🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <12q1keINNkas@agate.berkeley.edu>, gtchen@glacier.berkeley.edu (George Chen) writes:

> Does anyone have any experience with those CD clubs that you
> find in magazines and in the mail.  Like the Columbia club and
> the BMI club...  I was thinking of joining the BMI Club since
> their advertisement effectively claims 8 CD's for the price of
> 1.  However, they also add in a "shipping and handling" charge
> which they fail to specify...   So what happens?  Will I be
> charged 10 times the cost of the CD to have it mailed to me?
> Is the quality any different than a store bought CD?  Will it have
> the jacket and everything?

I buy CDs from the BMG Classical "club".  The shipping and
handling charges are $1.71 per disk (i.e. multiply for multiple
disk sets).  Their "regular club price" is $15.98 per disk, but
every month they have some sort of buy some/get some shuffle that
often, but not every month, amounts to three selections for the
price of one, plus one more at half price if you want.  They mix
it up, though, and sometimes it is just half price across the
board.  You pay for the most expensive of your selections, so you
will usually like to be able to find several multi-disk sets to
buy at once.  Also, they often have some clearance selections
for as low as $4.98.

If you do the arithmetic, you find that your price per disk,
including handling can be as low as about $7 plus tax.  This is
if you ignore their "offer" of an additional "bonus" disk at half
price ($7.70 otherwise).  This price compares quite favorably to
record store prices.  There are, however, some catches.  In the
first place, if you take their initial offer, you are on the hook
for several disks at regular club prices, and the various bonus
and "free" disks aren't an option.  The number you need to buy to
satisfy your agreement varies according to company and offer
version.  But, if you need to buy eight disks, for example, then
you can do the numbers and find that you will be paying $9.70
plus tax for each of sixteen disks.

The real catches are two, as far as I am concerned.  First, you
will be required to send in a form and pay postage on it thirteen
times a year, whether you want anything that issue or not.  This
may not sound like a big deal, but it gets to be quite a pain in
the ass.  Also, you will be late sometimes, so you will get some
disks that you don't want.  This is not a huge deal either, since
you can just write "Refused, Return to Sender" on the unopened
carton, and you won't be charged anything (it's the law, don't
let them tell you different).  But it is a hassle also, and it is
sometimes confusing if you ordered something around the same
time.  I have been told by some not-necessarily-reliable sources
that they are required to let you opt out of the default-send
mode and choose a default-no-send, but I have not confirmed this.
Does anyone have any solid info?

The other significant catch is that the selection is usually
quite limited, although it may be as good or better than some
retail outlets.  But if you find a multi-disk set that you like,
it may not be possible to match it up with two or three others of
the same size that you like.  That will boost the effective
price, if you decide to substitute lower priced items for your
"free" selections.  Also, although this might be a lesser problem
for popular music than for classical where there are usually
several different versions of a piece in "print", you can't
always get the version that you really want.  For those in the
Bay Area, Tower Records (at least the one on San Antonio in the
south bay) has a truly great selection of classical and other
types of music.  You pay more than in the clubs, but you help to
keep them and their extensive selection available.  You choose
for yourself.  I buy some from both.

As for the quality, the disks are often, but not always,
manufactured under license by the big mail-order companies.  This
does not, so far as I know, imply a lesser quality, though.  If
someone has other information, I would be interested in hearing
it.  I personally have never had any problem with quality.  Also,
the only time anything ever arrived damaged, it was just a small
crack (about one inch long) in the jewel box front.  If I had
bought it at Tower, I probably would have exchanged it, but I
didn't want to go to the trouble of mailing a complaint, so I
just kept it.  The disks come in the standard jewel boxes which
are usually wrapped in plastic to keep them from getting
scratched.  You don't get the cardboard or stiff plastic
anti-theft wrapping.  Some might complain about this, but I don't
need the extra trash and it "saves the planet" to a small degree
when you avoid it.  All of the program notes and such are the
same as you would get in the stores, again as far I as I have
been able to tell.

So, in summary, I am basically satisfied with the particular
mail-order outfit that I use.  I will say that I had some
bad dealings with the Columbia Record Club a long while back,
but that was over twenty years ago, so it probably doesn't 
still apply.  The overall club prices are considerably better
than retail, but the selection is limited.  Like I said, I
buy quite a bit from both sources.  If you want to get details
of a particular club and its policies, then write them a 
letter.  If they won't or can't answer your questions to your
satisfaction, then don't deal with them.
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Mark E. Slagle                                 PO Box 61059
slagle@lmsc.lockheed.com                       Sunnyvale, CA   94088
408-756-0895                                   USA