I've done well over 150 memberships at CH over the last 4 years. Despite puzzles, irritations, and even an occasional bate and switch (remember the "effective immediately" change in funcash for sets fiasco?), I've been very pleased with them.

For the first time, I'm seriously questioning whether it's worth the effort anymore. Here's how it looks where I sit:

Getting memberships is almost impossible. After not getting a membership for months, in April, I had to write in a letter (couldn't reach a phone rep!) to get them to approve me for a new membership despite having no open memberships. After waiting a full two months, I get my enrollment package, with no further explanation or attempt to contact me. And today, I discover that the membership comes coded with a 3-fulfillment obligation instead of the 2-fulfill code it should have. This latter screw-up is a shame because:

Communicating with CH has become far more difficult. I have yet to get a rep successfully on the phone in 2006. The old manager's number, where I'd formerly turn as a last resort, is "no longer in service." I will now have to wait until the answer (or not) my email requesting a correction of the fulfillment problem listed above.

Great Deals are MUCH harder to come by. I don't recall being able to take advantage of a great fulfillment deal since March (B1G1F and free shipping.) And it now seems that even the best enrollment codes rarely work any longer.


IMO, for DVD lovers who want to pinch their pennies, CH has been the best thing going since the salad days of reel.com and brandsforless back in 1999. But with dropping prices at other outlets and increasing problems at CH, I'm beginning to lose interest. I used to visit this forum once a week at least, and now it seems like the worthy efforts of so many of you hardly seem worth it anymore...

Since I don't frequent this forum as much, perhaps I'm missing some silver lining in all this? Or are things really this bad?

You actually save money with CH? I mean yeah it's great when you get the initial 4 for a buck deal, but they have always been expensive IMO.

When they have BOGO deals with free shipping, you average quite a few DVDs in the $4-$5 range, so yea, people save quite a bit.

Granted I have not tried to open any new accounts lately, but I have contacted them several times on the phone and via email lately without any problems whatsoever. I never had any problems with director's selections and the funcash change of terms was bad, but was not such a big deal to me personally. As lizard keeps mentioning even without any free shipping or bogof deals available you can open and complete an account for an average of under $6 a DVD. Now where can you get that anywhere online or B&M (apart from price mistakes or huge sales like black Friday)? Also keep in mind that we are not talking about Wal Mart dump bin DVDs here (no disrespect to those). If you select wisely then you will get 2-3 brand new releases and the rest will be no more than 6 months past their release date when you fulfill a membership.
So, apart from the problem with opening new accounts that some of you clearly have I still consider CH to be a great deal overall.
I think we got spoiled with all the great deals/mishaps (remember free DOTD DVDs? 4 for $11?) and almost started getting greedy.

Really that's all CH is good for is the initial deal and getting to complete a commitment for cheap. I've closed accounts all year and get the emails and letters in the mail begging me to join up again. I've replied to a couple of them, and had no luck. Last week was the last time I'll try with them. Joined up using an email link for 6 for 49c and then 2 over 2 years if I got the other &9.95 one which I did. I'll wait and see if it goes thru.

If not, after my last success with the DDD sale I may just save and hit them again in November (hopefully)

I haven't had a CH membership since last November. With the 2 DDD sales each year and Movie Gallery's B2G2 it just doesn't seem they have many titles that I want and don't already have.

While it is true that I could get new DVDs for a buck or two less than Movie Gallery at CH, I don't have to deal with the hassle of trying to get a membership approved, Director's selections, order screw-ups, etc. Plus I can usually get newer DVDs months before they are available as enrollment titles at CH.

That's the heart of the issue for me. If it's 5-10 minutes more hassle for saving $20 per membership or more, that's one thing...lately, it's more like 90 minutes (accounting for checking, hassles, waiting for a decent sale, fixing screwups, etc.) to save closer to $10 over best competing sales.

