I've never even heard of a problem like that with Gamefly. I've been a member for almost 2 years, and the only problem I've had was a scratched disc. I sent them an email about it, and within the hour got a response. They shipped the replacement game even before I put the damaged one in the mail(I live in Oregon, and usually recieve the games in 2 to 3 days). They've been changing and upgrading their site recently, though, so maybe something got lost in the translation.

I've been most impressed with their customer service. I mailed a game back a few months ago, and it never arrived. I notified them and they went right ahead and shipped my next game, no questions asked. And they usually respond to feedback. I sent a suggestion in last year for PDF instruction manuals for the most popular games, and got a reply back that they were working on it, but there were legal and other issues to deal with before they could do it. Now, they have the PDF manuals up, though there aren't very many of them yet.

As they grow bigger, I think more little (or big) problems might pop up, but I'd still recommend it.

Netflix should buy them out - the lack of game rentals and porn are the two missing pieces of the Netflix line, apart from VOD

My Gamefly experience has been terrible... two of the games I mailed in were never received, and I've tried to get in contact with Gamefly about it, and have not received a single response... these people are terible and a waste of money.

My Gamefly experience has been OK, not great but OK.
My big issue is that a game takes 4 days each way (receiving/sending) so that's an 8 day turn around.

And that's my only issue with Gamefly, my last return took 5 days to get to them.

As for Netflix they have a great turnaroud, it's takes a day each way for a DVD.

I live in Texas, btw.

I lost 3 games over a 6 month period. Now Gamefly cancelled my account and threatening to charge my account. Don't believe them. I e-mailed customer service but they wanted me to pay for the lost games. Terribly customer service.

GameFly roolz! I had a problem getting my emails from them...and at first I thought they weren't responding...then I realized I had a spam blocker up! DOH! My bad...

Then, I lost too many games...they let me go, but after contacting the post office, it turns out that it was a delay in the post office that caused it....all the games that were lost turned up and they welcomed me right back.

They are good peeps.

I am 39 and a longtime gamer both PC and console. Having worked both in the IT and the market research world I am highly dissapointed with Gamefly on several levels. I live in Maui Hawaii and have had a Gamefly account for two years. Recently three games were not recieved by gamefly. Their response was to cancel my membership. No attempt was made to salvage any relationship with me as a customer. Apparently, Gamefly chooses to alienate and infuriate its customers rather than comunicate and attempt to salvage its customer base. I bought and rented many games in the term of my membership and was outraged at my sudden termination. I have since switched to Gplay their competitor and have begun a letter writing campaign to the execs of gamefly. Anyone who wishes to contact me and have me wright on their behalf is welcome.
Aloha
Rick
Palmer

Well, for any rental company that doesn't have as many distribution warehouses as Netflix, you're gonna experience delays. Try imagine living in Alaska...

I can't imagine getting the games to Hawaii for as bad as it was to get them to me in Ohio. I've long since switched to a far better service (www.intothegame.com) and I'll never go back.

Gamefly, however, started a new program where they send you your next game when the PO scans it. Anyone have any experience with that? I suggested it on ITG.

I'm having a bad second experience with GameFly already and I just signed up. I had an account with them before and cancelled because it took too long to get a game from them. It took about a week for any game they mailed to arrive, and I live in Seattle. A week from LA to Seattle is ridiculous. Round trip that's half a month so to get any game play at all you're paying about $10 a game per rental. So I cancelled after just a few months. Now, about 2 years later I decided to try them again, hoping that their service had improved. I just signed up and my "Q" says that my first two games were shipped on 8/6. It is now 8/13 and I still don't have any games. None. By comparison, on 8/8 I mailed a letter to Washington D.C. (that's completely on the other side of the country). It arrived there whenever it did, and they sent a reply mail to me that I received FROM D.C. yesterday 8/12. Now you tell me how I can mail a letter all the way across the country and get a response back from all the way across the country, in less time than either of two games can get to Seattle from LA?
This service sucks. Don't get it.

I was about to sign up for Gamefly as I finally broke down and bought an Xbox (long-time PC only gamer). Anyway I had play GTA: Vice City at a friend's house and thought that I'd try out FTA: San Andreas before buying it as I'd heard it was different in some ways.

I thought, perfect then - San Andreas will be the first game I try from Gamefly. Luckily I came across this FAQ before signing-up:

---------------------------------------------------
Question:
---------
Why don't you have Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas?

