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What Online Video Game Rentals Have You Use? Post Details Here

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What Online Video Game Rentals Have You Use? Post Details Here

Old 02-20-08, 12:38 AM
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UPDATED: What Online Video Game Rentals Have You Use? Post Details Here

I purchased an Xbox 360 in December, and have since been on the lookout for a solid game rental program similar to Netflix.

I was hoping maybe we could start a game rental thread where we can post our experiences with different rental programs to hopefully give others a better idea of which to choose.

Gamefly:
Of course once I decided to get a video game rental program, Gamefly came to mind. It is no doubt the most popular, at least in terms of marketing, online game rental program out right now.

I signed up with Gamefly right around New Year's, so I went into it expecting slower shipping times due to the holidays. Overall, my initial experience was good. I was able to sign up painlessly, the site is solid, and I quickly was shipping my first two choices (Bioshock, Assassin's Creed), which were on wait status. The games were shipped on Monday from California, and I expected them in my mailbox in Texas by Friday. Unfortunately, the games did not show up until the following Monday, which meant the total shipping time for the DVDs to arrive was an entire week.

This same shipping issue was he same throughout the whole month. By the end of January, I was only able to get through three games, with an average of 7-10 days turnaround time from when I sent a game back to when I recieved the next.

I canceled at the end of January. I was paying $12.95 a month for 2/out at a time as a special one month intro offer. The regular price is $22.95 i believe. One major advantage is the option to buy games you currently have for pretty solid used prices (brand new games can run $15-20 under retail).

Rentzero:
IIn hopes of fixing my turnaround time, I decided to try a lesser known Texas based company, Rentzero. I've heard some mixed reviews, but none of the nightmare stories you near of some of the other Gamefly compeitors. That said, I signed up a couple days ago for my free 14 day trial.

A couple main points brought me to Rentzero. First, as I am located in southeast texas, and Rentzero is based in Houston, I expect solid 1-2 day shipping times. Hopefully I can experience similar 2 day turn arounds that I currently have with Netflix (due to a houston DC for Netflix). Second, I decided to drop to 1/game out at a time to supplement my Netflix subscription. Rentzero's 1 out at a time plan is two dollars cheaper than Gamefly at $13.95 and is as low as $9.95 a month if you prepay for a year.

Nothing much else to report at this point as I just signed up. Today was the first business day since I signed up, and my trial game was marked as sent by the end of the day. Due to the short distance, i expect the game in my mailbox within the next couple days. One minor point to bring up regarding the queue is that my 12th game was shipped. That was due to the fact that I placed all "Short Wait" games before any currently available to see what would happen. I did read that the longer you stay, the faster you get short wait/high demand games, but we'll see.

UPDATE 3/6:
There are definately some concerns with Rentzero at this point. I did recieve my Saints Row game a couple days after the evening it was shipped out, which is much better than the shipping times with Gamefly (which should be a no brainer as Rentzero is local for me).

I played through and got my game completed last Thursday, and dropped in a mailbox outside my local post office that night, expecting the game to get shipped Friday morning. The game did not even show up as recieved until this afternoon, almost a full week after it was shipped. This turnaround time is mind boggling as the distribution center is less than 30 miles away from my house. Throughout this week, I have sent a few emails to support asking for an update and expressing my concern that the game might be lost. I am yet to see a response. I just sent another email asking for details on what caused the game to show up as recieved today (did it just come in, was it reported as lost etc..).

The only other reason I can think of is that Rentzero does have a rule that they will only send 1 game during the 14 day trial, and since I sent the game back a couple days before the trial was over, that might be the delay in getting my next game out.

Overall, I am pretty unhappy with Rentzero to date, but hopefully this issue with my first game was a fluke. Since I already was charged for this month, I will continue to ride it out and see if this second game goes any smoother. If not, I will cancel this month.

More to come...



Everyone post your own experience with video game rentals!

Last edited by kd0105; 03-06-08 at 02:15 PM.
Old 02-20-08, 11:54 AM
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Cool, never heard of rentzero, I'm in texas too so I might give them a shot.
Old 02-20-08, 02:19 PM
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I've been using GameFly for over a year. Their service is still faster than anything else I tried but shipping times really vary. I live just about an hour away from their distribution center in Pittsburgh. At times I can have my games take as little as a day to get to me or to them. Other times I can be waiting for 3-4 days for a game. This huge discrepancy is my main problem with their service. The price is ok with me since they seem to have a pretty decent supply of games. I added a few PS3 games to my queue on Monday night when I bought a PS3 and as of today 2 games have shipped. Heavenly Sword night even be in the mailbox today but I haven't checked yet.

Edited to add...
Heavenly Sword did show up today so as it stands the shipping is top notch. I don't like to get too excited because I am sure it will slip again here very soon.

Last edited by MasterofDVD; 02-20-08 at 11:15 PM.
Old 02-21-08, 09:31 AM
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So the 1 day Rentzero shipping promise for Texas was not met this time. Of course Rentzero did not post that the game was shipped until about 7 PM Tuesday night, so it might have not gone out until Wednesday morning. We'll see if I get it this evening.
Old 02-21-08, 02:50 PM
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KD 0105:



Stay away far, far away from gameznflix.com
Old 02-21-08, 03:03 PM
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Originally Posted by mrmagoo
KD 0105:



Stay away far, far away from gameznflix.com
I actually considered it recently, but after some research determined it was a bad choice. I heard horror stories about shipping times, movies/games getting selected randomly off the Queue, and long periods of time with items not getting shipped out eventhough they are available.

Instead, I'd rather pay more for 2 out with Netflix and 1 out with a good solid game rental.
Old 02-21-08, 10:28 PM
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Well I got my game today, which cuts the average mailing time from Gamefly by 1-2 days.

So far so good with Rentzero.

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