Columbia House, Come on, admit it, you have thought about joining! (1 Viewer)

[John Burton]

I just got a direct mail piece about Columbia House. Get 5 DVD for .49 each. On the same order, pick one for 14.99 and then just have to buy 3 more at 19.99.

Just wondering who here have joined Columbia House, and what are the pros and cons (I know they sell their mailing list, so I can expect more junk-mail!).


Thanks,

 

[AdamM]

I think you will find all the answers to that question in the forum below.
DVDTALK Forums

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Yeah, what Adam said...
See also:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=107726
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...93#post1185093

 

[Leila Dougan]

Be very cautions. I admit it, I thought about it. Then I actually joined and let me tell you, I will never do that again. It's an awful lot like selling your soul to the devil.

 

[Philip_G]

lol my ex gf was a cd member, and when she had only bought all but one of the CD's to fulfil her requirement, they sent her to collections when the time ran out, no warning at all...

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

I looked at the Canadian site, and couldn't even find enough titles I'd want to do the sign up. It may be a while before I bite on Columbia House.

With the CD club I have gotten some good deals, but it's pretty time consuming mining through the crap to find them.

 

[KeithH]

I'm a happy member of the Columbia House CD club. There are great deals to be had there. They recently had a deal where you buy one CD at full price, you get three free. With shipping, I got the following eight CDs for $54:

* John Coltrane Giant Steps
* John Coltrane Lush Life
* John Coltrane My Favorite Things
* John Coltrane Soultrane
* Janis Joplin Pearl
* Big Brother & The Holding Company Cheap Thrills
* Miles Davis Water Babies
* Miles Davis Filles de Kilimanjaro

I would have paid much more for these discs at a Best Buy or Circuit City and way, way more at a mall store, Tower Records, Borders, or Barnes & Noble. Both Columbia House and BMG have great deals all the time.

As for fulfilling the membership requirement, what's the big deal? You know before you join what is expected. With the CD clubs, you always get great deals when you buy a CD at full price (CDs for $2.99 each, free CDs, CDs at 60% off, etc.). When you fulfill the membership requirement, which is just buying four CDs at regular price in two years, you get better deals. Of course, you can cancel your membership at any time, once you fulfill the membership agreement.

The clubs are great in my opinion.

 

[McPaul]

Joined when I was in high school. Had several accounts at one time, But there wasn't that great a selection available on CH. As a result, I now have enough 70's classic rock to last a lifetime. And no, I am no longer a member.

 

[John Stone]

Be very cautions. I admit it, I thought about it. Then I actually joined and let me tell you, I will never do that again. It's an awful lot like selling your soul to the devil.

Not anymore. Take some time to educate yourself by reading the excellent DVD Talk posts mentioned above and you'll find that Columbia House is a simple and quick way to add excellent, high MSRP DVDs to your collection for less than $10.00 each. I used to keep three accounts going at once when I first started collecting...

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I join and quit every once in a while.
I get DVDs for about 9 bucks each after averaging all the shipping/handling.
I get CDs for about 4 bucks each.
There is no reason to have long term memberships. Accounts can be completed and closed within a couple of weeks of opening one, and in only a few days in some cases (with some extra phone calls).
Anybody who complains about Columbia House probably isn't doing it right.

 

[Jeff Braddock]

I joined and will never do it again. Everything was good until I was buying my last CD to meet the requirement. There was a promotion that was something like if you buy one you get 2 or 3 for like $.50 or something like that. Well, I went with that deal and then they began to hassel me b/c I didn't pay full price for the other CD's. Since I was young and dumb, I had already thrown that stuff away b/c it was a month or so after I had sent the payment in. After a big runaround, they sent it to collections. I ended up just paying it to keep from having to mess with it. They never did send me the rest of my CD's (when you fullfilled your obligation you got some free CD's). Just my experience.

