Bad service - I had it for a month, and rented exactly one game: The Orange Box. I returned it, and after waiting seven days for a new game (with none arriving), I canceled the service. I was then sent a bill for the one game I'd rented, even though it had arrived and been checked in.

I now get an e-mail every three or four days offering me a special on joining again. When I go to look for any game I'd want to play, there's always a wait...but I can buy a used copy of the game if I'd like!

Odd - I have fantastic service from Gamefly, awesome turn around times, and excellent customer service(the one time I needed it). Been with them for over a year, bought a few games. No complaints from me.

My only problem with gamefly is the turn around time. Before Netflix got a new distribution center near me I was used to 4+ day turnaround and MAYBE could get over gamefly's horrible turn around time. But now that I literally get a two day turnaround from Netflix the week and a half from gamefly is completely unacceptable.

I tried Gamefly on two separate occasions. About 4 years ago and again 2 years ago. I canceled both times after only a few months for the same reason:

The time it took after I sent a game back to receiving the next game in my Game Q was between 7-10 days - It's much cheaper for me to stop in at my local video store and rent a game on my way home and I can rent more in a months time than even possible with GameFly.

I've had gamefly two separate times now (with a lull during the time I was in Europe), and I have been very happy with the service. The turnaround time can be a bit slow from time to time, but I noticed that after a distribution center opened up in Pittsburgh, my turnaround time is down to about 4-6 days or so. (I live in Northern Virginia).

I have also had a game or two lost in the mail. By using the correct prompt on the website to declare the game lost, everything was cleared up and my new game was sent.

Many times there is a delay in games because of low or no availability. If a user's queue is only filled with games on delay (low/medium availability) then there could be a delay in shipping.

I can agree that there are a few too many emails, but I have been pretty happy with the service as a whole.

@BankerBryan: Correction, the last time I used Game fly was last year, it hasn't been 2 years yet.

I doubt their service changed any.

Maybe it depends on your location. I had the service for a while in Seattle, and it was OK -- decent turnaround times -- and had it again when I moved to Wisconsin and had the kind of experience described above (received one game during an entire month-long billing period).

I don't think Gamefly is a scam, but whatever relationship Netflix has with the postal service, it makes other online rental services look terrible by comparison.

@BankerBryan: The best part is their 10-day trial in which it takes 10 days to receive your first game. GameFly SUCKS!!!

I used the service for three months. I live about 20 minutes away from the West Coast distribution center so turnaround time for new games was about 4-5 business days (not bad from what I hear). I'm an avid gamer so the service made sense and was a nice companion to buying games you actually wanted (in other words, it was a good on-the-fence-about-buying titles that could be played quickly). $20-25 a month is much cheaper than buying a couple $60 games you may play just once.

The problem came with new or popular games. I could not get them unless I perfectly timed and measured a game release date with the sending back of other games. In other words if a game was coming out Tuesday I better get it in the mailbox Thursday the previous week (and I better pray that the distribution center turns the game around same day). After three mistimed attempts and a game at #10 on my queue being sent before a bunch of others I quit Gamefly. It's too much of a gamble that you'll get what you want. Good in concept, bad in execution.

I think it really depends on where you live. I live in Orange County which is close to the LA distribution center. I get new games within an average of 2 days after I drop my old game in the mail. They've always been prompt and on time.

The only problem I have had is getting newer titles, which due to demand may take a few tries before they send it to you.

It is a crappy service but the alternatives are no better so I've had them for about a year and half now.
That means I paid around $300 in monthly fee, which is only 5, 6 games at full retail price.
Over those 18 months, I've saved much more than that thanks to trying a game through Gamefly first,
then deciding not to buy it since it was crappy.
It's true that there are demos, but some demos are great, then when you get the full game it turns out to be repetitive and stupid, and you've just wasted $50 or $60 (if a new release).
Also during those 18 months I've had chance to enjoy some games by finishing all levels then returning them since
they were not something I'd play over again, so I would say it's a better alternative to not having a rent game service at all,
but I just dream of the day Netflix starts renting games. I'd pay more money if they can offer the same fast service as the movies.

I should add that I've also had issues with their shipping even though I haven't had a single problem with Netflix.
Like someone mentioned above Gamefly keeps telling me to contact USPS and notify them of the problem
but I think the real problem is Gamefly.
However, another theory is that a Netflix DVD costs $20 tops,
while a new Gamefly game disc is $60 (PS3/Xbox 360) so it's possible that the Gamefly envelopes are more prone to theft.

