Anyone remember Columbia House?

Interesting article on how they made money:

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/91126

I remember I used to have numerous accounts under different names, and got tons of music that way.

I remember Columbia House Vinyl and cassette always sounded worse than the major label pressings.... now I know why, inferior equipment! Of course, the onsite of the CD age changed that inferior sound quality issue!

I used to have accounts under mine and the ex's name (on both Columbia House and BMG) to boost the collection....

Don't tell them where I live now!

I did actually pay all the way through once or twice on the membership, but you really had to figure out how to get the most bang for your buck - exactly how to get the maximum discounts so it wasn't a ripoff, but equal to paying to travel to and buy from a record store.

Funny, how so many people ripped off that company not sending any money, but Columbia was also shortchanging the industry.

Inferior equipment? Guess that is why many used record stores did not want to buy many tapes from me, probably just the ones they knew would sell quickly.

Their vinyl pressing of Scorpions WorldWide Live sounded ok, but I didn't have a great stereo, just one of the old console stereo/extended TV units from Sears.

Had accounts with both BMG Music Service and Columbia House when I was in college. I couldn't resist those oh-so-tempting "Get a dozen CDs for a penny" magazine advertisements.

I signed up with Columbia House once but I didnt like their selection much after i got the metal cds i wanted.

"In March 2000, the 60-year-old Parvin admitted that he had used 16 post office boxes and his own home address to fleece Columbia House and BMG out of 26,554 discs during a five-year span in the ’90s. He pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud."

thats a lot of cds!

exact33 wrote:

I signed up with Columbia House once but I didnt like their selection much after i got the metal cds i wanted.

"In March 2000, the 60-year-old Parvin admitted that he had used 16 post office boxes and his own home address to fleece Columbia House and BMG out of 26,554 discs during a five-year span in the ’90s. He pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud."

thats a lot of cds!

That eyesore is a clever fellow!

manny wrote:

exact33 wrote:

I signed up with Columbia House once but I didnt like their selection much after i got the metal cds i wanted.

"In March 2000, the 60-year-old Parvin admitted that he had used 16 post office boxes and his own home address to fleece Columbia House and BMG out of 26,554 discs during a five-year span in the ’90s. He pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud."

thats a lot of cds!

That eyesore is a clever fellow!

its a good thing this board has a line limitation otherwise he would post all 26K in one post!!!

My Columbia House scam went like this...

Back in my single, apartment-dwelling days, the previous tennent was on the Columbia House mailing list. When I'd get a packet, I'd write "return to sender, no longer lives here" on the envelope and then drop it back in the mailbox. I'd figure they'd catch on and stop the mailings. Nope. They still sent the packets to the old tennent every month or so.

After a few times, I said enough of this and placed an order. Got a bunch of cds for a penny. Then when the bill came in, I'd just do the old "return to sender" thing again. They caught on pretty quick after that and never sent anything again.

My apologies to the old tennent (John something) if I've ruined your credit score.

i'm still a member of their dvd club.

I was always afraid to sign up for fear of getting constantly billed. In college I was just about the only one I knew who didn't. I have to say though that if their selection had been broader I might not have been able to resist the temptation. And do I ever hate receiving BMG issued releases from sellers.

I never noticed the quality when it came to CD's but some of vinyl albums sounded like crap, and the tapes were cheap a$$ quality, I did not collect cassettes too often but I did one time under one of many alias would get tapes.

I joined under the names Bon Scott, John F Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, one time one of shippment of records came in and my mother was so angry that I had something sent under the name of John F Kennedy, I got grounded for a few days.

manny wrote:

I remember I used to have numerous accounts under different names, and got tons of music that way.

Ha, same here! Along with BMG. And once I paid for the 1 full-priced album to complete the membership, I'd create new people accounts for more free CD's (usually family members or just fictitious ones) and also whatever albums came at full price was just sent back. These two companies pretty much started my CD collecting habits back when I was a teenager up until they went belly-up. I never really understood how they stayed in business because all my others friends were doing this too.

GrandNational wrote:

manny wrote:

I remember I used to have numerous accounts under different names, and got tons of music that way.