 

[Michael*K]

I joined Columbia House when I was about 11 years-old, long before DVD's and CD's became popular. Got about a dozen music cassettes for a penny. They sent me info every month trying to get me to buy the required number of full price cassettes, but I never responded. Eventually I started getting threatening letters, but at some point they just gave up and stopped sending them. Guess they figured it wasn't worth coming after someone whose age had barely reached double digits.

 

[Lee L]

I joined when I was about 20, midway through my commitment, I sent them a check for 30 bucks for some CD's I ordered. They say they never got the check and immediately charged me the cost of the rest of the commitment and threatened me with collection. I stopped payment on the check and paid them off and swore I would never do business with them again.
18 months later, I get a bounced check and look into it. There was this mysterious $30 check that had taken me 5 bucks below what I needed to cover the checks I had written (yes I was young, poor and stupid and barely covered myself most of the time). Lo and behold, it was the Columbia House check, dirty as hell and with a funny litte star stamp kind of obscuring the date. I guess someone moved some equipment and found it. Of course my bank said that since they had bought the bank and my account the check was written on and that I was not at their bank at the time the stop payment was issued, I was SOL. I begged to differ in a slightly raised voice in the lobby and asked to speak to a manager. Long story short I was finally made whole a couple of months later but I will never deal with Columbia House again and I closed that account as soon as they gave my money back. I also learned some valuable lessons.

 

[KyleS]

Heck I will not only admit that I have thought about it but MOST of my DVD's have come from Columbia House. If you follow the rules explained in the links above over at DVDTalk then you cant go wrong. Of course I have had my fair share of problems but they were all my fault and it was when I had 3 accounts going at the same time.
Its a great way to collect DVD's at less then $10 each even for the expensive SE sets.
KyleS

 

[Brian Kleinke]

I've joined em twice, and canceled both times as soon as my intro deal was up.

It's a great deal on the more expensive DVDs, it's great for catalog titles, as they didn't (when I was with em) have new releases very soon after release.

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

I think the stigma of Columbia House being a ripoff should be long gone and if people have had problems with them in the past should give them another try. I also had problems when I was a teenager, but the problems were with me and not the club.

I currently have 2 CD accounts open with them and a DVD account.

I currently purchase about 90% of my CD purchases through CH, just because of the great deals they offer. Like explained above they recently ran a offer for Buy 1 get 3 free and at the same time they had 60% off of box sets.

So I picked up the CCR box set for $50 and purchased some Miles Davis CD's at around $25 buck a piece. In all I paid $72 including shipping for CD's that would of cost me about $200 elsewhere. The CCR boxset in stores alone is $100.

As for the DVD club that is also a great deal, after your commitment is made you just cancel and rejoin. CH really doesn't have any deals after you have fulfilled your agreement with them within their DVD Club. I'm on my 2nd turn with the DVD Club and hopefully will be starting my 3rd one later this year.

Paul

 

[Justin Lane]

The DVD Club is really the cheapest place to get DVDs in the current market after the dotcom bust. Just make sure you get expensive SEs with your .49 selections then buy $20 discs to meet your commitment.
Both CH and BMG are excellent for CDs as well. I know there are some CH horror stories, but most of the people I have seen complain about CH was because they didn't pay their bill on time or at all
J

 

[Dave Poehlman]

I joined the CD club a few years ago... cancelled after my obligation was met. They don't send you unwanted CD's anymore like they used to if you didn't specify what you wanted.

Their selection sucked, however. I had exhausted most of my wanted CD's with the first order. Then I was scraping to find something that I was somewhat interested in.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

BMG does seem to have a LOT more artists in their CD club than CH does.
You'll never see somebody like the Beatles or the Stones there though; they got enough clout early enough to get good contracts with their record labels.
By my understanding, artists get little to no royalties for discs sold through the clubs. I guess the RIAA thinks it is OK for artists to get screwed that way.

 

[Fletch]

I have been a member off and on since 1970.Then you could get 7 records for a dollar.But you had to buy 3 more at regular blah blah blah over the next million years.One problem that i found was that the quality of some of the cds was not as good.Not a member again until they release dr. hook - belly up.