Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, June 10 2005

Gamefly is bar far the worst company ever made...... it took at least 4 days to get a game once they send it.....and every time....EVERY TIME i send one back it takes 1-2 weeks for them to recieve it. I know its not the post office cause my netflix always come and go on time........ the answer to this clearly....is that gamefly is the worst company ever derived for customer satisfaction....... never join it and if you have joined it...leave

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Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, June 11 2005

After reading mostly positive reviews on Gamefly online I decided to give it a try May 2005. I signed up for their "free" 10-day trial and ordered my two games.

First, their trial period starts the minute you sign-up, not_when_they_ship_the_games or when they arrive at your house. It also includes the return shipping time, so by the time the games arrived my 10-day "free" trial had nearly expired and it would be impossible to mail the games back and have them arrive there before the 10-day trial expired.

Second, GAMEFLY DOESN'T ADMIT THE GAMES WERE SHIPPED BACK! They have __NO__TRACKING__SYSTEM__ so it's impossible to prove they got the games back. I told them they didn't arrive and they didn't respond. That's ANOTHER THING, their support SUCKS!

OH, AND THEY CHARGE TAXES! They're not local, they're not legally suppose to charge taxes unless they have a brick and mortar (B&M) store IN the state, YET THEY'RE STILL CHARGING LOCAL TAXES! It's just extra money to line their pockets AND IT'S ILLEGAL.

They charged me 23.45 for the "$21.95/month" (remember, they charge taxes) "free trial", then another $67.28 for two games that were shipped back WEEKS AGO, so that's $90.73 total. I will NEVER do business with Gamefly again, and I'll tell everyone I speak with how horrible Gamefly is so hopefully no one else gets ripped off by Gamefly like I did. I already contacted the BBB now I need to contact the Attorney State General in the state Gamefly is in (California) so they can investigate Gamefly's shady business practices.

I also own the largest Sony PSP group on yahoo:
http:/groups.yahoo.com/group/sony_psp/
and apparently I'm not alone in not liking gamefly.

Blockbuster has monthly rental system similar to Gamefly's but you can also rent movies with it, I recommend everyone avoid Gamefly and chose Blockbuster.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 05 2006

I believe Gamefly sucks, too. And here is why:

I believe they are involved in a major internet scam along with WLI Reservation Rewards. Below is my sequence of correspondence to date with Gamefly.

My original email:

I subscribed to your service a couple of months ago but cancelled because my step-sons wanted to try something else. On December 27, 2005, my bank account was charged $9.00 for something called "WLI Reservation Rewards." When I called the number, 800-732-7031, WLI told me that I had signed up for their "services" through Gamefly.com. I did not knowingly do any such thing. I asked my step-son about it and he said: "I remember seeing that when I logged into Gamefly and it said click here for a free 10 coupon for Gamefly, and it said that it was absolutely free and you did not have to sign up."

Needless to say, after this, I will not be subscribing to your services again, but I thought you should know of this experience as it obviously does not reflect well upon your company. You should also know, I plan to file a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General's office regarding this matter--because WLI just gave me the runaround, when I asked repeatedly that my money be returned.

I have no idea if Gamefly is at "fault" for this incident, but it is something of which you should obviously be aware. A simple Google search reveals that this is a MASSIVE FRAUD.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Matthew J. Schoewe

Gamefly's Response:

Response (Brian R) 01/05/2006 04:54 PM

Dear Matthew,

We would not be at fault for the $9.00 charge that was provided through Web Loyalty. It seems that your son signed up for the program through that Company. Your son was given the option to receive 10 GameFly Dollars by signing up for "Reservation Rewards" but it was not mandatory for the purchase of the game. Once registered with Web Loyalty, your son was given a confirmation notice which includes details on how to log into their "Reservation Rewards" account in order to retrieve their 10 GameFly Dollars coupon code, applicable towards their next purchase. You may want to call Web Loyalty back at the telephone number provided 800-732-7031 to address this particular issue.

Thank you,

GameFly Customer Service
Email: support@gamefly.com
Online help: http://www.gamefly.com/help/default.asp

My Reply:

I don't believe you, but thanks for trying.

I suggest you "google it." This is a massive internet scam, and I believe you and WLI know it, and I will be filing my complaint with the Illinois Attorney General's office. You can explain it to them.

As far as Gamefly goes, at the very least, your site is very deceptive. I cannot conceive of how my son--or anyone else's child--simply clicking on a link on your site can result in purchasing a "service" on a recurring billing basis from a site and company that is external to and independent from Gamefly. My son does not have access to my debit card information, and I don't imagine placing a single order through Gamefly allows Gamefly to disseminate that information to a totally separate company just by virtue of clicking on a link. Legitimate sites from which you make legitimate purchases require that you enter certain information--which, again, is not available to my son, and which I can assure you he did not enter--and go through certain steps to ensure that you intend to make a "purchase." Obviously, this did not happen.

Frankly, I have no idea whether Gamefly and WLI are technically within the limits of the law on this issue, but you are certainly not within the spirit. This is especially true as you know very well that people like me subscribe to services like yours for the benefit of their children--and then you allow such a deceptive, if not illegal, practice to continue.

