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Posted on 08.23.07 by skintari @ 1:33 pm
Hey-o fellow readers, I come here to provide you all on the extreme ineptness of one online entrepreneur: our friend, Gamefly. What do I have against Gamefly? Well, for starters, their customer service. But before I get into that, let me describe the past 3 months of my Gamefly service. The first month went rather well, I would get the games that were available in my queue, also receiving the first game I requested even though it was unlikely to ship. Hmm, since I was new, I had priority over everyone else I suppose. Yay me, or so I thought. Fast forward about a month/month and a half. I notice that I’m getting games that are ranked in the bottom tier of my queue. Now, I know their rules about availability of games, but they were legitimately skipping over stuff that was listed as Now. Not just one or two spots, but it skipped over 5 that were ready to go, per their online system. How do I know this, I started making a spreadsheet to track how screwed over I was getting. All the while, a Referee who shall remain nameless was able to get the new releases as they came out. No doubt that person will have problems in the very near future. Anyhoo, onto the other issue…Customer Service. Here is my initial email to them: “Hello, I also have a few complaints about the Gamefly service… 1. The games that are sent to me are generally from the middle or bottom part of my queue. It seems like there is no effort at all to send me any games I that I want “now”. I’ve reordered my queue in hopes of getting games that are coming out or recently released and this has proven futile. And I know that this isn’t because these newer games have medium or low availability as I’ve personally kept track of how many currently available releases have been skipped over to get me something that was 26th in line. Not to mention the fact that I referred somebody and they were able to get a game (the darkness)at the same time I was given the 15th choice in my queue. 2. Fast Return. Why does this not work all the time? It seems like once a month I have games that are applicable for the Fast Return Program. I am seriously getting the feeling that because I rent a higher volume of games, I’m being penalized for it. I find that absurd and a poor business model. If it’s not a constant offer, then it shouldn’t be offered at all. Or is it just a selective service that you offer users once a month? 3. I’ve only been a member for a few months and I really hoped that this would be a great experience. But so far, this has been a huge disappointment. I’m still hanging hope that this may change in the future.” What’s their response? Nothing. Just an auto response that tells me how to claim a game as not received by them. Whoop-te-do. That doesn’t answer all of my questions. So what do I do now? “Dear Gamefly, Since you failed to respond to my last email within the 24 to 48 hour response time, I feel it’s only fair that you cancel my account. Poor customer service is no excuse and I will be passing the word that Gamefly really doesn’t care about consumer questions or concerns. Thanks for a disappointing experience.” Yeah. I’m quitting my Gamefly. As of today. Ain’t no Netflix, that’s for sure…. Filed under: General Comments:
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Hey man. Fast return is a post office thing. Gamefly recieves an alert once your game is scanned AT THE POST OFFICE. The only absurd thing about it is that you would take time out of your life to malign a business model you obviously know so little about.
i’m sure you mean well. and it sucks to be disappointed by something you have great hopes for. As far their game availability goes, i find it strange that people don’t think a thing of sleeping on the cold street to get a wii, iphone, or ps3 (which all qualify as being in short supply) but scream if a gf has a few games in short supply. if you want something that everyone else wants, prepare to wait.
Gamefly is a great company. i’ve stuck with them because they actually seem to care. and yeah things do get screwed up sometimes. but 1) the positives definately far outweigh the negatives and 2) they are obviously trying very hard to get better and better at what they do.
happy gaming my friend!
Comment by Ben — August 25, 2007 @ 6:16 pm
Ben, I don’t know if you’re just trolling here or anything, but I fail to see how you could come up with any of that if you actually read and understood my post.
Your comparison of waiting for a wii or pstriple and waiting for a game is completely off target. My queue is filled with available games, and it’s organized on a weekly basis, so I know what’s there and what’s not. What had happened is that their inventory said games were available and I would get a game that was much further down in my queue. There is a certain level of expectation when one operates a business such as this and they were failing that to me.
Secondly, the Fast Return policy is a whole issue in itself. If it can’t be offered consistantly, then it shouldn’t be offered at all. Period. But when it starts to appear that I’m being penalized for my amount of rentals, that becomes an issue to me, the paying consumer.
Finally, I do enjoy how you stood up to the big bad internet blogger to support a developing service, but you seemed to have completely missed my post on how Gamefly actually contacted me to work out some of these issues and restored my faith in their service. Good jorb there!
Comment by skintari — August 27, 2007 @ 4:31 pm
sorry for being a dick. trying to quit the smokes and well…lately i’ve been a dick.
i reread your post and the part on game availability is complicated. do you have a 360? although that doesn’t seem to be the issue. why do you have so many games in your queue? i started with a lot too and now i just keep a few in there so what i really want ships.
the fast return thing IS another issue. the way i understand it is that not all post offices have the equipment to scan mail. gamefly can’t control that. i drop games off at a location that i know scans. so my new games usually go out the same day i drop the old one off.
anyway. happy gaming!
