TheChrisD - Rant Central

I’ll push on Tuesday my way!

I know that the normal Tuesday Push is an event that most bloggers partake in, all of them pushing the same product or service. The next bi-weekly push isn’t scheduled until next week - but I’m taking today to do my own version of the Push for a service that I want to. My Push for today is for Gamesenders.

I’ve been using Gamesenders since sometime back in February. I can’t exactly remember how I found them, but I think it was from a banner ad I saw over on MGC. I was excited at the prospect of an Irish game rental company, before when I had looked around for rental companies, they were all primarily British. Not that they were bad, but with the inevitable increased shipping time, the different currency and other factors, they weren’t really worth it for me.

Anyway, back to the point. Gamesenders are celebrating their first birthday, and currently have a special offer for any new customers - your first 3 months for the price of 2. If you are a gamer and looking for an efficient way to rent and play games, without having to worry about late return charges, I highly suggest you take at look at them.

The cost isn’t exactly too bad either. The basic package at €15 a month gets you one game at a time, with a maximum of 2 rentals per month - ideal for the gamer who likes to really complete the game before sending it back! Or you can go for the biggest option, which lets you have two games at a time, and unlimited per month for €25 a month. That’s the package I use, although it’s really only for the “2 games at a time” thing. I really would prefer something in the middle, like two games at a time, with up to three or four games per month. I don’t go through them THAT quickly!

Their support is, well it’s not the best, but it’s not bog-standard (or should I say GoDaddy standard?) either. You receive the basic system e-mails every time a new game is shipped out to you, or a game has returned safely to them. The auto-responder e-mail that you get from emailing the basic support line, is a little bland, and even after several months still has a few spelling errors… however, the more personal response you get at the end (in the very fancy teal blue Calibri font ) is a lot more reassuring.

I say that based on my experience from, well just this morning. I had e-mailed them last night asking that my account be frozen for a while until I get back into college (and have the time and ability to play the games again). This morning in my inbox, I received a system e-mail “GameSenders - Cancellation of Service”. My first response was a swift “WTF?”, mainly since I had asked for a simple freeze rather than complete cancellation. However, the personal e-mail followed which detailed the situation for me. Learn to not take the system e-mails seriously is what I say!

Also, more recently they have launched their “Keep It” service. If there’s a game that you rented that you really like, if it’s eligible you can make a one-off payment, and then the game is your to keep forever! They even ship out the original case and manuals etc. to you - so that it’s truly yours. (Whether you’re supposed to return the envelope or the disc holder they send the game out to you in, I don’t know ) I used it to buy Mario Kart Wii from them after having it rented for the past… well 2 or 3 months! I had originally wanted to buy it outright from GAME, but when I went there before, they didn’t have it in stock. At least now the household has a copy that we own

In short, if you need a good game rental company, don’t settle for your local video/DVD/Internet/whatever-they-now-rent-out store, or for UK companies - try out Gamesenders

UPDATE (22nd August, 13:02 IST): Just got a lovely e-mail from Lisa, the PR and Marketing rep from GameSenders.

Just wanted to say cheers for your Tuesday push for us; we really appreciate it. With a limited marketing budget (ok fairly non existent) we’re struggling to get the name out there so a word of mouth recommendation is invaluable!

Who says the Tuesday Push doesn’t do anything?