I just canceled my membership and thought I'd post my experience for anyone in the midwest who's curious about gamefly.
First of all, I signed up for the $13 two-games-out-at-once trial month. I decided at the outset that I was going to return all games immediately--I didn't play a single one of them. I wanted to know for certain what shipping times/service was going to be like, and as I like to rent games, I figured the information was worth $13.
Anyhow, as soon as I'd get a game, I'd immediately (within half a day) return the game to the main post office in downtown Minneapolis, a post office that I definitely know has the FastReturn scanning beds. I was interested in two things:
1. Would FastReturn always take effect? If not, how often?
2. What's the average turnaround time? That is, how much time elapses between GF sending me game A and GF putting a the follow-up to game A in the mail (with me returning the game right away, GF receiving the game, and GF putting a new game in the mail in between those bookends)?
To answer the first question, of the 6 games I sent back only 3 engaged the FastReturn feature. What's more interesting is that in only one instance did FastReturn actually get a new game here more quickly. For the other two times the turnaround involving FastReturn was actually over the average turnaround.
To answer the second question, it took an average of 7.67 days for turnaround for service to Minneapolis, MN. (The distro center for MN customers is apparently in CA. That's right, CA). My basis for comparison is Netflix, which never takes more than 3 days, or 4 if a weekend/holiday is involved. I understand Netflix isn't exactly a fair comparison, as they're the cream of the crop IMO for online rentals (and yes, I tried Blockbuster).
I wrote the above to Gamefly just to let them know. I added that I think their policy of "All rentals out are due back within 7 days or else" isn't fair given my experience. They sent me 2 games today just before I canceled the membership. According to my experience, even if I send those suckers right back the moment they hit my mailbox, I've got a 1 in 6 chance of Gamefly getting the games in under 7 days from the time they were sent out from the distro center. That ain't right.
I'm thinking of trying Gamerang as I understand they have a distribution near or in MN. I have to say that if GF had a center in the IL/WI/MN/IA area, I'd stick with them. I sent them a few customer service questions and they always responded quickly and in a nice, direct tone, and it seems like they're willing to pull out a lot of "special offers" when you threaten to cancel your membership (which one might be able to abuse every now and again). Their points system seemed like it had potential, too. Oh well...
Just sharin'!