I’ve seen the infomercials on Sunday morning television for Direct Buy. People claim to save thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars of home furnishings and building supplies. I felt like that’s too good to be true. I thought it might be a scam so I decided to give them a call and check it out.
DirectBuy is NOT a scam
The lady was a pretty big help with my questions, no complaints about her. But still, I felt it’d be important to visit the Direct Buy showcase in order to conduct a real DirectBuy review. I still, despite the lady being pretty friendly on the phone, thought there was some sort of DirectBuy scam.
So I visited the DirectBuy showcase and it was pretty neat. I actually didn’t have much time to stay, but I watched their presentation and it seemed like a pretty solid gig. I made a friend there who was also there to see the presentation – he was a pretty cool guy. I think he ended up joining, but I did not. Mainly because I just don’t have any stuff to buy yet. I’ll revisit the DirectBuy showcase next year and may join.
DirectBuy Update 9-14-11
If you were hesitant to join DirectBuy, I hear they are doing a 30-day money back trial. I have not verified they definitely have this yet, but I will keep looking into it.
Update 11/27/05
This seems to be a pretty hot topic, so I’ve decided to revisit Directbuy.
After I received several emails inquiring whether or not I found anything else out about the company, I decided to do a little research I found that there are many direct buy reviews out there.
One lady wrote to me and summed it up well:
“DirectBuy membership, It works if you do it right. My husband and I went to the presentation, and it seems like a good idea. Yes, you will save money, it seems, but it’s obviously only a good idea if you’re going to buy something. I have no complaints about direct buy, but I could see where someone would be unhappy if they joined and never used the service. I did that with cosco one year. Paid to join but never went there because I was too lazy.”
If you have ever looked into Direct Buy, or know of any other resources that may help those who are interested in the membership club, please post comments and/or your review here (scroll to bottom).
Update 1/4/07
Thank everyone who has left a testimonial in the comments. Hearing feedback about Direct Buy is a big help to clear up confusion on their membership club. Please keep posting comments here!
Two years ago I built a new house. I was moving from a rental which I owned so I left our appliances there. We needed all new appliances. I joined United Consumers Club (UCC) several years ago. We saved some money. When I bought all the furnishing for our new house I saved thousands of dollars.
We found the items we wanted at local stores. We then shopped at Direct Buy and found every single item at hundreds of dollars off the retail store price.
So, Direct Buy can save you a LOT of money. But only if you plan to buy a few big items. If you go a year and don’t buy any medium to big ticket items, the yearly fees are going to eat into any savings you may have generated previously.
We debated whether to renew this year. We finally did chose to, but not without some reservation. If we make some purchases this year, we will certainly save enough to offset the yearly fee. If not, we won’t.
It’s not a scam. It’s simply mathematics and economics. If you USE the service you will save money. If you don’t, you will lose money.
Location isn’t always convenient, returns are a little harder, but not impossible. Every manufacturing defect we’ve had has always been taken care of by getting a replacement. But you do have to wait for a replacement to be delivered.
P.S. We’ve noticed it’s the luxury items that you save the most money on. Things like hot tubs, big screen TV’s, expensive jewelry, etc. These are the items retailers mark the price up on the most because they are luxury items. These are the items that purchasing at wholesale will provide the most savings.
Hey,
What is the annual fee? I can never find that out.
My wife and I are currently building a new house and need to get all new appliances and furniture. I heard about DirectBuy and have signed up for an open house next Thursday night. Any suggestions for what to be aware of? I read that you can bring in a list of items you are interested in purchasing, and you can check the prices of them to determine whether it’s worth your $$$, is that true?
So far, I’ve received 2 quotes for my kitchen appliances, both around $12,800. I figure if I can save 30-40% on those alone, I’ve almost made my money back, and that wouldn’t even include washer/dryer, furniture, ceiling fans, light fixtures, etc.
Direct buy works well and saves tons of money for those who know intend to make a large capital investment in their home .
Yes it’s approximately $4000.00 to buy in and you’ll need to pay it the day you walk in for the presentation or forget about it.
Be prepared to make a decision!
Yes it’s time consuming, you need to be patient and do your own research through catalogs, driving to show rooms or on the web.
The membership fee is insignificant when you consider that the average remodel of a home will run you $40,000 or better.
Example, $10,000 anywhere else in marble flooring ” materials only ”
cost when purchased through direct buy $4,700
$25,000 High end kitchen cabinets anywhere else
” designed built and installed ”
cost when purchased through direct buy $8,300
Plumbing fixtures such as tubs, sinks, faucets and shower sets including valves and trim kits will set you back in excess of 8,000 for just the materials should you be remodeling a 2.5 bathroom home when buying retail.
All the above when purchased through direct buy $3,800
The amount of savings anyone can realize is strictly up to the individual!
Direct buy is expensive up front but it allows you to upgrade to considerably higher end merchandise for about the same cost that you would have spent on low end or middle of the road material when buying retail.
The choice is entirely up to you,everything comes at a price!
Feel free to piss and moan, call it a scam and continue to pay through the nose on retail just so you can be a lazy S.O.B. who wants others to do all the work for them.
You should do your research before you go to the show, like I’m doing right now. Then you would know beforehand that to save big, you have to buy a lot of things, that’s how you make the profit.
We joined Direct Buy (when it was UCC) some years ago as we were adding on to our house. Had we joined a few months earlier, we could have saved about $1500 on Grohe fixtures for the master bathroom.
we bought carpet, and saved on the order of $1000 on that.
Not too long ago, we added the cabinetry that we intended to do at that time. We added about 29 linear feet of “Kitchen cabinets.” Dining room was cherry, LR was Maple, breakfast area oak which was almost an exact match with original kitch. cabinets. the kitchen included a custom order piece (shallower pantry) & matching interior finish cabinets w/o doors, which is another price. Those 3 rooms came to about $21K. If you’ve ever priced cabinets, that’s good.
it did take a while, we did have to have the glass doors installed elsewhere (that also added to the price), but man did we save.
we have also ordered our refrigerator (the top line for same price as regular one), light fixtures, jewelry, oriental carpet (saved about $1800 on that alone) and bedroom furniture. we’ve saved something over $24,000 so far.
yes, it is mostly worth it is you are going to do major things, or are remodeling. If you want low end items, not worth it. If you want some really nice stuff – good deal. Luggage or china or artificial Christmas trees or couches or dining room things for something like 30%-40% of the retail price. We have seen some clearance things at stores cheaper than we could get at UCC, and I got the very basic pedastal sink for the 1/2 bath for just a few $$ at Home Depot, so you do have to know what you want.
If it fits what you need, it is a great deal. Most people freak out of the membership price ’cause they want to go to Levitz or IKEA for their furniture. But if you are looking to spend $4,000-$8,000 for a sofa – or the $7-$22,000 on dining room – Go for it.
For some it works out to save them money – but to find the big savings you have to purchase high dollar items.
For other people, the program will not save you any money, specially if you just want to buy a couple of pieces of furniture..
My husband and I attended this evening. I wanted to do it and he didn’t.
We are doing a tear down and we will need many new items and I thought this was godsend. My husband was skeptical when he knew this involved an info-comercial and getting him there was a task in itself.
He didn’t like the pressure we had to sign the contract. After some discussion he finally said he would reconsider because he would at least have the 30 days to think about it. It states it on their contract.
Maybe some of you didn’t meet the nicest salespeople when you went in and I’m sorry that you chose not to join however I’ve been a member for more than 10 years and have referred nearly everyone I know.
They all thank me for it. I’ve had only 2 somewhat bad experiences since I joined. Once I ordered a bedroom set that arrived two months late. Still saved plenty and, just for the trouble, they even had someone deliver it to me for free after it arrived at the center. Second thing was a TV just recently. No big deal. I ordered it and a week later the manufacturer discontinued it.
They called me and told me and I was pretty disappointed. They offered to look into a newer model for me. They found it and it was even less expensive than the model I originally ordered. All told I easily saved $75,000 in the past ten years.
Even joined when it was only $1500. And I get fantastic service every time. It’s not the usual shopping experience. I walk in and they call me by name?! Where else can you find that these days. Plus I can shop online anytime now. Get’s better all the time. When you go, be prepared to buy. You’ll want to!! Good luck, Jake.
I have to ask, has anyone signed up then were able to get out of the contract?
We were greeted by our host who showed us around the office and gave us a little info about what the night was going to be like. We were then put into a room w/ a tv where we watched about 6 minutes of infomercial, then the owner came in and talked. Then the infomercial for 6 minutes, then the owner. This went on for about 40 minutes or so.
We were presented with the cost of the membership during the presentation, and I could tell a lot of people hadn’t done any research on what they were getting into. The cost was $5200 for 3 years, but if you paid in full that night, it would only be $4700. After the presentation, our host brought us back out to the main area where we were sat at a table… with out backs to the door so we couldn’t see other people leaving. (I had read this before going, and just thought it was funny when it actually happened)
Anyhow, we were allowed to ask any questions we had. I even had our host look up a couple prices for me so I could see exactly what the purchasing prices were really like. We found that the furniture, flooring, cabinetry, jewelry, grills, etc were all big money markups at the stores. After doing some math on what we would need to buy (dining room set, kitchen table, family room furniture, kids bedroom set, 2 garage door openers, light fixtures, ceiling fans, a grill, lawnmower, etc) it really was a no brainer to join. We were never strong armed into anything, or anything that could even be considered trying to persuade us to join. We were allowed to speak along for a few minutes before making our decision, and were told all about the cancelation policy.
We have yet to buy anything, but from the prices I have seen for items I will need to purchase in the next year, I’m very glad that we joined. Of course it’s difficult to pay $4700 for basically the “rights” to purchase something. And of course, if you’re just looking to buy an end table and a step stool, this isn’t the best thing for you. And yes, you can sometimes find lower prices in the stores if they are on a really good sale. You’ve just got to be a smart shopper and do your research before you buy.
So far, you can add me to the happy (but not yet completely satisfied since I haven’t purchased or saved any money yet.
) member list.
(NOTE: before you even try it, NO, I am not an employee of DirectBuy, I just wanted to give people another point of view so everyone doesn’t get scared away when this might actually be a good option for you.)
For Brad, YES, people have signed up then received a REFUND, and I am one of them. In Utah, there is a 30-DAY period in which you can terminate contracts like this. This was stated on the top of the DirectBuy contract, though not pointed out specifically by the sales rep. We are building a house so figured we would take a look at the products and services in the next day and then make a decision whether to cancel or not.
First we started with the in-store web catalog because we don’t care to shop by manufacturer, but by item.
Next we went to the catalogs. The first item I looked up was a TV we bought last year from Toshiba. I knew what I paid and wanted to see what a great deal I could have received. Turns out this catalog didn’t even have it, even though the sales pitch is that the participating manufacturers open ALL of their items to DirectBuy.
One more addition, we noticed some sales folks were very aggressive (and we actually told the first guy who tried to take us aside to find us another person who wasn’t so pushy…he just put my back up). The second person we talked with was very nice, not pushy, and clearly explained the pros and cons. In the end, the deal seemed too risky for us.
As a famous con man said recently, the one thing everyone is afraid of is “missing an opportunity” and I feel like that is a huge part of DirectBuy’s sales tactics.
Hi there,
After reading all of these reviews, I thought I might add my own.
My husband and I joined DirectBuy a few months ago. Before we joined, we spoke with friends that are already members, and we knew what we were probably going to be paying for the membership, and roughly how things worked.
We went to the meeting, fully understanding why we were there. We didn’t feel pressured, or deceived. We knew that we were joining, and the presentation just gave us a little bit more info.
We are building a little house and need almost everything. We know we will save a lot of money using DirectBuy, but it won’t be as convenient as walking into a retail store and purchasing. To us, it will be worth the trouble, because the savings will be substantial.
If we were not building a house, or renovating, or updating all of our furniture in our existing house, we would never have joined. I think it would be hard to recover your initial membership fee if you didn’t really have a lot of planned purchases over the next few years.
I don’t think it is a scam. I think it just doesn’t suit everyone’s purposes.
So, just do a bit of research. The net is loaded with pros and cons. Then choose what is best for you and your family.
It’s like going to plan a trip to a country and hotel you are not familiar with. If you go to Trip Advisory and check it out, you will find people who loved the hotel, others that totally detested it, and lots of people who thought it was just fine. Then you choose.
So, ultimately, be mad at yourself if you get a membership and then regret it a few days later, because you always have time to research it before you take in the meeting. Plus, you have 30 days to decide if its for you or your money back.
Take care.
I find it interesting that most of the complaints i found online are from people who are not members of DirectBuy…
Just because you decided not to join, does not make the company bad or a scam. My husband and I joined about a year ago.
We are newly married and have already saved about $7000. We have purchased window treatments and a lot of inexpensive furniture. I do not feel that the comments about having to purchase big ticket items is correct. We were just trying to get the best deal and even bought a nicer dining room set for the same price we found retail. We could not have purchased as much as we have if it were not for DirectBuy.
I have recommended all my friends and I hope to be a member for long time. I can’t wait to build a home and see how much we can save!!
Jessica
We are planning on building a house. I will definately price out several things first before going to the open house. This will make it easy to decide if it is for us.
One thing I have not seen addressed is this.. Can you bring other people into the “warehouse” with you or are you just limited to the names on the contract? For example: at Costco I am the only one who can purchase anything, but I can bring anyone I want into the warehouse with me.
thanks
Shawna
My wife and I were at one of the directbuy warehouse for the open house and after the presentation.
The employees were very helpful and we didn’t feel pressured at all. We compared prices, (we had a list of things we knew we had to buy) and, i can tell you that their prices are really competitive.
we decided to join, and do far so good, we are happy with them.
