Earlier this year, I made the mistake of becoming a member of Columbia House DVD club. The lure was 4 free DVD's. Once a member, I bought 3 over-priced DVD's. Columbia House, whose parent company is BMG, kept bombarding me, constantly, with DVD packets. This is a trick designed to make it easy for members to forgot deadline dates. If you forget to return a "no" reply re: the DVD-of-the Month is automatically sent.
In trying call them (my emails went unanswered), BMG/Columbia House blatantly discouraged contact with a customer representative, or anybody, with an automated phone service that merely repeats itself re: ordering, canceling a monthly DVD, or membership. No information given. No further contact.
I returned a defective CD for a replacement. BMG/Columbia House sent a replacement then billed me for BOTH DVD's. I paid for the replacement only. Even so, BMG/Columbia House continued to send billing notices for a bogus delinquent payment, i.E., the returned DVD for the amount of $46.44. I ignored them.
Finally, during the week of Oct 1, BMG somehow managed to hijack, electronically, the check I had written to another creditor for the EXACT same amount. When I tried to access a copy of the check through online banking, I was unable to do so.
When I called my bank, they said electronic withdrawal s were a common, business procedure. I knew this. I now knew, also, how a crooked company could abuse electronic withdrawals.
My bank informed me, as well, that I could not access the check to PROVE it had been hijacked. However, the check is recorded as having cashed by BMG rather than by the creditor I knew I had written the check to.
Yesterday, Oct. 5, I recieved a notice of delinquent payment from the aforementioned creditor, for the amont due: $46.44.
That is how I got ripped-off by BMG/Columbia House, aka, corporater crooks.
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