Eight Books For Two Bucks? Yes, There Is A Catch...Children's Book of The Month Club
Written: Nov 09 '05 (Updated Feb 20 '06)
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Pretty much everyone is familiar with the CD clubs that offer you a ton of discs for a penny plus shipping and handling. But there are other clubs like the “Fruit of The Month”, “Chocolate of The Month” and even “Dessert of The Month” clubs that you can join. Some let you pick an introductory selection for next to nothing and then they lock you into a year long commitment, others rely on lazy people who can’t find a couple of minutes to cancel their membership. What ever the pitch, rest assured, they are making money or they wouldn’t be in business. I got an email from ‘My Points’ regarding the Children’s Book of The Month Club. If I joined I would receive two thousand points [more than enough for a $10.00 gift certificate to the store of my choice] and if I didn’t like the club, I could cancel within twenty days of receiving my first shipment.
I knew that I was going to get sucked into something that would eventually cost me a ton of money - even though the books are sold at “up to 50 % off the retail price”, if you look for a book long enough online or in retail stores, you can find it cheaper. Even so, I wanted to stock up on some books for the brood; they are vicarious readers that can whip through books at an alarming rate when they get hooked on a series. On top of all that I wanted to get the two thousand points to boost up my account over at My Points. I started looking for books to meet the eight title requirement and entered in all my information. Once I agreed to their terms and got an approval email [I used my credit card to speed up the process] I received the books in about two weeks. They were all new without any stickers or markings on them so I knew that these weren’t harvested from some online site that deals with cut out titles or overstock.
The Deal
Order any eight books for an amazing two dollars. Yes, there is a catch, you are zapped with a $20.00 shipping and handling fee for the books. Now, if I were to go to the post office and ship out eight books Media Mail to anywhere in the United States, it would cost a fraction of that price. If you ask them why shipping is so high they will tell you that it includes processing and packaging materials. In hindsight, I should have known that this deal was too good to be true but at the time I was sort of awes struck by what they offered and jumped at the chance to get some high priced books for next to nothing. After you make your selection you have the chance to pick up another one for $4.95 so you only have to purchase four more books within the next two years. The easiest way to stay on top of things is to give them your email address so you can have online access to confirm or reject monthly specials.
You have two years to make all of the selections necessary to fulfill your contract with them. It works the same way as when you join a record club; you get a certain number of CD’s for a penny [plus shipping] then have a certain period of time to buy a required number of regularly priced items. Sales tax is only charged to shipments made to Pennsylvania, Indiana and New York so if you live in any of the other states you will not be taxed on books that you order. You will get mailers or catalogs from the club about every three and a half weeks, inside there is a card that you can fill out to decline the book of the month, choose other selections or opt out completely for the month. You can also do this online to avoid having to mail a card back to them, this is nice if you are a ‘last minute’ kind of person. The book of the month is based on your child’s age but you can select from any book in the catalog or any that appear on the website, of course, you can always decline a book selection and wait to see what comes in the next mailer.
Age Ranges
You can pick from several different age ranges when joining the program; there are early picture books for kids up to age two, two through four, awesome reading and concept titles for ages four through six and then you get into the two most popular sections - six through nine and nine through twelve. They have everything from junior cookbooks to reference books, flap and lift page titles to the classics in children’s formats. The one thing that the site really pushes is that they address the packages to your child, this is a nice trick - get the kid hooked on asking you every days “Did I get any mail???” Some of the books the I ordered from the site include; “Better Homes & Gardens New Junior Cookbook”, “Oh Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty”, “Simon & Schusters Children’s Guide To Insects and Spiders”, “KingFisher’s Illustrated Nature Encyclopedia”, 𣼀 Gooey, Slippery, Slimy, Weird And Fun Experiments” and “Lotsa De Casha” [Madonna’s book]. You can choose from any age range when picking out books and once you are a member you can pick from any section when making purchases so you aren’t limited to what you can purchase through the site or from the catalogs that you receive.
Other Offers
From time to time you might receive information about other book clubs that BooksOnline.com operates. These operate almost the same way as this one but you will want to read the fine print before you join just to make sure. Some of the other ones include American Compass, One Spirit, Circulo de Lectores, Mystery Guild and The Science Fiction Book Club. You are not obligated to join any of these clubs to fulfill your contract, they are just sent if you show an interest in any of the companion clubs that they run.
Customer Service
Member Service Center
6550 East 30th Street
P.O. Box 6300
Indianapolis, IN 42606-6300
customerservice@cbomc.com
One thing that you will want to keep in mind is that BooksOnline [the parent company] does share the information they have about you with other companies. You could receive promotional information from other sites as well as about other ‘book of the month’ clubs. If you do not want your information shared with others, you can email them about this or check the box that asks that your information not be given to other sites.
Introductory Offer Guarantee
Once you receive your initial order you have twenty days to return them if you are not happy with them. You won’t be locked into a two year contract nor will you have to purchase any other books from them.. You will not have to pay shipping fees back to them if you decide to cancel your membership however I do suggest that you send it with some type of signature confirmation or delivery confirmation to avoid any “We didn’t get it back yet” run around. As far as when you become a member, if you receive a book that is damaged or not to your liking my advice is to email customer service with as much information as possible so you can get an exchange or refund on the book. Always save the paperwork that comes with the shipment in case it is needed at a future date.
** The site will pay for shipping fees back to them is when you receive a reader subscription card late in the mail. If they ship out a book to you and you did not have ten days to return the card with the “No selection at the time” box checked, they will eat the shipping fees back to them.
Treasury Points
Another thing that sucks people into staying with the club are Treasury Points. For each book you purchase you get one point, this does not include the ones in your introductory order. Once you have four points you can order any book at 50% off the publisher price. Now, once you fulfill your contract you will have four to five points - four if you opt to purchase another book with your initial order and five if you don’t. That means that even though you have fulfilled your contract you have this tasty morsel dangling in front of you - a book at 50% off the listed publishers price. Even if you only take advantage of this offer then cancel out completely, they are still one up on you.
The Bottom Line
I am not sure how long I will keep the membership once I have fulfilled my agreement. I am a bargain hunter, I live to find things that are on sale or clearance and belonging to a site like this seems like you are getting a good deal but in the long run you are still spending a lot of money on books that you could find for less elsewhere. I like the idea of having books come in a child’s name and that there is a wide variety of titles to choose from but the shipping fees do add up over time. The site is well maintained but you have to put your foot down from the very start about them sharing your personal information with other sites and companies. This is a good site / book club to join if you like to read or you have a kid that loves to read and you can do everything at the site - ordering, opting out of a book of the month selection, checking your Treasury Points and changing mailing or billing information. It is easier than using the catalog and takes a fraction of the time you would spend writing things out. So far things have been great when dealing with member services but if you are going to join this club, make sure you take advantages of offers from sites like My Points and Freeride to get the most from your money.
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2005 Freak369
Recommended:
Yes
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