I've been on gamefly for about 4 years and it used to be a really good service, especially with Rapid return. But rapid return doesnt seem to work anymore. If I return a game tomorrow, they will not receive it until Wednesday, will not ship a new one until Friday and I'm lucky if I see it this week. Turnaround times used to be so much better.

When I had it in Jacksonville Florida a few years back, it was only about 3-4 day turn around time, because once I put the game back in the mail, they'd ship out the next one. It was great. They may have changed since then

I've been using GameFly on and off for about 2 years.

What I love about it:
*For the price of 6-7 new full-priced games you can buy at the store, you can rent two games at a time for a whole year. It's ideal for games you want to try, but don't have the cash for. It's also great for playing games that have been out for a while, or games you never heard off and want to try with little to no investment risk.

*They have a decent catalogue (although there are some issues with this). You can go back and play games from the last generation (assuming your console is backwards compatible).

*Their customer support isn't bad. Not perfect, but I admit they have speedy turn-around times for requests and issues. They have re-send games that never made it or had issues during game play. No questions asked.

*A decent online store to buy used games, or the game you have out now. Granted, you have to a little homework to see if the GF purchase price is cheaper than the used section of your local Ye Olde Game Shoppe.

*You can get newly released games sent right away. Example: I had Gears of War 2 sent to me the day after it hit stores. By the weekend, I was playing it. Yes, you have to wait (see below), but I didn't drop $60 on a game I'd likely burn through in 2 weeks.

*They listen: About two-three weeks ago, GameFly dropped the upcoming release The Agency from its future catalogue. Gamers on Kotaku banned together and petitioned GameFly to bring back The Agency. A few hours later, GameFly added back The Agency. They listen. Enough said.

What I do not like:
*The wait time. Sometimes it feels like forever to have a game sent to you. They have four delivery/processing centers, which is a puny number compared to Netflix...so if you use Netflix, Gamefly will seem like a painful wait. And really, they don't have a distribution center in Seattle? Having one node for the whole West Coast (located in L.A.) sucks. That said, waiting has taught me to have some patience and not live a life around my consoles. (P.S. Still waiting for Little Big Planet, guys! You shipped it. Is it lost in the Seattle snow?)

*Holes in the catalogue. Yes, I know I just said the catalogue is decent, but going through the 2009 releases I noticed some heavy hitters that GameFly is seemingly not looking to carry (Halo Wars, Heavy Rain, Infamous). Not they may add them at some point, but it's a little scattershot in what upcoming titles they will carry or won't.

*The GameFly queue: Here's my biggest issue. There's a list of games you can request GameFly to send to you. GameFly ships the first available game to you (assuming you have an empty delivery slot in your queue). Now, if you have an older game in your queue that's easily in stock (Barbie Horse Adventure) and a new game you really want that just came out (let's say Resident Evil 5), it's more likely you'll get the Barbie game. The GameFly queue is based on what's available rather than your priority. Barbie can be your bottom most wanted game, but it can end up at your door before Resident Evil 5, even though RE5 is at the top of your queue. I wish GameFly would create some kind of backup priority system for your queue. Or give you an email letting you know there's a conflict between RE5 and Barbie, giving you the option of choosing one over the other.

GameFly isn't perfect, but I enjoy the frak out of it. I'm hoping that they'll grow and implement better features, but I think in the long run, it's a good service that's saving my a lot of money while giving me access to a tremendous (and hopefully growing) rental library.

Just build a node out here in Seattle, guys. Seriously.

@SomeoneGNU: I've only had one time where Gamefly messed anything up, by sending me the wrong game, and 1 email and 1 business day later, they told me they had shipped out the next game on my cue and to simply mark out the barcode the incorrect game's sleeve and send it back. the next day the correct game was there.

Gamefly has just recently started to allow the USPS to inform them of when you send games back via the barcode scan, meaning the Gamefly ships the game as soon as the USPS gets it, not when it gets to the receiving center.

In a year my son has rented 85 games which averages out to about 7 games a month. Some games are kept for months while some are kept for a day. We would have more rentals if my son was quicker about putting them in the mail. There were many games he played for 10 minutes on his Wii and then realized they sucked and sent them back. It was great to be able to order just Wii games or just Xbox 360 games when we sent a console in for repair. When we go on road trips and vacations he orders rentals just for his Nintendo DS so he has 3 new games for the trip. I hate to think how much money we would have spent on brand new release games that he had to have that he only played for 10 minutes. We also buy games from them during their sales and when we earn coupon codes. I love the service and have seen better turn around then we have with Netflix.

