So, I picked up a 360 a few weeks ago, and wanted to try out some rentals. Most places in my area suck w/ games, so I figured I'd try the online route.

So, I had heard about Red Octane before, and I decided to look them up. The site was decently set up, except for the fact that you can't see rental inventory online until you are a member and signed up. So, I did sign up, and then realize I may have made a mistake. Every 360 game is listed a short wait to long wait. There is nothing in stock. Nothing. Well, that's a waste of my time and money. So, I cancel the account w/in 15 minutes of setting it up. Flash forward to a few days later, and low and behold there's a charge on my CC account from them. I send them an email, and they tell me that because I signed up, they are charging me. Even though I rented nothing, and cancelled w/in 15 minutes of signing up, they refuse to refund my money. I've filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. From the looks of that site, there have already been numerous complaints about this place. They have quite a few unresolved complaints, most haven't even been responded to. I'm also going to follow up and dispute the charge w/ my CC company.

Just a heads up that this place is shady, and should be avoided.

Wow, sounds like a shitty operation.

Yikes.. Thanks for posting to warn others...

Shady shady bidness..

There was some site I found just before I almost signed up with them ages ago that spoke of various nightmares and horror stories. Since so many video game rental places popped up so far I have no doubts that some of them are run very poorly. Most of them look like hell and have such a similar feel to them I'm guessing that a number of them are run by the same larger company.

It took me some time to find a decent one on the east coast but I waited out some average service and now they have a distribution center so close my games take 1-2 to get back and forth between them and me.

(sarcasm)Yeah, Red Octane is a such a shady company. I mean look how that game Guitar Hero turned out. Definitely avoid them. (end sarcasm)

At the same time, it doesn't say that they have a free trial or anything, so you did indeed sign up for an account.

If you are looking for online game rentals, I recommend GameFly.

Imagine you see this on a web forum: "Has anyone tried Red Octane for game rentals?"

Now which reply would be better for Red Octane?

A) "Yeah, I tried it. They didn't have anything in stock though so I cancelled. They refunded my money quickly though so you might want to give it a shot."

or

B) What Deftones posted.

It won't take long for word to get out. Stupid.

You realize that even though it's the same company, the development part and the rental part of the company are separate entities? Probably not considering your post.

I used to like Red Octane and NetFlix when you DIDN'T have to sign up. They used to let you just rent one product and that's it. I don't like to rent things all the time. Maybe like 5-6 items a year. That's why I prefer going to a real store. I liked Red Octane because it was the only place that rented import games.

i have gamerang (i live in nj)

so far its pretty good...

Have had problems with both Gamerang and Gamefly.

There are no good vg rental companies through the mail yet.

My experience with Gamefly was flawless. I highly recommend their service.

I didn't even know Red Octane has a game rental service. I thought they just developed games.

As far as I know, Red Octane started as a game rental place. Later they started offering mats for the DDR games, and then came out with their first game, Guitar Hero. Hey, whatever happened to Konami's Guitar Freaks?

Yeah, my experience with Gamefly has been pretty good, what were your problems, just out of curiosity?