Comment by Ben — August 29, 2007 @ 9:52 pm
No problem Ben, it’s hard to get a point across on these here interwebs sometimes.
To give a little bit more background on my particular queue issue, I have a ps2, 360, ds, wii, and gamecube all hooked up with games that I eventually want to try. They’re all in my queue because I spent a lot of time going through and finding those little gems. Hence, I spend a lot of time reorganizing those and I have a good idea what’s going to ship. I prolly have more free time than most to do that tho as I’m not currently working.
As for the fast return, my main point was that I know it takes 4 days to get a game. That’s not an issue. It was the fact that fast return only applied maybe once a month. I would rather not see that option until it was applied across the board. And if a game gets sent to me quicker, then bonus. But you can’t advertise a service if it doesn’t always apply and expect people to be happy about. Especially if that service is extremely intermittent.
Good luck with quitting smoking tho. It’s on my agenda in the near future…stupid addictions!
Comment by skintari — August 30, 2007 @ 4:53 pm
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Pingback by Gamefly: Why NOT To Use Them - Games [ Ectio.us ] — September 4, 2007 @ 2:42 am
Heh, I agree about the Fast Return issue. The first game I got had the option for Fast Return with it. It showed a little message in my GameQ saying, “use the Fast Return method…blah..blah” I was like that’s awesome! It worked great for the the first and second game, then I got my third game…no Fast Return option. I noticed that it just completely disappeared from GameFly. I searched all through Gamefly to see what the deal was, couldn’t find anything. I remembered there being a little blurb about it in the FAQ, so I checked in there, no it was gone. I assumed they just ended the service. They also did the same thing to my Q, skiped over 2 games with the “Now” availability attached to them. To me it sounds like they have a ton of glitches in their computer system. I sure hope they smooth things out, cause I’ll beat games anywhere from 2-5 days and then could care less about playing them again, so I NEED this service.
Comment by fehja — September 10, 2007 @ 11:29 pm
meh can’t edit…didn’t realise they had pages to their FAQ…Fast Return is there, heh, my bad.
Comment by fehja — September 10, 2007 @ 11:31 pm
Yeah, Gamefly has really disappointed me lately. I’ve had them for about a year now, and up until a few months ago, I always got the games at the top of my queue that weren’t weird titles they have like 1 copy of (Futurama anyone?).
Then, I got a Wii and PS3. In the beginning, I was getting the new releases for the Wii. Paper Mario, Mario Party, etc etc. High demand games. And then suddenly I stopped getting *anything*. Then I bought a PS3, putting new and old games on the queue the day I order it.
So I had about 10 Wii/PS3 games at the top of my queue. Some hot titles, some not so hot. In 2 months, I have only gotten 1 - yes 1 - from my top 10 on the queue. And that’s by returning the crap 15th in line games they keep sending me the day after I get it.
That is really horrible service. It’s painfully obvious that they need to increase their inventory and adjust their method of determining how many copies to pick up on new releases.
I’m about ready to say the hell with it and cancel Gamefly and start buying my games. right now, I’m spending something like $25/mo (2 game plan, dont remember the exact cost) for games I just put there so I wont have “dead” time inbetween returns. I’ve been a good customer. I’ve bought several used games through them. But it seems they’ve lost their ability to meet demands.
Comment by pete — September 28, 2007 @ 3:43 pm
Hey, Pete. Let them know your situation. It’s pretty close to mine. And as far as it goes, I’ve gotten pretty good service since my “complaint” was filed. It also seems that they are trying to update their procedures/website, so maybe change for good is on the horizon.
On another note, instead of paying the $25, sign up for brightspot.tv. I know it sounds like I’m plugging it, but if you watch the online commercials, it’ll pay ten bucks towards your gamefly account…
Comment by skintari — October 2, 2007 @ 12:22 pm
I sent a complaint over a month ago. I got one game, and then back to the usual BS. Maybe the trick is to constantly bug them. That’s totally unreasonable though.
Comment by pete — October 4, 2007 @ 3:02 pm
I’m cancelling my gamefly account this month because they claimed I damaged a game (by removing a label and gluing it back on). I didn’t even play the game because I picked the wrong one so I just sent it back without looking at the game. They want to charge me $30 for an old GBA game. I’ve been a gamefly member for 8 months but I guess it doesn’t matter I had a clean record until then. Oh well I’ll take my business elsewhere where I’m not treated like a thief.
Comment by Josiah — October 6, 2007 @ 7:27 am
I’m on my 2nd try with Gamefly. First time around it would take 2+ weeks to send a game in and get one back.