I think people are just spoiled by the awesome service of Netflix. GameFly only has 2 or 3 distribution centers, so turn around times are going to be slower than with NetFlix, which seems to have shipping center in nearly every state now.

I have used gamefly for over a year. The only issue I seem to really have with them is the week turnaround to get a new game. Usually they have the titles I need but sometimes it takes a few tries to get the most popular games but if you wait about 2 months you can get it no problem. It doesn't work as smoothly as I would like it to but it works well enough and I will stay with it.

Been with gamefly for a few years. Turnaround time is the biggest issue but what do you expect when they have like 5 distribution centers around the country where netflix has a lot more. They started this "fast return" or something service to help on this fact. Basically, your local USPS scans it in and sends off to Gamefly a notice -- if the local USP has the scanner). They then send the next game, but with this I'm lucky to get a game within a week.

Unlike netflix though, games actually work -- my netflix movies skip or have so many scratches that they don't work at all.

Their second main issue is availability of games. It can take weeks for you to get a popular game. With netflix, even the most popular movie was available within a few days. I suppose it's the cost of the games that keeps them from having a good stock of them.

@BankerBryan: I got the free month. My first two games didn't arrive until 17 days after I joined. I actually had forgot I even joined the club and was like oh yeah. Then I played the games for thee days and sent them back and removed the game from my queue that same day. According to them that took awhile to process me removing it from my queue and they sent me another game so of course i ended up going over my 30 days with them. Signed up with a prepaid visa, they are lucky I just didn't keep their games.

people complain way too much.

yes they're not fast.. but they're still very new and they're adding new distribution centers as they grow.

You only pay 20 odd bucks a month to rent 2 games which costs 50 dollars each.

really complain more I'm sure there's something better out there.

I like them and have used them now for a few months much better than paying for a game only to beat it in 6 hours .

@DarthVegan: I would love a Seattle/Tacoma distribution center. I am already spoiled with Netflix in the area.

I have had the plan for one month, and I played three games: Dead Space, Fallout 3, and Prince of Persia. I was happy with the service, but it seems like my account was favored because I was new and they wanted to me start paying after my trial. Does Gamefly Throttle to help new customers?

The thing is I tried to cancel my account online. If you threaten to quit the website will automatically offer you $5 off your next month so I stayed on for one more month. Haven't been too happy, I've been 10 days without a game. I am sure that is partially because of the holiday season and NW snow storms though.

People need to understand the difference between netflix and gamefly: Netflix movies cost 20-30$ each. A video game cost DOUBLE that, 50-60$. Because of the price, they can't have an unlimited supply of them at any given time.

It took about 3 weeks before I got Left 4 Dead and Prince of Persia, because they were the top requested games of December. I did get them and I have them both now, and when I return them I'll get new games in about a 4 day turnaround time.

The alternative is to pay 60$ EACH for the games, and I saved 200$ in December alone by not paying for each release that I wanted.

Yes, you have to wait a little longer to get the games you want. But if you really care about saving money, then it's totally worth it. If you want it faster, fork over the 60$ and buy it.

22$ a month for the service they have is not bad. I can accept about a weeks wait for a game when I'm paying only a few dollars to rent and enjoy it.

Oh, I live in Washington state, and the nearest distribution center is in CA. They do sometimes send from other warehouses when the nearest isn't available. I got Left 4 Dead from Texas because CA didn't have it.

So in short, people need to put their money where their mouth is. You want it faster, pay more money. You like it cheaper and don't mind a few days-a weeks wait, then use gamefly.

Gamefly is a fantastic service, if and only if you live within two states of a shipping facility. I have used them twice in the past three years with two different results.

About three years ago, I signed up for GF for the first time, and the service was pretty terrible. 10 day turn around time, games lost in the mail, and other problems similar to the ones listed above. Eventually, I got fed up and cancelled.

About a year ago, I signed up the second time, following the opening of their Pittsburg PA shipping facility. I live in NJ and wanted to see if there would be any difference in service when the games were coming from PA instead of CA. Guess what? Haven't had a problem with them at all. Games arrive within two days of shipping either to or from GF. One game got lost in the mail, but it turned up after a call to the USPS.

They've got four (?) shipping facilities - PA, FL, TX, and CA. If you live close to one of those, go for it. You most likely won't be disappointed. If not, take the free trial for a spin - if they can't deliver on time, cancel - it's that simple.

