One Year Later, USPS Looks Into Gamefly Complaint

Last April, we discussed news that video game rental service GameFly had complained to the USPS that a large quantity of their game discs were broken in transit, accusing the postal service of giving preferential treatment to more traditional DVD rental companies like Netflix. Now, just over a year later, an anonymous reader sends word that the USPS has responded with a detailed inquiry into GameFly's situation (PDF). The inquiry's 46 questions (many of which are multi-part) cover just about everything you could imagine concerning GameFly's distribution methods. Most of them are simple, yet painstaking, in a way only government agencies can manage. Here are a few of them: "What threshold does GameFly consider to be an acceptable loss/theft rate? Please provide the research that determined this rate. ... What is the transportation cost incurred by GameFly to transport its mail from each GameFly distribution center to the postal facility used by that distribution center? ... Please describe the total cost that GameFly would incur if it expanded its distribution network to sixty or one hundred twenty locations. In your answer, please itemize costs separately. ... Does the age of a gaming DVD or the number of times played have more effect on the average life cycle of a gaming DVD?"

Comments

predictable

[Goldsmith]

Welcome to the world of lawyers, where it doesn't matter who is right and who is wrong, but who is in a position to be a bigger pain in the neck. This is a discovery document for the defense of USPS, not a response to an inquiry. They probably won't be issuing a response.

The USPS lawyers (in the odd world of legal ethics) probably concluded that the "right" thing to do is to pressure Gamefly to settle and admit no wrongdoing by USPS. I'm sure there are good reasons for USPS to not actually put out a public report detailing what their definition of acceptable mail handling is or how poor mail handling happens, but those are good reasons only for people who work for USPS.

Re:predictable

[mpoulton]

Welcome to the world of lawyers, where it doesn't matter who is right and who is wrong, but who is in a position to be a bigger pain in the neck. This is a discovery document for the defense of USPS, not a response to an inquiry. They probably won't be issuing a response.

The USPS lawyers (in the odd world of legal ethics) probably concluded that the "right" thing to do is to pressure Gamefly to settle and admit no wrongdoing by USPS. I'm sure there are good reasons for USPS to not actually put out a public report detailing what their definition of acceptable mail handling is or how poor mail handling happens, but those are good reasons only for people who work for USPS.

The original "inquiry" was not a polite request for the USPS to investigate. It was a formal complaint filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission. This is functionally a lawsuit, in the "court" of the Postal Regulatory Commission. GameFly sued the USPS demanding that they provide the same treatment to GameFly DVDs that is provided for Netflix and Blockbuster DVDs. The Postal service's response here is a discovery request, which is to be expected. However, if you read the original complaint it becomes apparent that the postal service probably already has much of this information, since the USPS and GameFly worked together for quite a long time to resolve the problem (to no avail).

Re:Is it me?

[iamhassi]

"Is it me, or is GameFly being dicked around?"

Without a doubt. GameFly basically said last year "Look dude, you keep breaking my shit and you handle my competitors shit with silk gloves. WTF?"

USPS responses a year later with "We don't know what you're talking about. We want copies of all research on all mailer designs you've tested, including the results of each test and what advantages or disadvantages were found and the research used to determine these advantages or disadvantages."

USPS even accused GameFly of stealing their own games:
"Please describe any measures GameFly undertakes to manage or limit theft. In your answer please include the anti-theft procedures utilized in GameFly’s own plants and during transit of GameFly mail to and from postal facilities."

W...T....F.... USPS are you serious? So, if I call you and say "hey my mail keeps disappearing" are you going to tell me "what are YOU doing to stop it?"

And like the article says, some of these questions are just ridiculous, like: "USPS/GFL-28. Please describe the total cost that GameFly would incur if it expanded its distribution network to sixty or one hundred twenty locations. In your answer, please itemize costs separately."

So USPS wants them to just figure out how much it would cost to expand to 60 or 120 locations, and then give them a itemized cost of doing so? That alone could, if done realistically, take hundreds of man hours, to determine where these 60 or 120 locations would be best located and the cost opening up a new facility in each of those areas.

USPS even wants GameFly to analyze the material DVDs are made of:
"USPS/GFL-30. Has GameFly conducted any testing related to materials used in the DVDs it distributes or that it is aware respective manufacturers have undertaken? In your answer please describe the tests and any results from the tests, including breakage rates for the materials tested."

This is a giant middle finger from USPS to GameFly if I've ever seen one.

USPS, you didn't have to be such an ass, a simple "Ok we'll give you the same treatment as Netflix and Blockbuster" would have been the right thing to do.