lizard

Special Edition pre-orders tend to be priced at $24.95 and discounted to $22.95. After release the price will go back up to $24.95. Regular edition pre-orders tend to be priced at $22.95 and discounted to $19.95. After release they will go back to $22.95.

Generally titles marked as "not available as a free selection" can't be taken as the "G1". The exceptions are when they are marked that way because they are pre-orders. After release they will become available as the "G1". And a quirk of the Columbia House system often allows pre-orders about to release to be taken as freebies; you need to check them to see.

For some reason Moon is showing a $22.95 club price but not the usual discounted $19.95 pre-order price. I don't know why; it is odd and I can't say if it will be corrected at some point. Within a week or two of release you might be able to get it as a freebie in a B1G1 offer, but not earlier, most likely.

In general, special priced DVDs (mostly sets and the like) and Blu-ray Discs can't be taken as the free selection. But most regular DVDs can, after release.

BobO'Link

No. Even if the title you're wanting eventually drops it might take a year or longer for this to occur.
No. That would make such a title free and as indicated this is not possible. However, it *can* be used as the B1 in such a deal as long as the price is $19.95 or higher. No quirks with this as far as I'm aware. If a title is marked "not available as free" then it's *not available as free*. No exceptions.

justme81

How long does it take CH to receive a check/money order and credit your account?

lizard

^It has been many years since I sent Columbia House a check or money order but my recollection is that they cleared them quickly, in a week or so. Perhaps others have more recent experience.

justme81

I sent two money orders with two different invoices a day apart, but neither have been credited to my account and it's been two weeks. Could it be because of the Thanksgiving that CH is a little behind?

lizard

^That could be. IIRC, Columbia House is quick to clear checks but slower to credit the money to an account. The same is probably true for money orders.

abintra

Anyone else having issues trying to redeem funcash? I've tried both IE and Firefox over the past few days, clearing cookies and cache but the Apply FunCash™ link in the cart doesn't seem to work.

BobO'Link

^It's working for me on the 1 account I have accumulated enough to get a selection. Click the link, get the popup, check the box(es) and see what's left. I did not complete the transaction as I'll wait a few more days to see if there's anything else (read cheap) that just crops up to get an additional buck or two and have enough for a SE edition of something. If not, I'll just blow it on a cheaper selection and lose the few $$ remaining.

BTW: Does everyone know that they are changing the name from "Fun Cash" to "Bonus Points" in Feb. 2010? Guess they got tired of reading Cheato's old sig...

abintra

Hmm, so playing with it some more, thanks for the assistance, I see that one can't use funcash on certain DVDs, other than sets, Blu-ray, pre-orders, etc., now also? The link works fine for some titles but not at all for others.

For example, I tried it on The Hangover and apparently funcash can't be used on that for some reason?

BobO'Link

^Maybe you don't have enough FC for the selection. You must have enough to cover the normal "club price" on a selection, *not* a "sale" price. I was able to apply FC to the "regular" edition ($22.95) of "The Hangover" but don't have enough to test the 2 disk LE ($24.95).

abintra

Shows you how long it has been since I've used or even thought about funcash. I thought one could apply their funcash and pay the difference. Didn't realize it is entirely useless unless one has enough for the full price.

That info is very helpful. Thank you kindly.

BobO'Link

^It is truly just short of useless overall. Most of us here stopped worrying about it and finding ways to accumulate it following the changes that went into effect May 2, 2008:

"Redeeming FunCash™ for discounted DVDs will no longer be available.
In order to redeem FunCash for a $19.95 item, you must have at least $20.00 in your FunCash account.

FunCash redemption for DVD or TV-on-DVD Sets & Collections will no longer be available."

Add to that the fact that it expires on 12/31 of each year and it's just not worth messing with unless you happen to get enough for a title by taking advantage of other good deals on a fulfilled account.

When you do a imputed value on a FC purchase you get ~$1.81 as the total savings for a selection purchased with FC. That's the $4.80 the selection is worth on a well optimized account minus the $2.99 shipping charge. Picking up 2 to save on shipping would add a whopping $.50 per selection to your savings.

Watson2

On 12/04/09 I ordered Moon (pre-order) using a B1G1 during the FS period, as the G1 I choose Terminator Salvation. The next day Terminator Salvation was listed as back ordered in the order history page then a week or so it disappeared. Now clicking on the order number to get the detailed? listing still shows Terminator Salvation as back ordered. I was hoping it would show back up on the main history page but it hasn't. Do you think I'm going to have a problem?

I dread having to deal with a CSR.

BobO'Link

^As long as it's showing up in the order history as a BO I'd wait before involving a CSR.

movieguru

Has anyone else experienced delays in shipping in the past few weeks? I placed an order on the 20th and nothing on the order has shipped yet. I ordered 20 titles for the B1 get 70% + an additional 15%. The new Michael Jackson This Is It dvd was used as the Buy 1 part. Some of the other titles I ordered were pre-orders that were released on the 22nd.

