(no subject)
Columbia House Strikes Again, Return of the Schweini.
I got a call from Columbia House. I subscribed to their music service, the 12 cds for a penny drew me in. Well, I obligated to their contract and didn't have to worry about it again. They called me up months ago for their DVD club. They barely had any of the DVD's I wanted because I knew what I wanted they wouldn't have because if I'm going to buy any Jet Li movie, It's going to be the original and not the Miramax redub. I was very wary about it then but decided to do their trial part where I don't need to pay them anything and if I don't like it, I can send it back. Well, I didn't like it, it was the same kind of scheme they had in the DVD club Contract. I sent it back.
Today I get called up by them again, they wanted to know if I was interested in the DVD Club. Here's a selective transcript, it's very paraphrased but I think it's pretty accurate.
Me: We already went through this, I got the DVD in the mail, I read the contract, and I didn't agree with it.
Them: You didn't like it?
Me: The DVD was just fine, but the contract wasn't. Tell me, do I get any free shipping with the next 5 DVDs?
Them: N.. No.
Me: Well there you go. I didn't like how the shipping worked in the Music Club.
Them: It's still a pretty good deal, I mean by 2 dvds around Christmas anyways, its only 2 dvds a year. It's still a pretty good deal, you only need to pay 99 cents and then 5 dollars
Me: Alright then, here's another problem, it isn't Columbia House's fault. I'm not an avid DVD buyer anymore for the reason that when I buy movies like Clerks or Predator, for like 10 dollars, they release it to me in whatever format they want and they don't have any features on them. And then they'll re-release the dvd and increase the quality and give it a new sexy name like "special edition" and put all of these other features on them and the other versions didn't have and sometimes even have another disc to go along with it while my other dvd's only feature is Spanish Dialog.
Them: We can't control that
Me: I said it wasn't Columbia House's fault, I'm just trying to let you know why-
Them: yeah
Me: I don't want to buy any DVDs-
Them: yeah
Me: Because when I do I feel robbed and because I have no idea if they are going to make a promotional tool out of it just because some director won an award or something
Them: OK sir, goodbye.
Me: Bye bye.
If they call again, I'm just going to straight up tell them "Alright, I've been through this with you people twice already, bring up the old conversations and you'll see that I'm an unhappy customer and don't want to use this service" if they say anything to try to sell it to me after I say that, then my reply to them is "Here's what I'm going to do, since nobody at Columbia House knew I was 15 when I signed up for the 12 cds for a penny deal, I'm going to assume nobody checks up on anything over there. So fine, send me Black Dragon, I'll evaluate it for 10 days, and in this 10 days, I will have an mpg copy of it on my computer, convert it into OGM, release it on the internet, and then send it back to you. How about that? Want to be my movie smuggler? It might make me want to sign up to your service... or not."
I got a call from Columbia House. I subscribed to their music service, the 12 cds for a penny drew me in. Well, I obligated to their contract and didn't have to worry about it again. They called me up months ago for their DVD club. They barely had any of the DVD's I wanted because I knew what I wanted they wouldn't have because if I'm going to buy any Jet Li movie, It's going to be the original and not the Miramax redub. I was very wary about it then but decided to do their trial part where I don't need to pay them anything and if I don't like it, I can send it back. Well, I didn't like it, it was the same kind of scheme they had in the DVD club Contract. I sent it back.
Today I get called up by them again, they wanted to know if I was interested in the DVD Club. Here's a selective transcript, it's very paraphrased but I think it's pretty accurate.
Me: We already went through this, I got the DVD in the mail, I read the contract, and I didn't agree with it.
Them: You didn't like it?
Me: The DVD was just fine, but the contract wasn't. Tell me, do I get any free shipping with the next 5 DVDs?
Them: N.. No.
Me: Well there you go. I didn't like how the shipping worked in the Music Club.
Them: It's still a pretty good deal, I mean by 2 dvds around Christmas anyways, its only 2 dvds a year. It's still a pretty good deal, you only need to pay 99 cents and then 5 dollars
Me: Alright then, here's another problem, it isn't Columbia House's fault. I'm not an avid DVD buyer anymore for the reason that when I buy movies like Clerks or Predator, for like 10 dollars, they release it to me in whatever format they want and they don't have any features on them. And then they'll re-release the dvd and increase the quality and give it a new sexy name like "special edition" and put all of these other features on them and the other versions didn't have and sometimes even have another disc to go along with it while my other dvd's only feature is Spanish Dialog.
Them: We can't control that
Me: I said it wasn't Columbia House's fault, I'm just trying to let you know why-
Them: yeah
Me: I don't want to buy any DVDs-
Them: yeah
Me: Because when I do I feel robbed and because I have no idea if they are going to make a promotional tool out of it just because some director won an award or something
Them: OK sir, goodbye.
Me: Bye bye.
If they call again, I'm just going to straight up tell them "Alright, I've been through this with you people twice already, bring up the old conversations and you'll see that I'm an unhappy customer and don't want to use this service" if they say anything to try to sell it to me after I say that, then my reply to them is "Here's what I'm going to do, since nobody at Columbia House knew I was 15 when I signed up for the 12 cds for a penny deal, I'm going to assume nobody checks up on anything over there. So fine, send me Black Dragon, I'll evaluate it for 10 days, and in this 10 days, I will have an mpg copy of it on my computer, convert it into OGM, release it on the internet, and then send it back to you. How about that? Want to be my movie smuggler? It might make me want to sign up to your service... or not."