NEW YORK, NY – Columbia House announced Monday that it has successfully located 14 million Americans who ordered 12 CDs for a penny during the 1990s but never fulfilled their contractual obligation to purchase eight more at regular price.
Company officials said the massive investigation took nearly three decades and involved old mailing lists, credit reports and millions of parents who still remember asking why 14 CDs suddenly showed up at their house.
“These people thought we forgot,” a Columbia House spokesman said. “We did not forget.”
Collection notices are reportedly being mailed to former members, many of whom were 13 years old when they entered the agreement by taping a penny to a postcard and checking boxes next to albums by Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Boyz II Men.
Several recipients initially denied participating until investigators produced handwritten order forms containing their childhood signatures.
“I was in seventh grade,” one Louisiana man said. “I wasn’t legally allowed to drive, but apparently I was qualified to negotiate a long-term music distribution contract.”
Columbia House says members can settle their accounts by purchasing six CDs at the original regular price of $19.99 each, plus $47,000 in shipping and handling.
