Anyone still use GameFly?

Azureth

Azureth

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Feb 29, 2008
Messages
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I used to until my games started mysteriously dissappearing in the mail and I was tired of the long turn around times. But just the other day I decided to give them another chance so I restarted my membership, lo and behold all the games I want are either low or very low, wtf? I can deal with the shipping times but all the games I want not being available is unacceptable, they need to buy more games if this is how it is. I ended up canceling and even got a refund for my month, too bad gameznflix went out of business.:( I never used them but I heard they were much better.

EDIT: I also love how they removed the availability of their games from their main page and the page of the games, now you have to add them to your queue to see.
 
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I tried to use them. All of the games kept disappearing in the mail. After the 4th or 5th report that I filed they had me fill out some USPS stolen mail form. After I did that they cancelled my account.

Now they won't ship games to my area. :(
 
I really don't get the gamefly bashing on here. I've used them for almost a year now and have had a really good experience with them. Sure, new releases have lower availability for awhile. That comes to be expected, as they are in higher demand. Its common sense really.

I just got Batman:AA sent to me last week for the PS3 (right after putting it on my Queue at the top). Thats a decently recent game, and I think the greatly reduced costs of renting merits waiting 1-2 months after a game was released. You just need to have realistic expectations - if you have some need to play a game on release day or shortly thereafter, then buy it. Renting requires patience.

Regarding the visibility of game availability - you dont have to add it to your queue, you just have to be logged in. Were they publicly available before?
 
I use them, and while I wouldn't say I'm ecstatic with the service, I think it's probably still worth the money. The way to deal with the low availability issue is to just clear your queue of all but the one game that you really want. New copies come in all the time, but if you've got other games in your queue, the system isn't going to wait for them, and will just ship whatever's next on your list.
 
best used prices available. lots of discounts and free credit given, so you can get games even cheaper. yeah the turnaround can be slow, but its not such a big deal for games which I might have for a couple weeks or more vs. Netflix where I get a movie, watch it, and drop it in the mail immediately to get another.
 
Used to use them for a total of 8 months. No games ever lost but really long turn around times and games out of stock. Now I use nothing and just buy the games or play the demos on XBOX Live.
 
I've had them for about 4-5 months, and I'm quite happy with the service. Sure, Takes about 2-4 days for the games to reach my house after they are shipped, but I have the 2-game-at-a-time deal, so thats not biggy. Some of the newer games are low availability, but thats to be expected.

I dunno, they aren't the best service around, but they aren't bad either. Price can't be beat. I've played maybe 10 games from start to finish in the past 4 months. Total cost to me was $60. So for the price of 1 game, I've played 10. Good deal.
 
I've had the service for over a year now and am very happy with it. If you compare the turnaround to Netflix, its horrible, but if you can get the 1-day turnaround of Netflix out of your mind its not that bad. They have a system where the post office scans returns now, so I usually get games 3 or 4 days after I put them in the mail.

I've only reported two lost games; one found its way back to the warehouse almost a month later and the other I found behind my entertainment center.

The money saved is through the roof. They also have great prices on used games, which saves me 10-15 dollars per title that I decide to buy.

For me, the service is a no-brainer, even for a casual gamer. When someone offers something better, I'll switch. Until then its the best game rental service available... besides leeching from friends.
 
23 a month is a ton of money for such a slow turn around and general unavailibilty. If they had that rate for 3 instead of 2 games or had a faster turn around then I would consider it.
 
I had it for a year or so and got fed up with it entirely. Nothing new or worth playing was ever in stock for existing members. The turnaround times were abhorrent, often being 2 days to send back and 3 days to receive new. They don't operate on Saturdays either, unlike Netflix so If you send something back on a Monday you probably won't see your new game until next Tuesday or even Wednesday which happened to me far too many times for it to be worth it anymore.
 
Still? I never stopped.

I don't get the bashing either. The service has saved me a fortune, I find it hard to bitch.
Turnaround averages about 3 days for me and a little queue management generally works for getting the games I want in a decent amount of time

Netflix and Gamefly are two different businesses for a reason. Netflix deals in media that's in much higher demand, used and fully experienced in roughly 2 hours, and averages about $15 retail. Gamefly deals in media in a niche market with far less demand that takes days if not weeks to experience, and is more or less triple the cost. Gamefly can't operate like Netflix and be profitable. It just can't. Comparisons are unrealistic.

For what gamefly does, it does it pretty well and the slow death of the brick and mortar options certainly points to this. Consequently, gamefly is positioned to get bigger and better and that translates well for gamers.

All said and done, if gamefly saves me $60/mo - what 1 retail game purchase would amount to - then it's paid for itself. At the absolute minimum I will go through 2 games a month, usually more. For the amount I spend to do that the return on my investment is totally acceptable.
 
Had the sevice for 7 months. I enjoyed it. The only reason i stopped was because i was a poor college student and didn't have the time to play video games.

I would recommend it. Has saved me a bunch of cash and it is not that difficult to get a AAA title on release if you time it right. Just stick your game in the mail 2 or so days before the scheduled release of a game you want and I would generally get it, if it was the first one in my Q. Worked for Fallout 3 and Bioshock but not for Halo 3.

Sorry for this terrible post but i am sick and i don't care much for grammar or even coherent sentences right now.
 
