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GameFly Wins Discrimination Ruling Against U.S. Postal Service

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by Matt Bertz on April 22, 2011 at 05:36 PM
11,334 Views
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The Postal Regulatory Commission sided with the mail-based video game rental service regarding the raw deal it was getting from the USPS in comparison to Netflix and Blockbuster.

The original complaint filed by GameFly claimed that it was unfairly being charged non-machinable surcharges, while Netflix and Blockbuster were not. Manual sorting is integral to the preservation of the DVDs, as they are more susceptible to damage if sorted via the automated processing machines. The Commission dismissed the USPS argument claiming that the decision to manually sort Blockbuster and Netflix's envelopes was made by local processing units to avoid costly machine jamming.

According to Post & Parcel,The USPS has 60 days to set new postal rates for round-trip disc-based mail. The postal service can still appeal the ruling.

[Source: Gamasutra]

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  • by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 05:45 PM
    The USPS just doesn't get anything to go its way anymore
  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 05:47 PM
    Give me a break! Like GameFly can't afford it. They are paying extra for special handling. The postal service is in a very deep debt, maybe they should just charge all three of them for the manual handling.
  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 05:48 PM
    Maybe its the time PSN will be back up :O
  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 05:49 PM

    I'm glad GameFly won this case(long as the postal service dosen't appeal). Nothing sucks more than when you check your mail and find the game you rented is broken before having a chance to play.

  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 05:57 PM
    Just put the game in a Netflix envelope...just kidding 0_0
  • by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 05:58 PM
    now if i could only get the USPS to stop taking their sweet time delivering the games to me.
  • by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 05:58 PM

    Finally, maybe this time the dvd's will get faster

  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 06:07 PM
    Ok good for you Gamefly. Now you need to turn that savings into more shipping centers, and more available product before I re-join you. If I didn't get a game when it released I would be lucky if I could see it within 3 months. And when They would finaly ship it, it would take over a week to get to me. (partly the postal service fault on slow ship and deliver times I think). In the end Gamefly just was not worth it. Cost 3 times as much as netflix, worked 1/4 as well.
    Also I think it's funny they even mention netflix, as when ever I would complain to customer service about how 2 weeks had gone by without seeing a game, and netflix only takes a day from the ship date, they would tell me it was unfair to compare them as they were entirely different services.
  • by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 06:13 PM

    I hate you USPS.

  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 06:17 PM
    Thats why I love Blockbuster online. Sure I may not be able to stream(yet. Give it time they will eventually catch on) but they are a mix of both Netflixand Gamefly since Blockbuster online ships both games and movies all for the same price. Its like 14 dollars a month for 3 disc including games and movies. If you wanted you could get 3 games or 1 game 2 movies or 2 games 1 movie and so on
  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 06:34 PM
    So does this mean that if Gamefly is being charged less by the USPS, we the customer will have to pay less monthly?! I would really like to know...
  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 06:37 PM

    I did not know that's why the discs came with extra cardboard to protect them. GameFly rules. If this helps makes their service faster, so much the better. :)

  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 06:44 PM
    Gamefly instituted a rule where if you cancel, you don't get the rest of your service you've paid for. I cancelled the day after a resub, so that I wouldn't forget again, they wouldn't let me keep the game till the end of the month I just paid for, they said its a new policy. Anyway, I hear that new blockbuster service is pretty good, adios Gamefail.
  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 07:50 PM

    What? Is this gonna make gamefly faster 'cause their slow. They do ship the games a long ways though.

  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 08:24 PM
    Good for Gamefly, been a sub for around 5 years now, never had any real issues with it, so I've been happy.

    Plus the tons of money I save by buying used games from Gamefly.
    They have some awesome sales.

    I also have a theory, if you buy a used game from them that has one of those online passes, you'll still get the passcode if you buy the game used, since they only ship discs out when you rent, but you get everything else when you buy or keep games.

    But I've yet to test out that theory.
  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 09:17 PM

    I hope this cuts the cost of the service.  I would love to subscribe to this.

  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 10:15 PM

    Score one for Gamefly.

  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 10:34 PM

    good for you Gamefly. now just lower your prices, and you'll be awesome!

  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 10:54 PM

    If only this would lead to lower rates from Gamefly. Somehow, I doubt it will :(

  •
    by Friday, April 22, 2011 at 11:01 PM
    To be honest, I am surprised to see that people still use GameFly.
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