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Gamefly: Good Company or Scam?
Nohbody8
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When I did the math and realized that a year of Gamefly was the same as buying four full priced games over the course of a year, I was excited to sign up. However, my experience thus far has been...lacking. I've got some games that have low availability towards the top of my list so I can understand not getting something shipped to me right out of the gate. According to Gamefly though, the next available game will be shipped if they can't find one. I have plenty of games in the middle of my list that ARE available. When I tried to contact Gamefly's customer service, I found that they don't have a customer service hotline and that their online system doesn't seem to work. Is it just me or am I getting swindled here?
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So, not a first hand experience opinion, but I figured I'd chip in with my opinion anyways.
Of course, sometime it will be a lot cheaper just to buy those old games from ebay or something. Having more than 1 systems helps a lot more.
I play Blazblue, Soul Calibur 4, Street Fighter 4 and soon Tekken 6... yeah... so add me if you want to play any of those.
Good times.
Recently resigned up with a free 30-day thing though and so far it's been good. I really think they give priority to new customers or something, hopefully it doesn't go south on me again.
You can also do the Double Whammy and get on Goozex at the same time. If I play a game and I think "This is amazing, I don't want to let it go", then I buy it off Gamefly and keep that copy forever and ever. If I play a game and think "This could be pretty fun, but I can't spare the money", then I just add it to Goozex and eventually I get it for free.
Their prices aren't bad either. If you're willing to eat the couple day wait until they ship it you can get new games for 50, less the 10% discount for continued membership. Not horrible.
My Experience with Gamefly: If you just get shipped to you...and say keep only newly to be released games in your queue....it works out. I occasionally go through older titles and things ship out reasonably.
But, if you have an issue than good luck on getting any resolution. Their customer support is essentially non-existent as near as I can tell.
Yep. If a game's available to buy when you have it out, you click "Keep it". Then the disc you have is yours, and they promptly mail you the case and manual. There are longtime membership discounts that can get you 10% off their already used prices, and every so often they'll send you a free $5 coupon towards a purchase, so if there's enough in stock, you can get a game that just came out for around $40, AND you got to try it before you bought it.
So, for example, Halo ODST came out a few weeks ago. I sent one of my games back (I have a 2 game plan) the Wednesday before Halo came out. My queue was cleared except for ODST. They received my game back on Friday, shipped out Halo the following Monday when it was released (sometimes they ship early for street-dated games since they already have the copies).
GameFly isn't a scam, it's basically the best deal going if you are a player and not a collector. If you can play through a game in a week or two its fine and you'll save a ton of money.
I mean, here's my rental history for about the last year or so (first date is when the game shipped, 2nd is when they got it back), I think I got every single major release sent out the day it came out, along with mixing in some older games I missed out on during the dead season when hype dies down and the game becomes available and there's nothing new coming out
Halo 3: ODST Xbox 360 9/21/2009 Pittsburgh, PA Rented
The Beatles: Rock Band Xbox 360 9/9/2009 Pittsburgh, PA Rented
Batman: Arkham Asylum Xbox 360 8/24/2009 Pittsburgh, PA 9/4/2009 Returned
Dead Space Xbox 360 7/23/2009 Pittsburgh, PA 9/19/2009 Returned
Army of Two Xbox 360 7/23/2009 Pittsburgh, PA 8/21/2009 Returned
Ghostbusters Xbox 360 6/16/2009 Pittsburgh, PA 7/23/2009 Returned
Prototype Xbox 360 6/11/2009 Pittsburgh, PA 7/23/2009 Returned
UFC 2009 Undisputed Xbox 360 5/18/2009 Pittsburgh, PA 6/12/2009 Returned
Skate 2 Xbox 360 5/13/2009 Pittsburgh, PA 6/6/2009 Returned
Resident Evil 5 Xbox 360 3/12/2009 Pittsburgh, PA 5/15/2009 Returned
H.A.W.X. Xbox 360 3/5/2009 Pittsburgh, PA 3/27/2009 Returned
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Xbox 360 2/24/2009 Pittsburgh, PA 3/7/2009 Returned
Tomb Raider Underworld Xbox 360 2/10/2009 Pittsburgh, PA 2/20/2009 Returned
Call of Duty: World at War Xbox 360 1/5/2009 Pittsburgh, PA 1/28/2009 Returned
Left 4 Dead Xbox 360 12/23/2008 Pittsburgh, PA 3/2/2009 Returned
That's exactly what I'm trying to do. Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, and Ninja Gaiden games are my first nine games. Ghostbusters, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Halo 3: ODST are the last on my list at 20, 21, and 22. This is why I don't get why I haven't gotten anything at all.
