Seriously thinking of signing up for Gamefly

[Queasy]

So what I mostly do know is rent games through Blockbuster. I'll occasionally pick up a new or used game but that is few and far between.

This worked great for a while when you were allowed to trade-in Blockbuster Online discs at the store for games for free and keep the games for ~12 days. They ended that practice a couple of months ago and now it is just a couple of dollars off the price so I'm paying about $5.50 per rental for ~12 days. Obviously, the math works out in favor of Gamefly.com here if I rent 4 games or more a month through Blockbuster. Which I do at times because I get games for my son too.

The downsides of Blockbuster other than cost:
- Sometimes limited availability of games.
- Have to drive to stores (I have about 5 to choose from near my house and work).
- Will get charged $55 if I ever hold a game longer than 12 days. Sometimes I forget the game or I can't make it to the store because of other obligations. The charge gets refunded though.

Downsides of Gamefly:
- Potentially slow delivery by mail meaning my money is being wasted. Gamefly just opened a distribution center in Tampa. I'm hoping that means fast ship times for Atlanta.
- Queue problems (though keeping your queue short solves this apparently).
- Games get lost/damaged in mail. Leaving me to deal with hoping that customer service sends out a replacement in a timely manner.

So......[Richard Dawson]Survey says![/Richard Dawson]

 

[oznerol]

I would say if you want the newest games as they are released, stick with Blockbuster. If you're like me and hate driving to/going into stores, then Gamefly delivery all the way.

Though if you spend less than $25/month on rentals then it's probably not for you.

 

[bucwylde23]

I love Gamefly.

Deliveries sometimes take a while but overall it's not that bad.

I've had 3-4 games lost (or so i thought) and they promptly shipped my next game same day. 2 of them it just took about 3 weeks for them to receive them back. On their page it says you can file a missing game report after 7 days I think.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'll be joining eventually, but right now I have a tall stack of PS3, PS2, and PC games I already own to work through first. Since half of them are RPGs it's going to take awhile

 

[JasonSix78]

I've had Gamefly for around a year now and the service has been excellent. Anytime I had problems (like a game that never arrived) there was no hassle and they shipped me out another one very fast. They have a system now that once you send a game back, it's scanned at the post office and they send you out the next game in your queue before they ever receive it, granted the game you want is available. I've also purchased several used games from them, the most recent CoD4. Overall I give them a 10/10, well worth it if you rent from a local store regularly. It will save you a lot of money especially since you rent from blockbuster.

 

[herkulease]

Why not pick up a gamepass at your local blockbuster. Sure you have to drive and it'll be slightly more expensive. But if a game sucks you can take it right back for something else. They dont' advertise a 2 games out game pass. Just ask them for it.

Of course blockbuster doesn't carry every title. But if you only play the popular stuff you only have to fight with people in your local area for a certain title not everyone who will be using the tampa distribution center.

If you have a blockbuster close to your work you can always hit them up during lunch or so and grab titles. Rather than wait till the afternoon when everyone is out of work/school can go and pick out titles

 

[Kev]

I had the same decision recently. Use to have blockbuster but their price increase, limiting to 2exchanges, and taking away game coupons, coupled with the fact that they never, ever have any decent 360 games in stock, led me to cancel.

I now have netflix and gamefly. Even if I only get 2 games per month with gamefly it's worth it for the convenience and no pressure to return it.

 

[Yreka]

Love the gamefly. I also buy about 80% of my games from them. You basically rent the game, and if you like it you click keep it.. They charge your account for the game ( usually 10-15$ off retail depending on how old), then they send you the case/manual etc.

My only complaint is trying to get a new game.. I basically strip my queue down to the one game I want, that way I get it right when it comes in. Sometimes I can go a week without them shipping a game if availability is low. In fact Devil May Cry took 5 days sitting in the queue.

I have the 2 game out plan so overall it isn't that bad.. You can work it so you always have a game onha nd to play.

 

[warcrow]

If you go with GameFly, you should post your impressions after the first month. I'm a bit curious as well.

 

[Ramma2]

I have GamezNFlix right now, I switched from Gamefly doe to the cheaper 1 out plan (GNF is 9$ a month).

Only problem I see is limited stock of games. I just sent back CoD3 and have Shivering Isles and Bioshock in my queue, both are saying short wait. How long it takes for them to ship will determine if I stick with them or not.

 

[Reckoner]

Gamefly is alright. I like the discounts (right now I get $5 gaming dollars every 3 months, and 5% off all purchases), but shipping is slow. It usually takes 4-5 days for a game to reach me. They do have a fast return method, where the Post Office scans the game in advance so gamefly can ship the next one. However, I can't remember a single time the Post Office actually did this for me, so it's useless in my neck of the woods. If your Blockbuster has a decent selection of games, you may want to check them out first. It's 19.99 for their in-store game pass vs the $15.95 for the 1-out gamefly plan.

 

[Queasy]

Well, now that Gamefly has officially announced their Tampa distribution center, I signed up.

