DVD.guy

Okay, signed up on 4/30 got welcome email on 5/4...3 day turnaround, not bad.

Now, any suggestions on how to maximize my account?

lizard

^You can buy any DVD or Blu-ray Disc at $19.95 or more for your fulfillments. The best way to maximize your account would be to wait for a BOGOF plus free shipping sale offer, although there are occasionally even better deals to be had. Much of it depends on what you want for your DVD (or BD) collection.

DVD.guy

Thanks lizard. I'll keep an eye out for those promotions.

ksyblues

seems like the dvdmovie club and tv club are down.anyone having problems.i'm trying to start another tv account.had two box sets in my cart yesterday but now can't get in..

BobO'Link

^I just got in my DVD account. Haven't tried the TVonDVD one yet. BUT you can't get to the enrollment sites. They show "Site under maintenance" banners.

collven

Well, I guess I'm going to have to give up on CH. They have "lost" my 3rd application in 2 1/2 months. I have no desire to buy regular DVD's anymore, so the regular club isn't really an option. I really just want to have an account for the next time they have a BOGO on Blu-rays. I wish had a better Blu-ray club promotion.

It wouldn't be so bad if they would have just communicated with me on any of the apps. Seriously, never received a postcard or even an email from them.

Darius1887

CH.com says "Please note that the ch.com website will be inaccessible from May 15 to May 17, 2009 due to server maintenance." I'm getting the same "site under maintenance" message today at their main site as you are when I try to join. Hopefully they'll all be back tomorrow, all nice and shiny and new. I'm really interested in the TV site, though when I'll find time to watch everything I want I have no idea.

Cheato

Unless something has changed that I don't know about, CH.com is not columbiahouse.com.
When writing about the clubs in these forums, please be careful.

Darius1887

Actually, CH.com says "powered by Columbia House" on its main page, so I'm taking a wild shot in the dark to say that they are related. <g> All I was suggesting is that whatever server maintenance that's going on at ch.com this weekend may be the reason columbiahouse.com's enrollment buttons aren't working.

lizard

^Although it is part of Columbia House, CH.com is a different style of club and we try to distinguish between them to reduce confusion. Since CH.com is about to be discontinued it won't be a problem much longer.

Some time back Columbia House changed the terms of CH.com, taking a club that was an ok deal at times and making it a very poor deal. It is hardly surprising that it shriveled up and is being shut down.

Reports have suggested that Columbia House loses money so I hope that the regular DVD clubs don't also get shut down. For now, I will assume that the site maintenance signs mean that CH has outsourced its website design and maintenance and that the clubs will continue once it gets back up and running. I hope that they will still have good enrollment and sale offer codes. And that they won't kill HDL for good!

Cheato

Gotcha. Sorry for doubting that you knew what you were talking about. I didn't know ch.com's site said that.

But it might be the opposite direction, since CH.com says it is "powered by" Columbia House; a problem (or maintenance, whatever) on the main columbiahouse.com servers would be affecting the ch.com site. But ultimately, who cares about that level of detail, right?

Sweet Baby James

Has anyone been able to access the TV Club enrollment site? It's been damn near a week and I still can't get in!

zekeburger1979

This is what I get when I type in tv-show-dvds.columbiahouse.com:

Redirect Loop

Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.

The browser has stopped trying to retrieve the requested item. The site is redirecting the request in a way that will never complete.

* Have you disabled or blocked cookies required by this site?
* NOTE: If accepting the site's cookies does not resolve the problem, it is likely a server configuration issue and not your computer.

gimmepilotwings

It is doing it for me at home when I use Firefox as well. Worked fine with IE.

A couple of days ago, they had a little banner below the 3/$60 bluray banner that had TV shows on sale for $19.99, the sale was supposed to end today. It wasn't there today or yesterday when I looked. They had a couple sets I was comtemplating to fulfill this account.

Anyone see that?

Darius1887

Not a problem. :-) But yeah, I think Columbia House's servers were down one way or another. I can get back on all of them now, though it took a couple of days longer than CH.com's expected return date.

Looks like everything's back online now, at least.

Darius

DVD.guy

$7.99 Shipping on a TV set???

Do they come out w/free ship codes?

Cheato

Yes, a couple times a year there are free box set shipping codes. It's been a while since there was one, so it's possible one is coming. There is usually one around Christmas/New Year's, at least.

But shipping on box sets is not as big an advantage as you might think. It's only $7.99 for sets of 5 discs or more. If the set is 3 discs, it is $5.99. A regular DVD is worth about $4.80. Therefore, a B1G1 code compared to a box set free shipping code is only a difference of about $1.20. If you're talking about a $23.97 set, that's not really a big deal--especially if you are using it to fulfill an account. And sometimes there are 10%, 15%, or even 20%-off order codes which would be better deals than free shipping on some higher-priced sets. Not too long ago, there was a B1G1 weekend at the same time as a box set free shipping code was active. That was a good weekend.

And of course, don't make the mistake of thinking that you need to buy TV sets to fulfill a TV account. Any $19.95 or over DVD will count as a fulfillment.

And for higher priced items, like over $75, the shipping price really shouldn't matter at all.

Ordering sets willy-nilly from CH is not the way to go, though. Some are good deals, others are just OK, and some are terrible deals. I got the MASH set for about $84 including shipping sometime like 18 months ago--long before it dropped in price at DeepDiscount or Amazon. Posters not too far before your post in this thread reported getting the Man From UNCLE set and the Twin Peaks set at great prices. And for a while (maybe the first 6 months after its release), the Friends complete set was about $100 after discounts, before the price inexplicably got raised. Basically, don't leave your brain at the door. And don't miss out on a great deal because your eyes are resting on the inordinately high shipping cost.

DVD.guy

Thanks for the insight Cheato.

BobO'Link

From the "B1G1 Free (with shipping) is Back on" thread...

Are you using the link in the first post or manually entering HDL in the code box?

I've had better luck manually entering HDL in the box... BUT... I've also had 4 in a row "get lost" before waiting a few months and trying again. Got a new one opened at that time. I should also mention my "lost" applications followed a period in which I had opened and closed 4 or 5 TVonDVD memberships in the same year. Don't know if that was a factor but it sure seems as if it were.

collven

I've been manually entering the code.

I've already mentioned my troubles in this thread, I was just venting in the other thread that I'm going to miss the sale. I wasn't asking for advice.

I guess I'll just wait a couple of months before trying again and hopefully time it with the next sale.

metsfan1545d

where do u enter the codes

on the tv site there is no where to enter it and on the columbia house home page everytime i enter a code it brings me to the 6 dvd offer

this site is very unorganized

i also cant add more then 1 item in my cart using IE, i have to use aol to add more then 1 item to the cart

SMART-ASS

go to columbiahouse.com
enter the TV enrollment site, not the movie site.

I have also had trouble with IE lately.
I switched to Firefox and it fixed the problem.

when you get into the TV site, there should be a box on the right to enter codes, or you may get a popup to enter codes.

metsfan1545d

finally got it to work with aol, used the hdl code and snagged csi miami season 5 and 6 for 10 bucks shipped

collven

Don't expect to actually get them. You're membership still has to be "approved". I've tried 5 times over the last 4 months and have yet to get an HDL membership approved.

Sweet Baby James

^

I've had much better luck with the HDL code recently. I was able to get 3 straight HDL applications approved in the past month.