This has been my experience also.
Yes. It may be that they are trying to eliminate those of us who have been cycling memberships as a cost savings measure. At the very least, it may be that memberships are limited to one open account at at time. This remains to be seen.This has been reported by others as well but it baffles me. My experience is quite the opposite: I have never NOT been able to get a CSR on the phone when needed. Perhaps it is something bizarre such as whether or not one has caller ID blocking turned on or some such thing. But I remain puzzled why some have trouble getting through on the phone.
Agreed, the really stellar deals seem to be gone. But the regular deals aren't too shabby: $5.86 per DVD and sets for $10 to $30 less than elsewhere. Perhaps. While they do seem to be pulling some of them, at least on phone orders, there are some that still work. (No, I am not prepared to say which ones yet.) We have had these episodes of codes no longer working before.
Yes. I agree entirely. Yes, things have gotten to the point that CH may be more trouble than it is worth. But when I look at how low my cost of DVDs and sets has been with CH, it is hard to pay so much more elsewhere.

For me Columbia House is a game as much as anything else. For now, I am just marking time until they start selling the high definition format(s); it might be a long wait. With only a few exceptions, I have enough DVDs and there isn't much that I still want. I continue to participate in this forum because it has been valuable to me in the past and I would like to return the favor. At least for a few months more.

But, overall, you make some valid points that any CH veteran can identify with.

Hopefully this news will cheer some of you up-the Buy 3 Get 3 FREE code is currently working. The code is 807748. Credit and a big thanks goes to thewrite1.

I still have reasonably good luck with them, but I only do 2-3 memberships a year. I've had 2 successful and 1 lost membership so far this year; I've fulfilled both the successful ones using buy one get one free (and of course the $5 web discount). I did have to be shipping on the last--I haven't had to do that in a long while.

You need to read through this forum. Yes we save money, for example, my current membership (which I'll be closing once everything ships, since turning memberships over is part of how you save money) was $56 shipped for 11 DVDs (including the 2-Disk version of V for Vendetta).

Just for the heck of it I looked up the cheapest price online for the DVDs I got on this account--it comes to 162.94 so if you can get approved, CH is definitely still worth the trouble.

I don't know - they just sent me a deal where I can get a new membership and it will automatically cancel my current account. That's pretty sweet if it works (I haven't used it yet).

I still think CH is the best way to get many catalog titles and even some new releases when using B1G1 free deals. I've gotten at least 1/4 of my 400+ collection from them over the years, at about $5 a pop. I hope it never ends.

I just applied online with a 6+1 w/2 to buy code and was approved within 48 hours. I fulfilled tonight with 2+2 free (-$5 discount + $6.97 shipping).

Net results: A total cost of $4.98/DVD for 11 DVDs (all released this year and including several special editions), with an initial web application to DVDs in hand/membership cancelled total time of about 2 weeks.

And the same selections from DDD: $17.26/DVD ($13.81/DVD assuming the 20% off sale).

A total savings of: $135.08 ($97.13 assuming the 20% off sale).

In other words, roughly 60% off of DDD's regular prices

I consider that well worth the effort.

Thanks all for the replies...

lizard, a typically measured, thoughtful, and thorough response. I appreciate your take as a fellow "grizzled vet", and agree with your sentiments. If you do have any particular number/method/etc. that's gotten you to a CSR that you would like to share, I'd be most interested to hear about it. I tried yet again to do so today, and failed. EDIT: scratch that, the method you took from the WH method at http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=458192 did work this time, and the operator got it corrected on the spot! Color me suprised.

And of course, the email back to my request to have them correct my obligation from 3 to 2 titles (K7L) came back "no, you need three."


Bill, no question: when you have an experience like that, and can get a decent code like the one that just surfaced, it's well worth the effort. I'm glad your results were so smooth, and I wish I could say the same! At least we have an interesting new code...

I don't know if you want to bother with it any more, but my suggestion would be to call back and ask to speak to a "web specialist" because you are "having a problem with your on-line acccount". Unless things have changed in the last year or so (a possibility) you should get transferred to a web specialist, if one is available. He or she can pull up your account the way you see it on-line. If you explain the committment problem the web specialist ought to be able to verify the terms of the K7L code and make the correction to your account.

Extra hassle, to be sure, but you might want to give it a try.

I just found this in the "Your Membership Guide" page under "Membership Cancellations."

Thanks lizard, I think I'm good after finally reaching a CSR. Hopefully this and the new promo augers better times to come.