Gamefly, the mail-order video game rental service, is getting another chance. The first time around, I didn’t have the greatest experience and Davis Freeberg has also reported subpar service… with two separate subscriptions. However, as I mentioned to my blogging/industry buddy Jeremy Toeman just last week: Anyone I ding is welcome to try and convince me that I’m wrong or that they’ve changed. So I kept an open mind when Gamefly’s VP of Marketing (a Netflix alum) called on Monday. She informed me that service has improved and reminded me of their recently opened east coast distribution center (with more to come) in Pittsburgh, which should speed my deliveries. We agreed on a bloggable 90 day trial, which I’m about to activate, so stay tuned.
Just added Killzone on PSP (high availability) and Darkness on Xbox 360 (very low availability) to my queue. I’m supposed to add a third title, but I’d rather wait for Darkness (and see how long it takes to actually ship).
First off, love the site.
Secondly, how seriously can we take your ‘blogger trial’ considering you’ve been in direct contact with GameFly’s VP of marketing. What are the odds you’re not going to get the best service possible?
As far as I know, my new Gamefly account is a normal/typical account and the service will be the same that everyone else receives. I’ll check in to see if I’m flagged with some sort of VIP status (and if so, have it removed).
I was IMing with my buddy Alexi (~20 miles away with Wii, PS3, and 360) this AM who reminded me he’s been using Gamefly. While the delivery times aren’t speedy they seem faster than my first go-around and he’s been pleased. So now we also have another data point in the DC metro area and we’ll be comparing notes prior to a followup post.
In the event you have been given ‘VIP’ status without it being disclosed, you could try adding the same titles as Alexi has and see if there is any difference in your shipping times.
I’ve joined and quit Gamefly four or five times over the past few years hoping they’d get better. And, I can honestly say things seem to have gotten better since the new shipping center opened.
They actually report getting my games when they get them, not two or three days later. And, get this, they ship the new ones out the same day. Yeah, I know… weird, huh.
My latest gamefly title, Motor Storm, arrived today (7/9/07). It supposedly shipped on 7/5/07– not a terrible delivery time. I also dropped two games in the mail on 7/5 or 7/6 and Gamefly doesn’t register them as having been received yet. Assuming they get them tomorrow, I’d estimate about 7-10 days between dropping a return in the mail and receiving my next title in the mail. Definitely not like the speeds I used to see with Netflix, but not God-awful, either. Hope you have better luck.
That compares to me (~20 miles away). I placed two games in my queue on the 4th, they shipped on the 5th, and I received them yesterday on the 9th.
I’m sending both back today and the experiment will continue…
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