GAMEFLY CONFIRMS RETURN OF CARDBOARD MAILER INSERTS

Just a quick follow up to last Thursday's story. Gamefly has confirmed to us that "for the time being" they will once again be including protective cardboard mailer inserts with all rentals.

"For the time being, we have decided to implement the cardboard covers in our mailers once again. Should things change in the future, we will notify our customers." – Gamefly support

While they gave no reason for the change, I'd have to assume that it's due to an unacceptable increase in the number of discs being damaged in transit since they stopped using the mailers back in June of 2007. That's just a guess though – absolutely nothing official behind that.

• Gamefly Resumes Using cardboard Mailer Inserts? – nylatenite.com 

GAMEFLY RESUMES USING CARDBOARD MAILER INSERTS?

Last June, I reported that Gamefly had decided (in what was most likely a cost cutting move) to cease using protective cardboard inserts in their mailers. While I wasn't particularly fond of that decision, I will admit that I never received a damaged game from the company when the insert wasn't present.

Apparently, something with that plan didn't quite work out as they envisioned. Over the last week, I've noticed that the company has begun including that protective insert with rentals once more. I can only assume that they found that the increase in the number of damaged discs received when the insert wasn't present outweighed any savings they were seeing from the lighter weight of the packaging.

I've shot an e-mail off to Gamefly seeing if I can get some more information on the insert's return, specifically whether or not this is a permanent change. I'll be sure to report back once I've received an answer. 

• Gamefly Confirms Missing Cardboard Inserts – nylatenite.com
• Gamefly stops using protective cardboard mailers? – nylatenite.com

GAMEFLY INTRODUCES NEW MAILERS

Gamefly dropped me an e-mail yesterday advising that after some testing, they will be changing the mailers they use for all standard disc-based games. From the sound of it, they’ve made a few changes to the overall design and removed the protective cardboard insert they used to place in each mailer – a move that I’m not particularly fond of.

“We’ve changed our mailer! As of this week, you may see your games arrive in a newly redesigned mailer that opens vertically instead of horizontally.

This new mailer does not include any cardboard inserts. Please do not attempt to use your old cardboard inserts when returning games in this new mailer.

Also, when returning your games, you will insert the disc into the top of the return mailer, instead of into the side.

Please note – handheld games (PSP, DS, GBA) will continue to be mailed in the usual mailer with the cardboard insert. Please return these handheld games with the cardboard in the same mailers they arrived in.” – Gamefly

I guess that extra dollar they tacked onto all membership plans back on June 18th just wasn’t enough to cover the cost of using the inserts. I just hope they are ready for the inevitable slew of damaged discs they’re going to start getting back.

• Gamefly – Official website

GAMEFLY ANNOUNCES RATE INCREASE

Gamefly has announced that effective June 18th, they will be raising the rates for all of their rental plans by one dollar. First off, let me say that as far as I know, I had nothing to do with this one despite my earlier statement that if it were to make them start putting the cardboard inserts back in the mailers, I’d gladly pay $1 more a month for service. Chalk it up to coincidence or more likely the ever growing cost of sending out their mailers, but I think we can all agree that Gamefly isn’t hanging on my every word. (So there JG! – nyaa)

“At GameFly, we are committed to providing excellent service at prices that enable you to play all the games you want economically. However, the May 14th postal rate hike on “flat” mailers, as well as the higher cost of new console games, has significantly increased our cost of doing business.

In order to continue improving our service while facing higher external costs, we’re raising the monthly fee on all membership plans by $1. All accounts billed on or after June 18, 2007 will be charged at the new rate. Since we opened our doors nearly five years ago, this is the first time we’ve ever raised the price of our most popular two-game plan.” – Gamefly

Like the statement says, it looks like the recent increase in postal rates is threatening to put a dent in Gamefly’s business plan, and they need some way to make the cash back. It’s not all bad news from Gamefly though – the company is also advising that anyone who wants to sign up for a long term membership prior to the rate change can do so at a discount of 20% off the original plan price. That’s a great deal for anyone who has the spare cash to put down all at once, but for me, I guess I’ll just have to eat that extra dollar.

GAMEFLY CONFIRMS MISSING CARDBOARD INSERTS

Catching up on an item from last week’s news, I heard back from Gamefly regarding the recent lack of protective cardboard inserts in their mailers. According to the company they are testing the idea of removing the cardboard inserts when shipping out game rentals.

"Thank you for contacting GameFly. We are in the process of testing the shipment of items without cardboard. We request that you simply return the item as you received it. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know." – Gamefly Customer Service

My guess is this is part of a cost cutting move on Gamefly’s part as many of these rental services report that their biggest expenses are shipping charges. With a little bit of luck, the price increase in our next article means that they’ve decided that not using the inserts just isn’t the way to go.