All I can say is Thank you for re-enforcing my feelings about going to my “appointment”
I don’t see what all the fuss is about. I have recently (this week) been pitched by a Direct Buy rep and sent a key (for a free remodel worth 28K?). They would answer none of my questions over the phone. But, everything they are doing you can do yourself without spending the 5 grand.
I just did a 200K re-model on my home and by utilizing the internet and some bargaining with local merchants, I saved over 50%. Easy. 12 Hunter ceailing fans, light fixtures, solid teak flooring (1800 ft. $3.69 ft directly from the importer/mfg), tile, etc. purchased over the internet for 50 to 75% off sug. retail. Best Buy could not have saved me enough to offset their membership fee. Caviet Emptor. (Let the Buyer Beware.)
Adrian
Was “courted” by Direct Buy .. A friend of mine joined and PRAISED it.. so I was happy when they started calling me. Since they wouldnt give me the membership price over the phone.. decided to come on here and find out some information.. then after hearing the $5000 fee I had to call my friend who joined to verify (I don’t believe everything I hear on the internet) but he confirmed it.. I couldn’t believe it.
So I asked him what he got from there.. he said 3 weeks ago got his Sony 55″ LCD delivered said it costed $2799.99 great he said retail price was $3999.99 and so we looked it up on Circuit City website.. $2999.99 hmm.. kinda fishy.. I also have a 10% off coupon for Circuit City.. bringing my price for $2699.99 (This week the TV is actually CHEAPER at Circuit City down to $2519.99 plus still can use the 10% off coupon).
Also.. Home Depot.. you can buy coupons off of ebay for 2-5$ for 10% off anything in the store..so I could technically start selling memberships to Home Depot for $5000 and saying 10% off retail and ANYTHING at Home Depot.
Good Luck to those who joined and if you spend $50,000 to redo your house… your telling me it would have costs you nearly $80000 without directbuy? hmm.. someone needs to do a little comparision shopping I think.. find the model you like.. then search Froogle, Pricegrabber and everything else.. I guarantee you could do it!
Boy am I glad I found this blog!!! DirectBuy is supposed to contact me to set up a tour and I wanted to be prepared. I do not knock people who choose to use their services but I know it is not for me.
My husband and I are building a 5000 sf home and will need everything for kitchen and baths as well as some new furniture. The fact that the nearest DirectBuy franchise is 3 hours away and everything gets shipped there doesn’t make sense for us (with gas at $3.00 per gallon here in CA). I am extremely resourceful and know I can find everything cheaper than having to join for $5k, pay shipping charges, drive there and back each time to pickup our merchandise, etc (what are these ‘hidden fees’ people talk about?). I have friends with resale licenses that can take me to furniture markets to buy for wholesale prices, I wonder what it would take to get one myself since I’m already self-employed… just a thought anyone might consider.
The biggest thing that bugged me about the DirectBuy is the ‘Now or Never’ tactic they take. Out of curiosity, do they let you in on this when they set up your appointment so you can come prepared or just drop the bomb while you’re there? In my opinion, it just isn’t smart to make an impulsive decision like that… not just for DirectBuy, but for anything! The fact that you aren’t able to mull it over and/or have someone take a look at the contract, is a big red flag! Most times after the fact you’ll either find yourself with buyers remorse, or constantly defending/justifying your purchase to yourself and possibly others.
Obviously DirectBuy has it’s place in the market, too bad they are a bit out of my comfort zone in the way they do business.
I’m looking forward to doing ALOT of research to find the best prices available to me and get exactly what I want! I know I can do it…
My wife and I joined Direct Buy back in 2000 back when it was still called UCC Total Home. At that point we had just gotten married and had bought a condo. Fees were around $3k and I have to say I impulsively rushed to join something I thought I could make work. Wrong choice then! We only bought one beautiful sofa set – from Nicolleti (sp?) – which was by itself, no where near enough to cover the membership fees, s&h charges along with delivery.
Fast forward to 2006…We have once again joined what has now become Direct Buy. This time instead of getting a flyer in the mail, my wife and I actively looked to sign up in the internet. We had just moved into our new construction home and had A LOT of furniture and further enhancements we wanted to do outside of the builder.
The thinking was, where could we possibly start?! I hate to shop at 15 different locations and love convenience. My wife loves to shop for the lowest prices. Thus, we decided to give Direct Buy a second shot as it offers both – convenience, and, at what I believe is a lower price. This time it was well worth it! Although this is definately not for everyone, I feel that it is more than worth it for us, and can be for others depending on their needs.
Cheers!
A sure sign of a company that has a questionable reputation appears here in the over 30 reviews. A cusumer based , customer service company is either consistent with there level of qulaity product and service delivery or not. Such wide ranges in evaluation show poor internal management and lack of standardization of customer services delivery methods across it’s enterprise. A 50% margin of customer satisfaction is no where to but your money. Additionally any organization that says join today or else never is indicative of a scam
Cheers
I am so glad I found this. From reading some of the reviews, it seems like all the positive reviews have perfect grammars, perioded, commas, etc. Even the spelling is correct. Unbelievable! I have an appointment in 2 days but I am not going to go now. I think $5000 is alot of money that I worked hard for and for me to have to work harder to save it back doesn’t make sense. Good luck to all of you.
Good info. Was home this morning and saw the informercial. We are looking to buy a house in major dis-repair. An early estimate is $50K to get into reasonable shape. I thought maybe DirectBuy was a way to save some $$ off from that…. now I think I know better. I am a pretty savy Internet buyer. Sounds like DirectBuy might have some values… but probably not the $5K that it costs to join.
Thanks for the posts.
Quick question, Does anyone have any favorite websites for purchasing Cabinets, flooring, appliances for wholesale?
Michelle: Did you find out anything about getting a wholesale purchasing license in your state? What kind of stores can you go to for these “wholesale” prices?
Chris,
I checked with my friend and she saved a couple grand on designer furniture with her wholesale license down in Los Angeles at the buyers market. We have entire shopping districts in San Francisco and Los Angeles that are dedicated to furniture, jewelry, home decor, and clothing. You can only buy there if you have your resale license. I have no idea what is available in other states. Apparently the government monitors people with resale licenses pretty closely. I think it works best for those who are interior decorators and are truly purchasing for their clients and every once in a while buys for themselves. I understand that you save the most on the designer furniture. I’m not after designer furniture so I’ve decided to shop local sales, high end furniture consignment shops and estate sales for the furniture I will need.
My husband has his contractors license so we will be receiving the contractors discount on all building materials, tile, flooring, etc. I’ve been looking at the ikea website for cabinetry for our kitchen and hardwood flooring. I still need to compare pricing and warranties. I’ve found that one of our local tile stores has a warehouse for their sale items. Many are overages from local construction. Smaller amounts that would be perfect for a bathroom. Great deals there! Far less than anything at The Home Depot!
In speaking with many of our friends who have recently bought appliances I’ve found that you can get incredible deals by shopping local (avoiding shipping fees) and watching for the returned merchandise. Example: Our friends picked up a $400 wine cooler for $125 at Sears because it had a “1/2 scratch on the side.
I hope some of this is helpful. I personally have time on my side at the moment since we haven’t broke ground yet. Try these sites!
http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com
http://www.ikea.com
http://www.floorshop.com
I’m so happy that I found this page of reviews on DirectBuy. It sounds like it would be a good service if you’re doing a huge renovation project, but I’m only doing my kitchen. The cost of membership would not be offset by the savings, so it’s not worth my while to go. I have an appointment for Monday and already had the impression that this would be a very high-pressure situation. Thanks to everyone who posted notes about their experiences. I can see this service is not for me, and you’ve saved me the annoyance of sitting through their schpiel.
My husband and I went to their open house yesterday not knowing anything about DirectBuy except for the “flyer” that was given to my husband when he was given an Open House appt. We are not TV watchers so we did not know about their infomercial. We spent over three hours trying to decide if it would be worth it for us. We ended up joining the club. Just made sense for us since we are going to renovate our house.
I was called by DirectBuy and I had seen their infomercials on TV. It sounds like a good idea but I did not know how high it costs to join.
I will go to their open house to learn more
7 yrs ago when we were joining we had a feeling and attitude that this is a scam and you can’t join once you leave the store. But now in all these yrs we have probably saved around 5 to 6 K, which has covered our initial membership fee and the annual fee that we pay.
You will definitely save money on big items not doubt about that. In fact on small items even if you don’t save money you will get a brand name or a higher quality for the same price that you will find in the retail store.
Most of the items we have purchased works great and never have to return them.
If you are joining this club, make sure that you are joining it for buy big items, that is the only way you will payback your membership.
I signed up for DirectBuy in Austin and have had no negative experiences with them. The sales tactics were not “high pressure.”
Yes, they told my wife and I that we had to sign up then or we would not have an opportunity to sign up againn. I actually had respect for that approach because they could easily follow-up with alot of “high pressure” sales calls at my home or office to coerce me into signing up, and that would have been an absolute turn-off. I like the fact they are confident in their service enough that they are willing to let $5k walk out the door without any hard selling effort applied. That’s got to be tough for any motivated salesperson to see happen, but they are letting the product/service speak for themselves. And it’s good to see that all the different DirectBuy locations have kept that policy consistent across all the postings I have read. I would actually be concerned if some franchisees were bending the rules a bit. That’s not what franchisees are supposed to do. They are running a tight ship, and I like that.
Instead, they explained that if everyone had the chance to leave the DirectBuy facility and do comparison shopping based on the prices they saw during their orientation, that would really create a problem for the manufacturers when these prospective DirectBuy customers show up at their retailers talking about how much cheaper it is to go with DirectBuy.
This rule makes sense to me. After you become a member, they expect you to abide by the same rules, or else I think they can terminiate your membership. I think that’s a good rule to have. The DirectBuy system will only work if all members abide by this code of conduct.
I think anyone who goes to the orientation should go in there with the intent to do some comparison shopping on a few key, large items. We did that, and we were comfortable the prices were lower than what we could find at a competing flooring retailer.
We also liked the selection from within the warehouse. I personally don’t like the idea of schlepping all across town looking for the best deals and keeping an eye for sales for items I might be looking for. There is something to be said about “one-stop shopping.” My time is worth something, and it’s good to know I have one place to go where I know I can get a deal at, or lower, than prevailing market rates.
I’ve also got to think that a large company that has multiple locations all around the country will be on their P’s and Q’s in not engaging in deceptive practices. How many companies that have a national presence are considered unethical? Not that many, or else they won’t be in business long. That’s alot of money of money to put at risk for the corporate parent. And if you think about it, these guys have to be ethical just like Costco, Sam’s Club, Best Buy, etc., or else the threat of some disenchanted customer showing up at the door and going ‘postal’ on them could become a reality.
The fact that the center is an open environment where members can talk with each other is also self-policing. If members are unhappy, word can spread like a cancer, and then the entire business can go down the tubes.
I’m not a lawyer, but it seems their contract terms of no refunds after a certain number of days isn’t that unusual. When you sign up for a country club membership or pay a PSL for season tickets to an NFL team, I don’t think you can get the up-front fee you paid refunded if the bathroom was dirty (first case), or the team had a disappointing season (second case). And if you feel you’ve really been slighted, you can always take them to court if you feel slighted.
Finally, everyone at the Austin location was very nice and open to answering any question that I had during the orientatioin, and they didn’t try to keep us isolated from other people attending the orientation. Believe me, I’m one of the most skeptical shoppers out there and I can smell a scam when I hear one. I’m also as cheap as you can get. But these guys were very cool about it, and I understood the value really comes from large renovation projects.
My wife and I are also new to the Austin area, and on top of that, we don’t know which contractors are trustworthy or not in the city. But DirectBuy seems to have relationships with trusted contractors and can make insightful references, which is worth alot. They also have staff members in the facility who can provide guidance on the different ways to go about do-it-yourself jobs around the home. For a home repair challenged person like myself, it’s always good to have someone around who can provide guidance in person beyond instructions you’ll read on the Internet. There’s nothing else better than face-to-face contact.
I know my description here may make it sound like I’m a DirectBuy employee or something, but I’m not. Maybe I’m looking at the glass half-full (or 3/4 full), rather than half-empty.
Thanks for all the info. We are planning on building in the next few months and had considered this.
I am also a good bargain shopper and believe I can find big savings with directbuy.
Thanks again!
My Fiancee and I joined Direct Buy recently and we knew going in about the cost as well as some of the savings we could get.
A friend of ours secretly checked the Direct Buy web catalog and requested pricing on a few appliances we will need as we are getting our first home soon. We knew that just on the appliances we would save $2000.
So that’s out investment made back right there.
That doesn’t include the $3000 we will save of the dining room set she has had her eye on forever
This doesn’t include the savings we will likely get on living room. bedroom, and kitchen furnture… patio set, BBQ, Central Air, Window treatments, china, TVs, etc… Literally we need everything for the house when we get it. So for people like us it seems like it will save $10000 easy. Since we know we already will break even of the 5 appliances and dining room set.
Also a thing we did not know before we went to out open house was that we can get discounted movie tickets, coupon cards for restaurants, etc that for us would save additional $$ over the course of a year as we do like to get out for a night. Though this may be location specific.
I will be up front and say we have yet to purchase an item because we do not have the house yet, but we were not pressured at all. Sure they said sign today or dont come back… but really it was the nicest way it could possibly have been said. I told my fiancee how skeptical I was before we talked to our friend. She gave it to us straight. Showed us the prices in black and white(Direct buy will email you price of an item on their website). While the one time offer really had me on edge… I understand the reason. It works because members do not go blabbing to the retail stores or share information unless people are serious about joining.
Direct Buy like almost anything in this world is not for everyone. Not everyone is in my situation. But to echo a sentiment from before…. it seems the biggest complaints are from non-members. It may not have every item under the sun… but most retail stores dont either. I would be impossible unless the store was the size of Nebraska!
