My Experience With Gamefly / Review

First, let me begin by saying I've been an avid Gamefly member for years (look below)

So let me say that writing this review pains me. It's obviously a critical reason that this kind of review is even coming to surface.

You see, I've been done plain injustice. Now you may argue with me but first let me break down how this system works before we even begin.

Gamefly works on a first come - first serve style. Meaning if you add your game to your "Q" (their equivilent to a waiting list) you have the rights to the game sooner than other people.

Now. the problem with this issue is that when you have other games that you want before they are due out, Gamefly has the authority to send what they want in order based off availability. Sure, you may have that game in the #1 spot for them to send, but again it's based on when you ADDED it. Still with me?

To remedy some of these problems GF recently added this option a couple of years ago

This is a shipping setting, so you could choose to have an "empty" slot in your Q which means you could technically be paying for a game that's not even there - waiting for it to ship, slowly, patiently, waiting and paying.

For those who are money savvy, the breakdown (we'll use 30 days as an average of days in a month) is roughly $.53 a day for a (single membership) game you may or may not HAVE or even worse, WANT. The $.53 cost also doesn't factor in the waiting time of shipping...So you'll be paying that cost for the entire time you are waiting.

The positives of Gamefly? I got a wicked 10% discount off any game I want to purchase - rad right? Not really, I've been a member for over 10 years now and that rate can be easily obtained after just a year or so of sub. So the "benefit" is more of a sting in my opinion. Furthermore, you don't get a faster or prioritized shipping rate for your loyalty.

That's right. You don't get a single priority over anyone who added that game before you. That means my 10+ years of loyalty doesn't get me anywhere. Do you know what the last nail in the coffin is? The final slap in the face, the grand finale display of the firework show, the encore of a concert, the last cookie in the jar, the straw that broke the camels back. THIS! LOOK AT THIS!

Looking at it still stings.

For those of you who don't see what they did here, They basically butchered my rental by placing my girlfriends copy of ADVENTURE TIME which was like.. 15th in the Gaming “Q” and sent it first and foremost when I had purposely opened a slot of Dark Souls III on release date.

So what exactly went wrong here? Well after a nice chat with Gamefly support (I’ll leave the screenshots out on this one for security reasons) they had told me that “We will try to get it to you as quickly as possible.” Sounds wonderful right? Like they’re doing me a favor? NOPE. I THOUGHT THEY WERE - BUT that was far from the case, I even up’d my Q to two rentals per month and they of course - still didn’t send it and sent something else.

“But Jim! When did you add Dark Souls III?” I hear the heartstrings of my readers saying! WELL, AS SOON AS IT WAS ANNOUNCED AT E3!! “Wow Jim, that’s awfully fast, you should’ve gotten it.” I KNOW. But what happened? Well I think I missed a chance I had, because they ship it two days earlier than launch - while I had a game on the way back in the mail. SO they said “Well when the game gets here we’ll just send any ol’ piece of crap we have that isn’t in low availbility!” BIG MISTAKE.

So what I’m hoping to do here (and like I said, this hurts) is really deter you from renting from Gamefly, like, forever. I realized with the $16.00 I am paying every month for one game for this crap service, I could put toward a purchase of a new or hell, even used game - getting it for either $43 or less, but I’m blowing money out of my ass instead.

So ladies and gents, there you have it! If this doesn’t convince you to back out (or even sub for that matter) then I really wish you the best of luck in the endeavor of torture you signed yourself up for. As for me? I was 10 years too late and really should kick myself, but sometimes you really need to get the point and that may mean getting hurt before you get the message.

Jim signing out!

OH AND I GIVE GAMEFLY A PILE OF HOT SHIT / 10