I find myself receiving Gamefly E-Mails (Shipping/receiving notifications) on Saturdays, so they DO have saturday hours now. Netflix didn't have Saturday hours for the longest time, it was only recently that they got it.
 
I can understand being upset with the service if you've had a bad run of luck with them, or don't switch games enough to justify the price... which would be one game every 5 or 6 months :confused:. Past that I don't get the complaints. If you desperately want the newest, most popular game and its not available, just go buy it.

Gamefly has helped me come to realize that new does not mean good. I used to get really pissed if I didn't get what was at the top of my queue. Then I got a few really good games that were a few slots down.

Just because everyone is renting/playing a game does not make it good.
 
I enjoy it. I know how the service works, and how to get the games I want. Saved hundreds of dollars, and I get to play every game I want to.
 
I like that I can get games that I'm not interested in at all, and just try them.

I got Overlord for PS3, I never heard of it before, but saw an advert and had a free slot on my queue, so I got it sent to me. Turns out I really enjoyed it!
 
Exactly... the exposure to stuff I otherwise wouldn't get the chance to play is awesome. I've ended up buying games I'd never have otherwise.
 
I have been with Gamefly for a while and it's a mixed bag.
It takes 5 business days to receive a game for me, which basically means 7 days as there's usually a weekend involved. This means that for all practical purposes I am renting two games a month, unless the games suck so bad that I send them back instantly. I don't have the time to put in 10 hours a day to play a game, so I usually keep it for two weekends (or longer if the game is actually good, which is extremely rare).

So, if I were to buy those games, and let's not even consider $60 titles, I would pay let's say $40 for one and $50 for the other, that's $90/month as opposed to $23/month.

As much as the slow turn around sucks, it's still saving me money, which is why I am sticking with it.
 
I average 2/3 games a month myself. I rarely see more than 3 days for shipping so if I get something that I just don't like and send it back right away I generally get a replacement within a few days. I figure I probably go through anywhere from 40 to 50 games a year this way which would add up to thousands retail. My investment for an entire year of gamefly comes in under $300. Kinda hard to argue with that.
 
I've been using Gamefly for a while now, and never had a problem. Normally get a new game in about 4-5 days from putting it in the mail, if not sooner. I like the fact that for the most part, when I play a game and go through it once, I never play it again, so its better then dumping $60 on a game and reselling it for $40 on ebay or something.
 
I also never have an issue with them. For me I am about 6 months behind so its never a question of waiting just a more of a question why am I so far behind..other than the fact I suck at some games :)
 
used it for 2 months

cancelled it

took almost 2 weeks to get a game once, and it had high availability

hopefully netflix will get smart and start renting out games
 
I found it really depends on where you live as to the service you get - which, is kind of obvious I guess. But I live in MN and used Gamefly for years, but was never happy with their turnaround. It would literally take almost 2 weeks from when I dropped a game into the mailbox to when I would receive a new one. And that's if they had something in stock to ship to me. Often the new releases were on wait.

Lately though I stared using Gamerang who have a distribution center literally 10 miles from my house. Turnaround is much faster, and I even think they have more of the newer releases in stock. For my location I'd very much recommend them over Gamefly.
 
It saves me money but the service is far from great. When you look at the monthly cost it is hard to come up with situations where you lose money.

It is true you will not get new releases right away but if you look at the logistics of buying AAA releases at launch I can understand why they do not want to buy more than needed. Sure it sometimes sucks but its not like you will not get something off your list. You should not have it on your list if you do not want to play the game.

You also really cannot compare Netflix to Gamefly. A game costs 4-6x of a dvd.
 
From my PoV of a very-casual gamer (my last game I bought was a month ago and I've only played it *maybe* 10 hours) It's not worth the cost. I have a list of maybe, MAYBE 50 games I want total (and several of them are on systems I dont have, so ultimately I have a list of amybe 20-30 games) Most of those are older games (only new game I _Really_ want is Brutal Legend, no interest in any others) so for me it's a money hole.

I do agree though that the comparison to Netflix is unfair. In an average month I get 4 netflix, and I stream probably 30-40 more. All for $10 a month? that's less than cable and I get 100x more value. MEdia that is consumed in 30-190 minutes vs media that is consumed in often 80+ hours (and often a lot longer for those of us who dont eat, sleep, and breethe gaming).

Keep in mind also that an older DVD often goes for $10 and an older, used, game usually goes for $10-$20.

If I was a hardcore gamer who operated on the 'play it and move on' principle I'd absolutely be rockin' this service. But, for me, I like to play my games over and over, and I tend to play then over a period of weeks or months, so the cost adds up. 3 months @ $20 a month is $60. Keep that piling-up-cost in mind if your slow to finish games.
 
I really hope no one gets pissed at this post. This is 3 years of gamefly - I LOVE this service. It has saved me THOUSANDS of dollars on games. You can see that I've played almost 90% of every game that has come out - this service is not for people who spends 80 hours on a single game.


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I have used GF for a few weeks now and my games arrive from 3-4 days from the time I send mine out. I have received Brutal Legend and Uncharted 2 the days they came out. I would say that the service is very good and well worth the $20 odd they take for two games out.
 
Its also a decent service for those that take there time playing games. I get a game in, I like it, I buy it with their keep it price (usually a bit less than market used but not much). Plus I get my discount and my quarterly $5.
 
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