I used to have it and got rid of it b/c I was buying games more than renting them (mainly because this was not during the Xmas rush and there were only a handful of games worth buying from January to July). I liked it, but at the time there were not enough "good" 360 games to make the service worthwhile. Yes, there were delays, however, I was in the Southeast US and they only had the one distribution center on the West Coast. Now that they have new distribution centers (and there are more good games out; no more Vampire Rain), I'd like to try it again and see if they are getting things in and out faster.

Honestly, the problems I had with Gamefly about a year to 18 months ago are the same ones I had with Netflix in 2003-4. I'll do the same thing as I did with Netflix, let them mature for a year or two and then come back and be pleasantly surprised.

We've been with GameFly for a bit, now. It usually takes them about a week to get a new game out to us - but GF has actually saved us quite a bit of money, as we use GF to find games we want to own rather than relying on it as our sole source of games.

One of the first two games we got through GF was F.E.A.R. I had been considering buying it, but after playing it for a bit, I hated it. That's $60 saved right there - or, more accurately, GF paid for itself + 2 additional months. The other game (99 Nights) we had was mediocre and repetetive - another $60 saved. GameFly has just paid for itself for the next six months.

We also don't mind the availability issue - they send us the first game in our queue that is in stock. It's no different from going to a video store for a film and finding it already checked out. And we DO have other games we enjoy that we have purchased, so the week or so delay doesn't keep us from playing games.

I hated the service. It took over a week to receive a game and even longer for them to receive it as well. Also, it's not very clear when you'll actually get a game. It tells you the level of availability a game has but it doesn't say you'll get X game on X day. Nextflix is awesome in that way, with gamefly, it's just a guess.

i had gamefly for a year or more and only canceled because i had too many games and not enough time to play. never had a problem. i'm in los angeles, so maybe i'm just close to a warehouse. the games arrived in a day or so... just as fast as netflix did.

I've had a pretty good experience with Gamefly. Been a member since last April. I agree with other commenters that probably the biggest upside to Gamefly is the money saved. Even if you only play one game a month, that's still only $17 instead of paying the full $60 retail price for most games. As for turn around times, I've been very happy--usually about 3 days for me (a day for the postman to pick up the game, a day to return it to shipping center, and a day to deliver a new game).

It kind of sucks not getting a game near the top of your Game Queue, but understandable. I think having an option to just wait for a particular game instead of being sent the next game on the list would be a great feature.

Hm. Grandma gave the kids an Xbox 360 Elite this year, so I signed up for their introductory offer. I do live in CA so we'll see how their service is - I don't expect them to be Netflix-quality, but if it's cheaper for me to download trial versions or borrow from friends than wait weeks at a time, I'll cancel.

@outsiderlookingn: This is why a rental service is GREAT for children who play video games. Honestly every parent with video game playing kids should be signed up for one. If they don't like the game, you aren't out $30-50. If they blow through the game in a day which is very very likely then you aren't out $30-50 either for a very short game. My cousins already blew through at least one game each just on Xmas day alone, one they will never play again. You don't have to worry about waiting for price drops on that game they really want, I can wait for price drops but its very difficult to get children to wait for games to drop in price. You don't have to worry that your kid's game of choice is sold out on release day and you don't have to worry about feeling stupid for paying too much for a game.

Children are more likely to want every brand new game, and this is a less costly way to give them exactly what they want rather then going to the store and buying every game brand new on release day and spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars on games not to mention the time that it takes to track down every game at a store.

Most stores don't rent out DS games either, at least around here, so that is an invaluable service in itself to have.

Considering Gamefly has like a total of 4 distribution centers, I can under stand the problems. They have two centers in California and one in Florida. One in Texas.

So with the few distribution centers, you should know what you are going to expect when you sign up.

I live in California so turnaround is generally good, though if it wasn't I can certainly see people being unhappy. I've had a few SNAFU but everything got resolved.

The single biggest problem is that the "customer service" email is a black hole from which nothing but automated emails are released. If you actually want customer service you have to call their customer service number (888.986.6400) which I couldn't even find via their website, I had to google for it. Once you get an actual human being their customer service isn't bad.

GameFly isn't perfect, but if you're a big gamer, it's a thousand times better than every alternative. We've been spoiled by Netflix.

They do sent out a lot of emails. As frequent as spam.
I've been getting ones telling me there are some special promotional offers right now.