So take everything i have said and others have said with a grain of salt. It may work for you or it may not. But if you have a lot of major purchases to do… then I think its for you. If you buy low end or dont buy a lot often.. then for sure dont do it. $3900 is nothing to sneeze at.
Warranties are dealt with directly with Manufacturer. It is still the same warranty whether its retail or direct buy.
Part of the mark-up at retail allows you to have them deal with any problems. Since I am a self-motivated type I have no problems dealing directly with a manufacturer as i have done so in the past.
If you want everything on a silver platter… pass on direct buy.
Direct Buy doesn’t do anything more than give you access to the Manufacturer. They help when you have questions.
it isnt for everyone. But if you are not one who needs to be coddled… have a lot of purchases… then it may be the thing for you.
If you did not join, how do you know its a scam? The decision people have to make is to continue buying at high retail prices…or buy direct at cost.
Where is the pressure? It is a simple decision. When I went to the open house 15 months ago, they answered all of my question. I even asked why they could not answer my questions over the phone?
The answer made sense, they wanted me to see for myself the value of the club. And frankly, if they had told me the dues over the phone, I would not be a member today.
If the concept don’t make sense to you, do the math.
A very happy member
Major Buyers Remorse????
You never mentioned how much you saved on all the things you purchased. If you compare DirectBuy to the retail stores, there will obvously be some trade off. In a retail store you point out what you want, pay for it, and have it delivered to your home. At DB, because its a different way of buying, you will have to do some work. I dare you to tell the truth. Go back to the store, find the exact things you purchased, (don’t forget to add sales tax and shipping) If you did’nt save, then you have the right to complain. Stop being lazy…the only way your $4000 does down the drain is if you stop shopping.
Just yesterday I priced a glass pedestal dining table, 4 chairs, server, and mirror. Total cost with shipping, handling, taxes, and freight, is $3,218.00 I priced the exact same items at an “outlet store” one week ago for $5,368.00 If $2,150.00 is not worth 2 hours work, & hassle, you must be rich. Some of us hard working blokes can’t afford to give all the money to some store owner. Fact is when you go to a store, you never see the “HUGE” shipping cost, because it is neatly rapped up in the retail price. At lease at directbuy, you know exactly where your money is going.
No buyer’s remorse here.
Im sorry, but based on my reading this Blog. Im going to stay away from this contentious Business. any firm that uses hi pressure, buy now or never, and wont share their pricing up front, certainly has something to hide. And any business representative that insults potential clients by using strident language like piss and moan..certainly doesnt deserve my dollars……..
Where theres Smoke theres fire…
My wife and I attended a DirectBuy open house this week and decided not to join although we do believe that under certain circumstances members can save some money. There were several things about the sales presentation that were either patronizing or illogical.
Patronizing : We didn’t need a detailed explanation of the retail supply chain or how retailers price their products and we certainly did not need to hear it 5 times.
Illogical : The take it now or leave it premise makes no sense. They claim they are protecting their suppliers but protecting them from what? How would giving prospective members 24 hours to think it over hurt their suppliers? During the presentation they have already told you (20 times) how to figure out the amount retail stores mark up their products. It makes no sense and we did not believe it for a second. Ditto for the “You can’t look at the catalogs until you sign” rule. If they truly believed that everyone would save a lot of money they would instruct each prospective member to bring the receipts of their last 3 major/semi-major purchases. Then they would sit down with you and show you in the catalogs how much money you would have saved if you have bought those same products with them. When something can be proven that easily but the choice is made not to, that is suspicious.
Having said all of that I don’t think it is an outright scam, although some of their claims are dubious, but a high pressure sales pitch. Bottom line, we did not feel good enough about it to join.
Even as you read, this scam, which is nothing more than and a variation of the “Advance Fee Fraud” scheme, is parting yet more of the “something for nothing” crowd from their money.
Here’s how it works: a telephone “tickler” call is made to a potential victim and an informative letter is sent afterwards inviting them to an open house so they can see for themselves how much others like them have saved and how much they themselves would save, along with some form of an invitation to join. The letter and subsequent follow-up telephone calls promise rich rewards of savings by buying direct from the manufacturer, at cost, with no Mark Up, No Middleman if only they were “members” of this so called highly esteemed and long time in business organisation. Typically, the pitch at the open house includes mention the so called fact that tens of thousands of other smart and savvy consumers have saved along with a slick selection of what they have saved on — and you, too, can begin saving as soon as you join this elustrous group by signing a “membership agreement” costing thousands of dollars payable in advance of receiving any benefits – you are told that amount is paltry compared to the savings you will obtain over a 10 year period – and you must sign the contract on a now or never basis. You are even made to feel stupid if you don’t sign – only a fool would not take advantage of the savings – spend a little to save a lot sort of thing.
If you’re not saying “scam” by now, you should be. Should you agree to participate in this Advance Fee savings scam, something will go wrong. Savings evaporate … or.. Wrong or defective merchandise will be ordered … or … Order delays … or … Order mishaps and screw-ups. You will not be allowed to cancel your “membership” and get out of the deal.
If you decide to order merchandise, money from you, in advance of receiving the merchandise — an insignificant sum, really, in light of the windfall of savings about to land in your lap — will be required to order merchandise without any written guarantees of actually saving money.. You pay, you wait for the merchandise . . . and all you’ll get in return are more excuses about why the order is held up and assurances that everything can be straightened out if you’ll just be patient and wait a little while longer or send a bit more to pay for this or that price increase. Once you start making threats, these scammers will threaten to sue you if you don’t make good on your end of paying for the membership contract in full.
Beware that the Membership Agreement is in reality nothing more than a legally binding sales contract that may have been glossed over in light of all the savings you are excited about expecting. Carefully look at it – it contains NO GUARANTEES OF SAVINGS – instead there is a “NO ORAL PROMISES” clause: “No oral promises or statements not contained in this Membership Agreement shall bind or obligate the club.” It’s like a get out of jail free card – they can tell you anything pie in the sky in the open house tour or over the phone to get you to join, but once you sign the sales or Membership Agreement, you agree to the NO ORAL PROMISES clause! So what happens if it turns out not to be what you expected? Ouch. Too late. You’re stuck. That NO ORAL PROMISES clause comes back and bites you. Want a refund? Beware that the Membership Agreement states: “Members understand this program is not sold on a trial basis and that no refund of membership fees will be made.” So you only partially paid on your contract and think that you’re just not going to pay the rest of the contracted amount? — beware that the Membership Agreement states further: “Members do not have the right to terminate the Membership Agreement without paying the amount remaining for this Membership.” And if you think you’re going to get a refund because you never found anything cheaper and therefore didn’t use the club, think again. There’s a clause in the Membership Agreement about this too: “The Membership Agreement is not conditioned on the use of this Membership.”
In a nutshell, the con works by blinding the victim with promises of an unimaginable fortune of what others like them have saved, what they could have saved if only they joined earlier, and what they can expect to save by joining now. Once the sucker is excited and sufficiently glittery-eyed over the prospect of what he or she would do with all the money he will save, he is then squeezed for however much membership fee in full at the time of “joining” or have the sales contract balance immediately financed by a separate finance company, actually a subsidiary of the parent scam company. The money the victim parts with willingly, thinking “What’s $5,000 here when I’m going to end up saving over $50,000 when this is all done?” He fails to realize during the sting that he’s never going to actually get the promised savings because all of savings are expressly disclaimed in the fine print of the contracts and merchandise ordering materials. The very sales contract, which the victim was at first eager to sign, now comes back to bite him with all those adverse terms and conditions. All of this messing around is designed to part him from his money.
Once the scam is explained, it seems so obvious a con that you’d wonder who would fall for it. Yet fall for it people do because they’re mesmerized by the wealth that will soon be theirs in the form of all the savings by not paying any markup or middleman costs – and how smart they are by taking advantage of the join now or never opportunity. They also fail to realize there’s a hook hanging just out of sight; at first all they see is that others are getting savings and they want to join this cadre, thus they’re ill-prepared to mentally shift gears when the con artists turns the tables. Because the premise of “saving tons of money” is wholeheartedly swallowed early on, it’s not at a later point questioned when things begin to go wrong with the transaction and the dupes who have been targeted find out the hard way that there is a no refund policy on all the money they have paid in advance of receiving these now questionable “savings.”
Beware paying in advance for something for nothing – no written guarantees of promises made should send you running – especially in light of the tactics of “Be like me, I’ve saved money.”
http://edumacation.com/DirectBuy
Thank you so much for these comments. Me and my wife were going to go the open house, but now there is NO WAY! The open house was in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. Our sales guy was Quintin Hill.
He told me that both me and my wife had to come, I couldn’t come alone. This raised my suspicion. However, I had no idea you had to sign the contract right then!! This was not in my mail packet. Quintin acted surprised that I did not know this.
This is just so obviously a BS ploy, I’m really surprised people fall for it. Maybe it can work in certain circumstances, but the “buy now or never” tactic is just crap.
I crumpled my flier and threw it in the garbage. What a bunch of jerks.
Does anyone have any experience with DirectBuy of Manhattan (36th and 7th Ave)? It would appear that people’s experiences are franchise specific and that customer service, responsiveness, etc. vary from franchise to franchise. Any feedback of DirectBuy of Manhattan would be helpful (customer service, savings, issues with defective merchandise, etc.) Thank you.
Has anyone gone for kicks? It sounds hilarious and could be entertaining. I’m debating…
I’d be afraid to do that, they might suck you in!
Believe it or not, my intention was to go for kicks, and I had no intention of signing up and they absolutely did suck me in. They’re extremely good at the art of the hard sell. They go for your integrity and imply that there’s something wrong with you (psychologically) if you’re too suspicious, skeptical and/or don’t completely accept what they’re representing.
I, too, have seen the DirectBuy ads on tv lately. I’m very upset because I was one of the suckers who was scammed by them about 25 years in the San Jose/Santa Clara area in California.
The description of their current practices is exactly the same. When I joined, I was told that DirectBuy could get me ANY product I found ANYWHERE at significant savings. All I had to do was call in the product Brand and ID number. When I did given them the required information, I was told (after many delays) that the product I wanted was no longer available. Before I could put pressure on them, or TRY to buy another item, the company went bankrupt AND was in trouble with the law for fraud. BUT since each showroom is individually owned, there is no recourse to the national company, nor does any legal action carry over from ‘showroom’ to ‘showroom’.
I have just emailed Discovery TV and alerted them to this situation. I hope other people will also alert newspapers, tv stations, and legal agencies. I don’t know how to stop DirectBuy, but if WE don’t they will continue to fleece innocent people.
Please post any action you have taken here, to give the rest of us more ideas of what we can do to stop DirectBuy.
I am so glad that I found this site. I had an appointment scheduled for today but had to cancel it. The rep that I talked to wanted me to reschedule it for sometime during the week but I kept insisting that I could only come on the weekend. He finally agreed that I could come on Saturday morning at 9:15 am. I would have had to get up at 6:00am to make the appointment. He said that the weekends were only for contractors. I tried to find out from him how much it would cost to join and he told me that they had several different kinds of memberships and I would have to go to open house to find out.
At first I thought this whole thing was a good idea because we had just got a house that needs remodeled and are planning to build a new one when it’s paid off. I just came online to try to find out how much the membership fee was but I have learned so much more. Thank you all for your comments and sharing your experiences. I see now that this is something that I really can’t afford to do at all.
To those of you who are curious……go to a presentation.
If you are hesitant …….don’t join. There are many many people who benifit from DirectBuy every day. Noone forces you to sign at the X when you go, so don’t join if you are unsure if it will benifit you.
hey i am a directbuy employee i have been working here for about a year and half. All the comments that i read have some truth some lies.
i am writing this to try to clarify things a bit. Directbuy has been in business for over 34 years and have locations all across america and canada and we have millions on members.
To explain the whole process of getting an appointment, you can either call one of our 1800 numbers or visit one of our websites. and then that will generate a lead and send all your information to the closest directbuy center in your area.
then one of the marketing associates will give you a call back go over your information and your need and try to find a convenient time for you to come in.
When the question in asked about your need we ask it for a reason. We try to qualify people on the phone before they come in so that we dont waste their time.
i can tell your for sure i am a marketing associate myself and i have told many people that i dont think directbuy would be of benefit to them. So i want to make sure everybody understands that we will not bring you in if we dont think directbuy can be of use to you.
With the membership fee it is not a rule of directbuy but a rule of our manufactures who supply us. They ask that we keep the membership quite until you come into the open house only because they want you to come in with a clear mind about directbuy not just the membership.
When you come down for a tour all the directors try to do is sell you concept. Try to make you look at the big picture like 10 years from now and not just tomorrow.
Many people have came to directbuy that had no need but relized the concept was great and joined. The membership varies from center because of location. Just like anything would cars, gas,houses, anything. It is true the only way directbuy stays in business is the membership b/c after that directbuy no longer gets any of your money.
all of our manfactures have lifetime warrenties that we do stand by. When a product come into our warehouse it is striped out of the box and completely examined for scratches, dent, broken pieces, everything. If anything is wrong it will be immediately sent back or your money is refunded.
I have seen several projects come in damage and the manufacture would not take it back. and the owner from my center has came out of his pocket and repaid the member.
Also when you come down for a tour we ask that your bring prices and quotes so that we can show you the direct savings on things you know you will be buying and not just on things that you might be buying.
Honestly to tell you the truth i can only speak for Directbuy of Metro Washington here in Maryland. All of our members are very happy with our services. Yes we are all one corporation but we are all independently owned centers. If you had a bad experience at Directbuy I am sure it was not at my center here in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
thank you
I work for a manufacturer that supplies DirectBuy, as well as big box stores. I have seen shipments going out to DirectBuy, so I Googled it to find out what it was and stumbled across this website. I then checked out our invoices to DirectBuy, as well as their invoices to their customers (we have access to some of them), and also invoices to our “big box” customers which I will not name.