When I check my order history, the order amount says $60, but when I click on the order number, it lists the correct order amount $121. I would have thought they were breaking the order down into 2 parts, but usually when that happens one part of the order would have been shipped. But the order was broken down like this for 7 days now.

My main concern is I want to place a funcash order, but can't because funcash I will earn from this oder won't post until shipped and its the 30th now. If the items don't ship until the new year, will I get the funcash in 2010? Or will I not get Funcash on this order since the order was placed in 09?

BobO'Link

It sounds like some of the titles are possibly no longer available *or* just on back order. Either will cause the order history dollar amount to differ from the order number dollar total. If any of the titles do *not* show up doing a search then you'll most likely not get them as they are no longer available.

Fun Cash is a strange animal. Typically the entire amount "earned" on an order will appear immediately after placing the order. A day or so later you may be missing any/all amounts earned on pre-order, OOS, or no-longer-available titles. I'd not wait beyond *today* to place a FC order and just risk losing any amount from items that have not been credited. In the past the system has been "down" on 12/31 and it's like pulling teath to get a CSR to restore the FC as it's *supposed* to expire on 12/31. You'd expect to be able to use it up 'till the final hour, but I can tell you from personal experience, *don't wait* unless you just don't have enough for a title. In that case consider it lost as it does not roll over.

As far as the items not yet shipped and FC, when/if they ship and are billed the FC will be posted to your account.

CmC918

Are they trying to make it difficult to email them? I had a question about my order so I thought it would be smart to give them my order number only to find out the email gets bounced back because they think I'm trying to give them credit card info! Haha nice!!

BobO'Link

^One of the "help" links lets you choose the order, based on order number, you have a question about. That's the best way as it'll not bounce on you.

CmC918

Found it thanks. In the past I was just able to email [email protected] but I guess they want you to actually login and ask the question especially when you add a bunch of random numbers that could be thought of as a credit card number! haha!

Edit- I just tried it again seems the same error. Weird maybe they are having email issues. Oh well not that big of a deal it wasn't a major issue.

BobO'Link

^That's very odd. I've never had problems communicating via the help system. I just used it a couple of weeks ago to close an account.

movieguru

The ones they haven't shipped me are : Inglorious Bastards, District 9, The Hangover, 500 Days, Bact to the Future, Benjamin Buttons, and a few others. They send me a few of the cheap ones ($2-$4 titles) but nothing else yet. Most of the ones they haven't sent are newer titles that could be backorderedut not BTTF or B buttons.

When I look at the order number online, many of the titles will just say "processed" or "ready to ship 12/22/09". I placed the order on 12/20. I'm used to some lag time with CH but this time it seems much longer. The qualifier was the Michael Jackson This Is It, which isn't released until 1/26; so maybe they're waiting for that one to be released before sending me the others.

Ally Kat

Ok... So I let my Son open a CH account of his own so he can start his own collection. It now has a modest $87 balance, that I can't pay off. I've paid this balance with my credit card 9x's with two different Credit cards. Each time, the 'Thank you for paying your bill' message arrives in my email, and my balance drops down to $0. It never charges my credit card the $87 balance, and of course the balance shows the $87. again. Numerous late statements, have arrived in my mailbox. I've explained this over and over via email HELP, and calling them. When I last spoke to an agent (after a 10 minute hold time) I told her I wanted to pay up my last commitment and cancel the account. She placed an order for the Director's selection, processed it, and I went to cancel the account, and guess what??? The balance is back to $87. What gives?? Is it because its in his name, and my credit card billing is in my name?
My plan is to run up to the Post Office tomorrow, get a money order in the amount of $87, and try it the old fashion way.
Why is this happening, and why can't the HELP agents help me?? It seems they are just as confused as to why it will not post the payment to my credit card.
?????HELP?????????

BobO'Link

That's a lot of titles... are you on "bill me" or do you pay with a CC?

If you're on "bill me" this can explain the lag as they'll only ship a limited amount of titles until you have a proven history of good payment. They'll wait until the "current shipment" has been paid for before sending out the next few and so on... and even when you've established "good credit" the amount out for payment tends to be limited.

lizard

I've never heard of a problem like this before. Perhaps they do match the name on the card and the account. I think your plan to send a money order is probably best for now (although a check would be better since you can track when it clears the bank account).

You might also call in and ask to speak with a supervisor.

BobO'Link

^I'd go with a check as well. Somehow it just seems a bit "safer" with more trackability. I've done this with CH accounts where the account name/check name and even addresses do not match with no problems. Just be sure to put the account number on the "For" line of the check.