I've had the service for about 4 or 5 months now and just recently encountered my first "item not received" problem. I don't know how it will be resolved, they've been quick to email me but they also told me to go talk to my local USPS which I thought was very strange. Otherwise I've really enjoyed the service and quick turn around (Im in Brooklyn, distribution center is in Pittsburgh). HOWEVER- I've had Mirror's Edge on my #1 spot since 2 weeks before it was released and still haven't gotten it - I don't know why because I got Fable 2 on the release day! Overall, it's better then buying and I like it more than Blockbuster's service.

Oh one suggestion for returning gamefly games. Make sure the number on the game sleeve matches the one on the return mailer. We have noticed that when they match, games get marked as returned much quicker.

Wow, so what I have heard from friends is true. Tsk tsk.

This could truly be a fantastic service if it worked correctly. I wish Netflix would rent video games... They already have the warehouses/infrastructure in place!

@Jade Robbins:

I have no problems with their service either. Its as fast or faster than netflix for me. of course, i live in the same city as one of there warehouses - austin - so maybe that has something to do with it. I love GameFly... My only gripe is that i dont know if i play enough games to make it actually worth while. Jury is still out on that one.

I've personally had Gamefly for a couple years now, and my experience is more positive than negative.

I know the wait issue bothers a lot of people, but they've been noticeably better in the past couple months. My wait time is only around 3 or 4 days and the rapid return has actually worked lately. In fact, I just sent in a game and got the replacement within the same week. Huzzah!

One problem that I had with GF (and somebody mentioned it in a post earlier, I believe), was that they would send the most available game in the queue, not necessarily the highest ranked. This made me feel like I was being punished, as I'd normally hold onto a game for a day or 2 and send it back.

In this case, I submitted an email to GF and actually got a response from them. The individual I dealt with was actually receptive to my issues and explained that they were still working on getting the queue problems addressed. Since then, I've really had no other issues and would still recommend them to people.

One thing I do for myself, is just keep about 10-15 new games in my queue at a time and a seperate spreadsheet for games I'd *potentially like to rent. This way, it makes my management easier and I simply plop in the title for the old skool game that I want next!

@outsiderlookingn: Thanks Outsider...That's good info right there!

Terrible, cancelled after a week. Turn-around time is lousy, and games released as far away as three months ago were still not available for rental! (But I COULD buy them, which smells of scam to me.) I'm not paying $22/month for a service that will only let me have Lego Batman.

I had Gamefly for about eight months and in general had good service. They shipped me a couple XBox360 games that were unreadable, but that was during the heyday of disc scratches.

@Weirdsmobile: I also live in Wisconsin and can attest to the long mailing times. My mailing center is supposedly in Texas, but I still have the same three to four day wait each way as I did when they shipped all the games from California. I also had an issue of missing games but that was sorted out when I received notice from the Feds that a postal worker in California had possession of several of my rentals and was on trial for hoarding mail.

I've been a member of Gamefly for several years now and overall it's saved me money. Rather than buying a game I think I might like only to find out that I hate it, I can try it first. If I like it, I can buy it right then, with the bonus of having tried it first and knowing that it works and isn't damaged. It can be irritating waiting for new games. But Netflix throttles me on new movies already (at times I wait two months before the title is available), so Gamefly is no worse on that account as far as I'm concerned.

@Skankingmike:

They've been around for 4+ years... not that new.

Gamefly's turn around time is horrible when compared to Netflix. I assume this has something to do with not having as many processing plants as Netflix does.

On the upside I haven't had any issues with Gamefly other than the turn around time. And honestly in the two months I have had them they have saved me WELL over 120 dollars by me avoiding crappy game purchases! I think they are probably worth the cost/ time as long as they don't start pulling anything funny on me.

Ive been using the service for around 6 months now in DE and I've had a very good experience with them. My only complaint is that it can be hard to get new titles.

However, a friend of mine who lives in the same zip code has had way longer turn around times than I have, and I can't think of any reason why this would happen.

Turn around time and availability.

Turn around time? A no brainer given how it's been covered here completely. I return a game on monday, I'm lucky to get one back thurs-friday.

Netflixs? I send it out monday, I might get it tues-wens.

The big issue, is aviliability. I had a game at the top of my queue for 3 months. THREE MONTHS! Never even came in. This wasn't an obscure title either, it was a newish, fairly popular one. Even when it was listed as 'high' when I sent my game back, by the time it reached them, it had magically went back to low and I'm stuck with my seventh choice of titles.

Gamefly is a great system for people with several, or for those without money to burn in this economy and don't mind playing the lottery when getting games. But until there supply picks up and there shipping times increase, I'm not touching them.