• Gamefly stops using protective cardboard mailers? – nylatenite.com

GAMEFLY STOPS USING PROTECTIVE CARDBOARD MAILERS?

I think everyone who follows this site regularly knows I’m generally a pretty big fan of the service Gamefly provides, but I really have to wonder what the hell is going on over at their headquarters following their latest move.

About a week back, I received my rental of Dead Rising for the Xbox 360 in the mail and noticed that the usual hard cardboard protective sleeve the games are sent in was missing. At the time, I figured it was just a mistake and that there hadn’t been a change in Gamefly shipping procedures…

Moving right along, this afternoon, Forza 2 arrived in the mail and once again there was no protective cardboard sleeve… what the game did have was a noticeable scratch across the surface of the disc. While I haven’t had a chance to see if the game is affected in any way by the scratch, it’s certainly something that really shouldn’t be happening.

As a long time member of Gamefly, and as someone who regularly buys games from them, I can only see this as hurting their business model in the long run. Why would I want to buy games from them that I know are probably not going to be in anything close to ideal condition? More importantly, given their somewhat slow shipping times, I sure as hell won’t be willing to put up with delays from them when they have to replace games that are scratched and unplayable while I’m paying their monthly fees.

You know, if the added shipping cost of using cardboard sleeves is killing them, then raise the damn monthly rate by $1 a month or the like, but don’t take your core service and diminish it. Better yet, here’s an idea – stop running those annoying commercials during every single commercial break on some channels. Guess what? If I’m watching the show, odds are I saw the first one – save your money for keeping me as a member once I join.

I’ll be shooting an e-mail over to their customer support team once I determine whether or not the game is damaged, and I’ll be sure to report back on any reply I get. For now though, you may want to keep this in mind if you plan on using their services.

GAMEFLY TO OPEN EAST COAST DISTRIBUTION CENTER?

According to Kotaku, many Gamefly subscribers have received e-mail notices from the company stating that they’ll (at long freaking last) be opening a distribution center in Pittsburgh, PA to serve members in the eastern half of the United States.

While this could certainly be great news for those of us who are quite some distance from the current center in Inglewood, California, I do hope that this doesn’t cause any delays due to the company splitting their inventory between the two sites. Certainly, over the years the most frequent reason I heard for people canceling their Gamefly memberships was that it just took too long to get titles in the mail. While they’ve certainly gotten better ever since they instituted their "Fast Return" policy (for reference, my turnaround time has dropped to 2-3 days each way since Fast Return’s inception), anything that can get my games to me quicker is always welcome.

While we’re talking about Gamefly, allow me to stick another shameless plug in my attempts to get a free Nintendo DS-Lite from them into this post. If you’ve never been a member of the service and have been considering taking them up on their free trial offer, why not use this link to sign up? Should five of you wonderful readers choose to remain with the service after the end of the trial period, they’ll bestow me with a free shiny DS-Lite for having gone through the trouble of referring you. (Once a member, you can also take advantage of the same referral offer to try and get yourself a free DS-Lite)

I’ll tell you right now, unless it’s a game that I have to get "right now", I generally buy all my games from Gamefly using the "keep it" option. Their used prices just can’t be beat, and if you rent the game the day it comes out, you’re essentially getting a brand new game at a significant savings – and the savings get better the longer you remain a member.

Okay, self-serving advertisement aside, I would like to state that I am a bit hurt about the fact that i wasn’t one of the people who got the aforementioned e-mail. It kind of stings, you know?

• GameFly Expands To East Coast – Kotaku
• Gamefly – Company website
• The magical link you should use if you want to join Gamefly and help me get a free DS-Lite – Self-serving advertisement

GAMEFLY ADDS PLAYSTATION 3 AND WII GAMES TO SERVICE

Gamefly subscribers should take note that the company has now added Playstation 3 and Wii rental sections and have started letting you add games for those systems to your rental queue. Not earth shaking news, but I figure if you’re a subscriber, you probably want to have your queue set up early so you don’t forget any titles you may be interested in.

GAMEFLY / U.S. POSTAL SERVICE ISSUES

For those of you Gamefly subscribers in the New York area who are experiencing delays and/or missing games, I just got word from Gamefly that they are aware of the situation. Not much consolation for subscribers who are left for weeks without a new game, but at least it’s confirmation that Gamefly is aware that something is going on.

-” Thank you for contacting GameFly. With the help of the USPS, we have identified several areas of the country as having severe postal delays, and the zip codes from 11200-11799 are among them. The USPS has been made aware that there is an issue, and we are both actively seeking ways to improve delivery times to your area.” -Gamefly Support