Dear GameFly,

I appreciate the increase the postage hike has had on your business. However, I’m starting to feel as a one-game-at-a-time subscriber that my interests are being consistently overlooked in favor of the two-game plan members. A few points:

• I recently submitted a support question (Question Reference #XXXXXX-XXXXXX, which was answered in a decidedly less than helpful fashion along the lines of quoting the FAQ which my question explicitly stated I had already read and suggesting that I do the legwork with the USPS) that pointed out how GameFly’s slow shipping rates actively decrease the value of my subscription fee. Less than three weeks later I’m told that my subscription costs are increasing instead of the other way around.
• How is it possible that 2-game subscribers and one-game subscribers have to pay the same amount to accommodate the postage increase? This makes absolutely no sense. I’ve already noted to your support staff that it takes about a week to get a game shipped to me but even being generous and granting a four-day turnaround (as indicated in the FAQ) plus an average of four days play time, at most I could only ever initiate four shipments per month. Realistically it’s more along the lines of two. Assuming you can double that for two-game subscribers doesn’t it seem like we’re subsidizing the higher-priced plans? It’s bad enough I have to be beaten over the head with upgrading my account on my Q page, login page and elsewhere on the site as well as tolerate a portion of my subscription being lost to downtime without a game, but now I’m being monetarily punished for choosing a more affordable plan as well? If you don’t want one-game subscribers, why even offer the plan?
• I’m having a hard time understanding the GameFly pricing structure as it is. I have a nearly identical plan with Netflix but they charge me $6 (now $7!) less per month than you do, and I guarantee that they pay more shipping fees to cover my rentals than you, since I only ever keep a movie for a day or two at the most while most of my GameFly games hang around for a week or longer. I understand that games are more expensive on average than movies, and I was willing to let the discrepancy slide but when you’re jacking the price due to postage fees and they aren’t, I have to cry foul.

Please understand that I love the GameFly service but the continued indifference toward single-game subscribers and high cost is making me question whether it is worth my money. And I’m sorry but one-time lump-sum tiered discounts aren’t enough; if you can afford to offer annual subscriptions for $12.75 per month when paid in advance, why can’t you operate on a commitment basis and charge $12.75 per month provided I agree to subscribe for one year? TiVo does this. I don’t want to pay $150 all at once, but I don’t mind agreeing to a year’s subscription to get a reasonable rate. I fail to see how up-front payments are any benefit to you over contractual subscription fees.

And of course you offering these up-front payment plans that work out to beingless than your existing pricing plans to ease customer concern over your rate increases completely undermines the stated rationale behind the price increase in the first place.

Let me be clear: I was already underwhelmed with the delivery process. I don’t understand the rationale behind the price increase especially as applies to the one-game subscribers. I refuse to “lock in my discount” and pay an up-front fee that makes a joke out of the price increase. Therefore, in order to ensure my continued business, either:

1. Adjust your pricing scheme to appropriately reflect the service level for one-game subscribers. The adjusted monthly rate for a three-month up-front “discount” of $14.32 per month seems like a decent place to start.

OR

2. Institute a contractual payment plan where I can get a reasonable rate by agreeing to remain a subscriber for a set period of time (for example, $12.75 for a one-year agreement).

In either case, let’s forget about the asinine $1 rate increase and if necessary you can adjust the added incentives like GameFly dollars as you see fit: I use them but only because they are offered, they do not factor into my decision to remain a subscriber or not.

Thank you for your consideration,

Paul A. Hamilton

I very much don’t want to cancel because GF’s competitors are either restrictive and pricey (Red Octane Rentals) or affordable but lacking features like DS game rentals (GamezNFlix). I suppose secret option three is to go back to renting from a local brick-n-mortar, but I don’t do Blockbuster under any circumstances and my local Hollywood video charges a premium for 5-day 360 game rentals and they also don’t offer DS games.

Really GameFly is the best service out there but I’m serious about bailing if they don’t stop trying to leverage their quality into gouge-y prices and throttled shipments.