Collage:New News

[marmact]

Collage has always run their business poorly, so it wouldn't surprise me one bit to find that this was all planned to deplete their inventory. On the other hand, all the publication of their woes may very well have invited attention from investors with business savvy who recognize the value in the brand. I hope that also means new management and better ways of doing business. I'm willing to have an open mind about it. Competition is always a good thing in the marketplace.

However, it would take a LOT for me to stop using Mary as my primary video source. She's just too easy and pleasant to do business with, and seems to really value her customers. I would rather her continue to be successful than deal with some new, "improved" Collage, personally.

[wlorrie]

Originally Posted by fit44

I don't feel duped, and I'm not upset my items were not in stock. I am upset they charged me for items that were not in stock, and I wish they would refund my money without me having to beg them several times over.

I'm sorry this happened to you!. I hope you get your refund.
I bought 4 dvd and only got 1. Luckily, I was only charged for the one the I purchased.

I don't feel duped either. I have about 30 dvds on my wish list. Now I probably would not have purchased (or attempted to purchase) some of the dvds at the time of the sale, but I and only I made the conscious decision to buy them. Plus, I had planned to only buy the ones that were deeply discounted. I'm just going to wait until some periodics sales at other sites to purchase the other ones.

[antbuko]

Collage must have found a white night. Good for them! Hopefully they'll take care of any customers who were not satisfied with their going out of business transactions.

eta: I didn't read the link about companies going out of business, but I'm presuming Collage will be under new management. I doubt that they made much money on their going out of business inventory. It was a liquidation sale.

[raeven]

Not sure what to think about the whole 'duped' feeling. Personally I've never ordered from them, and didn't during the last rush. I imagine I might feel a bit miffed, I don't know. Especially those that got charged and shouldn't have. Obviously they have a right to be upset! But like has been mentioned, everybody made the choice to purchase or not...so I dunno. I've only gotten fitness videos from Mary, amazon, directly from the vendor, or big box stores.

Having said that, I definitely used Collage as a source for video information. They had great video breakdowns on length, different segments and what the workouts involved, toughness, clips, lots of reviews. The site was a great source for sure! I found the forum slow and lacking, so that never interested me. Personally, I hope it comes back, and continues to be a great source. If they have good deals and selection of fitness stuff...all the better!

[antbuko]

Originally Posted by cowfishpro

I didn't read the entire thread, so I'm not sure if this was mentioned already. I just wonder if they will be going the digital route and start offering downloads. That would be one good reason to clear out all the hard copies of stuff. Just a thought.

When I first got word of Collage going belly up I went on their forum and suggested this. I think this would give them a HUGE edge and a whole new customer base.

[Jennifer P.]

I (hope) I'm glad Collage is coming back. I have been ordering from them since 1988. I want them to be the high quality customer service company that they've been for years, & I want their website to have the same great information--time graphs, reviews, clips, upcoming releases, & forum. I also hope they continue with the free shipping on orders for $25 & over & that they have sales every week. I even want the catalog! But, I don't know if that will be the case. I'll have to wait & see.

As for their going out of business sale, I was very lucky to get some items I was going to order from them anyway. I did place 3 orders, though, & one got cancelled--after my paypal payment was processed. It took a few days, but I got the refund. I hope that everyone who is still waiting for their refunds gets them--& without more action (e-mails, etc.) on their part. I guess that is the part that makes me a little leery about the new Collage. Maybe they had problems with the orders & refunds because they are a small company, I don't know. I just hope it gets cleared up.

[Diavolobella]

I think some people are missing the point of my post. I don't think I ever used the word "duped" but the fact remains that there is something wrong with telling people you are closing, causing them to stock up on things they might have bought casually over a longer period of time rather than in a rush and then taking it back. Let's say:

• The purple banana store announces it is closing and you love purple bananas.
• It the only store that sells purple bananas (and in this case, there were some workouts that only Collage carried), so this increases immediate demand.
• Assuming it's your last chance to get purple bananas, you buy $100 worth of them, whereas normally you might only spend $20 each month on purple bananas. It's not a matter of not being able to afford the $100, but that you try to budget for your purple bananas.
• The purple banana store then announces they aren't closing.

Yes, you might have bought $100 worth of purple bananas that year anyway, but not all at once and not because you thought your supply was getting cut off so you had no choice if you wanted some purple bananas. That's the problem here. Yes, you willingly made the larger purchase but only because you were told the supply was being cut off, which was false information. There is a difference between persuasive advertising and false advertising. Intentionally manipulating information about supply to drive up demand and increase immediate sales is a questionable, if not deceitful tactic. I'd be interested to see what Collage's explanation turns out to be. If they held a "going out of business" sale to clear their inventory, that's pretty lame. They could have just called it an "inventory reduction sale." However, if something happened at the last minute to save their business and it wasn't intentional, then it's excusable and understandable. It is a very strange situation though and I guess what happened will all come to light at some point.

I don't have a horse in this race or anything since my order never went through, but dealing these sorts of situations and the questions that arise in them are part of what I do for a living as a paralegal, so it's just ingrained habit to dissect them.

[bk1]

But Collage even mentioned that some of the dvd's were being sold at below cost. I'm actually assuming that they might have lost their storage space, perhaps because the rent went up, and maybe had to move. That might be why the sudden liquidation sale took place.

[SuzyQ2]

I was a regular Collage customer for many years. The few problems that I did have with orders were corrected promptly. I panicked somewhat when I heard that they were closing, and felt a bit guilty when they said that they couldn't compete with the likes of Amazon. I was sometimes guilty of looking at the reviews/clips on Collage and then ordering elsewhere, but perhaps that was a problem with their pricing. I think we all want to get the most bang for our buck. However, most of my dvd purchases were thru Collage.

I didn't order at the end as I was a bit concerned that there would be problems w/stocking and not getting refunds that were due (and I took a bit too long to decide when I was still on the fence) ;o)

I hope that they really are coming back. Guess I can just say that I'm cautiously optimistic at this point and would be willing to give them a chance.

The good that came from all of this is that I found a new forum!!

[bubbles76]

Joan, I think I was the one that used the word "duped" haha! It seems to have taken off