Answer:
-------
Due to the ESRB's new AO (Adults Only) rating for Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, GameFly has decided to temporarily suspend rental of the current version. We are currently working with GTA's publisher to get access to an M-rated version that cannot be modified. We will pass on additional information as it becomes available. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience.
---------------------------------------------------

Well, as a 34-year old adult I'm a little steamed by the implications in those statements. It seems that any new AO-rated game will not be available through Gamefly (or will be significantly delayed pending a watered-down version). Is Gamefly attempting to moderate video game content by restricting availability of the games? That's not what I'd be paying them to do - no thanks. Let the minor's parents regulate what games their kids are playing. Gamefly can cover themselves by alerting the adults who are allowing their kids to sign-up that some of the games available are AO-rated and that the adults will have to monitor access to the account by minors. They can use a system similar to Netflix that allows an adult to setup a ratings-enforced queue for the minors. Really, anything would be better than simply making the game unavailable.

Anyway, I sent them an email message requesting clarification as to whether they will carry both an AO and M rated version, or just the M rated version. I also asked if they intend to continue this policy for future AO-rated games. We'll see what they say. I'm holding off on a membership until i get an answer...

i had the same experience, they never recieve my games and cancelled my account, seems to me that there workers are stealing there games that arrive in the mail, i am very dissappointed with them, i will never do bussiness with them again

Hi, had gamefly for about 6 months. about 2 weeks into my membership I didnt recieve the game that they claimed to have sent me. I notified them and they sent the replacement out the next day. a week ago, the same problem happened and they cancelled my account, as if I was stealing games fron them. they had sent a game out the same day as they ended my subscription, and wanted it back by this thursday (october 27, 2005) and I still havent recieved it. They claim that they will charge me the full amount for that game if it isnt back on thursday, which I swear by god I will not be charged for a game I never recieved, or at least didnt recieve in time to send back. Ill update once the smoke clears.

Problems I had with gamefly are that the games took forever to recieve. When I was done I sent them back and guess what, they lost every game I returned. They never cancelled my account, but trying to contact customer service was a nightmare. I cancelled service with them and will never go back.

I would say Gamefly is crooked and corrupt, but they haven't charged me for any games that got lost in the mail. Oh, Gamefly is located in Inglewood, CA. I am in Thousand Oaks, CA (45 miles away). So, could they really be able to just accept the loss on those games, or just put the blame elsewhere? I believe that they have no infrastructure to back up there service, so they have no way to keep up with the huge amount of rentals; so things will continue to get worse now that they are advertising. I have had 7 games go lost in the mail in a 2 MONTH SPAN!! That is 87.5% of the games I have rented from Gamefly!! I have filed 4 cases with my local post office, as I believed in shady dealings as the post office. We even had a general inquirty from the National Postal Review to understand this situation. Believe me when I say, IT IS NOT THE POST OFFICE. And it takes forever for Gamefly to follow through. I'll walk you through the last incident. I dropped two games in the mail on October 17. Waited a week, two weeks, THREE WEEKS, they don't receive either game. So on November 14, I report them as lost in the mail. I get an automated response. Today is 7 days after I reported them lost, and I still don't have this resolved, no new games, and I have paid for an entire month without being able to rent. Yeah, I think my next move is to cancel, wouldn't you?

Gamefly has had numerous shipping problems, and because my "mail route has difficulty" (Troy, NY), and they didn't receive one of my games I sent back, they cancelled my account. After 6 months of service, and purchasing two games, you think they could do better than this.

This blog s u x c o c k it doesn't allow you to even use the word d a m n!

How dreadful that we are thereby deprived of your erudite commentary, azdesertsnake01.

for comment #17...

ya speak the opinions of an uninformed, fucking Idiot..

damn it, ya can say whatever the hell ya like around here, just like any other crusty bastard, so quit yer bitching about language

cuz any fucking thing goes on that front...

nuff said...

Excelsior?