This time around, they can’t seem to get my account activated, even tho I’ve followed their “directions” on cancelling,etc. *rolls eyes* Already not looking too good.
Comment by LSG — October 8, 2007 @ 12:45 pm
Ok so i’ve been a gamefly user for about 1 1/2 years, and I’ve never really had a problem with not getting what was in my queue. (maybe it is because i only go through about 4-6 games/month. But i did have some ideas. I think that with a few changes/new features gamefly could make a lot of people happy. I know the fact that your problem stems from the fact that some titles appear to be in stock and they are being skipped for items further down in your queue and that is a legitimate problem but if game fly implemented my two ideas it would solve most problems.
1. Place queued item on hold.
2. Keep Trying X days for item.
The first idea would be an option to place items in your queue on hold. I know that i go through and add a bunch of items that might be low priority for me but I don’t want to forget about them, i just want to wait for a lull in my queue to get it. If you could place items on hold they would at least remain in your queue(and unforgotten) and you wouldn’t have to worry about gamefly sending them to you until you were sure you wanted them. Kind of like a save for later feature. The second feature would be the option to keep trying to send you a specific item for x number of days. Gamefly wouldn’t try anything below it in your queue until x number of days had passed. That way you could give gamefly a bigger window in which to recieve more units, or allow you to move up high in the gamefly master wait list for a game. And if that game were still not available for so X days it would move on to the next thing in the list(no harm no foul). I realize this wouldn’t solve everything but i think it would solve a lot.
Comment by Dylan Thurston — October 16, 2007 @ 10:30 am
Few things you need to do. No clue if this was stated before.
1. Shorten your q list. Take off games you really don’t care for, or games you rather not get before the ones at the top. If all the games in your q list really are unavailable for shipping then the worst case scenario is that you have to wait an extra day. Gamefly has tons of customers and I suspect they get these games going in an out all the time.
2. You mentioned having to wait a long time for your next game (whether you shipped it out and they never got it, or they shipped it out and you never got it). Sometimes packages get “lost” during processing. In these cases they are relabeled and saved for the next day if they missed the outbound mail trucks. I know FedEx does the “next day” deal but others (such as a normal mail delivery service) might check the “lost” pile on a weekly basis. It sucks but I’ve known it to happen (letters to home from a summer camp years ago didn’t get there for 3 weeks - 1 full week after I had already gotten back lol).
Gamefly can’t really be blamed for everything. I see this happened months ago and now in their TOS they state things like what you’ve complained about. I believe they now realize these things and have fixed them accordingly.
Now.. if i can only figure out how much faster this “fast return” really is… (they sent me next game the day after I returned my old one - thats hella fast)
Comment by Descrasnezul — January 11, 2008 @ 3:38 am
so far my experiences with gamefly has been mixed.
for awhile i didn’t get anything but ps2 games but now i just got blue dragon so i’m happy.
you don’t get what you what when you want but you get to play your fill of games usually without paying 50$ a wop.
a few times I’v had games just disappear on thier way here or from here to there but i figure that is due to some asshole stealing it or what not and so far gamefly hasn’t done anything against me for it like try and charge me for it.
So so far i would say gamefly is a huge $cash saver and worth it!
Comment by SetiAmon — February 21, 2008 @ 11:18 pm
Anyone been getting taxed on their gamefly charges? I live in a state where they don’t operate out of, yet they still want to charge me taxes. The bright lad at customer service told me it was because they were an online rental company. AAAAHHHH! Now I see. You can steal from people if you rent games online, or could they be too stupid? I think not. Beware!!!
Comment by Anonymous — March 18, 2008 @ 4:01 pm
I have been having similar problems, so I tried shortening my Q to 7 games that I considered must have, in response they simply have not sent me anything at all, no games, for 4 days after they said they recieved the last game.
Comment by Steven — April 24, 2008 @ 8:09 pm
My exerience with Gamefly has led me to believe that they intentionally delay the processing of recieved games and the shipment of requested games to make more money off the monthly subscription fee.
It typically takes them almost 2 weeks to acknowledge a recieved game, and another week or two to ship the next one in my queue. So basically they just charged me a months subscription while they sit on their asses - the more time they kill without sending me a game, the more money they make.
Comment by Steve — June 17, 2008 @ 11:08 am
Well my experience with gamefly has been pretty solid. It takes 2 days for the game to get to me, and 2 days for the game to get to them. I don’t have any extra “fast return” services or any of that so I guess its pretty cool. Ya it does suck when they skip games and go down on your list to games that you want to play later but not now.
Comment by Shakil — July 17, 2008 @ 1:01 am
I’ve decided to just rent games from blockbuster.
Comment by Casey — August 13, 2008 @ 4:01 pm