SFranke

I've had trouble opening a new account since January. Within the past week, I've had 3 letters from CH come in the mail and a 23.26 charge on my credit card. They claim I didn't fulfill my purchase agreement, and they charged my card and sent me a rain check and a brochure to claim my one remaining obligation. This is absurd, because I fulfilled and canceled the account in August of 2004! After I wrote an email to [email protected], which was longer than War and Peace and Atlas Shrugged combined, I received a reply that claimed I returned the Billy Wilder Collection [how I thought I had the last laugh with that deal] to them in January! How ridiculous! So what I did was find the most expensive enrollment to use for the rain check, which I will sell and probably use the money to join Columbia House again.

I:Columbia House::Tina Turner:Ike Turner [well, sometimes I am Ike Turner].

ruk

sorry to hear about the trouble man, hope you can straighten it out.

Legolas

Welcome to the wonderful world of CH. I closed an account after fulfilling, then I get a letter saying I closed my account without making any of my two fulfillments. Then my credit card gets charged. I call them to complain and they tell me I only made one fulfillment purchase. I ask them why I'm being told that I've made zero fulfillments, but they can't give me an answer. Then I get the whole "webdvd discount doesn't count" runaround by multiple CSRs who don't know anything about their own website. One CSR even tells me one of the titles I bought didn't count toward fulfillment, and she wouldn't connect me to a supervisor.

themeloman

I too have had trouble opening a new account since January. I just recently was able to open a new one, but one new account in eight attempts is not good. I called the cs dept. on Monday only to find out that my account (which I signed up for on 3/5) was sitting on hold waiting to be charged. Of course, the cs agent (Panama City) had no idea why this had happened. After leaving me on hold for 15 minutes he came back on and told me would run the charge thru. The pending charge showed up on Tuesday. I don't even bother ordering through the web anymore since the LM codes require a psn, so I only order thru the phone now. It's down to hit or miss really. I used to run four accounts at one time (2 @ home, 2 @ work). Those days are now long gone.

SFranke

In some matters, the CSRs are just unwilling to resolve the problem. They have a decent amount of authority, but they refuse to exercise it in some legitimate circumstances.

I don't even know why I am complaining. I've played the CH game since D7G, so I know what it is about. However, this is the first time I've been really screwed by them. I'll keep coming back, of course, because I still like the service.

ruk

that really sucks man, this has never happened to me thank god, just keep trying, maybe you can get lucky by getting the right CSR. These deals are too good in the long run even with their screwups.

SFranke

No, I'm letting this one go. After I sell the DVD, I will come out even. You're right, though: the deals justify the inconveniences.

kenbenobi

I have never been refused for a CH account, and have never had an application lost. I've had over 30 accounts in the last 3 years (including 3 accounts open right now, the 3rd which was just approved yesterday). I'm truly baffled why so many people have problems, yet I've never had an issue...

j-bo

I've never had a problem either. Only since I just restarted the game again after a years layoff. Phone order, got rejected.

2 web orders, approved and lovin it. My bank account has twindled too quickly after the double fun cash, b1g1 and all the other stuff goin on right now though.

Sokay, I can recoup after a few weeks when there aren't any other dvd's I wish to have. Then again, isn't there always something to get?

thejester

Count yourself lucky. Maybe it's because you haven't had as many as the rest of us in the past 3 years(low turn-around)??

SFranke

I used to be you, kenbenobi. I thought the folks who couldn't get an account open were incompetant, but we are just unfortunate.

SFranke

As a follow-up to my unfortunate experience with CH, I thought I'd mention this little nugget of vengeance.

Previous to last week's bargain bonanza, I asked over the phone for the free shipping on three offer in exchange for a purchase every three months. The discount was never applied to the website. I called in to get the shipping credited back to me on the orders of three or more DVDs. However, the CSR must not have understood how the promotion worked, because she refunded me the shipping charges on several different orders, most of which were for only two DVDs! I'll call back tomorrow and get the shipping refunded on orders which should legitimately have free shipping. Take that, CH!

And before anyone decries me for ripping off CH, I tried to explain the terms of deal to the CSR when she started with the two DVD orders, but I could not dissuade her from her angelic mission of retribution.

iamnothitler

With the way Columbia House runs its business (many non-helpful CSRs, a computer system that works properly approximately 28% of the time), I don't think many people would blame you for taking something extra that's given to you when you weren't trying to sucker something out of them.

SFranke

Haha! The CSR said she'd refund ~$37 to my card. She refunded $116.07!

dsa_shea

Everything seems to be Lost (Or Gained - Chaching) in Translation. And all of my damn online apps. seem to be lost in the abyss of the internet. How many times do I have to resend my information/applications to get an answer? I've even emailed them and received a rsponse to which I sent them my information (again) and still received NO answer. WTH!!!