At GameFly, we are committed to providing excellent service at prices that enable you to play all the games you want economically. However, the May 14th postal rate hike on "flat" mailers, as well as the higher cost of new console games, has significantly increased our cost of doing business.
In order to continue improving our service while facing higher external costs, we're raising the monthly fee on all membership plans by $1. All accounts billed on or after June 18, 2007 will be charged at the new rate. Since we opened our doors nearly five years ago, this is the first time we've ever raised the price of our most popular two-game plan.
With plans as low as 53 cents a day, GameFly remains the most cost-effective way to play as many games as possible. As a valued member, we're also giving you the opportunity to lock in a discounted rate of up to 20% off the new plan prices. We urge you to sign up for one of our discount plans now because this offer expires June 18th.
We look forward to serving you in the coming year, as we continue our commitment to providing the best video game rental service available. If you have any comments or questions, please contact us at newpricing@gamefly.com.
Sincerely,
Dave Hodess, CEO
GameFly, Inc.
To Be fair they are offering discounts if you sign up for a 3 month, 6 month, or 12 month prepaid plan. To have attitude, I will gladly pay more for first class postage if it will decrease my turn around time to something reasonable.
Not only am I switching to Pre-Paid, but I'm going to up the amount of games I can have out at a time as well. I'm VERY happy with their service and their sales.
I actually just cancelled my account, mostly because at the time there isn't anything I need to try before I buy and I just wasn't happy with the turnaround rate. I've been subscribing to Netflix since last January and it almost always has a three day turnaround from the day the mail gets sent out.
I guess I'm spoiled by a steady service, but until they can match Netflix's level of speed I really can just be patient and only buy games I've had the chance to play demos of or listen to a friend's opinion about. Maybe this news is the first step towards what I'm looking for, which if that's the case I'd be more than happy to pay a few bucks a month extra for faster turnaround times.
I had a few issues with them, number one was turn around time. At first it was great, a few days at most, but then it started to turn into a week or more. That would be fine, if their fast return thing ever worked; I had one game returned using it in the four months I had the service, and every game I sent back was sent using the same mail box. A couple of times the turn around was so slow, even after they opened the PA center, we're talking 15+ days here, I actually reported a game as sent but missing just to get the damn thing to kick me out a new game.
My second real problem with them was that ninety percent of the games on my queue never left "short wait". Ever. Games I had put on my list the day I signed up, were still at the top of my list when I quit. Nothing really new either, and nothing spectacularly great; Just Cause, stands out, since over the four months I had it in my top three to rent I must have been offered a "keep it" deal three or four times. I damn well bet you they would have had that game to me in a matter of days had I bought it for $25.
If they could work those problems out, I would probably go back in an instant, it just started to become a waste of money waiting to play a game I really wanted to play, only to be fed the bottom of the barrel on my list. The turn around time was the deal breaker in the end though; for $22 a month I can go over to Blockbuster and rent the three damn games a month I was getting through Gamefly.
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Gamertag.Zune.PSN: Murtaug
Playing: Mafia II.
I have been wanting to try this service but all I hear from friends and others that have tried this is nightmare stories. Mainly consisting of VERY slow shipping times and various other problems, plus the costs are a tad too high compared to other options. I mean after having a game for two months you could have technically just bought the damn thing.
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PLEASE NOTE: Some Quantum theories suggest that when the consumer is not directly observing NeuroMan42, he may cease to exist or will exist only in a vague and undetermined state.
I've tried GameFly, RedOctane, and Gameznflix, all three were way to slow to recommend (even though Gameznflix supposedly has a distro center within 20 miles of me, it took 3 weeks before I even got my second game..). In retrospect I liked GameFly the best, just because of the reduced price "keep it" option, but unless you have a 3 or 4 game account you will have big gaps without anything to play.
I've been using gameznflix for the last 3-4 weeks (3 games out, 12.95 a month), the website sucks, the turn-around is pretty long (I've never seen a game listed as anything other than "short wait", but, so far it's already saved me a bit of cash since I tended to buy a LOT of games.
Of course, I'll still probably end up buying my "must haves", mass effect, halo, bioshock etc. but this is a good way to play through the "ehh" games like crackdown (lots of fun btw), Just Cause, Call of Duty 3, etc...
With the current turn around, it's looking like I'll be able to run through about 6 games a month with this service.
I find it interesting how different the quality of service between online DVD rental services and online game rental services is, despite the similarities between the two forms of media.
That said, I just renewed my subscription to Gamefly. The next 6 months are practically packed with AA and AAA releases and there's no way I can afford to play all the games I want without the help of some sort of rental service.
I have an idea for Gamefly: Charge $2 more and actually have games in stock for me to rent! I have 10 games in my que and only 1 of them is Available NOW.
Hell, even Peter Jackson's King Kong X360 is a long wait. WTF?!
I was ready to see "5 dollar increase" or something like that, which would have made me consider canceling my account. 1 dollar more? I'm cheap as hell, but I can handle an extra dollar. Their reasons for the increase seem good enough for me.
As for turn-around, it used to suck for me, until they opened up a distribution center here in Pittsburgh that is. My main problem now is that I don't really have enough games that I want to play.
EDIT: Also, if you want to get in-demand games faster, just take the common stuff off your list and put them in a Word document or something so you don't forget. Once I whittled my list down to only the stuff that was in low demand I actually started to get it (usually they would ship it within a day, maybe 2 at the very most) instead of the crap I had at the bottom of my list and really didn't want to play at the moment.
I just signed up for the 10 day "free trial" (which is basically just an extension of your first month) and I haven't received my first games yet, but my brother, who signed up at the same time as me, has. I'm kinda miffed, especially since I live only 2 1/2 hours away from the Pittsburgh distro center and he lives up in Rochester, NY. By the time I get the first games, my "free trial" will be half-way over.
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| Systems |
360, Wii, DS, PC
| GamerTag | Karmaghost
Back when I used Gamefly the only thing I thought it was good for was testing games I really wanted to buy, then buying them. This decreases the time until my next game and saves me some money. Other than that the waits get annoying as hell and it seems like they have one copy of certain titles.
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"Carmack could claim that he had programmed a game for the TI-86 that projects sentient holograms into your living room and I'd probably believe him." - Curi
I had used rentals for a while but couldn't deal with the waits for games and also, 50% of my requests where always on short waits, so for new titles, i wouldn't get them for over 2 months............pissy pissy for $20 a month to play about 3-4 games.
I now use Goozex for gaming, I just beat games and trade em for a buck a pop. I spend $5-$10 a month and own each game I get.
