Considering the price of buying or renting video games, GameFly, a Netflix-style program for video games, seems like a useful service. According to our inbox, not so much.

Our eerily pale brothers at Kotaku have noted that GameFly sends way too much email, but our tip line has more problems with the service:

I’ve had Netflix for almost a year and love the concept so I figured GameFly should be ok. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the two months I have been a member it has taken an average of ten days from the time I put a game in the mailbox for a new one to show up.

This entire setup sounds like a gigantic scam on the part of GameFly. I have serious doubts that they ever shipped those games that never arrived, and now they are going to try and bill my credit card for a game that I returned when history has proven that clearly not enough time has passed for them to receive and/or process the game into their system.

5 days of mailbox-watching passed, and nothing had arrived. Another 5 passed, and still nothing, so I contacted their customer service dept. just to get an update on my games’ shipping status. Their reply was basically “they got lost – here’s a refund. You’ll need to buy them again.” When I checked their store again, these games were nowhere to be found. So I got my refund, that’s fine. But I was puzzled: how could two separate purchases both get lost in the mail? And then coincidentally happen to not be in stock when I go to re-purchase them?

I’ve started cc’ing the consumerist.com on our correspondence, because you are starting to get weird on me.

I noticed a few months ago that when I returned a game, it would not be reported as received for several weeks. WEEKS!!!! I reported each problem and they responded more or less promptly by shipping out the next game. So I though, okay, they’re addressing it, and they should solve this problem soon. What bugged me about the problem report is that they suggested I contact my local USPS myself about the problem.

And so on. We get occasional emails complaining about Netflix, but the consensus around here is that its members love it. What’s up with GameFly—are only the disgruntled emailing us, or are they truly a bad service? Let us know in the comments.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.