GameAccess.ca, any good?

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So now that Canadian CAGs are being inundated with ads for GameAccess.ca, the question(s) is: has anyone tried it? Is it any good? How's the selection? How's the turn-around time?
 
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I was a member for about 2 years. Early on I really enjoyed it, but in 2008 (I cancelled May 2008) I would never get even the top 10 in my queue. Plus the turn around for games to my area was always 4-5 business days in the mail which was just too much; I'm in SW Ontario.

As for the price, I was on a 2 game plan for awhile, then dropped to a 1 game plan, if your games aren't always in the mail, the price is fine. I can't beat the local video store that has 1 week rentals for $3, even new releases, but they only have 1 copy of each so I still frequent Blockbuster, which almost always has stock. So if I want something, I just go get it, rather that watching it sit in my top queue spot for months.

I don't want to really say anything negative about them as overall their organization was good and support was great, but in the end didn't work for me and my fanatical gaming habits. :) I would recommend anyone try the 2 week trial and see how they like it, but if you want a particular game short-term, you're still better to go to a video store.
 
Good support, slow shipping and I never got any of my top 3 picks when I was a member for a few months.

Be interesting to see how the company does when Canada Post changes its postal rates for CD/DVDs.
 
[quote name='mkrowe']I can't beat the local video store that has 1 week rentals for $3, even new releases...[/quote]

How do they stay in business? At $3, it would take them 20 weeks of renting to break even? I guess they could sell the game for $30 after the 5months, at $30 of pure profit...

~S
 
I had a subscription for a year and i didnt enjoy it. It just takes too long to get games and they can send you any of the 10 games you choose in any order despite ranking the ones you want more.
 
[quote name='snowsquirrel']How do they stay in business? At $3, it would take them 20 weeks of renting to break even? I guess they could sell the game for $30 after the 5months, at $30 of pure profit...

~S[/quote]

No idea, but I have no complaints! The only catch is you must "pre-purchase" 7 rentals at a time at $21... but then you can use them for any games, whatever the console and if it's a new release or not.
 
I have been a member of Game Access for over 2 years and I have nothing but great things to say about their service. I tried a few other online rental businesses and none compare in shipping times, game selection and customer service.

Although I only needed to call in once, the time I did phone in, I received an exceptional service from their staff and they resolved my issue within a few seconds!

Of course if you are a light gamer or only rent 1 game per month, online rental might not be your cup of tea. But if you are like me and take gaming seriously, you will save tons of cash and time using an online rental service like gameaccess.ca.

As for not getting your number 1 pic every time, you should definitely get the reservation option. For 2$ per month you get to reserve any game you want and as many times as you want. I use that and get my top game ship every single time. I even get new releases shipped on their release date. I have never come across a video store that lets you reserve games...

If you are a serious gamer, definitely check them out.
 
I'm wondering about that "reservation" feature: suppose your plan allows for 2 games to be out at once, and you already have both of them out. Then you reserve a game on your list.

Are you guaranteed to get the reserved title as soon as you return one of your 2 games? Is there ever a long wait for your reserved game to be made available?

What if you toss a game in the mail, and then reserve another one while it makes its way back to the warehouse? Can you use this "reservation" option to effectively keep choosing what you want to play next?

Thanks for the info~
 
[quote name='CHW']I'm wondering about that "reservation" feature: suppose your plan allows for 2 games to be out at once, and you already have both of them out. Then you reserve a game on your list.

Are you guaranteed to get the reserved title as soon as you return one of your 2 games? Is there ever a long wait for your reserved game to be made available?

What if you toss a game in the mail, and then reserve another one while it makes its way back to the warehouse? Can you use this "reservation" option to effectively keep choosing what you want to play next?

Thanks for the info~[/quote]


The way I use the reservation thing is everytime they ship me a game I reserve the next game I want right away. Therefore by the time I ship them a game back I am pretty much at the top of the list and never have to wait for them to ship me my nuber 1 selection right away.

For unreleased games I always reseve them as soon as they list them on their website. That way near the release date I sent 1 game back so I can be the first to get a copy of the new relase.