From my research, DirectBuy charges their members exactly what we charge them, plus a small handling fee of a few percent. Also, they charge their members exactly what we charge them in terms of freight. I spoke to the Account Manager at our company who deals with DirectBuy, and he said DirectBuy actively tries to lower freight costs for their members and they are very sensitive when it comes to pricing.
As for the big-box store that I mentioned earlier, they charge a 14.21% markup.on the products that we supply them. However, the big box stores do not carry our entire line and the products we sell them are part of our so-called “B line”, which means the quality isn’t as good as the quality we supply to DirectBuy, which buys our “A line”. Stores that carry our “A line” have a markup ranging from 60 – 70%.
Having seen the invoices, I can confidently say that DirectBuy provides excellent value to their members when it comes to dealing with our products, which are in the $1000 – $2000 range wholesale.
One more thing I wanted to add: I completely understand why DirectBuy does not allow non-members to view their catalogs and prices. If they did, then suppliers would not sell to them. DirectBuy is hated by a lot of retailers because they undercut them. If people go to a retail store and say that they saw D product at DirectBuy for much less, the retailers get extremely annoyed and contact the supplier and give them hell because the whole situation makes them look bad and lose business. Members cannot do that because it prohibits them from doing so in their contract (or so DirectBuy tells us). That is why non-members have limited access.
Anyways, I’m not a member because I’m not doing a reno (I live in a rented apartment!), but I do think it’s a good idea for people doing kitchen or bath renovation especially, since the retail markup is supposedly very high in those categories. I think it’s important that all points of view and all experiences are shared on the Internet so people can make a decision based on balanced information.
So glad I found this blog. My husband and I set up an appointment next Wednesday in E.Syracuse, NY. We’re doing minor renovations and decorating to our home, but after reading this, I think we are not going to join…
We didn’t know there was a membership fee. We are just going to buy a few pieces of furniture, so i think this is not for us. But it seems like you can save a lot if you are remodeling your home.
thanks
Saw their commerical on TV this morning and I thought it looked interesting. Then I did some research on the web – i always check online, read reviews and customers complaints to make sure there isn’t any scam- and read this Blog.
I am happy to see that the savings they announce in the commercial are really true. I am now going to go to their open house and probably going to join.
Thanks again for this Blog.
I have been a member of direct buy for 12+ years and over that time period have made several large purchases, ie: stove, frig., dish waher, washer, dryer, living room furniture, carpet, ect. ect. ect.
I have also purchases much smaller items with savings as well, not as much but there were savings. I did not make all of these in one or two years, and had a number of years that I made no purchases at all.
I can say with all honesty that I have saved thousands of dollars, and the customer service was excellent, some of the items were damaged when they were received, direct buy called me and said that they would be returning these items to be replaced which they did w/o problem.
The manufactures warranties are the same as you would get if you were to buy these or any item from Sears, Lowes , Home Depot, or any other store in your local area.
I live in Pennsylvania and use the Lancaster show room, they are #1 in my book . Yes the upfront money is quite a lot. So if you are seriously considering this save up before you go and go with an open mind.
They have been in business for over 30 yearsI don’t think anyone could scam people for that long without being caught.
Actually the waranties are from the manufacturer not DB. So you have to deal with the manufacturer directly. I posted about that further up. DB is not a store. The whole concept is that to save the $$ you make some sacrifices. Wait time for delivery, no returns, and warranty you deal with manufacturer.
One thing that seems to be true is that some centres are far different than others. The one I go to in Toronto is amazing. Very helpful staff and we were never pressured to join. No hard sell to us. They laid it out on the table. If you arent going to be spending a lot then dont join as its a waste of $$.
What I do not understand is why people like to call it a scam when it clearly works for some.
Actually one more thing… when people point out posts that are “obviously” from DB. Why dont you also consider that some of the “its a scam” post come from retailers trying to stop people from joining?
Food for thought.
PS – The no returns thing i mentioned does not include defective items. Those get returned and replaced.
> What I do not understand is why people like to call it a scam
> when it clearly works for some.
I don’t know, maybe a Canadian Court saying so:
http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/judgments/pc/2002/01/p02%5F0197.htm
If you go to the one owned by Steven Tratner, he was mentioned in the CBC investigative report:
http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/services/ucc/index.html
> The whole concept is that to save the $$ you make some sacrifices.
> Wait time for delivery, no returns, and warranty you deal
> with manufacturer.
> make some sacrifices
What was the $5,000 non-refundable, non-cancelable membership fee for?
> “You deal with the manufacturer”
Does that conflict in any way with the Member’s Pledge “Members will not call or deal directly with the Club suppliers. “??
Just how does one “deal with the manufactuer when you cannot call them?
Before you have to make some sacrifices AND put up over $5,000 up front money, read and understand the NON-REFUNDABLE, NON-CANCELLABLE sales contract that contains NO GUARANTEES OF SAVINGS they are trying to get you to sign:
http://edumacation.com/DirectBuyMembershipAgreement
May work for some, doesn’t work for me and others I am sure.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I actually thought about creating such a page warning other consumers of DirectBuy.
My husband and I are also in the process of seeking a refund and it doesn’t look promising.
We have had nothing but problems with DirectBuy and can’t seem to get anywhere. The club owner seems to not really care about us as consumers, but then again why would she. They get all of their money up front, membership fee, handling fee, shipping and the cost of the product. You order and pay then wait, wait for someone to call you to tell you that your product is in. My husband and I waited over 15 weeks for a product only to be told, “Oh, you had to order two (2) of those, sorry.” (This is only one problem we’ve had.)
Since a refund doesn’t seem likely we plan to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, write a letter to Consumer report and call the news.
I live in Michigan and we will contact, Ruth to the Rescue, who is a Consumer Reporter, Problem Solvers and Hall of Shame.
Ironically we are not confrontational people but THIS IS RIDICULIOUS!!!
Thanks again for allowing me to vent,
Wauketa
Michigan
I went to a DirectBuy presentation today. I knew there would be some sort of membership fee (after all, nothing is free). I was shocked when it came to almost $5K!
I think where this membership can benefit some folks, is those who will be buying a lot of big ticket items.
I won’t be doing any remodeling for 3 years, so I didn’t feel like the cash outlay would benefit me immediately.
Make sure you do your due diligence and know what your needs are going to be for the next 1-3 years. Create a list of thing you’ll need and do price comparisons.
You should also read direct buy reviews on line.
Went to a presentation in Pleasanton, CA today.
Not really high pressure as described in other sites. We knew nothing about it and went in cold.
We were quite surprised by the presentation. We are doing a major remodel in California (in our second year) and plan to start on the kitchen in about 6 months.
We were not ready to plunk down $5995 today and left on good terms. Knowing what it cost to do kitchen cabinets in this area, we figure a membership might be worth it just for that.
Has anyone on this blog purchased kitchen cabinets this year? We are using HomeDepot Expo as a basic reference as they carry high end brands that seem of good quality but quite expensive.
I have read the above 80 plus comments. Seems that if you are going to do a kitchen, bathroom etc and willing to do the work, it would be worth it.
It is the labor cost that are killing us right now and they claim they have local people that do good work at discounted prices secondary to volume.
Any comments on that point?
Ernie
If you have remodeling to do or furniture purchases and are going to be spending the money anyway DB makes sense because you will recoupe the membership, and then some.
If you are an IKEA kind of person DB is not for you.
Just purchased my membership on 9/3 still have time to cancel but not going to because I have some big ticket cash purchases to make. I might as well save as much of my green as I can.
Nothing ventured nothing gained.
I just joined 3 months ago and I knew full well that I had to make a decision. Wanna know why? Because it is in the information that they sent me.
The person I dealt with and all of the others that I observed were all completely pressure free. There were a lot of members shopping and we looked through catalogs before I signed any contract to make sure I could benefit.
We got to talk to other members and thy had nothing bad to say at all other than getting used to waiting a couple weeks for certain things, but the savings offset those feelings. One member had saved over $14,000 on their kitchen renovation alone! We have made more than our money back in the 3 months of being members already!! Enough saved to pay for the next 10 years of our membership.
To those of you reading this and are about to visit- – keep an open mind, go to retail stores and see what they are charging you and compare those items when you go in for your visit. The people are not pushy at all and are there to help. They provide salesmen information without the salesmen tactics and pressure. I applaud you for doing some research. Good luck and enjoy!
Well, we considered signing because we thought we could save some money because we are remodeling our living room.
After thinking about it, we decided it would not be in our best interest to join. We just didn’t think it was for us, since we are just remodeling 1 room.
At the beginning i wasn’t very sure about the company. I checked online for direct buy reviews, and didn’t find many direct buy complaints. so i joined.
I am happy with my decision. I did same a lot of money with my home renovation.
My parents became members of Directbuy before they built a house in 2004. My mother had seen the tv ads and wanted to check it out. They promptly went to the warehouse for a presentation. My father was sceptical but they went anyway. My parents ended up telling them that they needed to buy cabinetry and furniture for a new house. This, of course, gave the salespeople extra leverage to sell them a membership and do the ‘savings’ math. The salespeople were very friendly and helpful and told that they could easily save thousands. My parents also wondered about installation of cabinets and were told that there were people available to install. “Members of directbuy all are there to help each other” they were told.
So they paid their membership dues of about $3000 CDN and were very optimistic. They have now finished with the renovations, and actually saved a lot. They are not thinking of remodeling anything else, but i think i will make a few purchases with their card
I never went down for a presentation. I thought a little bit about it. I figured it was either..
1. An expensive buying group
2. A scam
After reading this stuff it appears to be none. Customers seem happy with the company and apparently they are saving big.
I am now going to go to the presentation and check it out
I just saw the infomercial on it and thought I’d look it up. We’re having a house built now and of course it piqued my interest.
I’m glad I read through this, it sounds like customers don’t have many directbuy complaints and that they saved money. I am going to remodel my home so i think that this will be a good option for me.
The company is legit. I have bought and saved tremendously, not my first year but by the second I had broke even and started saving big money.
Now I am at my fifth year and have saved 7000 and change on my purchases. It saved me big at Christmas.
People who are broke should stick to Sams club, you can get your bulk food and Discontinued items there.
But if you want to buy exactly what you want, dont settle and do like I have…Shop Direct Buy.
Besides check out the complaints with any company, everyone has them…check the better business bureau to see that directbuy is not a scam
Hi,
I am a Diretbuy employee and I can tell you none of us get paid to lie about members or anything like that.
Also we don’t make any money of things people buy. The majority of us who work there love our jobs and our members. Plus the majority of us are members too.
Yes you can see the prices on things before you join and if you listen to the people that call you to set up appointments they do tell you that so before you go in find out the prices at stores and then compare them.
We don’t take you out the back door if you don’t join. You walk out the same door you came in. And we do allow you to look at counter tops and cabinets and many other things.
I hope this help,
cheers
I joined Direct Buy today. It just seemed like a good investment for me since i am remodeling my home.
I want to buy brand names but can’t usually afford them. I’ve seen the prices at directbuy and i think i will be able to afford a few brand name appliances etc.
Everyone should know based on online reviews that direct buy is a good deal. If you are not sure about joining the club, just do some research. Type in search engines direct buy complaints or directbuy scam. Read the reviews customers have and you’ll see that the majority are pretty happy with direct buy. I don’t have any directbuy complaints. Actually i am thankful i joined. I saved quite a lot of money.
I went and joined the Directbuy club, only because on the back side of the contract it tells you that you have 30 days to cancel.
So I joined allowing me 30 days for research. And so here i am, and so far i haven’t seen many direct buy complaints. People seem pretty happy with them, so i think i’ll just stay
Some don’t get the point of Directbuy, good luck trying to go to manufacturers and buying direct. GOOD LUCK!!!
Directbuy is an awesome concept that has saved my family not only the initial membership but a significant amount of money. I have not had any major purchases, furniture for two bedrooms as well as one small bathroom accessories. Overall, Directbuy is not for everyone, but if your going to be buying anything for your house in your lifetime it will save you money and open up lots of doors for opportunity.
Robert
This is by far the best comment I’ve read from prospective/current members of DirectBuy.
We just joined & then after reading a few negatives, I’ve begun to have doubts and thought of cancelling — but in fact the “scam” claims seem to all come from non-members.
Indeed, this membership doesn’t make sense unless you are planning plenty of major purchases. We’re building a house and I DO like the fact we can get everything in one place — i’m thoroughly impressed with the selection & the savings are substantial. Customer service seems to be nill — so you have to know what you want, but this is no difference from HD or Lowes or other super-stores. So I’d rather save a little more & do my own research. This is simply a business model that works for a limited group & it seems to upset those not in that group so they bash it — any Econ 101 student knows that inventory is the biggest cost of running a business, naturally this DirectBuy concept will save money in the long-run & it’s just a matter of when you’ll reach that breakpoint. Ours will be within a year, so for us it’s having 9 more years of savings. And we sensed no pressure at our open-house and honest responses all along, even to the tough questions — they gave us pros & cons because, like any business, they want happy clients. As for hard-sells, I got one when I bought my first car… does that mean I’ll never buy a car again? I’ll certainly revise my post if we run into problems, but in essence this is the same concept as fronting some money to buy your own store, and then getting the benefits of self-purchasing that a store-owner would get. Your success or failure is just a product of how much of your own shopping you intend to do.
My Wife and I attended a presentation yesterday night and bought in. DirectBuy is for people building, renovationg or flipping houses…which is what we are doing. The biggest savings are on high ticket items. What you are buying is the right to buy directly from the manufacturer…Something you can’t do easily by yourself and get the same diwcount. We are in the market for a Hottub and was pricing them out localy at around $11,000 dollars for the model we want. Last night at Direct Buy I found the same model with their discount for $5000 That right there paid for the membership. Also the new leather living room set we have been looking for at a local “big box” store was $5500 and the exact same model at DirectBuy is $2200.
