All of the rental companies in this review require a credit, check or debit card to rent games from them. A great rental company should allow a potential customer to view their entire game catalog without having to sign up first.

 

GottaPlay’s website is easy on the eyes and navigation is a snap. Signing up for membership only took a few minutes and I was able to start adding games to my GameBox right after. GottaPlay features a fairly detailed Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) area if you have any simple questions you would like answered. What’s really cool, if you like 1up.com (gaming mag, EGM’s online website), GottaPlay has a partnership with 1up.com to show up to date game rating scores and reviews. If you distrust the professionals, you could get a basic rating from other GottaPlay members with GottaPlay’s rating system or by user reviews. You can also get news, videos, screenshots, and more, conveniently located on the website. Another thing that is noteworthy is the site’s search capability. You could search for games by UPC, title, game publisher and even genre, helpful if you don’t really remember a game’s name but you know who makes it or what game genre it is in.
 

If you really want, you could create a profile on GottaPlay that shows your trading rating, friends (called buddies) messages and alerts and more. What is strange is that GottaPlay has this cool profile system but doesn’t have a forum so you could discuss games, gaming gossip and other stuff with fellow GottaPlay members; matter of fact, none of the rental companies in this review have a forum for members…weird.
 

I had no need to contact customer support at GottaPlay, although I want to send them hate mail for not having enough of the new releases. GottaPlay does display their full corporate address and phone number. You could also contact them via email through a form located on the website.

 
 

What GameZnFlix does get right is their site design and navigation. Creating a membership was straightforward; no convoluted signup here. If you choose to prepay for three months of service, you can get a $25 Shell gift card and the way gas prices are now anything extra is good. During signup, you could sign up for a free subscription of EGM which shows that GameZnFlix too has a partnership with 1up.com but its integration into their website isn’t as great as it is with GottaPlay.
 

Like GottaPlay, you can read and submit user reviews, ratings, view screenshots and even game hints on GameZnFlix’s website. Although, I suspect GameZnFlix’s lack of games and movies fills its member with an activity-halting torpor; most of the games user review areas are bare of any actual reviews by members.
 

If you have a question, GameZnFlix has a decent knowledgebase/FAQs section to help you. If you can’t find your question there, you could simply add one to the knowledgebase and one of the company’s support agents will answer it for you. I am tempted to ask “Why in the world did I sign up for your company’s service and is there any way I can get my money back?”
 

I only used GameZnFlix’s customer service once and that was to make sure once I closed my account, it stayed closed. I didn’t want to get charged again for their pitiful service. If you need to get in touch with GameZnFlix, you can use an email form on their website, contact them directly through your email client or call them.

 
 

GameMine’s minimalist website design barely gets the job done. Looking at it, at first glance, you would think it was created by some guy running the company out of a garage or a scam site. GameMine simply doesn’t look like it can securely display and store your personal information. I’m not showing any type of disparity because I’m a webmaster but many customers judge a website security on how well it looks and performs. As I stated previously, the login area near the site’s logo fully displays the characters of your username AND password. If you like use your notebook computer in public areas; I would not access this website in public. Even at home, you should be careful if you have tech savvy children who could easily capture your login information. I must add, sometimes you are browsing the website with SSL encryption and other times you’ll notice you’re browsing with no encryption whatsoever. With all of that said, I was able to sign up quickly and waste no time adding games to my queue.
 

The minimalist website design extents to the site’s navigation and previews of games. There is no user reviews, videos, or user ratings; only a brief description of the game along with some information on the game’s publisher and release date. There is a “You may also like…” feature that show games you may want to rent compared to the game you currently viewing.
 

If you have any problems with GameMine services and you need to get into immediate contact with them, you really only have one real choice, email. You could send them an email through your email client or a basic form on their website. Companies that deal with your personal information like credit cards should always have a number for you to call them, that’s just common business practice. If you have a simple question, you may still need to contact GameMine via email; their FAQs section is lackluster to say the least.
 

 

GetYourGamez is best described as WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get). Following their simple yet efficient rental plans is a website that isn’t ornate with superfluous details. Signup was transient in scope, nothing impinging my progress to get quickly to adding games to my queue. Getting to the games I wanted to rent was as painless as signing up for membership. When you do find a game you want to rent, you get a brief description of the game, its ESRB rating and date of release. There is a star rating system that you could use at a glance to help you gauge how other users like a game you may be interested in.
 

Populated along the sides of the GetYourGamez website are helpful links and information boxes. You can view the Top 10 Rentals, current rentals in your possession, request a game and even refer a friend to get a free month of service. What I found really interesting is the GYG Blog, which hosts blog posts by GetYourGamez staff. You can read reviews and get other cool information about GYG and its staff. I wish they had a forum though, as the site would greatly benefit from one.
 

GetYourGamez customer service outshined almost all of my past experiences with other online rental companies support staff. Most companies in today’s business landscape forget about simple goodhearted customer service and candor, instead, relying on gimmicks. I’m not saying GetYourGamez has the best customer service support in the online rental arena, which is reserved for another company I have experience with, but given GetYourGamez’s size, its customer support is refreshing. May be it is the small company attitude, they have to outpace the bigger guys with better customer service, but not all smaller companies adhere to that rule. If you need to get in touch with GetYourGamez, you can send a message through their contact us form or send an email with your email client. Like GameMine, they don’t have a telephone number for customer service calls. There FAQs section covers the basic questions you may have but GetYourGamez is quick to answer your emails if you have a complex problem.