Huh. I went ahead and signed up for gamefly like two months ago and haven't had a single problem yet (and this is southern florida, soflo, btw). Reading all the comments above I'm thinking they must have improved their service recently. The next game in my q always gets sent like a day after I return a game since the po scans the return and gf knows then that it's coming. Selection, etc, is good also.

please ,please ,please hear this and listen good
gamefly is a ripoff.i think its a one man show and hes makeing big big bucks,this is not a real company ,not like netflix which i have been a happy customer for over a year.i have asked like 3 quetions thrue email and all 3 times i get no real answer just an automated reply that dont even try to answer

out of the 10 day free trial and my first mounth i have had 3 games go missing
and these last 2 im wondering if they will try to charge me for them ,i will cancel my account after the 10 days i have left or the lost games get sorted which ever is first ,i have cleard my gameQ.

when you report a game lost in the mail they want you to report it to the post office ,thats just crazy, when moto gp was lost i noticed it was on and off my gameQ ,its like we sent it ,no wait we didnt ,ok ,ok yeah we did,and then its lost.there is no real feedback ,yeah you can feedback to them but nothing like a forum or a chat box or something in real time help.

i live in ftwalton florida and i have a locked mailbox with a very old mailman that i know for a fact is very honest and very old,he dont play no psp,please trust me when i say do not use gamefly ,find another do your homework and be careful ,ill cancel me cards and get new ones as soon as possible(tommorow).theres more but i cant set here all night .ty

If a company was anywhere near as bad as mudd says then theyd be in business for like 5 minutes before getting sued out of existence. Theres got to be hundreds of thousands of happy gamefly users like myself-and Im in Ohio and have no real shipping problems-who have made the company into like netflix for games. Anytime anything is sent through the mail theres a risk but if it makes gaming cheaper then its worth the risk.

I've had a really bad experience with gamefly. I was basically charged the monthly equivalent for the 2 games rented under their 10 day free trial. I live 2 states away, and shipping took 5-6 days both ways. I played each game for 2 hours, one night each. I sent them back, giving them the benefit of the doubt to see how shipping went on the return trip. Before I could stop them, they charged me the monthly fee before the games even got back. I explained the situation and they basically ignored me and treated me like a juvenile. I'm nearly 30 years old and a professional. This is not how you do business. This is not customer service. And it was not a free trial. When you do business with gamefly, you get the short end of the stick.

it's just weird how some people love gamefly and some people hate it. what bigdawg said is basically the same thing that i went through when i had gamesnflix. i switched over to gamefly and i live in columbus, ohio and haven't had any of those problems. the whole concept is good enough that if it can save you some money then it's worth a shot because i think most people get good service but those who don't are the ones who speak loudest.

I was a memebr of Gamelfy for 5 months and was only able to rent 3 games do to the long turn around time.

At first the had the incorrect address on my account for shippin, but the correct billing adress, at least is shows their priorities.

After two "lost games" and several e-mails and phone calls they now have the correct adress. Games still take 7-14 days to reach me.

After this I decided to cancel my membership.

I asked my wife to mail the game back as I was out of town on business. Sadly she returned the incorrect game.

I contacted Gamefly the very next day via e-mail requesting a return of my game, and I would use the mailer to reutrn theirs. Seems simple enough.

Their responce was less then thrilling. They stated they could not guarntee they would find my game. (Just look in the nevelpoe I mailed you!!) But would send an empty mailer so I could return theirs.

A week later I have not received the mailer and they charged my accont for their game. So basically I have been charged $32 to lose a game I like and keep a game I never liked.

The game is for sale on their site for $16, so why charge me $32 anyway.

I am still pending responce, but the local news will have me interviewing on it later next week. So lets take down this shady business.

man, all these comments im reading bout gamefly's getting me scared, i just sign up for the 10 day trial and i hope i don't get screwed like u guys. but i think i have a good strategy, when my game arrives (probably in like 5 days if all these comments are true), play for like a day or 2, then cancel my account giving me seven extra days to return the game

Man give them a chance. Most of these posts are really out dated. I've been a member for almost two years and have had a few downer experiences that had me pissed but they cleared them up. and this year it's been smooth.

Great website and features. Largest selection, support of consoles (I have three, use two mostly though) and, regardless of the above, turnaround time and game availability are fine. you have to keep in mind that with any service like this, there's going to be some variance. It's part of the bargain. but really, to me, it's a small consideration compared to other benefits.

Their second distribution center helped out a lot. It started up in Mayish '07, so any comments before or around that time period need to be taken with a grain of salt. They also have two more in the works if you believe joystiq.

My turnaround since then has been 3-4 days with some variability. New 360 releases can be a little hard to get sometimes but then some stuff is gonna be hard to get a hold of in any case i think. bioshock shipped almost immediately. and once you learn the system, it's not an issue, particularly when you're going through 2-3 games a month for a third of one game new.

but the reasons i like them most:

1. being able to try games i wouldn't have bought (and really liking some of them)
2. returning stuff I don't
3. buying what i really like from them after trying it out. They sell their games at a sizable discount off retail.

