Thought Id let you all know what I think of the club in-case anyone was wondering how it was. I think the intro offer they have is great, but the rest of the set-up they have sucks pretty bad. Here's some examples:

1) I can't believe how long it takes for them to ship a movie out. I pre-ordered a movie in mid december that was to be released January 14th and it still hasn't shipped out. I thought the purpose of preordering was to get one shipped the day it releases.

2) They have NO deals like they used to for CD's. I have been a member for about 8 months and I've seen deals like this "Buy one DVD at regular club price and get unlimited DVD's for 40% off! But hurry offer ends on Nov 30th!" then on Dec 1st You get a new flyer that says "Buy one DVD at regular club price and get unlimited DVD's for 40% off! But hurry offer ends on Dec 31st!" And there 40% off price is about what you would pay at best buy for the same movies.

Those are the major downfalls though, but I would recommend signing up for the first deal(which is 5 DVD's for 49cents each and a sixth for $14.95 + $1.99 shipping for each movie. So basically you get 6 movies for about $36), buying the 3 or 4 movies that fullfill the obligation and then quitting membership.

McNasty
i agree with 100%. I had the same problems when I was in that DVD club. I hated it. Also to add to that they were not sending me my directors choice postcards to decline the movies. So every two or three weeks I was receiving A directors choice movie that I didnt want.

I would never join a DVD club again

Ditto. Although I will say they now have online decline/accepting of the directors selection. I did join just to get the inexpensive startup, and I just check online a couple times a month to see if they've selected anything for me. It's rather painless. Once I buy one or two more I'll cancel them.

ANY of these DVD clubs are a crock. After the intial reeling in, you have to pay top dollar. My advice is (if you've got one nearby), go to Best Buy during the first few days of release. They always have them pretty cheap for about 5 days after release (in Canada use Future Shop).

They really aren't a crock if you sign up for the big deal, buy your minimum required and keep on top of the directors selections. There is a webpage out there (I forget the address though) that has a whole layout of what it costs to go through a club vs buying at a store and as long as you don't stay with the club for too long you do make out. I stayed too long and averaged about $20 a movie. I guess I learned my lesson. LOL

I've joined the Columbia House Cd, Video, LD, 8mm,and DVD clubs. The problem I always have with the initial offerings are rainchecks. I have quit the clubs 3 or 4 times without redeeming my raincheck. I have one now.

i get those things in the mail all the time to join and it's not a bad offer if u join, fulfill agreement, and cancel. plus if u get someone else to join u get 2 more free. the offer i usually get is---start w/5 dvd's for 49 cents each and u can buy your first selection for $14.95 (all of this plus ship & hand, of course) then buy just 2 in 2 years and get the heck out! i just got a ht system a couple months ago and am just starting to build my dvd collection. i figure this is a good way to do it.
if there are any used cd/video stores nearby, this is a good place to go also. there is one i've been to called the great escape and their dvd's ranged from $7.99-$14.99. with alot of newer releases. even multi-sets, special editions, and the like.
by the way, i'm new the site and i love this place!
thanks,
chuck71

Welcome, Chuck!

One word of advice: don't take to heart anything that gets thrown at you here; we're a kookie sort.

Be especially wary of the Intermission Forum!

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

Better watch it Chuck, yopu brought up a post that was
4 months old. Ha Just dont go back to far!
(inside joke, dont worry if you dont get it.

CB1

WOW! i didn't look at the date on that one. looks like it had expired! :~) i just looked at the topic and since it applied to something i had just been talking to w/ someone, i thought i'd throw in my 2 cents. thanks for the tip.
c71
btw, i submitted a post about one4all remotes a couple of days ago and got a response rather quickly and w/ that advice, got a new remote that is perfect for what i needed! u guys rock!

Good one, CB1!! Actually, this was a good topic to re-address. Why?

Columbia House has changed since January!! They dropped all their list prices to the $20-22 range. So now their deals are usually buy 1, get others at half off, or $10 off, which is the April deal. This makes your DVDs end up around $15 each, if you buy 3 or more at a time. I was just about to drop them when they changed and made themselves a viable option. I actually ordered some from these folks last month! Even got a free shipping deal, it's like they finally woke up and took a look at the marketplace. Prior to March, I swear they thought DVDs were the same as LDs.

You mean they aren't?

Nope. DVDs get scratches that screw up the movie more easily.

I keep on signing up to the club because you get the first 5 DVDs for like a $1 and the you can get your next 2 DVDs for like $15 A PIECE. so for $40 you get 7 DVDs. Then only 2 more to buy at regular price. Then I quit the club and do it all over again right away. If you really want to scam them, sign up yourself under an imaginary name and get 2 more for free. I have done the math and it ends up being about $10 a DVD if you do it right.

Here's a thread on a common practice - joining over and over again, buying only the bare minimum, then quiting. They say the max is two concurrent memberships at the same address, but as soon as you cancel one, you can add another! Got the good ol' work address to use too.. :)

[Link: dvdtalk.com]

They have great breakdowns of the most expensive DVDs offered, so you can get those as your "freebies". For example, I got The Blues Brothers as one of my free intro movies - Best Buy has it listed at 36.99. They even have a list of the 19.95 disks, so you can get by the cheapest on the ones you have to buy.

It also lists multiple codes, and breaks down the offers with those codes. I just joined once, am getting ready to join a second time, and will probably run the cycle a couple times to build up the collection a little, at least with the movies I really want. Less than $8/movie is a pretty good deal! :)

I used to join/quit BMG repeatedly to build up my CD collection - looks like it's time to do the same to build up the DVDs! :)