This is not for everyone but do not call it a scam. When you get an invite…go online and do your homework, deciude if you are going to be doing any of the above items, then after the presentation decide for yourself. The reason they can’t let you look through all the catalogs etc is that it is information others have paid for and they don’t want people going out and saying hey I can get this for 50% less a here….
Just my 2cents worth
With directbuy you get all of the warranties that manufacuters offer and if you want to get extended warranties you can purchase them directly from all of the manufatures that DB has.
And no my previous comment is not a ploy to get members, I am a member myself who is very happy with the investment that I have made and want to spread the good word.
Roberts
Yes, it is true that there are additional costs when orderiing through Directbuy, which I was told about, and sometimes I really have to consider that before purchasing. But overall I have been satisfied with DirectBuy. I have saved so far $3000.plus on my kitchen cabinets, $900. on an exquisite hanging pot rack, $200. on hanging penants for my island, $1500. on leather livingroom set, and will save additional $2000. on various home furnishings, these savings are within 2 yrs. I like DirectBuy because I use the site as a resource for pricing products when I see something I like and to date the prices have always been significantly lower. The hard thing about it is, I just got back from wondering around town looking for a great deal on night tables because like most, I wanted to buy NOW, and all I could think about was the variety of furniture styles I can view on my computer ( quite often I see the peices in local stores), the quality of garbage that is in the stores, for the same price I could buy better longer lasting products. I am now back at my computer because I like looking instead of driving around. I have an ongoing list of favorites and I like the choices I have. I believe buying furniture or home improvements is an investment and one that you shouldn’t have to buy again.
I have spoken to DirectBuy members that joined prior to, which was in 2004, and they indicated that yearly fees were expensive, and thus prohibitive unless you are planning on buying fairly big item(s) each year.
However, my initial membership cost was a little less that $4,000. I expected that and high pressure sales tactics when I visited the open house. I don’t like those tactics but was prepared for them, so they didn’t bother me too much.
My yearly fee is $99, which is pennies compared to what I can save. My first year I saved around $10,000. Yes that’s correct. I know this because I did my research and found the retail prices of all the items I purchased then compared with what I could buy them at from DirectBuy.
The next year, last year, I began a major remodel project on one of my houses. I saved around $25,000 alone in bath and kitchen cabinetry, not to mention the bath fixtures, wood flooring, and much more. So DirectBuy being a scam is a bunch of BS! You don’t know what you’re talking about. Maybe a few years ago and prior to that it was less cost savings. Now though, it is a great deal, at least for myself. The only major complaint I have is the long lead time for delivery. My Italian leather couches took 4 months to arrive from Italy. That kind of time just sucks, but I save about $5,000 just on those two couches as opposed to buying them in a furniture store that sells that brand. So all in all I’m very pleased with DirectBuy. For those of you who haven’t gone any further than the open house, I can see why you think “it is too good to be true” but make no mistake, there is large markup in many retail items, even when the retailers put them on sale.
DirectBuy is such a great deal. i save a great amount of money~
For some it works out to save them money – but you must buy high dollar items, and buy brands to see most of the savings .
What is the annual fee? I can never find that out.
Why don’t you tell us about your real experience now that you are a member? Have you been pleased with the delivery and the quality and the pricing you are now experiencing being a member? Thanks. ~M
Affiliate Directory and Affiliate Marketing…
Sorry, it just sounds like a crazy idea for me
…
Well we were “invited” to go check them out and thought it would be a good deal but asked if we could think about it and would get back to them and was told NO if you leave here today without buying you can NEVER come back to the place. Very hard selling almost like a gun to your head and you have to make a life or death choice. We signed the papers and put about 400.00 or 500.00 down and could make small monthly payments, after going over everything thought that we should not do this so we called to cancel and was told basiclly to bad you have signed all the papers and you now owe us the money. They are now sending me to a collection company and reporting to my credit report they say.
Today, my wife and I went to the Rocklin, CA, DirectBuy presentation.
I do not need to repeat all the comments given above because they are all true.
The presentation gave prices that the retailers were charging and claimed DB would save significantly.
They used the percent of annual income technique to get people to think in terms of the amount they would save per year. We figured that we were going to save. we did.
Ask yourself this,
If you buy something from a store and ( god forbid ) the item wasnt up to par..what is it worth to be able to take it back to where you purchased it, or better still get it serviced from the store?…does direct buy do this?…so you say it is covered under the manufactures warranty…great…what it worth to you the customer to have the additional service of the store you purchased it at take care of the warranty on their end?..to go through all the BS that the manufacturer requires in order to get the product repaired, or replaced?…isn’t service worth something?
sure, that dishwasher is costing you more…but your not just buying the dishwasher..your buying service, an actual sales person to help you, and you also have a point of sale…some place to help you with problems you may have with it
I visited their website after seeing an ad in Martha Stewart Living, and their ads on tv.
But I am way more savvy than an average consumer, and I did my homework to see if there was a scam.
This site really gave me incite to the company from the customers perspective. We think i am going to join
I have been a member for over 8 yrs and am very happy. I recently bought an entire living room set at DirectBuy for the price of just the sofa at Jordan?s. This way of shopping has helped me buy better quality for a price that I could afford. I didn’t really like the “decide tonight” policy when I joined but now that I am a member I understand why and agree with it. This new way of shopping is definitely for open minded people, so if you are not open to changing the way you buy now, this probably isn’t for you. But for those of you who didn’t even give the program a chance, I think you missed out on a great opportunity.
I have been a member for over 8 yrs and am very happy. I recently bought an entire living room set at DirectBuy for the price of just the sofa at Jordan?s. This way of shopping has helped me buy better quality for a price that I could afford. I didn’t really like the “decide tonight” policy when I joined but now that I am a member I understand why and agree with it. This new way of shopping is definitely for open minded people, so if you are not open to changing the way you buy now, this probably isn’t for you. But for those of you who didn’t even give the program a chance, I think you missed out on a great opportunity.
I have been a member for over 8 yrs and am very happy.
I recently bought an entire living room set at DirectBuy for the price of just the sofa at Jordan?s. This way of shopping has helped me buy better quality for a price that I could afford. I didn’t really like the “decide tonight” policy when I joined but now that I am a member I understand why and agree with it.
This new way of shopping is definitely for open minded people, so if you are not open to changing the way you buy now, this probably isn’t for you. But for those of you who didn’t even give the program a chance, I think you missed out on a great opportunity.
Thank you very much for you comments.I requested a presentation through the website after seeing tv info, but we ‘ll definitely won’t be going to any presentations. It’s really scary. I am sorry for people who got in trouble with this scam.
DirectBuy members get option to back out
The Columbus Dispatch, Columbus, Ohio
February 14, 2008
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/02/14/DIRECT_BUY.ART_ART_02-14-08_C8_2V9BNP0.html?sid=101
DirectBuy members get option to back out
Thursday, February 14, 2008 3:24 AM
By Tracy Turner
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Ohio consumers have gained the right to cancel a contract with DirectBuy, a national membership club with a showroom in central Ohio, if they change their mind within three days.
The agreement was struck between the Ohio attorney general’s office and DirectBuy even though Ohio law doesn’t mandate such a provision, said Melissa Wright, an assistant attorney general.
DirectBuy is a company that sells consumers a membership that allows them to buy home products, electronics and furnishings directly from manufacturers and suppliers. Memberships range from $3,000 to $4,500 for a one- to three-year period, Wright said.
The company agreed to offer Ohio customers the right to cancel their memberships after 90 of them filed complaints with the attorney general, Wright said. Most complaints targeted sales practices that left consumers feeling misled because certain terms and conditions of membership were not disclosed, she said.
“Consumers were told they had to make a decision on the spot after a sales presentation and weren’t allowed to look over the product catalogs before joining,” she said. “They were made to believe they’d get these great discounts, but later realize the savings aren’t as great.”
Wright said consumers also weren’t told that problems with the products or the product delivery would be handled through the individual manufacturers.
She said that the club is “not a scam (because) they do offer a service; our concern was the high-pressure sales tactics” the company used to get customers.
The agreement will “allow consumers more time to make more of a wise decision, see the product catalogs ahead of time and understand that the company doesn’t handle customer service,” Wright said.
“The voluntarily agreement was a huge step that will cut down on complaints,” she said. “We worked with them instead of filing a lawsuit.”
DirectBuy, based in Merrillville, Ind., has more than 90 locations nationwide, with five franchise locations in Ohio, Wright said. That includes a showroom at 2188 Citygate Dr. that the company reopened in October.
A message left with co-owner Mark Lankford was not returned.
Consumers experience this most often with companies that have similar upfront sales practices, said Kip Morse, president of the central Ohio Better Business Bureau.
“While it’s unfortunate that the (company) needed the attorney general’s office to intercede in order to come to this agreement, we think it’s a good move that’s fair to the company and for consumers,” Morse said.
The agreement also calls for DirectBuy to pay the state $20,000 for materials to be used to educate consumers on financial literacy and protecting their rights, Wright said.
Tracy Turner
tturner@dispatch.com“>tturner@dispatch.com
Cancellation periods are measured in business days, and generally they do not begin until the consumer receives written notification of the right to cancel. Business days are Mondays through Saturdays. Sundays and legal holidays are not included.
To cancel a contract, send the seller a written notice of cancellation. You can cancel by mail or by personal delivery. If you cancel by mail, send the letter via certified mail and request a receipt as proof of cancellation. Cancellation is effective upon the date of postmarking. If you personally deliver the cancellation, take it to the appropriate address of the seller and bring a witness. It is not acceptable to send the cancellation notice by fax or by e-mail.
Source: Ohio attorney general’s office
Seems like Directbuy is a bunch of douchebags.
First off, everyone I have read here and anywhere else on the internet is absolutely ignorant. Not because you think DirectBuy is a scam, which it is to some extent, but because you do not know exactly why it is. DirectBuy can save you money, if and ONLY if you purchase a massive amounts of product. The whole concept of DirectBuy is to purchase without retail markup. That’s a great myth, but guess what — there is a 6% handling fee on anything you purchase. That’s a markup my friends, no matter what title you give it. Why would the final price be 6% of the cost of the item… to handle it? Let’s put this into perspective. It would cost $6 to handle a $100 order or flooring tile as where it would cost $60 to handle a $1000 diamond ring. Think about that for a second! $100 worth of flooring tile (very heavy) is quite a bit harder to handle than a small ring, yet it the markup of the ‘handling fee’ of the ring is quite a bit more! DirectBuy works if you know how to work it, but the idea that it has NO retail markup is absolutely a lie. Take it from me, someone who has worked at DirectBuy in the Dallas Texas market for many years. Simple math, let’s say membership costs $4,900 and the average savings is 35%. That would mean you must spend $14,000 to break even with retail to make the membership dues even worth it. Tack on the 6% handling fee’s, you must now pay $14,840 to break even. If you plan on paying anything less than that for things for in and around your home, membership costs are a waste of time and money on the customers/members behalf. So, DirectBuy works for those remodeling a home, where it would cost 30 grand, but for the average Joe it’s completely NOT worth it (regardless of what the damn salesman says). People, do your math before hand, educate your self, and stop voting for Bush-like presidents!
To be perfectly honest, any place that requires a signature and financial commitment before you’ve had a chance to fairly compare prices in the market they speak with such disdain about. From their own website,
“We ask for your decision after attending an Open House. This policy is in place out of respect for our members, manufacturers and the retail industry. It prevents consumers from asking traditional retailers to match DirectBuy prices.”
There is no respect here… and God forbid there be competition from legitimate businesses who might “match” these prices.
Imagine being forced to bring your wife or husband because of some arcane “policy” … I guess the hope there is one of the two will be a weak customer and talk the other one into it.
I can’t imagine spending the next 10 years of my life trying desperately to recoup over $6000 “investment” trying to buy enough stuff at the right deal so I could feel good about myself again.
The scam artists who comment on here allegedly as “happy customers” always seem to quote their Better Business Bureau rating… by the letter of the law I guess they are obeying the rules once they get your signature onto a document, but clearly this company is anti-competitive, anti-free market, and by any definition violates the spirit of “buy direct and save” that most people expect.
I joined Direct Buy yesterday.
The big thing that sold me was windows. Here in Central New York state, we have a local window manufacturer called Comfort Windows and in February, I purchased 6 triple pane, low-e, argon windows for roughly $780 each. The guy taking me around the showroom gave me a ballpark figure of $250 for the same specification window from Direct Buy. I looked over it carefully and it was constructed in every way like my $780 Comforts were. I have 7 more windows to buy for the house so I will save roughly $3600 when I buy them from Direct Buy which will almost pay for the 3 year membership itself! The only thing is, I have to get them installed, but I’m sure I can find someone to do it for $500 or so….. still saving plenty.
Me and my wife just bought the house and we have to gut the kitchen and a bathroom down to the rafters so I expect for the membership to pay for itself over time. Plus, we are considering flipping houses in the future so this would be perfect. We weren’t too sure if they would allow this because they don’t want you to resell items for a profit, but flipping is actually encouraged. In fact, there was a couple there filming a commercial for DB that are flippers. Things like tile, carpet, hardwoods, windows, counters, bathtubs can all be had at supposedly cheap prices compared to retail.
Before I buy anything, I will still do my homework. They say that members are seeing the manufacturers actual catalogs and price lists. Also, don’t be fooled by MSRP. No retailer sells anything for MSRP. DB gets their savings percentage from MSPR and probably not retail. They had a copy of an actual Best Buy ad with a washer and dryer that sold for $1099 each. DB had the pair for about $1300 so there is a clear savings. Also, retail stores do not have anything to do with a warranty. If you have a problem with a product after the store’s return policy, then you have to deal with the manufacturer.
