skidmark

... and he still doesn't have a clue regarding the difference between manufacturing v. distribution ...

lizard

If you call or e-mail Columbia House you can ask to have your account switched to "bill me" and have the card deleted from the account.

It has been reported that the phone numbers have been changed and that the toll free numbers no longer work, but I haven't tried to call them recently. So far as I am aware, the e-mail address is the same: [email protected]

wkkunkle

The new number is 717-918-3232 if you want to call.

lizard

Hardly. If you buy sets as enrollments, assuming that they are available, some can be a good deal. If you factor in fulfillment credit and buy sets in the right price range, and use them in a B1G1F offer to get a high value DVD for free, they can also be a good deal. Sets in certain price ranges are better deals than others; lower priced sets tend to not be good deals if the "special" price is below $19.95, since they can't be used for fulfillment credit.

To get good deals at Columbia House one needs to view a membership as a package and do the arithmetic. It isn't like buying at a retail store. Given the recent changes, it is uncertain whether the deals we have had in the past will be available in the future — the HDL enrollment code is gone, for example — but to make a blanket statement that "TV Show sets are always overpriced" is flat wrong. Depends on how you do the math.

Sweet Baby James

Indeed. Quite a few people seem to conveniently forget about the enrollment titles that they got for practically nothing.

BobO'Link

*bolding by me*

I'd like to know what the "regular Club price" is when looking at a selection after the site design. All the box sets now show "Club Price" where the MSRP once was. This brings into play the possibility that a box set at 40% off "on sale" for under $19.95 may count as a fulfillment. If so, this'll add lots of titles that previously didn't qualify.

Has anyone with an unfulfilled account ordered a set that could fall under these conditions and know whether or not it counted?

Watson2

I called about three weeks ago to switch my account to 'bill me', after I decided to close the credit card account, CSR said no problem. The next week I got a somewhat nasty letter stating that I started the account with a cc and had to keep it that way.

The New CH, needless to say I closed that account.

wkkunkle

^ I started my account with a credit card years ago and switched to "bill me" almost immediately thereafter without any problems. Maybe just another glitch in the system.

I've only ever had one account though .. never did cycling and such ... but doubt that matters.

lizard

^^Interesting. With the new Columbia House we will have to learn the quirks all over again. And we need more data points, so I hope that folks here will continue to post their findings and experiences for others to learn from. I think we got spoiled by how predictable CH was in its strangeness.

lizard

One annoying thing about the new site is that it doesn't seem to show the commitment credit value of a title in the cart. That makes it hard to figure whether something counts for fulfillment or not. I hope that they add the commitment credit feature back to the cart.

BobO'Link

^Ditto. I'd like to do another TVonDVD as the initial offer really didn't change *too* much towards the negative as the regular DVD club did. But it'd sure be nice to know about those fulfillments without having to take a risk on a title that previously *would* count but not might not or especially one that previously did *not* count now would.

erikthedude

^ What I've noticed is that if you use a b1g1 and your free dvd club price is over $19.95 then the item you buy should act as a fulfillment. This might be a fluke, but yesterday I got Dawn of the Dead Blu-ray and Gone with the Wind Special Edition with shipping for $16.94 using the b1g1. I don't know why it worked because the club price was for Dawn of the Dead $15.95, but I looked today and it said I had fulfilled my account. This is why I think it all matters about the price of the free dvd, because it was $24.95. I would imagine this would be the same for sets.

BobO'Link

^That's just totally screwed up... DOTD should *never* count as a fulfillment, nor should it have earned GWTW as a "free" title as its' "club price" is far less than GWTW.

What was the total breakout for that order? Shipping *should* have been $4.98 for those 2 titles which means $11.96 for DOTD w/GWTW "free".

It appears that you found a excellent glitch for yourself... It bears watching for possible repeats.

