$109.00?! I don’t think so Columbia House.

Columbia House clubs, where would the world be without them?! I signed up for the Columbia House DVD club like 3 years ago to get a few DVDs for next to nothing. The deal was almost too good to be true, I guess that’s because it is.

In order to meet the terms of your agreement you have to buy like 2 or 3 DVDs within your 2 year contract and if you don’t they can burn down your house, or at least send you an outrageous bill that they try to make you pay. The problem however is not that you have to buy a couple DVDs, that’s really no big deal if that’s all it was. Columbia House will ‘suggest’ DVDs every month, they call them director’s selections or some crap. They suggest them but they also automatically charge your credit card that you used to sign up for the service and they will send you the selections automatically if you don’t decline them. Declining the selections isn’t a hard process, they send you an email and you just have to click the link but you only have 1 or 2 days to decline or they will send out the DVD and charge you. Lucky for me I signed up with a temporary or ‘virtual’ Paypal debt card that is only good for one use, so they would charge it and it would be declined and then they send me a bunch of emails trying to get me to update my card information. Fat chance.

Skipping ahead, I may or may not have bought the DVDs I was supposed to. I was almost sure that I did but Columbia House claims otherwise and they want me to pay for god knows what since they never sent me a listed invoice. I’m not going to buy DVD’s from them, their double the price of anywhere else. Ridiculous.

So I received another letter the other day, this time from a collection agency threatening to destroy my precious credit if I don’t give them their 109 bucks. Honestly I don’t think they have the ability to do so, I never gave Columbia House any detailed information. They don’t have my social security number or anything, they don’t even have the correct address.

But I decided that since they want to scare me with letters, I’d send one back. Here’s what it read –

To whom it may concern,

I am disputing the validity of these charges. I had received this letter on 08/18/2007 and it says if I reply within 30 days I can file a dispute.

I do not know which products I am being invoiced for as I had fulfilled my membership requirements with Columbia House by meeting the purchase requirements. I however never did receive my end of the bargain, when I signed up for the promotion and ordered the DVDs I received a rain check for one of them due to it being out of stock. I made a selection by mail and used the rain check but I never received the last DVD.

As I have stated before, I am sure I have met my membership requirements but regardless of if that’s true this contract should be null and void as Columbia House is not offering sufficient customer service to resolve any problems or questions I have had. Their phone system does not allow for a subscriber to easily speak with a human being, and Columbia House has not answered the emails I have sent them!

Columbia House did not provide the offer as advertised. This company is a scam and IT WILL BE EXPOSED.

I demand a copy of a signed contract or Letter of Agency, this information must require my full profile of personal information including social security number, valid address that matches my Minnesota Drivers License, and a signed statement to the terms I had allegedly agreed to. As I stated before, to my knowledge I have met the terms of the agreement I signed up for, Columbia House however did not.

I also request a full invoice with every item in detail that I am being charged for.

If I do not receive all of this information in full my next letter will be to both the Better Business Bureau and the State of Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. This is not a idle threat, it may not stop or even slow down Columbia House’s shady business practices and tactics but it will also not stop me from disputing this incident to the best of my ability.

I will be expecting a reply from both you the collection agency and Columbia House concerning this dispute, and I thank you for taking the time to read this and your efforts in forwarding this to the correct department so I may have this resolved.

Regards,

( my scribbled signature )

I’m interested to see if I actually pushed any buttons with this, I honestly doubt they will even read the thing but I thought I’d give it a shot anyways. I considered sending them their $109.00 in another form, such as $109.00 value’s worth of coupons to local businesses or maybe I could send them 109 ¥en…

Good luck getting your blood money out of me Columbia House because it isn’t going to happen.