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Get 4 DVDs for 49 cents
each (DVD club)
Join and Get 12 CDs for
Free (CD Club)
Get 4 amazing videos for $.49 cents
each (Video Club)
Short Description :
Check out the great deals
on home entertainment at Columbia House where you'll find DVDs, CDs, videos,
classic television, and more.
Specials & Deals:
No special deals for
now, check the merchant page for offers and discounts.
Reviews :
Review written by Kristinai
I could write for
pages and pages on the different club memberships that Columbia House
offers along with all of their rules and stipulations. If you're really
interested in that level of detail, I encourage you to go straight to their
web site.
Music Club
You can select 12 cds for only the price of shipping them. That price, in
case you're interested is $11.88. Not bad, but don't count on that being the
case for all of your future shipments.
Your obligation to them is to purchase five additional cds at a regular club
price of $14.98 (or higher) plus shipping. Once your obligation is met, you
can cancel your membership at any time.
DVD Club
You can select 4 dvds for 49 cents a piece plus shipping. Your initial total,
including shipping is $8.45.
You are obligated to select four additional dvds over the next two years at
regular club prices of $19.99 (or higher) plus shipping. You can cancel your
membership any time after you fulfill the member agreement.
VHS Club
You can select four videos for 49 cents a piece plus shipping. Your initial
total, including shipping will come to $8.45.
Over the next two years, you are obligated to purchase four additional
titles at the regular club price, as low as $14.95 plus shipping. Once you
fulfill your obligations, you can cancel at any time.
If you send an email, you automatically receive a bot response thanking you.
They promise to apply to you within 2 days. In my case, they replied within
24 hours.
I Want To Join And Buy, Now What?
Pick your club. Let's do music as an example! You're taken to page where you
can start searching and selecting your 12 inital free cds. You can search by
music style, best sellers, greatest hits or top 50 music milestones.
As you add each cd into your cart, the left hand side of your screen shows
the title of the cd you've selected. It's like a little list that sticks
there as a constant reminder until you've filled up your 12 requests.
Once you get 12, they take you to another page where you complete your
demographic information, indicate how you will pay for this particular
shipment, and you "sign" an agreement. The agreement is that you
will purchase an additional five cds at club prices over the next two years.
Your payment choices for this particular shipment are check or credit card (Mastercard,
Visa, American Express, Discover, Diners Club).
Once your transaction is completed, Columbia House sends you an email
indicating your purchases and how to contact them in case you have any
questions.
Other Neat Web Functions
One of the things that I really like about Amazon and Cdnow is
that they provide musical snippets for you so that you have a chance to
listen to the cd before you purchase it.
Columbia House allows you to listen to musical snippets with Windows
Media Player, Real Player, or Real Player G2. Also, every song is available
for you to listen to.
Every cd has a review. They're definitely not reader reviews but I can't be
for certain whether or not they are "professional" reviews as they
are not labeled with the author's name.
What's The Advantages?
Music club - You really luck out because instead of forcing you to
return a postcard, they just send you the mailing and tell you that if
you're interested in anything in the catalog, respond. If not, great. They
don't automatically send you the monthly selection. Between me and you, that
was the biggest pain for me and the reason why I stopped my Columbia
House membership with them eons ago.
With over 12,000 titles in their collection, you’re liable to find lots of
things.
If you just stuck with the bare bones deal of fulfilling your membership,
you would pay around $99.73 total for 17 cds (and yes, that includes
shipping). That’s 5.87 per cd for you math wizards!
Columbia House is no idiot. While you think that it might be easy for
you to get in and out quickly, they count on you just not getting around to
canceling your membership. You get sucked into a lot of good deals that they
advertise like Buy 1 Get 2 Free. Initially, you may think that taking that
deal means there are three less cds you have to buy. Nope deals like this
don't count toward your member obligations.
Dvd and VHS Club
The new releases for Dvd and VHS come to Columbia House in a little
more timely fashion however, you're going to end up paying a lot more for
them after your initial 49 cent purchases. You could go to Target or
Wal-Mart and get Shrek for under $20 but then you’d probably pay $29.99 +
shipping for it through Columbia House.
I've already mentioned the postcard dilemma. It's what drove me away from Columbia
House in the first place. Before they had a web site, it just didn't
make sense to me why I had to pay postage to NOT take one of their titles.
My Experiences
I have a confession to make. I usually do not give a cd a second look after
about a month of its initial release date. If it didn't appeal to me then, I
just think it wasn't my cup of tea. And then of course, I run into all of
these wonderful music reviewers who write stuff about older cds and after
listening to snippets I realize that I *have* to get them. I blame YOU
for my massive cd collection!!!
I've been a member of Columbia House music club on and off for years.
I signed up again about six months ago through their web site and since then,
I've been VERY happy with the entire ordeal.
When I joined up six months ago and ordered my 12 cds, they arrived in
approximately five days.
I never, EVER return their mailings. Instead, I log on to my account only
when I want to purchase something. Every purchase has arrived in a timely
fashion and I have never had any cd case cracked or damaged from shipping.
Customer Service
There are lots of ways to engage their customer service. They're staffed at
their Terre Haute headquarters from 8:00 am until 10 pm, Monday through
Friday. You can call their toll free number or email them.
The End
In the end, the only club I strongly recommend is their Music Club (and thus
my rating will reflect only that club). You can manage to find some decent
cds to enhance your collection and you can fulfill your club membership
without breaking the bank.
Where-to-surf.com
is an affiliate of Columbia House
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