I just got GameFly 2 days ago. They still haven't shipped any games yet. I was wondering if anyone has had any issues with this.

I read several complaints online about how it takes forever to receive games once they have been shipped. That isn't my issue because mine haven't been shipped yet.

I read other complaints that people haven't had their games shipped. But most of them had newer games with lower availibility and/or didn't have many games on their GameQ. That seems like more of a understock issue.

I actually filled my GameQ up to the max(50 games). I have mostly older games because there are a lot of top gamesI haven't played yet (Mass Effect 1, Assassin's Creed 1, Left 4 Dead 1, Halo 3, and other games with 2 or 3 sequels since). For me, I don't need to play the latest games right now. I'll play just about any old game I haven't played yet. But out of my top 18 games on my list, 16 are "Available Now". It also says "The next available games on your list will automatically be shipped to you. We ship 6 days a week. Most of the time, your games will ship out within 24 hours." For me, understock shouldn't be an issue. I figured I would give them until mid-day tomorrow before they get a cussing.

Out of all the complaints I read, I didn't see many that were like mine. I was just wondering what, if any issues some of you might have had with GameFly. I've also heard their customer service people are dicks.

Beach Bum wrote:

What good does getting Xenosaga 3 do me if I can't get 1 or 2 first? It wasn't even like I was trying to get new releases because I figured it would be wasted effort. Ended up cancelling after two months because it took so long to get games, that I basically sent right back hoping to get its prequel so I didn't play them out of order.

I anticipated this so I didn't add sequels. I want to play Mass Effect 2, but I already knew they had understock issues so I will avoid adding it until I receive the first one.

Also, as far as I know, they still don't have many locations to ship from so the time it takes to ship might be long.

I am having second thoughts about this. I am anticipating problems going into the deal. But I know people who have had good experience with them so I thought I would give it a try.

My biggest reason is to eliminate late fees. I'm a completionist. I recently rented The Saboteur. It didn't take too long to beat, but I wanted to complete everything. I eventually gave up and returned it, but it was several days late. Once I see if it is costing me more or less than the video store, I will decide if I want to keep my subscription. But they better ship something soon.

Beach Bum wrote:

The idea behind it is sound but I think the issue is that it doesn't have the distribution and customers of something like Netflix. It just seemed like if they would have opened an East Coast warehouse too it would have been better. Florida's mail was always slow and coming from Cali just made it worse. I think we ended up doing something through Hollywood video that let you rent and keep games as long as you wanted for 15 bucks a month. Then Hollywood Video closed.

We had a local place back home that had a movie club where you could pay a monthly fee and have unlimited movie rentals. I think you could have 3 movies at a time. No late fees. I can't remember if they did games or not. They ended up closing down when Family Video came to town.

Beach Bum wrote:

Yeah Family Video has been around here since I was 3 or 4 and I like them a lot personally. Cheaper than Blockbuster at least and the people in there give me free rentals all the time for no better reason than they felt like it.

I love Family Video. I will get the half price rental deal. It makes the 2 for a dollar rentals a quarter a piece. I'll walk out of the place with 6 movies for buck and a half. My only complaint is that their TV section has been weak in every one I've been to. When I lived in Hutchinson, KS, we had a Hastings and they had nearly every season of every show you could think of. Other than that, I prefer Family Video to pretty much every place else.

They also have a solid video game selection, so I won't be in too bad of shape if GameFly doesn't work out for me.

UDPATE: I sent GameFly an email. I basically said I opened up an account on Tuesday and it was Saturday and nothing had been shipped. 25 of my 50 titles were "available now", blah, blah, blah.

I got a response that pretty much told me that my games are only shipped from one of their locations. Though the games may appear to be "available now", that reflects the current status at all locations, but not necessarily that of the one who ships to me.

What I got from the whole thing was that there is no real way for me to know what is and isn't available. Some games I know for sure aren't available to me, but other games may or not be and I have no way to tell.

I thought that if the one that ships to me doesn't have it, they ship from another location and I just have to wait longer, like with Netflix. Maybe I was wrong. If that isn't the case, how hard would it actually be for them to make the availability status reflect only that of the location that ships to me?

I've worked in retail for many years and I know I probably sound like one of those conspiracy customers who really just don't know how things work, but this all sounds like a load of BS to me.

I'm considering cancelling and I haven't even got to really try them out yet.

Beach Bum wrote:

Wow, really? That is kinda shitty to be honest. At least back when I used them they only had the one warehouse and I assumed when they got more warehouses they would do what Netflix does and send it from the closest place that has a copy. Instead since your warehouse is out of everything, you are just out of luck? They should show availability at your warehouse and not everywhere if they aren't going to ship from everywhere.

That is what I thought too. Maybe I misread it or my reading comprehension skills suck. But if that was the case, then why even bring it up in the email?

They also said I should pick less popular titles. I just wanted a game. Any game. I even had Trivial Persuit and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? on my GameQ. They also told me to try having less games that haven't been released yet. I have 2 unreleased titles out of the 50 on my GameQ.

Maybe I just don't understand how it works so I don't "get it". Maybe its not as simple as following the Netflix model. Maybe that is why Netflix doesn't do games. Maybe they know they can't meet the demand and satisfy the customers.

So its been over a week and they still haven't shipped a game. I'm just going to cancel. Instead, I convinced my wife that it would probably be cheaper if I just bought a new $20 dollar game every month. I probably won't get one every month, but this will give me the time I need as a completionist to go through a new game, do everything I want, then turn around and get a new game in as little as a month if need be. This way, I won't feel rushed to get my money's worth.

I really don't need any of the newer games. I don't need the new Assassin's Creed because I still haven't played the first one. Same with Bioshock, same with Mass Effect, same with Halo, etc. So most of the games I would be getting on GameFly are $20 bucks to buy anyways. By the time I get through all of them, the newer ones won't be newer and they will be cheap by then. The only new games I was really looking forward to were Gran Turismo 5, Fable III, and Red Dead Redemption. I'll probably get GT5 and Fable after Christmas and wait on RDR.

The great thing that came out of all of this is my wife's willingness to support my habit after the GameFly failure. She never really supported my video game hobby that much because she doesn't understand the appeal of video games for adults. For her, it was one of those things you liked as a kid, but outgrew like toys (people outgrow toys?). But now, since she realizes how much it costs to rent games in comparison with the $20/30 dollar price tag on older games, she is actually willing to play ball. So in the end, I'm kind of greatful to GameFly even though I was very upset with their service.

Atma wrote:

When I had gamefly, If I put something in the Mail box Monday, Mail man picked it up Tuesday, Gamefly got it on Wednesday, Mailed it out on Thursday, and I got it on Friday. So roughly 5 BUSINESS Day Turn around. That's with me living in Jacksonville, FL and the closest distribution center is in Tampa, FL.

That is how it is for me with Netflix. I'm not sure how long it would take for GameFly. Maybe if they would have actualy shipped me one in over a week's time... But I live in the middle of Missouri. Their closest DC is either Pittsburgh, PA or Austin, TX. I'm around the same distance from both, so I'm not sure which they would have used.

FINAL UPDATE: So I cancelled GameFly today. I got an email saying how there was a problem with my account and it was never properly activated by them. That is why I never got any games. So they refunded my money. It makes me wonder if when I first emailed them if they really looked into my problem before emailing me back or if they just glanced at it and gave the generic response.

Anyways, I thought about keeping it, but decided to just stay cancelled. Like Douche, I'm just better off buying my games. I like being able to revisit games. That way I can put them away for a while then go back later and do any of the things i didn't finish the first time around.