Columbia House Blu-ray: Convenience or Curse?

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Audioholics Robot
Staff member
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

jinjuku

Moderator
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

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
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."
 
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jwenthold99

jwenthold99

Full Audioholic
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!:D
 
H

hopjohn

Full Audioholic
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

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
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.
 
M

MDS

Audioholic Spartan
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.
 
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

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
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

MapleSyrup

Audioholic
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.:(
 
Wayde Robson

Wayde Robson

Audioholics Anchorman
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.
Good catch! I completely missed that.
 
itschris

itschris

Moderator
I got the mailer from them the other day. It's $4.99 each plus shipping and handling which is another $2.25 on average. Then you have to buy 3 more at the "regular" price "starting at" $29.98 plus s&h.

A lot of times, they'll throw in deals along the way that will save you some money, but the don't count towards your 3 disc purchase obligation, so you end up staying on the hook for awhile.

With periodic deals from places like Fry's and others, there's almost no need to even consider these programs anymore. It's not like it was before the internet where you had to pay $19 minimum for a cd at Peaches or Musicland in the mall.
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
I agree. It's a total CURSE.:D

Okay, so 3 initial BD + shipping = $22
3 regular BD + shipping = $97
Total for 6 BD = $119 = $20 Avg for each movie. That's not cheap.

These days, we can get BDs for less than $20 each. Some are $10 ea.

Columbia House is a curse.
 
DTS

DTS

Senior Audioholic
Netflix first - buy Amazon used second. Thats my formula, sometimes I go right for a new one if I really want it.
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
Now that there are plenty of titles and even some unusual ones that I'd like to rent before buying, I might have to give Netflix a spin. Lately, I have more or less just been buying titles that were cheap if I liked them. The only time I buy new releases is if I have seen it and I really liked it, and then I check around for the best deals. If I only liked it moderately, I will either wait a few weeks when the price eventually drops for many titles or look for it used after a few weeks.
 

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