Ebeyerinski

So sorry everyone, I've been busy looking for employment. Not to worry I am still disgruntled.

I will try to get back to answering as many questions as I can this weekend when I have a little time.

Again sorry for the delay.

See how courteous I can be? CH didn't appreciate me at all. Someone said they were "beginning to hate Columbia House" I'm way beyond that. ha ha

Hang in there.

MSA

BUMP:

This was a great thread. I wonder where this Ebeyerinski is working now?

sumdeus

I bet CH had him whacked for sharing all of the secrets

lizard

^Joking aside, it is possible that Columbia House has a non-disclosure agreement with employees and they reminded Ebeyerinski of that. I, too, have wondered what happened.

I did enjoy this thread during its short run.

Ebeyerinski

Oh no! I'm still alive I had to find another job & what not & just talking about CH leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Ugh.

Here's some news although you all probably know more about CH than I do now. But when I started there it was the only DVD group in Indianapolis with the main center in Terre Haute Indiana. Well they have closed the Indy division & let quite a bit of people go from Terre Haute. So I don't think they are doing too well. It was closed in Indy at the end of October. What was very satisfying to me is that they let the management people go as well including the person who gave me the ax.

Within a week of letting me go they fired their number 1 sales leader. Personally I think they didn't want to pay him his bonus just like they did me. Their reputation in Indy is horrible but it did help me get my present position with Anthem. I guess they figure if you can take the abuse from CH you can handle most anything. Ha.

And as far as the non disclosure agreement I don't think they care enough to bother with it. Anyone who has worked for CH has absolutely nothing good to say about them. Which I remember when one of the big wigs came from New York to assure us that our jobs were secure & we had no reason to worry. Yeah right. But one lady asked him why we couldn't stop the automatic shipment of the directors selection which made the management a bit uneasy you could tell & his reply was that we were NOT a DVD company we were a MARKETING company. Now what the hell is that supposed to mean? They counted on people keeping the directors selection in a big way.

So I hope you all get what you can from while you can.

Oh & they kept me as a member & still give me the discount. Idiots.

lizard

Glad to see that you landed another job. As it happens, my health insurance policy is from Anthem.Yes, it has long been clear that Columbia House is about marketing — the selling — not the product — DVDs or CDs. And it is also clear that the Director's Selection is a significant profit center for CH. They surely lose money on the account optimizers here but make money on the ordinary customers who keep the DS, order extra DVDs at "sale" prices, and the like. In a sense, those regular customers are subsidizing those of us here who cycle accounts and use sale offers to best advantage.

DVDs are now being shipped from South Carolina, which is fairly new. Perhaps some of the jobs cut from TH have moved there. And we know, of course, that phone support has been cut way back, forcing customers to make do with internet and e-mail.I'd be pretty surprised if CH doesn't survive after so many decades in business, but perhaps they are struggling, as you suggest. We all know that the CD market has been damaged by on-line downloading, mostly plain old piracy. And DVD prices have become so low at regular stores nowadays that CH "sale" prices look less attractive to an average customer.

BigDogg

any word on if CH will bring in HD DVD and BD?

lizard

^ No word thus far. However, HD DVD and BD are such tiny markets, less than 1% of SD DVD sales, that it seems unlikely that Columbia House will carry them anytime soon.

kenbenobi

There is ONE advantage of this... we can now cancel accounts online again without having to call CS... But still, I'd rather have more CS agents available to talk to (not to mentioned I don't like that people lost their jobs)

acubfaninmd

lizard have you ever hear of ch sending a letter out to a person who has two open accounts and tries to open a third account. I tried to do this and they sent me this letter with three options

____ I do not need another account

_______ My present accounts are not sufficient. I need another account because


_______ My household does not have two Columbia House accounts. My further comments are as follows

Just wondering if you know anything of the like being sent out.

Sweet Baby James

I received this letter when I tried to open up an extra BMG Music account. I just closed out one of my BMG accounts and reapplied.

John Galt

Yeah, those letters are quite common and are the reason that popular opinion on this forum is that they don't like giving out more than 2. I have received them on a couple occasions where a previous account did not get closed properly. Is there an account number on the letter anywhere?

lizard

^ Yes. Like others I have received such a letter, albeit a long time ago. And it is a reason why we suggest limiting open accounts to two.

acubfaninmd

it had an account number on it. i said was in processing of closing one account out and just put this letter in mail today

John Galt

Next time you get one of these you can just close one of the accounts and call in and they can get you access to the new account while you're on the phone.

yeahright

How can you be sent 3 directors selections the same day you enroll when you've only been offered 1 directors selection to that point? The date to repsond wouldn't have come to pass yet. I've had an account for over 3 years and have never received a directors selection, people just don't pay attention. As for the internet survey, you usually have 6 companies to fulfill a requirement, people only see what they want to see.

C_Fletch

I've never done the Columbia House thing and after this thread I NEVER intend to. What a frickin' dishonest company. I hope one of the 3rd generation uprights from their company is reading this right now. I would expect others now have the same opinion.

Sweet Baby James

You should read one of the other threads that details how you can get DVDs for an average of $4.50 each. You may then reconsider doing the CH thing.

Dr. Mantle

This is just what we as DVD consumers have to put up with. You want a cheap price, you gotta deal with the hassle.

If I were rich, I wouldn't waste five minutes with CH. But I'm not, and I do love my movies so here I am.

JIF

When I wanted to quickly build my dvd collection (back in 2000), CH was a good alternative. I usually fulfilled my agreement within the month, and received many invitations to join again (and I did).

Now, I'm a finicky dvd consumer, so CH is a waste of time and money to me.

lizard

The plain truth of the matter is that we use their complex schemes and turn them to our advantage. If you'd rather pay more for DVDs by buying them from a more straightforward company, that's your choice.

If you read this thread carefully, you will note that former CSR Ebeyerinski still has Columbia House memberships... It remains the least expensive way to purchase DVDs for those in the know.

DthRdrX

When I left my call center job, as a supervisor, I had to sign so many NDA's it wasn't even funny. I had to sign NDA's to get the job as well! I can't image Columbia House would be any different, especially if it is run as poorly as my employer was. They like to cover things up. I certainly would not post about them with any evidence to what my name is!

As for doing business with CH, I quit years ago as I was sick of getting and/or returning wrong/damaged items. Most companies with call centers are exactly the same in my experience.