olaf675

I haven't been a member of Columbia House for over two years, but every month I receive an email with an offer to rejoin with 6 DVDs for $0.49 each, plus free shipping -- of course before using a savings code.

Today I received an email with a limited offer of only 3 DVDs for $1, without the free shipping.

Seeing how BMGMusic folded within the past year, has the economy finally caught up with Columbia House?

Or has Columbia House lost patience with me and don't care as much if I rejoin?

SMART-ASS

There are many, many offers in the wild to join the dvd club. Most of them are not great deals without using one of the better codes found here in this forum.
As long as the enrollment option allows the codes to be used, and the codes work, the crappy offers just get ignored and thrown in the trash.
The offer you received is not necessarily a limited offer, but again, just one of the many offers that CH sends out at random.

Cheato

Let's hope it's not a new standard (and the reason why phone codes seem to be nonexistent now). I haven't had a new account application approved in months. I'm hanging onto one regular (fulfilled) account just to have access to the site. My online apps started being "lost" a LONG time ago, leaving me with just phone enrollments as an option. SecondSpin and, more recently, Hastings have been giving me my fix.

SMART-ASS

I have gotten a couple of new accounts approved over the last month.
I have a suspicion that there is something different about their system that is flagging email, credit card, and/or mailing addresses that is causing applications to be discarded (lost).
I don't think it's any sophisticated plan upon CH's part, just something like... after you cancel an old account, your info remains in the system for quite a while before being deleted, so when you apply for a new account, the system thinks you already have more than one account, when in reality those old accounts are closed.

I had gotten several "lost" apps in a row, and what seemed to finally work was to use an email address that I never used with CH before. ...or maybe just a coincidence.

Anyway, there are my conspiracy theories for today.

olaf675

Anyone care to use a different web browser (or clear the your web browser's cookie for Columbia House - though this COULD make you susceptible to the lesser offer) and go to Columbia House's home page to see what offer you get?

I tried to use old email messages with the '6 DVDs for $0.49 each plus free shipping' offer and also visited CH's homepage at another computer, but all I get is the '3 DVDs for $1' offer.

Any good codes for '8 DVDs for $0.49'? Maybe those would work.... (I know, check another thread!)

Does this mean I'll join up again? Probably not, as I'd rather get the 'Members Only' selections at this point, but I assume this information might help out the next person who wants to join (again).

BobO'Link

This discussion really belongs in the codes thread...

thejester

That seems to be CHs' "Go to offer" right now - ran a quick scan of some enrollment codes & that "offer" is like a plague.

SMART-ASS

So I guess this really is CH's new "standard offer".
Do any of the decent codes still work?

EDIT: Just checked, and it looks like 27B still works.

leximae

Can I just add this question about "cheating the system"....

My husband and I have two different last names and multiple credit cards and e-mail addresses.

Does that make a difference??? Yes , we have 2 at our address....but say our address is 222 Jones street....what if I add an apt. 1 *the mail=man would know the difference lol) to the application as the address and use a CC with our married name?
So what matters most? Name, Address, Credit Card Number, or E-mail address??? What exactly do they check?

lizard

^Those are good questions.

Be aware that Columbia House can, and sometimes does, check credit card numbers and addresses. It is not a good idea to use the same credit card with two different addresses.

There have also been reports that people who play games with their addresses, making slight changes in spelling, apartment numbers, and the like, have been blacklisted by Columbia House. If you must try to use multiple addresses, try some that are completely different, such as home and work addresses. This address limit can be a problem for college students at a dorm. If one person at the address gets flagged for fraudulent behavior, it gets very hard for anyone else there to ever get approved for a Columbia House account.

You can use the same credit card and e-mail address on multiple accounts, so long as you limit yourselves to two open accounts per address. That's two per household, not person.

The "limit" of two accounts per type ("DVD Club" or "TV Edition of the DVD Club") is an informal one. CSRs ("Customer Service Representatives") have said that there is no formal limit to the number of open accounts one can have. But, in our experience, when one tries to open more than two, one gets a polite letter/postcard asking why one wants an additional account. We have learned to limit ourselves to two open accounts of each type to reduce problems.

That said, when one has had many accounts before, it gets difficult to open new ones. Applications get "lost" (disappear without a trace) or "rejected" (one eventually receives a polite postcard saying that Columbia House is "unable to offer you a membership at this time"). Phone applications used to have a much higher acceptance rate than on-line applications. However, there haven't been any good 7:2 codes that work on the phone in recent months, so far as we know.

We don't really know why Columbia House allows multiple accounts to be opened and closed by the same person. We also don't know if the "lost" and "rejected" applications are because CH is tightening up on such account cycling, but it seems likely. Nevertheless, if it has been awhile since one has last had a new account, it is still possible to open a new one even when one has had dozens of previous accounts. I have had upwards of 80, but rarely bother with new ones because I have most of the DVDs I want and only want Blu-ray Discs nowadays.

So, be aware that you WILL eventually find it difficult to open new accounts even if you play by the CH rules. It doesn't mean that you are "blacklisted". The blacklist is for people suspected of fraud, such as using multiple addresses, not buying the required fulfillment DVDs, selling DVDs (CH DVDs are for "personal use only" and buying many copies of the same DVD is a red flag that suggests selling), and the like. Customers who have been blacklisted have received a letter telling them that a "business decision" has been made to close their accounts. After that, getting a new account open is very difficult, for obvious reasons.

If you haven't already done so, please read the first post in the "Questions" thread. It has some FAQs that cover some of the questions you asked.