That's how it should work. The only step I'd say you're missing is a strongly worded email to a CSR, perhaps.
I've been doing this with Netflix for years, just browse their website and add anything that looks interesting. Netflix always makes sure I have 3 discs in my hands, and eventually my queue drains out in the order I added stuff, unless I bump something to the top. That's how it should be.
Huge pauses because I have "too much" in my queue? Yeah, that's a major fail right there.
..and I've had pretty good fortune getting games I wanted. I managed to get Batman on release day, which was nice. Shipping time for me takes about a week (from mailing a game back to receiving one) since I'm in Chicago.
Anyway, there you have it.
A) Willing to manage your queue to get exactly what you want, when you want
So they haven't matched Netflix, but I think they only way their service would actually seem bad is if either shipping to your location is slow, or Netflix's service has severely jaded you. Otherwise, the price for the service you get is rather stellar.
I'm sure part of the reason they haven't matched Netflix is management, but it's also a different industry--notice that Netflix doesn't offer "Keep It"? It's a sure sign to me that what customers want is actually quite different between the two. DVDs aren't that expensive, but they're all short enough to enjoy many in a small amount of time. Having a big back catalog is important because it's very easy to enjoy older features (versus the difficulties with old game formats and the fact that great technology simply isn't timeless the way great acting or writing can be). Keeping the DVDs probably isn't all that worthwhile to customers. There's far less of a discount which could be offered, and their perceived value is lower. Furthermore, rental copies may cost much more than retail, in which case a "keep it" option would create substantial losses for the company.
On the other hand, games typically cost 2.5x the average price of a DVD, while lasting as long as five or more 2-hour movies. So, first off, games tend to be rented by customers much longer than DVDs, and second there's value seen in converting rentals into a purchase. Furthermore, the greatest demand in video game rentals is always for the newest titles. When you put this all together, it explains much of the difference in perceived quality of service between the two companies. "Keep It" allows Gamefly to get money back on their purchases while slimming down their back catalog (most of which would be dead weight to them.) This saves on storage and handling, and allows the company to focus on what earns them the most by an utterly huge margin -- new game rentals. At the same time, supply will always be more constrained than with Netflix -- the price per disc is much higher for Gamefly and the stock they have tends to stay out much, much longer than TV & movies, which-regardless of like or dislike--are very often back in the mail within three days, if not one. Even when dealing with procrastinators, if they've going to wait before sending back a movie, they'll do it with games too--after they've played it to satisfaction. The difference in rental length remains. This makes is pretty much impossible to match Netflix's availability levels, because in order to do so, Gamefly would have to keep several times the stock which Netflix does, and at greater cost per unit.
So if you're of the opinion that you'll never do business with Gamefly because they haven't matched Netflix exactly, you never will do business with them--it's pretty much impossible. You'd have to pay more for the service, games would have to become as short as movies, or the relationship between interest in new vs old titles would have to massively shift -- if there was no give somewhere, they'd put themselves out of business by overspending on stock that has huge depreciation and falloff in demand.
As for slow shipping to some areas, that may be remedied in the future with additional distribution centers, but they'd have to be justified by increased demand first.
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They've come a long way since they first started, though. I was a customer back in the early days of Gamefly, when I got fed up with Blockbuster's selection and late fees. Back then they had a single distribution center somewhere in California.
Now they have four distribution centers in pretty much every corner of the country (CA, PA, FL, and TX). I used to get my rentals from California, but now they come from Pennsylvania so they're a little faster. The better advancement they've made, though, has been the ability to have the USPS scan the barcode of a returning game. When that happens, Gamefly sends out the next game on your list, sometimes on the day or day after you've sent a game back for return. Although I will say that it seems to have some kinks to work out, as "Fast Return" doesn't always kick in for me.
I also did a quick Goggle search and found a site that reviewed the top six online video game rental services. Lists their prices, selections, all that info are listed, too.
http://video-game-rental-review.toptenreviews.com/
|Xbox Live Tag: Omeks
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On top of that, they'd artificially inflate turnaround given the chance. If an "unavailable" game was at the top of your list, they would wait an extra day or 2 for a copy to come up as a "courtesy" rather than just sending the next game on your list. (that is to say, they sent you the 2nd or 3rd game in your queue after the wait - the one you wanted would still be unavailable)
However, delete your queue except for that one game, and suddenly they found a copy to send you right away.
