Ruling Confirms Postal Service Discriminated Against GameFly

An anonymous reader writes "It took almost two years, but the US Postal Regulatory Commission just ruled (PDF) that the US Postal Service '...had unduly discriminated against GameFly.' GameFly recently complained that the additional postage was costing them $730,000 per month."

GameFly?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think, by definition, a summary should give people an idea of what the article is about. The summary doesn't tell me:

1. Who is GameFly and what do they do?
2. What the discrimination entailed? Did it just cost them more money to send postage?
3. If GameFly recently complained, then surely it couldn't have taken 2 years?

So many questions, if only I read TFA...

Re:Just in time to close up shop.

[Anubis IV]

Besides game rentals, which is Gamefly's bread and butter industry, they also make a decent amount by selling used games. Their sales are regularly featured as some of the best on the 'net over at CAG [cheapassgamer.com]. They don't really sell new games, so until physical copies of games disappear (which may only be a console generation away), they should be fairly resilient. This change just makes them more profitable, but again, they are in a dying market, so unless they position themselves to survive it, as GameStop is trying to do by making some purchases of game streaming services, they won't be around in 10 years.

Re:Just in time to close up shop.

[Anonymous Coward]

You can repeat this 'til death, downloading is not stealing, you can only steal physical things, no matter what the M.A.F.I.A. is trying to buy as law.

Re:Just in time to close up shop.

[Anarki2004]

Uh...really? Because I think that would result in a lower balance in my account. Now, I could be wrong about this (I feel like i have to point out my sarcasm here), but those numbers in my bank account represent physical money that I can withdraw at any time. I'm not saying that everybody should be free to copy games and movies all they want, but that it doesn't liken to the proper definition of theft when I copy the items in question. I don't know why I'm responding to this...we've seen this argument here a zillion times.

Re:Just in time to close up shop.

[willworkforbeer]

...Until enough people "copy" your money that it's incrementally devalued and you need a wheelbarrow full to buy a loaf of bread. What worth is your "money" if we all just makes as many copies as we like? Why would we accept yours worthless money for our goods or services, since we could just copy it freely? Your analogy = fail = fail.

Bad ruling

[afidel]

Why should the USPS be forced to subsidize a business that's unwilling to make simple technical changes that would reduce their cost to process their bulk mail? If you cost them more money you *should* be charged more, especially when you are told what fixes you can make to accommodate them and get the better rates. The postal service is subsidized by the taxpayers and any shortfall from a bulk customer like Gamefly will either be shoulder by us directly through larger appropriations or through rate hikes.

Re:Bad ruling

[afidel]

Uh, yes I'm actually familiar with the facts in the case, the order says they were discriminated against by having their mailers machine processed instead of hand sorted. The *reason* they aren't hand sorted is that Gamefly *chose* to make their mailers not stick out to reduce theft. You can't complain that your mailers aren't being pulled before the sorts *and* try to make them not stick out. Gamefly *also* chose to use a tougher but heavier mailer to reduce their breakage costs but which result in higher fuel costs for the USPS, forcing the USPS to lose money on heavier envelopes or increase rates for the companies that were willing to reduce their fuel costs is stupid bureaucracy at its best.

Re:Bad ruling

[smelch]

When you have to ship via USPS because nobody else is allowed to handle that particular class of mailing, and the people working at the USPS keep stealing the discs, and when you act to correct that they start charging you more, does it really still seem like Gamefly is being unreasonable?