I definitely owe | TheaterFire

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manfromfuture@reddit

Remember the panic when I got a bill because I forgot to send back the Third Eye Blind CD.

"Where the hell am I going to get $14!?"

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Oh man, my mom did these but was really good at canceling and getting friends to sign up, got a lot of good cds since she let me pick some of the free ones. I did it myself in 2007 and forgot to cancel had to pay 30 dollars for Introducing Joss Stone, I never listened to it, but hey, I got Bowie's whole discography, so, I guess I still ended up the winner

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Acceptingoptimist@reddit

Haha my mom was too! She would open them carefully with a razor and then use her hot glue gun to reseal if they sucked.

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ScoutFinch80@reddit

Me, if I was a Mom when I was a child...

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Ajna_Magik@reddit

I got the that same CD!! Ha! Along with.. Matchbox 20 and the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

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rebuildingsince64@reddit

I had a friend who did this like 4 times within 2 months. He made up fake siblings with fake social security numbers and somehow got away with it. He told me “what the hell are they gonna do, I’m 15, they can suck it.” Dude grew up to be an accountant.

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BlossomingPsyche@reddit

figures, he’s probably a good one, or in jail

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mrlizardwizard@reddit

I got so many free cds from this. I wasn't 18. Who were they going to stick the bill to?

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kinopiokun@reddit

That part. They entered into a contract with a minor, not my fault!

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ZarquonsFlatTire@reddit

They sent me the wrong person's order, and since I was a minor I never tried to get it fixed. But I did find out about Stevie Ray Vaughn thanks to whoever ordered the CDs I got.

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BlossomingPsyche@reddit

damn good find…

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Purple-Try8602@reddit

Janet Jackson Paula Abdool and Martika !

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Timely_Foundation555@reddit

More like 200. Lol

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wafair@reddit

If it makes anyone feel better, when you buy a cd, you’re mostly paying for the content. CDs do not cost much to produce. Not that you should good about not paying artists, but it’s not like any business was going under not getting paid for the physical discs.

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Heynowstopityou@reddit

My 8-12 year old ass went so far as to steal a check from my mom, fill it out for the $14?, horribly forged her signature and mailed that shit in!! Imagine my surprise down the road when the bill arrived again - with the check inside 😅😅 I was so dumb!

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Do-dah-dad@reddit

Man, thats how I got my copy of Sandlers first album. Classic.

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RealDahl@reddit

Columbia House glitch!

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gorthraxthemighty@reddit

God damn BMG

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Maanzacorian@reddit

I like to think that if I had just paid for that King's X album, Columbia House might still be in business.

Turns out, minors can't have contracts held over them.

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Harcourt_Ormand@reddit

Nope. Lol. Funny story.

If you did it before you turned 18, they can't come after you. Back when I was 17, I got like 30 CDs from Columbia House.

They started sending collections letters, I tossed them. My grandmother found one, wrote a letter informing them that contracts are not valid if signed by a minor.

Never heard from them again.

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Responsible_Goat_24@reddit

Lol yup 😉

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thePurpleAvenger@reddit

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The-disgracist@reddit

Correction, I owe them for the dozen I got at full price after not canceling

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Dank_Drebin@reddit

I started ripping those companies off in 91 or 92. The only downside was the tape and CD cases were more generic than the original releases. The lyrics books weren't always the full version, and they clipped out some of the cool art.

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R0botDreamz@reddit

Yea but you'll be chillin in hell with your 30 CDs while those losers up in heaven are listening to angels play harps. WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?

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Beaverhuntr@reddit

We wold just use fake names and when they would call to collect our mom would argue with them " No one lives here with that name.."

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wandering-cactii@reddit

I owe so much money to these silly 'back of the magazine' things. I also still have some unreturned library books.

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siandresi@reddit

I got so many good cd’s from this

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ButIDigress79@reddit

I paid like a chump

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unbalancedcentrifuge@reddit

Part of the fun is putting the stickers for the 12 CDs on the sheet...mailing it back...and waiting 6 weeks for the glorious package!

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BrokenDeity@reddit

Bold of you to assume I only had 30.

Sincerely "BrokenDiety" AKA "Peter Pullin", "Shore T. Chaser", "Ima Pinshyu", Ridge Ed Mourningwood", "Don Keypunch."

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steven_cornthrob@reddit

I used a fake name, never paid them a cent and kept everything.

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theelifeofbrian@reddit

Ah yes. My first collections statement. I remember it well.

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NonCorporealEntity@reddit

They sent mine to collections. Good luck trying to get a credit judgement against a 12 year old.

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Notoriouslyd@reddit

My first cds: Shai, Silk, Becerly Hills 90210 Soundtrack. Definitely did not pay for them

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tersegirl@reddit

Columbia House, the only reason anyone owned DGC Rarities #1, the Judgement Night soundtrack, or Sugar Ray’s Lemonade and Brownies.

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Jermine1269@reddit

Anyone BMG music service?

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83CO@reddit

I think I paid off all of my orders except maybe 1.

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Dustteas@reddit

My Grandpa made me pay for this.

I kept telling him all my friends parents just called and said they were a minor! But he didn't care. I had to work to get the money and paid off that stupid bill for those damn CDs!!

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KayArrZee@reddit

Did the old man teach you something doing this ?

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Dustteas@reddit

Yes, I definitely pay all my debts, and am trying my best to pass that on to my kids (just no Columbia House!).

