Columbia House scam?

[nightflier]

Back in the day when LP's were the norm, I joined Columbia House to get in on the 12 for 1 deal they were advertising, heck I even joined their Cassette Tape club. To my dismay, Columbia's LP's were bad copies that were thinner, more fragile, and sounded worse. And the tapes were bad copies that would wear out faster, have cheaply copied artwork and just sounded worse. When I asked repeatedly for an explanation, they dodged my questions (back then you could still get a live body on the phone), especially when I asked them if they had a responsibility to tell their customers that these were copies. So I swore to never join again.

Once bitten... Nope.

So now that everything is digital, I figured Columbia House must be selling decent DVD's, because a digital copy is a digital copy right? Well I don't know. For example, I have both of the extended Lord of the Rings DVD's, the first I bought at Tower Records, and the second from Columbia. And while I'm not certain, but I am almost certain that the Columbia house one sounds worse. The other Columbia DVD's are OK, but nothing to write home about, either. I've also noticed that the inserts are different then the commercial versions.

So has anyone else seen or heard a difference in their DVD's? What about their CD's?

(I posted this under "digital domain" because I'm wondering if a digital copy is an exact copy)

[N. Abstentia]

I haven't noticed any difference in the CD's or DVD's, they look to me exactly like the ones you buy in the stores.

I do remember those cassettes, though. They were atrocious. Two red stripes down the spine with plain text in the middle and the cover took up 1/3 of the available space on the front. Brutal!

[92135011]

????I thought Columbia sells legit stuff o.o
Never joined cuz I always though that the 12 for 1 gimmick was a way to rip people off
How did they pass copyright??

[nightflier]

...the 12 for 1 gimmick was a way to rip people off...?

Well, if you do everything right and not get suckered into their sales, you make out at about $11 per DVD. But if these are not perfect copies or the liner notes are diminished, then is this really a good value?

Has anyone else noticed a difference?

[N. Abstentia]

If you use the codes, you should come out under $8 per disc total.

[nightflier]

Oops, that's right $8 per DVD. But it still begs the question, is the value of a copy the same?

[N. Abstentia]

It's not a copy, it's the same thing you buy in the stores.

[nightflier]

It's not a copy, it's the same thing you buy in the stores.

Is it the same thing? I'm still wondering about the quality. It sertainly wasn't the same thing back in the days of LP's and Cassettes. DVD's also don't have exactly the same liner notes. One reader also told me that the liner notes of Columbia CD's are different.

Isn't it possible that the copy can still be affected by quality of the equipment used to make the copies? This is why I was hoping there were others out there who had heard a difference.

Also, if these are copies, then should Columbia not state so? Do they state so somewhere? Has anyone read this in their disclaimers? And finally, if it does state so, there should be a disclaimer about quality.