Watson2

TV Club strangeness

My account is showing fulfilled with the following two orders:

19.95 + 0.00 + 4.98 -> b1g1 + shipping

7.48 + 7.48 + 4.98 -> 50% sale + shipping

I wouldn't have thought that last order wouldn't count as a fulfillment but I guess it does, $19.94 total scoring 4 bonus points. Maybe there going by point totals?

wkkunkle

^ When I fulfilled my DVD club years ago, I did it using % off sales, etc. (before I found this site here and discovered the even better deals! LOL!).

At the time, my selections would show up on my account / in my cart with thing such as "0.33" fulfillment ... so I had like 12 titles fulfill my purchase instead of 2 because they were all discounted titles ...

It isn't a rule listed anywhere on the site (wasn't then, nor is it now) ... but, apparently it still works.

lizard

^Or, perhaps, as erikthedude suggests: the freebie is counting as a fulfillment because the usual price is over $19.95.

Wouldn't that be an interesting glitch?!

erikthedude

Ya DOTD was $11.96 plus $4.98 shipping.

Another weird thing I did on my fullfilled TV account was I bought Romancing the Stone Blu and got Being There Blu for free using a B1G1. The total with shipping was $17.69. For some reason Being There is processing like it's a dvd, but the picture is a Blu-ray and the club price was $28.95. It said is backorderd but I imagine I'll eventually get it.

lizard

While it is possible that Columbia House will no longer allow cycling of accounts, given the major changes to their website and enrollment procedures, in the past it hasn't been a problem. I've had more than eighty accounts over the last decade. So long as one limited open accounts to no more than two per type (DVD club and TV Edition of the DVD club), Columbia House didn't have a problem with closing fulfilled accounts and opening new ones.

In recent years cycling accounts, using the best enrollment codes and fulfilling with a B1G1F + free shipping sale offer, led to an average DVD cost of $4.85. Over time, however, it became difficult to open new accounts for those of us who had dozens of previous accounts. It could still be done, it was just difficult and took repeated attempts.

Now, with the completely revamped website, it is unclear if we will be allowed to cycle accounts as before, given that there is only one enrollment link that gives the best enrollment:fulfillment deal, if you can get it to work (every time I try to add a DVD to the cart it reverts to the crappy standard deal Edit: works ok on Firefox but not on IE for me). Another difficulty is a dearth of B1G1F + FS sale offers for fulfillment at a good price. The recent development that allows an account to be fulfilled with a single B1G1F purchase is probably a glitch, and will likely be fixed.


A greater problem with cycling accounts for many Columbia House veterans here is that we have switched to Blu-ray Discs and don't need or want any more DVDs. There is no decent Blu-ray Disc only club. That leaves us having to buy a bunch of DVDs just to get a couple of BDs, which is way more trouble than it is worth, even if they still had good sale offers for BDs, which they don't.

If you are still interested in building a DVD collection then cycling accounts until Columbia House makes it difficult may still be the most cost effective strategy. However, DVDs are so cheap at other places, such as Amazon, DD, and even Wal-mart, that one has to consider whether it is worth the bother. With the recent B1G1F-counts-for-two fulfillments glitch, the answer is probably yes. Without that glitch, maybe not. That's up to you.

Average cost analysis of cycling:

Enrollment code 1556 (7:2) plus B1G1F counts for two glitch:

Enrollment: 6 x 49¢ + $9.95 = $12.89 (7 DVDs)
Fulfillment: $19.95 + (free DVD) + $4.98 shipping = $24.93 (2 DVDs)
Total: $12.89 + $24.93 = $37.82 (9 DVDs)

Average cost per DVD: $37.82/9 = $4.20


Enrollment code 1556 (7:2) plus standard fulfillment using B1G1F, no free shipping:

Enrollment: 6 x 49¢ + $9.95 = $12.89 (7 DVDs)
Fulfillment: $19.95 + (free DVD) $19.95 + (free DVD) + $8.96 shipping = $48.86 (4 DVDs)
Total: $12.89 + $48.86 = $61.79 (11 DVDs)

Average cost per DVD: $61.79/11 = $5.61


As you can see, $5.61 is still an ok deal, especially if one selects relatively new titles that aren't available for $5 or less at stores. If one fulfills with SEs that cost more than $19.95, the average cost of DVDs in a membership would be a bit higher.

riotinmyskull

^ i've cycled 3 accounts since the switch over...