If you have a little patience and keep on top of your queue, you can't go wrong.

I am also extremely disappointed with GameFly.
My GameQ contains 30 games and my membership is for 2 games out at a time, but 90% of the time only one game appears in my "Games I have out". I have had several games go missing. The shipping times are outrageous. The customer service sucks, no one answers my questions, except for the auto-replies which never answer any of my questions. Bottom line: this company is a scam, i wouldn't be wasting my time writing this if i didn't feel so strongly about it. Also, I was able to track down a phone number to reach them, even though they didn't post it on their own site: 888-986-6400.

So wierd to read some of these complaints. I have NOT had one problelm with Gamefly. Been a member for 2 years, I also have the 2 out at a time membership and love it. I've never had 1 lost game or any issue whatsoever. Gamefly is no scam, they have been around longer than any other rental site!

I got Call of Duty 4 in the mail, played it and really liked it. Went to Gamefly's site clicked "I want to keep this game" and it was mine for $40! They send me the manual and box. What a sweet service, how could you not like it?!

I get a game in about 2-3 days after they mail it. It takes about the same time till they recieve it, but it usually shows up earlier because of Fast Return w/ my post office. Read rumors of a 3rd dist. center opening in Tampa soon too.

Have a little patience and I'm sure they work out whatever happened to your account. "Unhappy Gamefly Customer", your experience sounds like a freak incident, Gamefly is legit and is a great company.

JUST SCAM GAMEFLY YOU CAN GET 3 FREE GAMES TELL THEM THEY WERE LOST ALSO SOME PREPAID CREDIT CARDS WILL WORK LET THEM CHARGE THE CARD ALL THEY WANT 4 GAMES FOR $20.00 NOT A BAD DEAL

Yo, #30 - Bon... guess what? Your con is part of the reason honest people get screwed. You are the problem and ruin it for everyone else because you have this sense of entitlement and think it's okay to steal with absolutely no thought to how that might actually impact anyone but yourself. I hope someone breaks into your house and robs you blind. From the sound of it, you've got it coming. And if they haven't yet they will. If there's one thing in life I've learned you can count on it's karma. People like you always get what's coming to them and those of us who've been negatively impacted by people like you get to sit back and enjoy watching you fall on your face. I hope your stolen crap is worth it.

I got gamefly on a whim, free trial and all. I live in Cleveland, OH and my shipping center is in Pittsburgh, PA. Thats a 1 day max postal trip. So for some reason every time I send a game back it takes them 7-8 days to get it. Of course I get the game that they send to me in 2-3 days. It is pure BullSh*t that they pull to rip you off $24 dollars a month and you cant even get more than 2-3 games the whole time??

Gamefly is truly a rip off~!! The Customer Service is the worst ever, aggressive, offensive response. They will pin you for the game they miss-shipped or lost. They have a extremely weak distribution structure compare with Netflix. Truly sad company to do business with.

Do Not even try it unless you got money & precious time to waste.

On the 15th, I tried to reopen my old Gamefly account, but Gamefly rejected my credit card saying that the address was wrong. I checked it and rechecked it several times, then finally sent off an email through their "contact us" tab about the issue.
It's the 27th I still have yet to hear back from them. I thought that perhaps it was a problem with my bank having my information wrong perhaps, so I went online to my bank account. Lo and behold, what do I see? A charge for exactly $20.00 from Gamefly.
This made me want to check the Gamefly website to see if my account was active, but it wasn't. I've sent off two more emails and called the customer service line, which I had to google for, since it doesn't show up on their site. I got a recording, saying that their phone support was open from 9AM to 1PM and that they did not accept viocemail.
So for all of you out there frustrated Gamefly customers, I went to the Better Business Bureau and found the phone number for their corporate office: (310) 664-6400. Julie Stautzenbach is listed as the Senior Customer Service Manager, so I'm sure Ms Stautzenbach will appreciate the feedback on how her department is doing.

Wow, It's hard to believe some people here are talking about the Gamefly I know. *Laughs* I've been a member since shortly after Gamefly went into business, and I have had very, very few problems. My only problem has been that, over my membership years, two games vanished into the ether. Gamefly responded promptly and courteously, and I've never had a problem. Hopefully that doesn't change if a 3rd game decides to vanish. I live in Tucson, Arizona and it takes, on average, 3 days for games to get here. Oddly, it seems to take 5 - 7 to get back. I especially love Gamefly since I always get the new games I want. No worries about not getting to the local Blockbuster fast enough.