In the end, I do expect to save thousands but that is because of the volume of product I will be buying. If you are just buying some furniture or a bedroom set, than DB is probably not for you. If you are starting fresh with a new house or are flipping, it will probably be worth it in the long run.
I got a Direct Buy membership after learning about DB from a high school friend who works there.
I was lucky enough to be better informed. I
found out all about the one time sales pitch before hand from my friend. I strongly disagree with their sales tactics but I do see the point. My friend has related plenty of horror stories of how a visitor drives over to Future Shop and demands a new plasma at cost right after the visit. Heck, he has gotten angry calls from Future Shop about impatient members who do the same thing. The Ottawa location lost a garden supplies provider when a member took a confidential Direct Buy quote and drove over and demanded the same price so she could save delivery time. Her membership was revoked and that business dropped DB as a sales channel. She violated the rules and other members lose out (we cannot access that supplier). Yet she is probably going to be complaining on a forum like this soon.
When I joined, I had him price out different items I intended to buy which allowed me gauge my potential return. Lastly, I found out that since all DB locations are franchises, each one has a different membership fee. The newest locations tended to have the lowest fees but the highest annual renewal fees. Luckily one of these new locations was in my area. So I purchased the membership for around $3500 CAD in Aug 2006. I plan on renewing at a location with a cheaper annual rate. Find a new location, and you will definitely not have to pay $6000.
I have benefited immensely from this membership. I bought a new condo and I did purchase all my furniture and appliances from Direct Buy. By my estimation, within 2 years I have recovered my fee. They had all the brands and the models, the type of furniture (a Nicoletti couch – only sold in Montreal) and rare items I could not find (an LG combo washer/dryer that was withdrawn from retail). In fact, I am always overwhelmed by the amount of choice (for example colours and materials on furniture) that I have at DB.
The location I joined at, advised potential customers not to join unless they had major purchases and were likely to recover their investment. The reality of DB is that it takes some compromise and elbow grease on your part to enjoy those savings. This means you have to do the research before you buy. You have to pick up and install purchases yourself. And you have to have items you need to buy, (ie major appliances or home improvement items) or non-traditional items (like the aforementioned combo washer/dryer) that you would like to have. And you have to have major purchases to make. Unless, you are likely to purchase at least 15 000 dollars worth of merchandise in the next two years, you are unlikely to recover a satisfying portion of your membership.
In my experience (and having inside knowledge from an employee), those who complain have entirely unrealistic expectations and a poor understanding of how DB and retailers operate. The fact that many contractors use DB says plenty about how cost effective they are. But there are bound to be compromises. You don’t get the brand you want sometimes , they don’t sell low end merchandise, you cant return anything (they are not a store with a warehouse, they are a club), and you have to cart it away yourself or pay for delivery. If you want to join you have to weigh these issues out. If you are choosy on brands (ie Sony is not offered but Samsung is), DON’T JOIN. If you need to visit a showroom to buy an item, DON’T JOIN. If you need to talk to sales people, and you are not an independent shopper, DON’T JOIN. If you want everything to delivered the next day after you pay for it, DONT JOIN. If you don’t like to set up and install things yourself, DONT JOIN. And if you have no major purchases to make, DON’T JOIN. If you are satisfied shopping at Walmart and Ikea, DONT JOIN. Direct Buy does not carry brands that can compete on price with gypsum board furniture.
Lastly, your expectations have to be realistic. Electronics tend to have markups of only 15-25%. The Direct Buy price compares well on the cost price for many electronics at retailers like Best Buy (I have a cousin who works there and I have compared prices). Occasionally, however, retailers like Best Buy do sell below cost so it will be cheaper to shop there than DB. This is however, the exception, not the rule. With items like furniture, or home improvement and building materials there is no comparison. Italian made furniture sells for 30-40% of the retail price. Granite counters go for half the price of outside contractors with more choice of materials and finishes. Tires for my car are over half off. On a set of winter tires, that over $600 in savings. A single purchase like that every year, could recover your membership value over time.
In short, you have to time and effort to put in, to truly materialize savings. And you have to money to spend. DB is not meant for bargain basement shoppers. It is meant for those who are value conscious (not price conscious – there is a difference), who make informed decisions and take the long view of purchases they make (granite counters add value to your house, a new plasma tv does not). If you are not this type of person, do yourself, the staff and other members a favour, and stay out of the showroom. The rest of us have some shopping to do.
So, what specific written guarantees of savings,if any, does Direct buy provide?
We have been members of Directbuy in Calgary since 1999.
I agree that customer service could improve but so could it in the regular retail market.
We joined to save money on a kitchen reno and we did. We saved enough to pay for the original Fee plus an additional $10K.
Just this year we purchased a Leather sectional that was $3800 @ the brick on sale, and got it through directbuy for $1900. Apples to Apples.
We will continue to be members.
Our 2 cents.
I know a lot about Direct Buy(D.B.). I worked there. I will state the truth as I know it.
If you are going to build a house you would be foolish not to use D.B. If you are going to buy T.V., regular stove, or refer, everyone has a sale on those items.
If you are well off and need to spend some of that money D.B. will allow you buy for what the stores pay for it plus an 8% handling charge and shipping.
The savings are real because D.B. has no profit. The profit is in the up front fee. If you have 26 employees and no profit how are they going to be paid? The up front fee.
Can it be a bad decision for you? Yes. If you don’t have money to spend how are you going to save?
Can it be a good decision for you? Yes. Either you are building a house or have money to spend to make use of the saving potenital.
If your remodeling and going to spend $15,000 you save the up front fee on the order. It only costs about a $1.70 a day over ten years to be a member. Its that simple.
How is it hard. Its not. It$ real. Really it i$.
This company is nation wide. As far as I can tell you do not sign up in a van , in some dark alley. IT HAS TO BE LEGIT!
But the people who hate it- must not UNDERSTAND how it works. Maybe DirectBuy should start a idiot program. You know, have a contract with pop-ups, and have the potential members sign with crayons.
Because you would have to be an idiot- to not WANT to save money! You would have to be an idiot to NOT GET what DirectBuy is about, and how it works.
So Sorry-I hope the money you save by not joining, can buy you some brains.
No, not a scam. DirectBuy isn’t a store, so they don’t have a store warranty. The warranty is from the manufacturer. Just like if you bought a new car, the warranty on the car comes from the manufacturer and not the dealer.
The no return policy is tough, but they are up front about this. You have the opportunity to inspect the product when you receive it and reject it at pickup. If you take it home, you can’t send it back unless you are making a warranty claim to the manufacturer. Again, this is because DirectBuy is not a store and doesn’t manage inventory and returns.
As for suppliers changing their prices, this is a fact of reality. If GE raises or lowers their price on a dishwasher, DirectBuy may not get notified until you place the order and GE reports back that their price sheets have changed. This is pretty rare, but again because DirectBuy isn’t a store and stocks no inventory, they have no way to honor a manufacturers old prices if they change suddenly.
These are not things DirectBuy hides, they are clear that you are dealing directly with the manufacturer and there is no store inbetween you to provide services such as managing inventory or processing your warranty claims on your behalf. If you can accept this higher level of uncertainty and overhead on your part, then your reward is significantly lower prices. It’s a tradeoff some will make and others will not.
The idea is that manufacturers like Whirlpool or Lexington Furniture don’t normally sell direct to consumer, they sell to wholesalers or retailers that buy in bulk or guarantee volume.
Manufacturers sell to wholesalers and retailers at lower margins than they would if selling direct-to-consumer because the high volume more than offsets the lower margin.
So how can a consumer buy something at that low margin wholesale price? DirectBuy aggregates individual consumers and negotiates a deal with manufacturers to represent a bunch of individuals as if those individuals were one retail store. The manufacturer won’t agree to sell to one person at a low price, because the volume isn’t there. But if enough people band together, then the volume makes sense.
So DirectBuy offers this service and in exchange wants an up-front fee. If they dindn’t charge it up-front, you could joing the club for one week and order everything you ever wanted and then quit the club. They would never be able to stay in business with no one actually paying their membership dues and quitting after one week.
Since the fee is up-front and is high, joining only makes sense for folks that have a lot of major purchases to make which will more than offset the cost of the membership. Typically this is folks furnishing or remodeling a large home. Those with smaller homes or who do not need to buy a lot of new high-margin goods won’t benefit.
Does that make sense now or are you still confused? I’m not a DirectBuy fanboy and not an employee, just trying to explain that there is a rationale for the DirectBuy business model and it does make sense for them and most of their customers if you actually take the time to think about it.
Hi ,
Me and my husband recently purchased a home. We had some furniture from the apartment we lived. but we still needed more as we were moving into a house.
I saw the direct buy advertisment and thought of checking it out with my husband.
As everyone said we too got the shock of the membership fee… Since they gave us a 3 day period after taking an amount from our hands, we decided to join.
We are an average family and the membership fee is high for us.We went to other furniture stores around us and took a look at the ones we wanted. We made the math, and were happy we joined to direct buy. If you are not sure, read direct buy reviews and you’ll see that most of them are quite positive
Secretive DirectBuy Can Save, But Is It For You?
Consumer Watchdog: George Gombossy
May 11, 2008
Watchdog, Hartford Courant, 285 Broad St., Hartford, CT 06115
http://www.courant.com/business/hc-watchdog0511.artmay11,0,3450527.column
A Snippet:
If you don’t like the product, tough. You are stuck with it. DirectBuy unlike retail stores has a no-return policy and provides no warranties.
Sales books are not always up to date, and not every item is always available.
More disturbing to me is that DirectBuy attempts to hide the fact that not all savings it sees from manufacturers are passed on directly to members.
By reviewing the 260-plus page agreement with its franchise owners, I learned that DirectBuy reserves “the right to keep rebates, discounts and other payments from manufacturers and suppliers.”
It also keeps early-pay discounts, and all DirectBuy purchases are paid by the member at the time of ordering.
http://www.courant.com/business/hc-watchdog0511.artmay11,0,3450527.column
We’ve been a member now for almost a year and we’ve been very happy.
We did sign up and we were both skepticle and not sure if the investment was worth it and if I would actually find the savings to recoupe it.
We like to shop, compare prices on the internet,retail, closeouts, amazon etc. After almost 1 year our savings have covered our investment, so even if I didn’t buy much, I’m content.
The largest savings so far was on furniture. We saved 4K alone on the furniture set. High end stuff from Stanley furniture that will last a lifetime.
As others have said, if you are not going to spend 10-15K or more on stuff, then the membership is not always worth it, however if you plan on renovating, there are some major savings to be had.
You also need to look at this as a long term investment. Over the next 10 years do you plan on buying furniture, a reno, etc… then this will be a good investment.
You always get someone on the phone, they reply to email right away and have solved mix ups with our orders.
I only wish I became a member sooner instead of spending 5K on my leather couch and ottoman. Damn!
Thanks so much for all the info. on DirectBuy. I had already called for their brochure and am planning to visit a showroom in the next couple of weeks.
I am excited about building my home and wanted to try to save money on furniture, flooring etc.
thanks for all the comments. we have been getting calls to go to the presentation, but it is a 2 hour drive and haven’t had the time. Sounds like a good deals but the store is a bit far for us…
Went to the presentation today, could smell a rat as soon as we walked in. Hadn’t found this website before the visit and might have signed up if it wasn’t for the it’s now or never technique. Made it out without throwing away money, found this website and now can sleep well tonight!
I?ve been a member of Direct Buy now for about 10 months. I?ve actually only placed 2 orders to date, although I am in the process of remodeling my home and really thought I?d be using the ?service? a lot more.
My first order was for a few kitchen cabinets, when we remodeled the laundry room. I ordered the Kraftmaid cabinets, and my total order was about $700, which was a $2,100 Kraftmaid price. OK? so that was a pretty good savings.
HERE’S THE THING, DIRECTBUY IS NOT FOR THE AVERAGE CONSUMER. WE ARE BUILDING A HOUSE, AND I HAVE ALREADY RECOUPED MY $5900 BACK THAT I PAID TO JOIN.
I HAD 2 ESTIMATES FOR WINDOWS FROM 2 CONTRACTORS AND WITH DIRECTBUY I SAVED OVER $3000. DIRECTBUY, ON MY REQUEST, SENT A WINDOW REP TO ME. HE WAS LOCAL AND DID A FANTASIC JOB ON INSTALLING THE HIGH END WINDOWS.
I PURCHASED A WOOD BURNING FIREPLACE AND SAVED $600 FROM THE PRICE I WAS QUOTED ELSEWEAR. I PICKED IT UP AT DIRECTBUY, AND FOUND THE SERVICE GOOD
RECENTLY I WENT TO PICK OUT FLOORING AND APPLIANCES. ALL VERY HIGH END. I HAD SHOPPED EVERYWHERE TO GET THE BEST PRICE, BUT DIRECTBUY SAVED ME $12500 FROM WHAT I WAS GOING TO SPEND ELSEWEAR.
SO FAR I HAVE SAVED OVER $21000. BY THE TIME I AM FINISHED I AM LOOKING AT SAVING OVER $65000 IN COST TO BUILD MY HOUSE, MINUS THE $5900 FEE THAT’S $59000, ENOUGH TO PUT IN A POOL AND GET SOME NEW FURNITURE!!!!
I BOUGHT A COUCH 6 MONTHS BEFORE I JOINED AND PAID $1500 FOR IT, AT DIRECTBUY THE EXACT COUCH IS $600, WITH NO FEES.
THE POINT: IT’S NOT FOR EVERYONE. IF YOU ARE DOING A MAJOR REMODEL, OR NEW CONSTRUCTION, YOU WILL SAVE A HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY, BUT IF YOU ARE JUST USING DIRECTBUY FOR LITTLE PURCHASES, IT WILL TAKE SOMETIME TO RECOUPE YOUR INVESTMENT.
