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- Newsgroups: misc.consumers
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!news.acns.nwu.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!alasnik
- From: alasnik@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Adam Lasnik)
- Subject: BMG -- general info
- Message-ID: <1993Jan5.235249.8054@news.acns.nwu.edu>
- Sender: usenet@news.acns.nwu.edu (Usenet on news.acns)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: unseen1.acns.nwu.edu
- Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
- Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 23:52:49 GMT
- Lines: 85
-
-
- I've gotten a bunch of questions privately, and also noticed some public
- questions as well. As a longtime subscriber and 'fan' of BMG, I'll do my best
- to answer some of them...
-
- --WHAT IS THE QUALITY OF BMG DISCS?
- I've gotten over 75 of them, and I've never noticed any problems with quality.
- BMG claims that their discs are of exactly the same standard as the "regular"
- ones, and I have no reason to disagree. I did receive a scratched disc once,
- but BMG was very good about taking it back and replacing it at their expense.
-
- --HOW LONG DO I HAVE TO BE A MEMBER? / HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET IN AND
- GET OUT?
- BMG is slow, there's no question about it. They're slow to initiate
- memberships, slow to ship out discs, and unfortunately, often slow to respond
- to member inquiries. This means that it usually takes at least 4-5 months to
- "get in and get out" if you just want to buy the minimum one disc and still
- reap all your free ones.
-
- --ARE THE "FREE" DISCS REALLY FREE?
- No, not really. Every disc (free or not) has shipping and sometimes tax
- charges added on. The prices for "free" discs usually range from $1.51 to
- $1.91. Still not a bad deal, though :-)
-
- --HOW MUCH DO THE "REGULAR" DISCS COST?
- Usually more than you'd find them for in the stores. "Full" BMG price is
- usually $15.95 or so. However, once you buy your required disc, you'll
- receive frequent specials, like "Buy 3 at half price, get 1 free" type of
- deals.
-
- --WHAT'S THE SELECTION LIKE?
- First of all, you ARE technically locked into a specific "category" of
- music... you receive only one special catalog per month, like "Easy
- Listening," "Hard Rock," "Classical," etc. However, ALL catalogs (to my
- knowledge) contain some selections from the other catalogs, so you still get a
- pretty decent choice of stuff. The overall selection is not as great as the
- Columbia House club, but then again, you're paying a LOT less than the
- Columbia House club requires, so don't complain :-) If you want REALLY good
- selection and reasonable prices, go with a mail order CD company. My personal
- favorites are "NOTEWORTHY MUSIC" for best prices, "CD DIRECT" for best service
- and selection. Call directory assistance for numbers.
-
- --ARE THE BMG DISCS ACTUALLY MANUFACTURED BY BMG?
- That's a good question. I'm inclined, however, to say yes, since many of the
- CD's I've gotten through that company have little white labels in the corners
- with the BMG logo and address on them. BMG DOES, however, guarantee the
- quality of their discs, so you shouldn't worry too much about that.
-
- --HOW DO I SIGN UP?
- Many magazines (Playboy, Scientific American, others) have frequent inserts
- from BMG from which you can order. However, you will not be able to see a
- wide number of selections to start your membership with. I'd advise that you
- find a friend in BMG to sign up with instead. That way, you can browse
- through your friend's more extensive catalog AND your friend will get a bonus
- 2 or 3 CD's for their "recruitment." That way, everybody wins :-)
-
- --HOW DO I CONTACT BMG?
- They used to have an 800 number, but have since discontinued it. I'm not
- familiar with their other number, but I do know that BMG is located in
- Indianapolis, IN, and so it should be no problem getting their phone number
- from directory assistance.
-
- --DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO RETURN THE DARN "RESPONSE" FORM THINGIES EVERY MONTH?
- For a while, you probably will. However, I've heard that through repeated
- written and/or phone bugging, people have coerced BMG into putting them on a
- "positive response" pattern -- in other words, these lucky souls didn't have
- to bother with sending back the response form even when they didn't want the
- selection of the month. They only have to return the postcards when they
- actually WANT something. What a revolutionary idea :-) The other way I've
- heard of people getting on "positive response" patterns is to repeatedly ship
- back "unwanted" feature-of-the-month responses. Frankly, this seems a bit
- rude to me, and possible counter-productive, so I'd encourage the utilization
- of the first method instead :-)
-
- --WHAT IF I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT BMG?
- You can either contact them by phone, or you can post questions publicly here,
- or privately to me in e-mail. As I mentioned, I've been involved (NOTE: as a
- CUSTOMER... no other affiliation) with BMG for a long time, and so could
- probably answer your questions.
-
- Happy Late New Year, everyone... and happy CD purchasing :-)
-
- --ADAM "KEYS" LASNIK from Northwestern University
-
- P.S. -- I wonder when we'll see the first "DAT-of-the-month" club <g>
-