About three weeks ago, I received an unmarked package in the mail containing the following movies:
The Wizard of Oz
The Graduate
Kiss Me Kate
Clockwork Orange
The Sound of Music
There was also an invoice stating that $12.40 was charged to my credit card.
Those bastards!
I mean, The Graduate and Clockwork Orange are good films, but where did they get the idea that I wanted those other films? Oh, and how the heck did they get my CC info?
I went straight to my CC statement and sure enough, there was the $12.40.
I was furious, so I called the CC company and reported the card number stolen and had the Columbia House charge removed.
Now for the questions:
How could they have gotten my name, address, and CC info without me giving it to them?
Why would somebody else order stuff on my account to my address?
How should I deal with Columbia House?
What should I do with these movies?
Can they destroy my credit even though I cancelled the charge?
How could they have gotten my name, address, and CC info without me giving it to them?
Why would somebody else order stuff on my account to my address?
How should I deal with Columbia House?
What should I do with these movies?
Can they destroy my credit even though I cancelled the charge?
Kiss me Kate?
Since the charge was only $12.40, it strikes me that this was just the charge for shipping and handling. I know Columbia runs subscription clubs where you get things like 6 movies for a penny. You are probably signed on as a member, and there is probably an understanding that you will have to buy a certain number of additional movies at a higher price over the next three years.
I’ve no idea how you would have gotten signed up, unless there is someone else in your house who has access to your card number. (The more far-fetched idea is that some company you have had financial dealings with used your info to sign you up as a joke).
In any event, my advice to you is to simply call Columbia House, explain that you did not authorize this sale, explain that you have cancelled the charge, and state your intention to mail back the movies.
If for any reason they claim that you did join the club, then you have the right to ask them for proof of this. If nothing else, they should be able to indicate how they received your order, whether by phone call, mail or by internet.
In any event, I happen to like Kiss Me Kate, but not enough to lock me into a DVD membership.
You may treat unordered merchandise as a gift. By law, it’s illegal for a seller to send you bills or dunning notices for unordered merchandise, or ask you to return it—even if the seller offers to pay for shipping. See http://www.usps.com/websites/depart/inspect/merch.htm
Do you have an ex who might have stolen your credit card info and attempted ordered this, without realizing it would be sent to the credit card billing address.
I’m not saying you have bad taste in exes. Just that things happen.
That does not apply in this case. By accepting the merchandise the OP would be accepting the terms of the purchase agreement, ie, having to buy a certain number in DVD’s in a one year period. The OP did the correct thing, dispute the charge to his credit card and cancel the bogus membership with Columbia House. CH will also want the movies back too, they will even reimburse you for the postage.
One of the best musical scores ever, and a terrific musical. That DVD alone was worth the price they billed you.
Racer and Violet – Racer is correct: you can treat unordered merchandise as a gift, and accepting it does not commit you to anything. However, Columbia House will undoubtedly claim you ordered the merchandise. If they have the paperwork to prove it, then you can’t just keep the DVDs: it’s not unordered (i.e., Columbia House didn’t just send it to you out of the blue), but rather fradulently ordered. It’s up to Columbia House to come to a settlement with you; they can ask for the DVDs back.
I think most countries have something like this, but it can to vary a little in the details from place to place. In the UK, we have the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act - it used to be that the recipient had two options (wait six months and keep or demand collection within 30 days or keep), but this has been amended to pretty much the same as you describe above - as long as the goods are genuinely unsolicited, you just keep them and there isn’t a damn thing the sender can do about it.
I knew a girl in college whose practical joker dorm mates signed her up to dozens of “bill me later” magazine subscriptions. While you could construe the first issue of each as a “gift” you didn’t order, that argument doesn’t hold up for subsequent issues. As soon as possible, you have to tell the company sending you stuff “I didn’t order this and I don’t plan to pay for it.”
A hacker in Sweden tried to get CD Japan to send him an Eminem CD and bill it to my credit card. He screwed up and the CD came to me instead Since I enjoyed a good, long-term business relationship with CD Japan, I contacted them at once and arranged to return the CD. I paid for shipping, and the cost was deducted from my next order from them. Let decency and common sense be your guide.
Unless CH sent the DVDs to the billing address for the card, instead of the address a credit card thief gave them.
But what a strange collection; I can see ‘The Wizard of OZ’ with ‘Orange’ together, and even ‘Graduate’ and ‘Kate’, but add them up with ‘The Sound Of Music’, and that’s just bizarre.
This why you should shred every piece of paper with your credit card numbers on them, and keep your old bills in a locked file cabinet.