ALSO I WILL ADD THAT YOU HAVE TO BE A SAVIE SHOPPER AT DIRECTBUY. SOME ITEMS HAVE 3-8% FEES, I SIMPLY DO NOT BUY THOSE ITEMS. HERE’S A EXAMPLE:
ON FAUCETS, I WANTED A CERTAIN LOOKING BATHROOM FAUCET THAT IS COMMON LOOK, THREE COMPANIES CARRY IT, SO I LOOKED FOR THE COMPANY THAT DID NOT HAVE THE MARK UP.
SOME COMPANIES ONLY GIVE A SMALL DISCOUNT OFF OF RETAIL, BUT WHILE I WAS IN THE PHASE OF RECOUPING THE $ I PAID TO JOIN, I STUCK TO THE NO MARKUP COMPANIES.
AS FAR AS PRESURE TO JOIN, THAT JUST DEPENDS ON WHAT KIND OF CONSUMER YOU ARE. I WOULD NEVER BUY A TIMESHARE, AND THEY COULD PUT THEIR BEST ON ME, AND IT’S STILL NO, BUT IF YOU ARE A WEAKER TYPE, THEN YOU MAY WANT TO BE SURE YOU WANT TO JOIN BEFORE YOU GO. THE REASON YOU CAN NOT GO BACK TO JOIN AFTER PRESENTATION IS BECAUSE YOU ARE GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO LOOK THROUGH ALL THE CATALOGS OF THE PRICE AND COMPANIES THAT ARE AVAILABLE BEFORE JOINING. DIRECTBUY HAS MADE A DEAL WITH THE SUPPLIERS THAT NO ONE COULD GO JUST TO CHECK PRICES, BECAUSE THE RETAILERS WOULD BE PISSED. AND EVERYONE WOULD DO IT. SO WHAT IF YOU WENT IN CHECK THE PRICE OF A VIKING RANGE, THEN WENT TO A RETAILER AND TOLD THEM THAT YOU WANT THEM TO LOWER THE PRICE TO WHOLESALE OR YOU WILL GO TO DIRECTBUY. BY THE WAY, FOR THE ONE I ORDERED I SAVED $3800.
Direct Buy is beneficial to people who see themselves spending 8-10k. So if ur looking to buy a sofa, obviously they wouldnt be for u. Do your research. Direct buy generates over 70 members a month. People think they know what theyre talking about. All of the prices they show u are not bogus they pull the right out of the manufacturs catalogs and theyre are over 900 brand names. Of course there is a membership fee, how else would they make their money. Ive been a member for 14 years and im still satisfied as i was when i first joined
Went to a presentation tonight. Wife set it up, and knew I should’ve done a Google search before we went so see if there was a scam, so i didn’t worry about it.
Anyway, if you are planning to make a lot of big home upgrade/furnishing purchases in the near future, this is a great idea.
The idea of flippers using the service also seems like a good one.
we just needed a few things to remodel our place, but we still saved money.
DirectBuy Sued
A federal lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court in Hartford against the national high-end DirectBuy franchise operation, accusing it of falsely telling prospective clients that they are getting furniture, appliances and other household products at manufacturer prices.
In a lawsuit filed by attorney Seth R. Klein of Hartford, DirectBuy is accused of hiding the fact that DirectBuy receives rebates from manufacturers which are not directly passed on to their members, who pay as much as $7,000 to join for two or three years.
The lawsuit, which seeks to be certified as a class action representing thousands of present and former members of the more than 100 franchises, was filed earlier this month.
It follows a May 11 Watchdog column on DirectBuy that disclosed the rebates, which are kept secret from its members and from those it entices to join through high pressure sales techniques.
DirectBuy officials had no comment on the suit but had said earlier that it uses the millions of dollars it received in rebates to the benefit of its members.
We will see what a jury has to say about that.
Just bought a new home which needs major furnishing. did a lot of pricing on furniture that we wanted to buy before going to their sales pitch, and it was out of our price range. that same furniture is now in our price range due to the membership w/ these guys. i agree, it’s not for everyone, and they were very upfront with us explaining it doesn’t make sense for someone to buy this membership if they don’t have major purchases to make. all the shipping/handling fees were explained up front as well for their merchandise per transaction. sounds like many people got wool pulled over their eyes, but we saw MANY people going through catalogs while they were there, etc., and happy faces. the place wouldn’t be packed/ w all these happy customers if it was a SCAM for them. also, check out each franchises’s better business bureau rating. the one i went to was in very good standing. you have to do your homework people!!! only one to blame for falling for something is yourself if you haven’t done your research.
My husband and I just joined in July and are looking to remodel a small bathroom to start with. We priced everything we would need at lowes and then we went to DB ready to save hundreds if not thousands of dollars. We were shocked to see that we would actually be paying hundreds more at DB for just one item than what we would be paying for everything at Lowe’s. They never said anything to us about a 3 day cool off period or even that they carry only high end products but they sure made it clear that either you join now or don’t ever come back. I feel like such a fool for allowing them to scam me like this. Does anyone out there know of a way to get out of this? I read that there was a directbuy membership lawsuit somewhere. I also read on a different blogging site that if you call the main office of directbuy and then send them a certified letter that you could possibly get a refund.
So in summary, one can really save money by using DB, but only if one is planning to purchase tens of thousands of dollars worth of items in the near future. That seems reasonable to me.
But what I don?t like are 1.) The $5,000 or so up-front fee. 2.) The inability to compare prices BEFORE joining. 3.) Having to go through the catalogs to place orders. 4.) The fact that DB does not accept returns nor handle warranties.
If one wants to spend $35,000 just to save $5,000 (actual numbers vary) and waste hours and hours going back and forth to look through catalogs, then join DB. For those who state that one can spread the membership fee over several years of membership savings, there are concepts called opportunity cost and time value of money to consider.
Opportunity cost: If you spent hours going back and forth to look at catalogs and following up on your order, what else could you have been doing with that time? Would your time be more valuable working a second job or spending it with your family? It does seem that you?ll save money, but you have to do a lot of leg work. What if an appliance you purchase breaks down? You can?t just call the local Best Buy or Sears for an exchange.
Time value of money: Thinking that spending $5,000 today to save $5,000 over five or ten years doesn?t account for the time value of money. Using 3% per year for inflation, $5,000 today is worth $5,796 in five years and $6,720 in ten years. You can take the $5,000 and invest it in just about anything and more than 3% return.
DB is not entirely a scam, but it?s only useful to a limited audience. Understand the facts stated on this site and decide for yourself.
Well I’m confused. If DB is keeping discounts and rebates and not passing them on to the prepaid purchases, then exactly what savings are you getting. No wonder DB wants to keep their business practices secret. What a scam!
DO NOT GET DIRECT BUY They sure DO NOT care about people at all just your money. very shortly after we were convinced to sign up . I found out I had M. S. and the med’s for it are VERY expensive. then my husband plant closed down and he lost his job we tryed to call them a few times to see if we can just get out of the contract . THEY NEVER CALL BACK they tell you someone will call you then they NEVER Do after almost a year we even tried to call the bank they set up the payments with they would not even help us . there shoulds be something in there if you lose your job or Med reason they should let you out of payments ALL THEY CARE ABOUT IS THERE MONEY .What about the people times are really tough for everyone right now . WE NEVERED USED IT .If they were any kind of a real business they would let us out of our contract.. IF THERE IS ANYONE THAT KNOWS A WAY TO HELP US PLEASE LET US KNOW. ERNIESTEPH@AOL.COM
such a GREAT DEAL!
Thanks to all the posters
Thanks a lot for the information presented.
We were thinking of attending to an open house
I am a DB member in Walla Walla (Washington) and like in all aspects of dealing with sales, there are knowledgeable folks and some not quite so. Thankfully, each of the DB centers I’ve dealt with had a couple of very knowledgeable staff to speak with. So far, with two years of membership under my belt, it has been a pleasant experience.
Two tips: Work with a designer, DB allows limited access for designers. Secondly, research what you need in advance. Pretty simple to do nowadays with the internet.
Finally, I have had to return two items. Both were cabinets damaged while in freight. I immediately documented the damage and contacted the company. They sent out the replacement cabinets immediately without having to send the original cabinets back. The service was very professional and pain-free.
We are getting ready to build a house in about a year and have been reading all the pro and con opinions about Direct buy. We have an appt to visit the showroom this weekend.
My husband and I attended a Direct Buy “Open House” back in October after seeing one of their commercials on TV. We actually knew very little about the company and had no idea what to expect. These days, there are many deals but there are also many scams, so we wanted to check it out ourselves.
We started watching the sales pitch/video and then they mentioned a $5000 membership fee. We thought that it was a little high, but they told us that if we were going to remodel our house, it will be worth it.
We had a few rooms to renovate, including the kitchen. We thought about it and a few days later we came back and joined the club. it just made sens to us since we had a lot to buy.
We did save money so, we can’t complain!
Very interesting. Just came back from a little visit over to the local Direct Buy store today and after the normal pleasantries, was told to quickly read the last page of the information packet they had sent before heading into the orientation. “What?”, I said. “I have to decide on the spot whether to become a member if I receive information and if I decline I cannot come back for seven years?” “Yes”, she said. “No”, I said, “I don’t do business that way. I am a contemplative person and if I can’t mull over the information provided, then no thanks. Bye.” THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME WHY I CONTEMPLATE BEFORE I ACT!! I will pass this site along to anyone I ever hear mention the name “Direct Buy”.
I recently purchased a new home and I need to buy a BUNCH of things; gave everything to my cheating wife when I got divorced, just to get out. Anyway, a friend casually mentioned DB so I decided to check it out. I have already bought a dinette set and ordered a bedroom set and leather sofa and chair from an online company with a physical presence in South Carolina. I’m not sure what I am and am not allowed to say here on the website but without knowing ANYTHING about DB except what I’ve learned here, I AM going to go hear their speal (just for fun) and watch them squirm when they see I’ve gotten manufacturer’s direct pricing WITHOUT a membership.
I am a computer programmer in MD and I have NOTHING vested in the company I used. But if you need any kind of furniture, I recommend you contact Diana at Furnituregeek.com. Her email address is diana.m@furnituregeek.com. Furniture Geek is an online presence of a company called Bosmith out of Florence, SC. Do what I did….google them, check the BBB, search EVERYWHERE about this company. I cannot find ANYTHING bad about this company. They list all of their manufacturers on their website but they do not list ALL of their prices; you DO have to contact them to get the prices and they will only share them over the phone…but there is NO Pressure sales; you get the price, sleep on it and decide whenever. But I will say this, I found the Kincaid bedroom set I wanted at a Kincaid Furniture Gallery showroom for $5,600 not including taxes and shipping. I gave the same model numbers to Diana and she got me the entire set for $4,200…no membership fee required. Did I mention the $4,200 INCLUDES shipping into my house and placed WHERE I WANT IT, IN THE ROOM I WANT IT. White Glove delivery. A Broyhill leather sofa, chair and ottoman I found on sale at a local place for $3,000 plus taxes and shipping. I just ordered it friday from Diana for $2,100…shipped. Like I said, I have NOTHING vested in furnituregeek.com. I was just SO blown away by their prices, I think everyone should know about them. The fact that Diana came in on her day off to email me the dimensions of the furniture so I could see if it would fit in my house was icing on the cake for me…impressed me beyond belief…you just DON’T get that kind of customer service anymore. Good shopping and happy holidays.
My husband went in and signed the contract. Thank goodness for CA state’s buyer’s remorse policy. Three days and you can opt out of a purchase. We opted out.
We have been trying to get contracter’s out to remodel a bathroom with no luck. We thought that maybe Direct Buy could help us do it ourselves. We were desperate, willing to pay the up front fee of $5,000.
We mulled it over for three days and said what the heck. Did we see anything? Do we know what we are getting? How do we know if we are saving- because a salesman told us we would? Who goes into business with someone who is not willing to show you what they are selling- I guess we almost did!
When we went back to cancel the policy they explained then that they would allow us to take a few more days to review what was available. Could they have not told us that the night we signed up- or do they fear if given time to think you may say no. Professionally and personally I don’t trust them.
Everyone burned by Direct Buy should simply take some of their free time and start filling out their Free Insider’s guide on their website with false info. At worst you will make them waste their time calling people that don’t exist. I just bet if enough people did this, they would end up wasting a lot of time and money – just like so many people on this site. With enough motivation, you could even find a software developer that would be more than happy to write a little program to flood their site with thousands of fake names and phone numbers. In fact, I might just get motivated to do this myself. I hate companies that prey on innocent people for their own gain and profit. Watch out DB, here I come.
For those of you that have been to a presentation – fine, you are entitled to your own opinion and if you are not doing a ton of stuff – like even just one room – then sure that might not be good for you. BUT, think about it … when was the last time you bought an iPod, or Microwave, or Washer/Dryer that lasted more than 10 maybe even 15 years? Probably not since the 70′s because they don’t make then as well any more on purpose because they want you to “like their product just long enough that you will come back to their company, but not too long – because they need you to make another purchase!” Also – now a days, if you have something that is even just 3 years old, the technology changes sooooo fast and so drastically that you have to “keep up” and buy the more improved, more efficient, better product.