But thanks again for trying. I must confess, though, I am disappointed. I was under the impression that Gamefly would be much more above-board than you apparently are on something like this.

P.S. Perhaps you would care to explain how this "purchase" allegedly occurred more than a approximately a month after I cancelled my "service" with Gamefly.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, October 10 2006

I almost have to wonder whether these reviews and comments were plants. In any case, none of this adds anything substantive to the current debate about online game rental services. I know this is an old review thread, but I just had to respond to this. I've read this site before and liked it. But this borders on slander.
Long time gamer and user of gamefly (and other game rental services.) Use gamefly exclusively now. They've more than put to rest who the gamer's online game source is. Lol about the scam scream. if gamefly is a scam (in any sense of the word) why does it routinely service thousands of gamers everyday with the best selection of games, fast turnarounds, lightning speed game releases, fantastic reviews and ratings, a super slick site, and great customer service?
Yeah. I know people have their problems. What company doesn't have disgruntled customers? Throw a party at your home and a couple of invitees will walk away muttering about what a lame party it was. Never going back there. That wasn't a party. It was a wake. Etc.
But then to go out and blast them with  paranoid pseudo-review babble about being a party scam is just ridiculous.
Whether or not your free subscription went swimmingly is hardly relevent to the bigger question of whether online rental services make sense for gamers. Which they alsolutely do.
If you're the kind of person who likes to go down the store, buy your game, carry it home in a plastic bag, save your receipt, have the game laying around the house where you can see it, and never be parted with it, then great. And if for some god-only-knows reason you think blockbuster is serious about their gaming selection, then fine as well. But don't go off with a bunch of unfounded histronics to scare others away (who might actually benefit from and enjoy gamefly's service.) Gaming is great, and it's only getting better thanks to innovators like gamefly.
If you want to read something recent about them go to the following link at gamespot.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6157008.html

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, February 27 2007

yes it absolutely sucks! it takes an unimaginable length of time for shipping turn around. and if you try to cancel they tell you that if they don't receive the game(s) you have out within 7 days your credit card will be charged the full retail price of said game(s). U.S. mail only takes so long. they obviously aren't processing received games in a timely fashion. I wonder why. is it so they can charge you the full retail price for a game, claiming to have never received it, when you realize how much they suck and decide to cancel your membership? what a scam. this company should be investigated by the propper authorities for flat out stealing money from people. I doubt they'll be in business very long.

 

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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, February 11 2008

  GameFly totally sucks they lost games I sent back to them then they told me they were canceling my account because “To many games were lost”. Then they tried to charge me for the next month DO NOT DO BUISNESS WITH THIS SHADY COMPANY

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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 19 2008

I'm aware that this is an old post and everything, but I feel I should at least offer my own opinion. Gamefly is honestly not worth it if you're going to do a one-game plan, and forget about a two-game plan if you're impatient. A lot of the people complaining about the length of time that Gamefly takes to receive their games is, in my opinion, unfair.

When I first started using Gamefly, I was a bit frustrated by the times it took to send a game as well as receive one, but have any of you ever ordered a product online before? I order things from amazon, and in comparison to any vendors they have, Gamefly ships there stock in a timely manner. I've often waited 2 weeks for a package to simply arrive from Amazon, while Games from Gamefly usually took less time for a trip that is at least double the length. I live in Texas, so while it may take a shorter period for something from CA to arrive than if I were further East, I really don't see it as being a difference by more than 2 or 3 days at most, though I'm no expert on the matter.

Also, before you say Gamefly sucks you should consider who the service is aimed at. For a gamer such as myself, Gamefly is invaluable and has saved me great deals of money. Like most gamers, I don't have an enormous attention span, so I tire of a game quickly, often after a week or less. Renting games would, in theory, be ideal, but occasionally I might stumble on a game that serves to entertain me for months, and while with a rented game I would have to return and possibly buy the game, with Gamefly I can keep the game until I'm done with it, then send it back and get another. Instead of buying a game for $60, tiring of it, then returning it to GameStop for $30 or less, depending on how long I kept it, for $30 a month I get 3 games, often new-releases that GameStop won't even sell me without a pre-order, and can return them when I want.

That's not to say I've never had problems with Gamefly either. Unfortunately, things get lost in the mail, and sometimes I'm sure their distribution hub has back-ups, meaning a game I sent in 3 days ago might take another day before Gamefly marks that they've received it, then another 4 days for the game they send me to arrive. With a 3 game plan, if I stagger when I send the games back, I always have something to play, and if one of them is good enough to keep for awhile, I can just pay less than my local GameStop for a used copy and Gamefly will send the next available game on my Que.

Also, I believe they recently opened another distribution center or something, as I generally get another game around 3 days after I put the previous one in the mailbox, depending on when I sent the game. Either they did indeed open another hub, or reaching the one-year mark puts my games on a priority with them.

