Columbia House Blu-ray: Convenience or Curse?

[admin]

No official announcement has been made on the Columbia House website but the largest DVD club is finally bringing its mail order offers to Blu-ray. An amazing opening deal and its ad garnished with images from blockbuster movies its membership offer can’t help but entice. But is Columbia House a good deal or just a scam?


Discuss "Columbia House Blu-ray: Convenience or Curse?" here. Read the article.

[jinjuku]

The only thing that I am unhappy with is that I can't come up with a scheme that makes me millions out of mass stupidity.

[j_garcia]

I HATE Columbia House. I will never use them again. VERY bad experience and not the best customer service with both the CD and DVD clubs to which I was a member. I met my obligation for both and then tried to cancel my account. It took me numerous calls and many months to finally get them to stop trying to send me further unwanted items.

I thought for sure they had announced that they were carrying Blu-ray about a month ago, because I thought to myself "Great, a whole NEW group of people to scam."

[jwenthold99]

I have been a member of BMG music service for 14 years. if THEY came out with a Blu-ray club, I might have to think about signing on... I have had no problems, and they only required to buy one CD to fulfill my agreement... 14 years ago!

[hopjohn]

Funny looks as though both Wayde and the guy in the blog both missed the fine print on the front cover. It says 3 for 4.99 EACH. Which would be 15 bux not 5. This is exactly why people complain, because of confusing specials and requirements.

I used to be a member of their CD and even Cassette clubs (long before I could legally enter into a contract). They have their issues and finding out the shipping rates and tax totals ahead of time are impossible. Also what most people get confused about is the regular rate purchase obligation. Since they offer some kind of special pricing incentive each month you will never pay the full price when you use those incentives on the ordering form and then never fulfill your obligation. You have to specify that you want to pay full price (regular price). Is it a scam I guess, but if you know what you are doing you can save a small amount of money or at least you could back then. I know they limit you so much in your initial selections nowadays (ie, not available as a free selection) that you can't get what you want so I'd never use it.

[j_garcia]

I wouldn't call them an outright scam, but they certainly aren't the most honest. Good deals can be had for sure, but in the long run, but as mentioned you really need to pay attention to all of their fine print. Special offers not counting toward your obligation is a perfect example. Unless you wait for a price drop on popular titles, they tend to be pricey up front and not available for specials. For most new releases, I pretty much found that I could get them for the same price or less on my own.

[MDS]

The music clubs are a great way to get your collection started in a hurry and I used to be a member of both BMG and Columbia House but stopped it many years ago.

You definitely have to read the fine print and do the math to see what you are really getting. What it comes down to is if you remain a member you basically get new CDs for $8 apiece. I've never used them for DVDs but I'm sure the deal will be similar.

The popular 'buy one, get two free' they do every month or so isn't quite as fantastic as it sounds. You pay a greater than retail price for the first one (used to be $19.99 to $21.99) plus shipping on every single one plus tax. So $19.99 + $2.50 (first title) + $2.00 + $2.00 = $26.49 before tax or $8.83 apiece. Over time, your average cost goes down a bit but it tends to stay around $8.

[Clint DeBoer]

We've done it in the past. Typically we bought out our contract all at once with our first order. Net price ended up being fairly cheap for CDs and such.

[j_garcia]

I bought mine all at once for the CDs too, then I upgraded to the DVD club also when it became available. I ended up getting them to stop shipping me the "monthly" CDs and DVDs which they automatically charge you for. It took me about a year before I finally met the obligation for the DVDs because I rarely bought from them due to price + shipping, and having to pay basically the MSRP price + shipping to meet that pretty much negated whatever I saved on a few previous orders.

[MapleSyrup]

I've no doubt that those who know what they are doing, joining a DVD cub would be nice. But I for one found it very easy to be charge by Columbia House for stuff I didn't want and it was a nightmare to cancel my membership.