I didn't really have any problems with their customer service, to be honest.
The problem was that the turnaround for getting another game could get up to two weeks at times, which was bullshit.
As it stands, they're probably still the best out there, which isn't saying much.
(east coast view here, back in the ps2/xbox days)
Even when not comparing to Netflix, it was just a poor experience overall. The ship times were pretty bad and the availability was less than spectacular. I shouldn't have to play tricks or "game" the system just to get something sent to me.
It took 3-4 days to send a game to me. It also took 0-4 days for them to acknowledge I sent a game back. (sometimes the post office scan would be accepted, sometimes I'd have to wait). This worked out to 4-7 days at a time where I didn't anything checked out by them. That's roughly 12-25% of the service I am paying for... (assuming you don't keep the game for more than a couple days)
I guess it boils down to how much time you can play games. I used to rent games as a trial to see if it was worth buying. It would be pretty rare for me to actually beat a game during a rental. For me this was a terrible value (and not needed anymore since almost every 360/PS3 game has a demo).
I'd rather spend the $16-22 a month on games I can keep or trade.
One new release game I do this with a quarter pays for the service. It's that or "recycle" my games with Gamestop...
This is also personal experience, but availability only seems to be an issue for me when it comes to new releases. For the most part, a game's availability will free up within a few weeks of release. This was the case as far back as I could remember, back to the PS2 days.
For new games, it makes sense that there will be availability issues since they're going to be more popular for the period just past release. "Gaming" the system so that you get a new release isn't something unique to Gamefly. Back in the day, if you weren't the first to get to Blockbuster, every copy of the latest GTA would be swept off the shelves, sometimes for a week or more. At least with the Gamefly model, you can control this a bit better from your computer monitor.
I mean if you don't want to "play tricks" to get your rentals, that's fine, but I think it's a little much to demand that five days after the release of Halo ODST that Gamefly have a big-enough surplus of titles to send out every person who suddenly put it on their GameQ that day, in addition to the people who swept up the initial copies in the preceeding five days.
Now if you had that problem with older games, then I can understand a bit more. Though again, through personal experience, I've never had availability problems with games a few months outside of initial release.
A lot of it boils down to personal reasons. You view Gamefly as a way to demo games, which personally, I would think is a waste.
I view it as a way to play through a game or two for $20 rather than spend $60-120 for a new title. For example, the only two games I had out in September were Guitar Hero 5 and The Beatles: Rock Band. Some might say I didn't get much out of my $20 if it's all about trying as many games as possible, but when you consider that I've played the hell out of both games for $20 rather than $120, and that they won't be cluttering my game library up, and I'll be doing the same thing for three more brand new games in October, I personally think it's a pretty sweet deal.
Unless a game goes into the bargain bin area, I usually never buy a game that I've rented, and although I wouldn't take it to this extreme, you could keep a single game on a $15 plan for four months before it becomes economically negative to continue renting it (as in, you could have bought it for $60 then rather than rent it for four months for $60). Usually, I've beaten the game long before that time passes, or have sent it back if I didn't care for it.
That's how I approach the Gamefly experience, at least. Your style doesn't apply in the same vein, though, so mileage varies, obviously.
|Xbox Live Tag: Omeks
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You are right with a couple of assumptions. The one you noted is this is assuming this is a $60 release price. This makes it more economical to rent vs buy for new releases... but new releases are the games with the least amount of availability. And of course, you still retain some value by purchasing the game in the traditional route. You have the option of reselling, trading or simply replaying the game. To mitigate this, Gamefly does have the "keep it now" specials that I really think are nice. That's also open to the general public (at a slightly higher cost due to coupons, discounts etc for members). The value of Gamefly goes down with any older releases or bargain bin titles. (Or if you are a diligent shopper, getting games cheaper through Amazon or sales).
tl;dr Gamefly has the most value for newer games. Gamefly has the least amount of availability for newer games. You may save money with Gamefly. Gamefly has a free trial, you should try their trial :P
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Far be it for me to make assumptions, but I'm betting it has something to do with the USPS. If you've never gotten if in your area, it could mean that your service area doesn't have the scanning capabilities, or they choose to ignore them. Or something.
There was actually a news post a little while back where Gamefly accused the Postal Service of giving others sites lie Netflix better treatment them, and that there have been incidents of postal employees stealing rentals.
Ah, there it is: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6208534.html?tag=result;title;1
|Xbox Live Tag: Omeks
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