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83CO@reddit

Yes, I definitely pay all my debts

Commenter's grandfather is Tywin Lannister.

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KayArrZee@reddit

Crazy how some things that pissed us off back then make sense now

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LeperFriend@reddit

My parents did too

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Tasty_Philosopher904@reddit

Haha I was only 17 bitches you'll never see a penny even though it's 30 years later....

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WhatDoYouWantorNeed@reddit

I do.

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ryannvondoom@reddit

Got so many albums back in 98.

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BlondeAxolotl@reddit

"If you don't have our money we're gonna send you soooo much shitty music it'll make your head spin and you'll wish you were dead."

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shadowlarx@reddit

We all did it and none of us regret it.

Not even after Columbia House went out of business.

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proyazs@reddit

I’m pretty sure my mom is still pissed at me

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Silver_Boysenberry66@reddit

Dude how is it your fault that she left that tempting order form with STICKERS where your little paws could reach it? For shame, she should’ve know better 🙂‍↔️

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adubski23@reddit

My cat George still owes.

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ConfidenceFragrant80@reddit

Santos L. Halper

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Roxygirl40@reddit

Prove it

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DiscountEven4703@reddit

Forgive and forget right? sooooooo

Besides B side CD's don't count

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hyporheic@reddit

Not me. They'll never catch me! They actually sent me a threatening letter saying I must purchase "0" CDs or else. It was a typo. I owed them 10.

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fubinor@reddit

Columbia House and BMG

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Skate_faced@reddit

Remember when the church said that jesus sees everything? Even watches when you're theoretically wanking full tit to granpas old sears catalogue? Ok, National Geographic. ^(health class text book.)

Well that's all a lie because I know it's at least triple that number.

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UGoBoy@reddit

I was on Columbia House for a couple of years. It was actually kind of a treasure trove if you were into obscure bands, or wanting to try something new, since they had cheap tapes and CDs all the time. Just had to keep on top of denying shipments of crap.

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ilovechedda@reddit

My mom literally beat my ass in the front yard of our house because of my BMG bill in “97”.

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OralNerd@reddit

Pretty sure my dog had two accounts... he was "ruff" to get ahold of when the debt collectors called.

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garaks_tailor@reddit

Oooh Jesus. Knew a guy who worked at a elder care facility I'm the 90s and had a ridiculously large CD collection. I think he said he stopped counting at 2000. he would take the names of the about to go and the recently deceased and get all the CDs he could on their names and get the introduction CDs sent to one of several unoccupied houses.

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terriblystupidjoke@reddit

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terriblystupidjoke@reddit

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Bors713@reddit

I do not. Completed my obligation 3 times.

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knightcrusader@reddit

Actually those assholes still owe me 4 free CDs. I paid for the full price ones and never got the free ones!

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jjmawaken@reddit

Fun story... I bought some kind of palm pilot address book/organizer electronic device from them. It broke relatively quickly and they wouldn't give me my money back. I never paid it and it got sent to a collection agency that I ignored for 7 years until it fell off my credit.

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brucecampbellschins@reddit

I don't, but a few people with random names who must have mistakenly ordered them to my address still do.

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mack_dd@reddit

Ha!!! Jokes on them. I waited 5 extra years and got my 30 CDs worth of music off of Napster. And only cost me 0.5 cents worth of electricity; so only half the price of Columbia.

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ImightHaveMissed@reddit

Nah, they went bankrupt several years ago. We’re all safe

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_House

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rebuildingsince64@reddit

Whew 😅 I can come out from hiding

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MyVoiceIsElevating@reddit

My old boss worked as a Postman back in the 90s, and told me they had a scam worked out where he got so many free CDs from this program.

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hovercraftracer@reddit

I live 5 minutes away from where Columbia House used to be. If you knew someone that worked there, you could go to the warehouse and search through all the returns and get CDs for dirt cheap without the contract. It just took a while to sort through what were essentially shoe boxes full of CDs.

Sony is still next door. They aren't making CDs, DVD's, or Blu-ray discs anymore though. Now all the PlayStation games in North America go out those doors.

Fun fact: the first CD was Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. and it was produced in my city in September of 1984. I remember seeing a CD that year in school. One of my classmates' dad worked at Sony and let him bring one in for show and tell. We were all amazed.

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bud_4z0@reddit

By the year 2000 I had 100’s of CD’s and Dozens of these….

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KitchenBomber@reddit

A bunch of my friends did that, got tons of CD's sold them to Disc-go-Round and I felt smart for realizing it was a scam. Then it turned out that having children sign contracts was illegal, the contracts were nullified, nothing happened to my friends and I was so bummed.

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Hilsam_Adent@reddit

Whilst my "get 12 for a penny" deal was for vinyl, circa '82 or '83, my Mama still gives me shit about it occasionally to this very day.

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jacobasstorius@reddit

I think our parents just payed these..

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lunalore79@reddit

Yeah well KEEP WAITING Columbia House mwah ha ha

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Interesting-Goose82@reddit

I was 13? Not sure how, but i must have gotten on a list as 18?

I got the Gillette Sensor xl (2 blades, you know) at 13, NAVY pamphlets at the same time. Also BMG!!!

Fast forward 6 months later, BMG called the house cause i owed over $100 or something?

My mom on the phone: "you know he is 12 right?"

Boom free cd's!!! ....i was 12, but man, remember when a phone call, and a no proof comment would, just ended collection calls?

What a time to be alive!

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r/Cd_collectors

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