Basically, I don't think people are looking at Gamefly in the right way. Gamefly is designed with the entertainment value of games in mind, just like Netflix is designed for movies. A good movie can entertain for, on average, anywhere between 1-3 hours once. A good game can entertain a person for 3 hours a day for a few days or even weeks, and often for more. For Gamefly, unlike Netflix the priority isn't on getting games quickly to and from their customers, but ensuring the best games are available to them.

One more point on the Netflix-Gamefly comparison: At the time most of these comments were made, Netflix was more than 10 years old, and Gamefly was around 4 years old. Were any of you members of Netflix during its earlier years, before they had a real, complex distribution network? I'm sure people were angry then about the long times it took to receive and send movies.

A lot of the other complaints here seem unfounded to me. The very first game they sent me got lost in the mail, and while it took awhile for them to remove the game from the list of games I had out, they never charged me for it. It later showed up and I sent it back, and have never heard about it. Someone talked about a possible banner ad scam, but I've never seen banner ads on Gamefly for anything other than Gamefly's own services and information about new or coming-soon games. I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but that report, while possibly rooted in reality, is not an accurate and unbiased account of how the events might have unfolded if they did indeed occur.

That's all for now.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, May 23 2008

YES GAMEFLY IS A SCAM!!!!!!!! I also tried their 10 day trial. Sent the games back and SURPRISE SURPRISE, THEY CLAIM THEY DID NOT RECEIVE EITHER GAME!!!!!! They are of course trying to charge me for the full amount. I may have believed their B.S. except one thing. I MAILED THE GAMES BACK on TWO DIFFERENT DAYS from two different POST OFFICE LOCATIONS!!!!!!!!!!! I mailed them from the actual POST OFFICE, INSIDE OF THE POST OFFICE !!!!!!! Then they never return my e-mail inquiries and last but not least I find out the Gamefly Corporate Office is 5 miles from my apartment in LOS ANGELES!!!!! WE PROBABLY USE THE SAME POST OFFICE !!!!! ABSOLUTE B.S. SCAM!!!! DON'T EVEN TRY IT... EVER !!!!!!

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 03 2008

All of you who think that Gamefly is a scam than your most likely overweight and lazy. I can guarantee you that you most likely used your own mailbox to return games. Why cant you just go to the public mailbox where your games are safe. Don't hate because somebody noticed the arm of your mailbox up and opened it only to find whats this a  free game. Gamefly is not responsible for it until the mailman touches it. So please get over it it was stolen by your friends or neighbors. Just get off of your ass and use your brain man.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, October 28 2008

for anyone looking to actually reach a customer service rep for gamefly here is the number i found thru CNET ... i did talk to an actual person to using this number ... 888-986-6400

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, November 25 2008

There are so many reasons not to like game fly.

The first is, they loose SO many games on purpose. This is so they can simply Not ship you out anything on time. Then you have to fill out a form, wait 10 days, etc.

They lost my first, second and third game.  THEN THEY CHARGED ME FOR IT WHEN I CANCELED.

Also...another reason GameFLY is a joke and a scam.

The 10 day trial, YOU PAY FOR, as they charge you 20 days later....and say.  OH, you signed up 30 days ago.    Its NOT A FREE TRIAL

Please do your homework.  Read some threads. They are terrible.   NO PHONE NUMBER, etc.

Just use ANY other company.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, March 03 2009

Well I closed my account. Not for bad service or anything, but just lack of use. I did have 2 games out and they said to make sure I returned them. I did so in their prepaid envelope. They received one of them and not the other so. I had to run errands to the post office so I know I mailed them both at the same time. So now this is what I'm stuck with:

If the game(s) do not arrive at our facility and you do not provide the tracking information, you will be charged for the replacement amount.

If the game(s) are received at our facility in good working condition, we will credit your account the appropriate amount.

This is a scam to charge me for one more thing. This is also bogus, does anyone register their netflix with USPS?

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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, April 16 2009

This is weird, I've never had ANY of these problems others mention.  I almost always get my games within 2 days of them sending them, and they almost always get the games within two days after I send them.  I mean, occasionally it'll take three days.  And I've never had a game lost in the mail either.  How odd... 

They do have a tendency to send a game that isn't at the top of my queue, but eh, nothing really to be a baby and complain about.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, August 27 2009

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Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, May 15 2010

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, July 06 2010

I have the 1-out plan since I don't game that much.. but still.. I got 3 games in two months, and I only played each game for 3-4 days. Uhhh... if you do the math, it's about the same as blockbuster. I do like that you can buy cheap games (I bought Assasins Creed 2 for $8) but the queing/shipping/tracking they have is purposely designed to be slow. The fact that they even have "availability indication" shows they aren't trying to get you the games you really want.

Let's use some simple math, I have 4 games in my queue. The top 3 have low avail ("25-49% chance of shipping) the last has medium (50-74% chance) It's been 4 days since they recieved my last game (6 days since I mailed it) ... In any given day I should have a 79% chance of a game shipping (using the LOWEST % chance calculation). Since it's been 4 days, that means there should have been like a 91.8% chance of a game shipping by now.  But still waiting... I'm either really unlucky, or Gamefly has seriously mislabeled these "availability" percentages... Maybe I should get a lotto ticket?

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