Ha, same here! Along with BMG. And once I paid for the 1 full-priced album to complete the membership, I'd create new people accounts for more free CD's (usually family members or just fictitious ones) and also whatever albums came at full price was just sent back. These two companies pretty much started my CD collecting habits back when I was a teenager up until they went belly-up. I never really understood how they stayed in business because all my others friends were doing this too.

It was peps like you and I that drove them to the poor house!!

I remember when Sony (owners of Columbia House) and Bertelsmann (owners of BMG Music Service) merged in the late 90s/early 00s, they combined both music clubs into one. I ended up getting a letter from BMG saying that my account with them was going to be transferred to a Columbia House account... but I already HAD a C.H. account. It took a while but I finally got someone on the phone there to tell them to cancel the 'extra' account, and they actually tried to talk me into keeping both accounts active. I said, "What the hell would be the point of that?"

...by the end of the conversation they'd cancelled one of the accounts and if memory serves they even sent me a coupon for a free CD for my trouble, so I made out OK on that deal.

manny wrote:

GrandNational wrote:

manny wrote:

I remember I used to have numerous accounts under different names, and got tons of music that way.

Ha, same here! Along with BMG. And once I paid for the 1 full-priced album to complete the membership, I'd create new people accounts for more free CD's (usually family members or just fictitious ones) and also whatever albums came at full price was just sent back. These two companies pretty much started my CD collecting habits back when I was a teenager up until they went belly-up. I never really understood how they stayed in business because all my others friends were doing this too.

It was peps like you and I that drove them to the poor house!!

It was totally legal too. As long as I fulfilled whatever contractual obligation I had, there was nothing to stop me from opening up new accounts under family member and fictitious names for the free CD's. I'm sure they knew this would happen from the start, and I paid for all CD's I ever kept, so I didn't care that had 3 or 4 accounts open all at once. It was all about playing the system to your advantage if you can get through the loopholes they left open.

GrandNational wrote:

manny wrote:

GrandNational wrote:

manny wrote:

I remember I used to have numerous accounts under different names, and got tons of music that way.

Ha, same here! Along with BMG. And once I paid for the 1 full-priced album to complete the membership, I'd create new people accounts for more free CD's (usually family members or just fictitious ones) and also whatever albums came at full price was just sent back. These two companies pretty much started my CD collecting habits back when I was a teenager up until they went belly-up. I never really understood how they stayed in business because all my others friends were doing this too.

It was peps like you and I that drove them to the poor house!!

It was totally legal too. As long as I fulfilled whatever contractual obligation I had, there was nothing to stop me from opening up new accounts under family member and fictitious names for the free CD's. I'm sure they knew this would happen from the start, and I paid for all CD's I ever kept, so I didn't care that had 3 or 4 accounts open all at once. It was all about playing the system to your advantage if you can get through the loopholes they left open.

And from the article, it sounds like they made money off people with multiple accounts

I belonged to both clubs at one time or another. Where I made a killing was on BMG's box set sales. I think I bought about 80% of my box sets from BMG and for way cheaper than they were going for in record stores at the time.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Had accounts with both BMG Music Service and Columbia House when I was in college. I couldn't resist those oh-so-tempting "Get a dozen CDs for a penny" magazine advertisements.

I did both as a young teenager. Luckily, being a minor I really couldn't be held to a contract so never had to go all the way through with the CDs at regular price. Unfortunatly, 5 of the tapes I got I couldn't listen to because at the time my dad wouldn't let me listen to anything satanic or with a parental advisory lebel (I had two King Diamond albums, one Morbid Angel album, and some other stuff I wasn't allowed to listen to).

tohostudios wrote:

Where I made a killing was on BMG's box set sales

I hemmed & hawed quite a few times over ordering AC/DC's "BONFIRE" box set from BMG whenever they'd have one of those insane sales, but I never pulled the trigger on it. Now that I look back, of course, I wish I had.

I use to get a lot of stuff from them

Looks like I have the fortune of not having to deal with these guys

We had similar CD club thingies here in Norway as well. They soon caight up on the scam dangers, and allowed only 1 membership per household.

I did the "12 cassettes for a penny" thing about 8 times from about 1978 to about 1986. I probably owe them some money to this day.....

I remember my dad was part of a similar deal but it wasn't these guys or BMG. Still have all the good metal cds