Being able to resrve games is definately worth my extra 2 bucs per month.

Enjoy!
 
I used it for half a year and really started disliking it more, and more each month. Even by paying extra for a reserving games function, they never sent me the games I really wanted to get. The games I thought I joined the service for.

ICO,Siren, Jak 2 and lots of other ps2 games that are hard to rent elsewhere. So if you're looking for last generation content I strongly don't recommend gameaccess.ca.

As for the new games, sometimes I had stuff on my list that I was maybe getting at blockbuster day 1 (To fill up their 10 games quota) and to see if they're shipping it day 1 so I can use the cheaper renting service. I was surpised to actually have them send it to me days after release and have two rented copies of the game in my house.

My own fault for not removing it, I know. It just shows it's extremely unpredictable and can screw with you because you can never depend on it.

Oh yeah, I continued to also rent games from blockbuster even when being suscribed to the 2 games at a time service. So if you're more then a casual gamer, don't think you'll use the service exclusivly.
 
I had it for about a year. It was pretty ok for what it was, they sent you a game pretty quickly after they got the last one back.

Problem was though, I'd almost always get some game I didn't really even want to play. They make you add 20 games minimum before they'll ship anything, of which I probably wanted to play like 4-5 so it was always disappointing.

Anyway I canceled. I figured for the amount of gaming I do, it's better for me to just buy whatever game I need and sell it back when I'm done at a $10 loss on craigslist/ebay. Works pretty well and you always get the game you want :D

I do subscribe to zip.ca though (for dvds/blueray/hddvd) and it's a god send. Renting movies this way works out perfectly since I can watch on avg 11 movies / month with the service since the turn around is so great.
 
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Holly crap!!! Thanks for the thread you guys, I had no idea such a service existed. I loved being a member of zip but when they switched to limited rental packages I dropped off.

I just signed up to the gameaccess free trial, Ill let you guys know about my findings.

PS: I love this Canada exclussive section! More forums should adopt it!!!

Nice meeting you guys. Untill hockey season restarts, lets keep gaming :)
 
Ok so here is the update to anyone who is interested. I signed up to their free trial on Saturday. One of their customer support staff contacted me on Monday morning because I was using my moms credit card... I know, I know... But once everything was sorted out they aproved my acocunt.

So the first game they shipped from my queue was Battlefield Bad Company which was my number 1 or number 2 pic, I cannot remember. It was shipped on Monday and I received it today (Wednesday) with my morning mail. So the shipping to North York took 2 days, which is pretty fast (about the same time from Zip).

The game disk itself is in top quality, no niks or scratches and it plays perfectly. I must say I do like the hard cardboard protector they use in comparison with the paper protector Zip uses. I imagine this is how they manage to keep the games scratch free.

Therefore, so far so good. Spoke to they support who where very friendly, shipping was fast, I got my 1st game shipped very quickly, they sent me a very high game from my queue and the disk is in top condition.

I will most likely be staying a member after the free trial. If anyone is interested in an update in a few weeks, please feel free to PM me.

Hope this "review" helps out other Canadian gamers!
 
well I havent tried gameaccess.ca but I can share my experiences with canflix.com. I've been with them for about a year and at first I got some good new releases like bioshock and stranglehold. then a few months in the only games that were available were some of the more junk games.

I was thinking about quitting the service since I was only getting one or two games I wanted a month, but since then it picked up a lot. they were based in calgary but they got an extra office in brampton so shipping times are a lot faster out east. they also have better available games. right now I am on the 4 games at a time for 25$/month plan and I have lego indi, ninja gaiden 2, the bourne game and wall-e out.

so thumbs up for canflix.com at least.
 
I enjoyed 3 months without any games from Game Access, When i contact customer support i was replied back with rude emails telling me I was wrong and that their service was running fine... after 5+ emails of useless arguing, I was offered 2 month reimbursement for my wasted time and I would get my next games on my list.... this was more then a month ago... and i still haven't gotten a game yet.

I think i've said enough.
 
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