, and you will not receive a refund or credit for unused time. Are you sure you want to cancel your membership now
Hmm, I’m canceling my account, yet they still want to hose me on the membership. Thanks. I bite the bullet and hit “continue canceling” only to receive:
While GameFly’s in-stock rate is far higher than any other online rental service can offer, we realize it can be frustrating if the game you want is not available. As compensation for your availability issue, GameFly is happy to give you a special, one-time offer on your next month of service for only $9.95 - that’s a 30% savings!
Bastards! So, they don’t want to service me correctly, but want to give me a 30% savings instead!? I would be happier getting that extra 30% of service rather than the 30% savings! Why don’t companies understand this!? This only made me more upset, so I continue canceling only to get this:
Yes, they remind me again, that I’m losing money by canceling their crap-ass service, but the most important thing to notice is this:
All rented games must be received by GameFly within 7 days of cancellation or you will be charged the full retail price.
Whoa! Not another month’s price? Not something fair? No, the entire retail price of the game! I know there have been many exclamation points in this post, but seriously, WTF is up with this? That’s literally 5 to 6 months of membership at my plan’s cost.
Of course, with the approximately 5 day postage on GameFly games, no matter what, you’re cutting it close… But I hadn’t even received the game yet!
The bottom line is, that until GameFly can offer service on par with NetFlix (which I never have trouble getting the number 1 movie in my queue) then they’re offering a service that will frustrate and confuse people. Add to that their “screw you if you don’t like it” attitude and they become a company I will never do business with again. It literally becomes cheaper to buy the games yourself and return them, then play their game.
I’m sure I’ll have no problem remembering: GameFly sucks.
Posted in Interactive, Technology, Tips, gaming
February 7th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
As far as I know, when a title has low availability in any online mailing service, they’ll send you your next item instead. The only way to guarantee the next thing you get is by making it the only thing on your list. If GameFly is responsible, they’d tell you what the availability is. I could be entirely wrong, but it seems you’re just lucky with the Netflix
The first cancellation warning is just telling you that you could wait 11 days to cancel and get more out of the money you already paid. Seems nice enough.
The reduced price offer? All rental services do that. It’s their way of getting people who want to cancel to continue. Netflix, Blockbuster, they all do it. It’s not really that bad.
The final cancellation screen is a bit much, but you go through a lot worse and misleading things for some other services.
February 8th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Ok I’ve had gamefly and have been more than satisfied with the service. If a game isn’t available it isn’t available, when it comes to a que based service you have to get used to the ques. Learn some patience is what I’d say, if you wanted the game so bad you couldn’t wait for it to be available maybe ummm go buy it.
February 8th, 2007 at 2:51 am
[...] read more | digg story [...]
February 8th, 2007 at 8:14 am
wow! i had the exact same problems and was actually charged for the last game i rented and mailed back because they did not receive it before i cancelled; a complete customer service nightmare. i was amazed that they would send me an email 3 monts later, telling me that they missed me and wanted me to come back.
February 26th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
It’s easy to slam any mail rental service that isn’t Netflix. Everything you said about Gamefly could also be said about the smaller video rental services, but you couldn’t say that the smaller ones have anywhere near Gamefly’s selection. Just imagine if you’d actually bought all the games they sent you — you’d be out several hundred dollars. Instead you’ve spent, what, twenty or so bucks and played a half dozen games? I think that’s actually pretty awesome. Sure, you can’t always get the exact game you want, but if you’re a serious gamer you get your money’s worth by trying out dozens of games per year, and if you like one enough you can buy it off them at a discount. That’s the reason I have it: every game I’ve liked enough to keep is one that I might not have ever played if I wasn’t renting them to begin with.
March 13th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
I actually was a member of gamefly from it’s initial inception to ‘04/’05. The service was actually pretty good considering they only have 1 distribution center in Los Angeles in Inglewood if I recall. I lived in NYC at the time so it would take on avg. 3.5 days for mail to go back and forth. When I moved out to the burbs of NJ, wasn’t quite the same result. My avg time for mailings became something around 5-6 days. I gave up on them shortly after that as it appeared they were not going to go the Netflix route of multiple distro centers. I think in the 3 years of membership, only one game was ever lost (over 100 rentals). I really thought gamefly was pretty good but those shipping times need some help. I would try them again but I don’t think that usps scanning technology really benefits me. Instead I’m going to give gamerang a shot since they have a center in NJ. Maybe I can actually get rentals 2x/3x a week just like with netflix.
April 8th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Update: Gamefly just announced a couple weeks ago that they’re opening up a new distribution center in Pittsburgh. Not only will this make shipping a lot faster for people in the upper midwest and east coast, but it’ll also cut down on traffic at the LA distribution center.
So they’ve got better selection than all the other game rental companies, as well as discounted prices if you want to buy games from them — and now the shipping times are going to improve.
February 13th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Hi Patrick.
I feel your fustration. I was a member of gamefly myself and let me tell you something it was a horrible experience. Apperently, GameFly is thinking that they are all that. But guess what they are not!!! Unfortunatelly, they do not have much competition but I found a website that beats them 100%. For all of those who had problems with gamefly before and are tired of not getting the games try(www.mygamexpress.com) They have a new service New Releases are guaranteed. My experience with them have been so good. I placed my gameQ at night and I had my first game choice in 3 days. I hope this information helps you. They also offer free Trial!