BobO'Link

^^And if you're more interested in TV seasons the TVonDVD club can net season sets at ~$16/each or less depending on just how you fulfill. The one I just fulfilled netted 3 season sets for $47.87 *total* for a $15.96 per set average.

creekdipper

Question: Do I trust the Order History information or Email from Club?

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a set (Dirty Harry Collection for $20.97) plus several DVDs at $7.95 each plus a free DVD. Today I got an email saying that the free DVD & a $7.95 one were being canceled due to being "no longer available". However, my order history indicates that they are both out of stock but are expected to be back in stock on 5/17.

It's too late tonight to call a CSR & ask...and they probably wouldn't know for sure anyway. Even though the email says that I 'won't be charged' for the 'unavailable' discs (which, of course, are still listed on the website), that obviously doesn't help when a DVD is FREE. For that matter, it doesn't help when one is trying to figure out an average-per-disc cost and is counting on sale selections to make the deal a good one.

Anyone else have recent experience with this? If the DVDs truly aren't available any more (which would be odd, since they just came out the week they were ordered), I would expect them to offer to substitute other selections...which would not be a good solution but better than losing out altogether on a cheap(er) new release along with a 'free' new release.

BobO'Link

^It can take a few days for the site to fully update. Even from an email communication. I'd wait a few days to see what, if anything, changes on the site information. In the past it's not been uncommon for titles to still show up even though their stock was exhausted (due to slow site updating). With your account information indicating they're "backordered" along with a ship date I'd lean towards that being accurate... but... it's CH after all. The kings of bad information. If it turns out they are permanently OOS and the "free" one was because of the order I'd press to get another "free" title in its place unless the other OOS title is the one that earned the "free" one. If the "free" one was due to a FC purchase, they should put that back in your account when it all shakes out.

lizard

Having inaccurate or incomplete "help" on the CH website is nothing new. I have no reason to believe that the fulfillment credit schedule is different from what it has long been:

Selections purchased at $19.95 to $39.94 count for one
Selections purchased at $39.95 to $59.94 count for two
Selections purchased at $59.95 to $79.94 count for three
Selections purchased at $79.95 to $99.94 count for four
Selections purchased at $99.95 and higher count for five
[Source, a CH catalog from several years ago.]

Until I see some evidence that the fulfillment credit schedule has changed, I'm going to assume that it has not.

logitrax

In trying to respond to an email I sent, Columbia sent me a fulfillment schedule today (even though it had nothing to do with my question, lol):

"$19.95 to $39.94 1 Selection
$39.95 to $59.94 2 Selections
$59.95 to $79.94 3 Selections
$79.95 to $99.94 4 Selections
$99.95 and Higher 5 Selections"

So it is still the same, as Lizard said. Also, for creekdipper...the (Ultimate) Dirty Harry Collection for $20.97 is in fact in-stock. That had been a BOGO order for me around the same time you're saying you placed yours...shipped with no delays. Unless I'd ordered their last copy...?!

wkkunkle

Just wanted to say "thanks" to those who had mentioned they emailed customer service and asked for the Director's Selection to be permanently removed from their account (defaulted to "no" or however they do it).

Shot off an email yesterday requesting them to default all future Director's Selections to "no" and got an email back today saying it was done and that I'll no longer have to respond to them. Just logged in on the website and saw that "Director's Selection" is no longer an option on my menu.

In all the years I have been a member, I don't recall ever actually buying the director's selection (at least when it was offered as the director's selection).

Thanks again, everyone.