I checked out the Blockbuster GamerPass and it was $21.99 for one game out at a time. That just...uhhh...sucks.

I put DMC4 and COD4 in my queue for me and Viva Pinata: Party Animals in the queue for my son. I wanted to do Lost Odyssey but it said "Very Low Availability". We'll see how it turns out now.

 

[JasonSix78]

YMMV, but I have received games labeled as "Very Low Availability" very quickly in the past.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: warcrow
If you go with GameFly, you should post your impressions after the first month. I'm a bit curious as well.

Well, I just checked and so far that they've already shipped out two games after signing up for the service at lunch today. Now to see how quickly they get here.

 

[Queasy]

I can't say that I'm all that impressed now. After receiving my first games after a couple of days it is now taking them forever to get my next set of games out. I sent Viva Pinata: Party Animals back last Wednesday (3/5). Gamefly today just updated my queue and took the game out. I assume they are going to be sending out the next game today but we will see. This turn-around is still ridiculous. It shouldn't take a week for something to get from Atlanta to Tampa.

I'm going to try and time sending COD4 back so that I can get R6:V2 when it comes out on the 20th. I'm doubtful at this point.

 

[Thraxen]

Originally posted by: Queasy
I can't say that I'm all that impressed now. After receiving my first games after a couple of days it is now taking them forever to get my next set of games out. I sent Viva Pinata: Party Animals back last Wednesday (3/5). Gamefly today just updated my queue and took the game out. I assume they are going to be sending out the next game today but we will see. This turn-around is still ridiculous. It shouldn't take a week for something to get from Atlanta to Tampa.

I'm going to try and time sending COD4 back so that I can get R6:V2 when it comes out on the 20th. I'm doubtful at this point.

I've had OK turn around times most of the time, but sometimes I've had to wait a while. Definitely not as fast as Netflix. BUT you have to keep in mind that we are talking about $50-60 games here. I'm on the two-at-a-time plan and anytime Gamefly keeps me from buying a game that I might have otherwise bought without Gamefly that essentially pays for 3-months of the service right there. When taken from that viewpoint I find the service very worth it, even if I have to wait a while to get some games.

 

[Kev]

Thanks for bumping this... for anyone else who is interested, Gamefly is fucking pathetic.

Feb 11: Signed up
Feb 15: Received Assassin's Creed
Feb 23: Sent AC back
Feb 27: They receive AC and ship The Bigs, which was the 9th game on my list and for some reason they sent that instead one of the other 8 that each had "high availability"
March 10: Still no Bigs, reported missing
March 12: Waiting for the Bigs to arrive

I signed up for netflix AFTER gamefly and have already gotten 4 movies...

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Kev
Thanks for bumping this... for anyone else who is interested, Gamefly is fucking pathetic.

Feb 11: Signed up
Feb 15: Received Assassin's Creed
Feb 23: Sent AC back
Feb 27: They receive AC and ship The Bigs, which was the 9th game on my list and for some reason they sent that instead one of the other 8 that each had "high availability"
March 10: Still no Bigs, reported missing
March 12: Waiting for the Bigs to arrive

I signed up for netflix AFTER gamefly and have already gotten 4 movies...

I can't remember if it was you or someone else that said something about the queue items being shipped out of order before in another thread. Because of that, I only put two games in my queue; Surf's Up (for my son) and R6:V2.

Judging by the week delay in them receiving a game, I suppose I need to put COD4 out in the mail tomorrow so I can get R6:V2.

 

[Yreka]

Originally posted by: Thraxen

Originally posted by: Queasy
I can't say that I'm all that impressed now. After receiving my first games after a couple of days it is now taking them forever to get my next set of games out. I sent Viva Pinata: Party Animals back last Wednesday (3/5). Gamefly today just updated my queue and took the game out. I assume they are going to be sending out the next game today but we will see. This turn-around is still ridiculous. It shouldn't take a week for something to get from Atlanta to Tampa.

I'm going to try and time sending COD4 back so that I can get R6:V2 when it comes out on the 20th. I'm doubtful at this point.

I've had OK turn around times most of the time, but sometimes I've had to wait a while. Definitely not as fast as Netflix. BUT you have to keep in mind that we are talking about $50-60 games here. I'm on the two-at-a-time plan and anytime Gamefly keeps me from buying a game that I might have otherwise bought without Gamefly that essentially pays for 3-months of the service right there. When taken from that viewpoint I find the service very worth it, even if I have to wait a while to get some games.

Pretty much same. I have had a few issues, but overall its the best solution out there for me.

 

[Queasy]

Jeebus. I got an email that they shipped Surf's Up and noticed that the buy-it price is $14.99. Combine it with the $5 off coupon that they gave me for buying games and I may just go ahead and buy the game for my son since it would be only $9.99.

 

[fr]

GameFly has gone from good to bad for me the last 2 weeks. It's taking an extra 2 days shipping time for games to arrive and to be returned. All the 20+ games in my queue are all low or very low availability. I've only gotten 2 games in the past 2 weeks compared to 6 in the past. Maybe they are just throttling me?