ALL THAT TO SAY – You’re not only buying 1 rooms worth of stuff – you’re going to buy a whole lot more over time. If you’re 70 years old, sure this might not be for you… but if you are in your late 20s to 60s you’re AT LEAST going to make it back in full + some. And that is conservative statement. I told my husband, “Bed Bath and Beyond, Sears, Car dealers, Best Buy, etc. are places I never have to shop at again and pay their prices. I get it all AT COST from DB and I get ALL THE OPTIONS I want. I don’t have to just take my pick from what their BUYER thought would be popular, no! I get to choose EVERYTHING. Overwhelming? For some. BUT – if that is not your thing, ask for help! Their staff is more than willing, they are not pushy towards a more expensive product because they are not paid commission. For example: We are doing our ENTIRE kitchen – floor to ceiling, including appliances. Cabinets are not something I know a whole TON about, but I did know I would not sacrafice true quality and I knew what I wanted it to look like. What do I do? Go talk to my cabinet girl @ DB and pick out style, color, glaze, all the nuts and bolts and then say, “but I don’t want to spend more than ______.” So, since she is a trained professional (ie went to college for this, not just someone that applied @ a big box and was trained on a computer program) and knows all the differences between partical board and cherry, and can come back with something way UNDER what I wanted to spend in the 1st place. I’m pretty sure that pays for itself. Oh and did I mention that I don’t have to pay to sit down and talk to her … nope – included in membership – wow, I get to talk to someone who actually knows what she is talking about!
A lady in the blog earlier asked “Why don’t we hear about this from contractors?” My response would be … REALLY LADY!? They have to make money and they can’t just get it on their labor (even though we all know they stretch that as far as they can) and they have to stay in business too right!? Of course they won’t tell you – they keep the “discount” which isn’t even a discount per say – you just don’t pay the jacked up retail price for all the overhead they have to cover, you buy directly from the manufacturer.
To sum up – yes this is good for A LOT OF PEOPLE, and yes it is not the right choice for others. That is something for you and your family to discuss.
I did go to their presentation here in Vancouver Canada. I’m telling you, unless you are out to spend 40G on your appliances and other stuff, it is not going to save you enough money to worth the while. I went through the presentation. After that the salesperson comes to me and try his hard to get to me to register, saying “this is the only chance you have ….”, “you can’t come back later …”!! It seemed really like a polices state. I had a hard time to excuse myself and get the hell out!
Imagine you have to pay at least 5G upfront!
I just didn’t like it. Period!
I went to a presentation and did the math. They claim their customers save an average of 30%.
i have to remodel my place and think i will be able so save even more!
Hey..we were looking to buy a couple of things, sofa, dining set, big tv, kids bedroom furniture, so we actually called one of the direct buy places in tx .
where did you guys see most of the savings?
Thanks for this blog and the comments from ppl. I was looking at DB to save money for furnishing my new house.
This sounds like a great option!
My husband and I purchased a foreclosed home. Although the process was daunting, the home was well worth it. Unfortunately, the home was let-go and needed a ton of remodeling. My father, who is a retired home builder, is helping with the remodeling and asked us if we ever visited a Direct Buy. We hadn’t, so I checked them out online and called our local DB location. The female representative invited me to their open house and i went.
Overall, the employees were nice, they were very helpful to me. I joined the club and i am now remodeling the house. So far the service has been good, don’t have any complaints about that. I am starting to see the savings coming, but still nee to renovate a lot.
THANK YOU to Brad and everyone who has given their feedback.
I just signed up to get an info packet online. Then I did a little research. After viewing the “consumer reviews” site, i am going to schedule an appt
My husband and I just attended a DB presentation this past weekend. My husband and I was impressed by the presentation, and the customer service. I expected that there would be a high cost to join because in the info packet they sent us it did say there is a fee however it did not give the amount. Initially I said $5000 my husband did not think it would be that much. The cost was $6400 for 3yrs, $200 per yr for each yr after. We were still ok because the presentation had really got us. They showed us articles of products and compared prices and savings. We were still hooked. We agreed to purchase membership, signed documents and left the store. Because we had a 45min drive back home we started thinking…we pay $6400 for a membership for 3yrs and still have to buy furniture, household items etc. You’re not saving if you have to buy into something in order to get the savings. We decided that if its something that we really want and we cannot afford that would would save up for it instead. In the presentation they kept discussing retail markups which we all pay even doing business with DB. Difference is you pay DB $6400 retail markup upfront before you get any merchandise. Here’s the kicker…
The next day my husband called DB advised them that we would like to cancel, the representative he spoke to said we cannot cancel unless we come back into the store and return all the items we received. The only thing we received was a small catalog and membership package. After you join there is another orientation you have to attend which is scheduled at a later date. So I got on the phone read the back of the contract we signed and advised the representative that this is our official telephone notice advising them that we are canceling our contract and that we will follow up with written notice, which we faxed and also mailed out. She seemed totally confused because she realized that we were enforcing their contract so she transferred me to another department…guess what, voicemail. I did leave a message…we will see how long it will take for us to receive our refund for our initial payment also hopefully they do not attempt to take the postdated payment we agreed to pay within 30 days.
THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! WE WERE JUST GETTING READY TO JOIN>
THANKS SOOOOOO MUCH FOR THE ADVISORY
I saw the commercial. Thought it might be interesting to call. So, I did. Like I read in another blog, the woman on the phone was only interested in taking my personal info and making me an appointment. I said, OK I’ll bite.
I thought that there could be a directbuy scam of some sort just because the prices they advertise are so good.
Well I went, and the presentation was pretty good. They explain a few things and show you prices. you can also talk to someone that helps you with the design.
Overall i had a nice experience there, didn’t feel pressured to join at all. I wanted to see reviews before joining, so here i am. So far i don’t see to many direct buy complaints, so i think that i will join the club!
Thanks to everyone who has had experience with DirectBuy and share their story.
I just received an invitation and will be attending the OH. I’ll come back to write my experience!
We went to the presentation and bought the membership because we were looking at remodeling a kitchen.
We later learned that in order to get the kitchen “quote” we had to schedule one session with a $100.00 fee to understand their products and then a second session with a $350.00 fee to design the kitchen. The fees would be refundable. They just wanted to give us design advice, which we appreciated and then they refunded us.
We have bought a couple small appliances, and that’s were we found a lot of savings.
Its been about three to four years when I signed up with DB. At the time I was starting to construct a house in Lancaster Texas and its seemed like it would save thousands. Shortly after that I started hard on shopping for prices on windows, cabinets, restroom fixtures, granite counter tops, doors, flooring, furniture etc. of course comparing apples to apples. We found that direct buy almost for every item had better prices, so I can tell you that there is no direct buy scam. So any way my house is 99% complete, I shopped for quality and pricing. I was able to invest close to 150k on a close to 300k house.
we just got back from our “Open House,” and joined. We are remodeling our home top to bottom, so i think we will be able to save a lot of money with direct buy
I joined 3 years ago when I decided to build a new house – to be quite honest, I have recovered the member ship cost very quickly since i need a lot of things for my new house.
My biggest single savings were derived from the cabinets. I can understand that people that join the club and not needed to buy much can have direct buy complaints, but if you are like me, you can save big
My husband and I did not buy a membership. Savings may be possible for some but as a general rule. We are both sophisticated business people and when my husband was challenging them on the math, they said “just think of the fabulous savings”. As first time homebuyers, we need to feel pretty certain about the near-term value proposition so that we could live with ourselves for giving them $5,000 in a cash, they said I was being overly “emotional” and not looking at the logic of big, big savings. The truth is that we were just looking to buy furniture. The house we bought doesn’t need renovation. We just didn’t see the value. But I guess that if you do have to make some renovations, you can save. Other direct buy reviews that i red say that too.
I went to an orientation today and I am simultaneously appalled and amazed. They have the “hard sell” down to a science. My husband and I did not buy a membership. Savings may be possible for some but as a general rule, if you have to sell it that hard (and force a decision on the spot on their turf) it’s not a good product. We are both sophisticated business people and when my husband was challenging them on the math, they said “you are over thinking it and trying to outsmart us — just think of the fabulous savings”. When I said that, as first time homebuyers, we need to feel pretty certain about the near-term value proposition so that we could live with ourselves for giving them $5,000 in a cash-crunched situation, they said I was being overly “emotional” and not looking at the logic of big, big savings. If they won’t open the books to show you where the money is, you have to be suspicious. My advice is to walk away (and I went into this very hopeful!).
I know very intelligent people who have bought memberships and I know some have been satisfied. My personal view is that this is a big scam designed to take advantage of the most vulnerable among us — those who succumb to the very intense pressure of a brilliantly designed (and I would argue best in class) hard sales pitch. Those who have signed up and then opted out through legal “buyers remorse” channels — kudos to you! We don’t have this in Canada (except for real estate) and we ought to when there are sharks in the waters.
I’m am totally confused and have split feelings. We are all aware of the markups the retailers charge so why can’t we save money with DB? My wife and I went to a presentation, we were excited to get “deeply discounted prices” on the things we would buy over the next 10 years. I also like the part where they mentioned that we could go to Sears and receive special pricing walking directly into the store. Everyone’s comments are really blowing my mind. We have only paid the $190 so our loss wouldn’t be too great but we are do to be drafted another $190 on the 16th of February. We were not hard sold because I know retailer mark up prices, so what is so unusual to think someone would offer wholesale prices on various things. Isn’t that the premise behind Costco and Sam’s Club?
I am having my doubts ndbody else feel the same way?
I can’t believe DB is still around! I attended one of their “Open House” presentations in 1985 and being a young enlisted member in the Air Force was blown away with the savings opportunities. I was taken in by the sincerity of the salesgirl and relented to the hard sales pitch. After putting a down payment on the fee (can’t remember how much it was after all these years) my wife and I went home. The next day, I was talking with my supervisor about the deal and he freaked out and took me to the First Sergeant who sat down with me and actually went over the contract and reviewed the actual costs of some items after the hidden fees. Then he compared them to some local sales adds. After comparison shopping, I would have to have spent over $30,000 BEFORE I started to save any money. He then took me directly to the base Legal office to draft a buyer’s remorse statement. My refund took the full ten days to be processed but it did finally come.
I thank my superiors for looking out for me and getting me out of a contract that would have done nothing more than put another drain on my meager income. As has been stated elswhere here, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!
If you are planning on purchasing $50K worth of items and don’t have a problem with installing them yourself and having to deal with all the warranty issues yourself as having to pick up your items personally from their warehouse, this could be a good deal. Me? I will pay a little more and buy local from people I know trust!
Any website that doesn’t let you see the products online and offers no way to communicate with them directly has to be a scam in some sense of the word. This high pressure join-now-or-don’t-come-back-for-seven years tactic seems mighty heavy handed and there is something very wrong with a company that operates that way. It smells of desperation iced with corruption. If we all shop with our local merchants, we can keep the small businesses alive and perhaps keep our dollars in this country rather than going for slave labor in China.
Thank God that I read these reviews… I looked at their catalog and thought that the prices were to good to be true, and assumed direct buy was a scam. I have to renovate my entire house and need to save some money. so thank you all for posting your reviews about the company. i will go to the presentation and sign up!
I have been a member for over 2 years…we have saved but we bought a huge 1970′s home in need of a total overhaul.
If you are building, doing a massive reno or in need of every piece of furniture to furnish a home…DB will definitely work for you.
And yes you may save 50% off regular prices at other stores, bargain shopping other places and online is sometimes better than DB & by the time DB adds in exchange, handling fees, freight or delivery the savings become marginal r sometimes more expensive. Costco.ca often carries the exact same items with free home delivery.
Although, you can often get unique items and decent deals you may have to wait. We waited 5 months for Kodiak mountain stone for the front of the house while it was a savings of 50% by the time it arrived the warm weather was over and we had to wait til the next year to put it on the house.
Wow, thanks for all these honest reviews, and to BradsBlog for the forum!
There is no scam about it. People who are building a house or refurnishing their house save tens of thousands of dollars. No real savings? Bring the pricing you were able to find and take it with you to a presentation. they will shove the savings in your face. Retail mark up is ridiculous, and if you cannot see that direct buy saves you money, then you dont deserve to save it.
I am a member for about 2 years and quite satisfied.
It’s not for everyone. but that does not make it a scam. They are marketing their membership to individuals who are young and who are going to making many purchases over the course of 10-20++ years. Obviously, if you’re retired, you’re probably not going to be building your dreamhouse, or making massive renovations and upgrading appliances, buying furniture.
Your largest savings are going to be realized on furniture I believe. We were able to save $5000 on our 10K (retail) furniture set even with the retailers save 20% and no tax event. You are going save a few hundred here and a few hundred their but in the end it will add up.
We’ve been members now for about 2 years and we have a baby on the way. That means more furniture and accessories. Here’s a story. We went shopping for a stroller recently and we were NOT going to sacrifice anything. We wanted the best stoller for our situation and knew that DB carried Graco, however it didn’t matter what DB carried or not. We fell in love with this other stroller at a retail store and were committed to getting it. By coincidence we were able to get this stroller from DB at cost + shipping. In the end, we were able to save ~$250 on the stroller compared to retail and the online prices. Needless to say I’m pretty pleased. We’re also going to save $1100 on the furniture we’re about to buy.
I could go on and on with the savings that we’ve had, but I wouldn’t want to bore you. The DB membership definately gives you latitude to upgrade to things you normally wouldn’t do. For example, say you have a budget for $3000 for a furniture set and you want something decent. You want hardwood, quality contruction (dovetail joints, sturdy drawers etc…) You’ll probably end up buying something from a big box retailer that imports it from China for that price. With furniture you get what you pay for in my opinion. That’s not to say that it’s crap, but more than likely it’s going to be particle board and poorly constructed. Then you’ll compare that piece from China to that furniture set around the aisle selling for $5000 that’s the real deal, but you can’t afford it because you’ve budgeted the $3000. I guess your stuck buying the crap from China because you can’t afford the more expensive. Although maybe you’ll finance the more expensive one pay it off in 5 years. Enough of my rant. What I’m getting at is that DB gives you ability to buy quality furniture at much cheaper prices. I guess if you’re content with buying that furniture from China than DB isn’t for you.
The bottom line is this. DB is not a scam as everyone says it is. They sales tactics stink and I disagree with all of it. The customer service is just unbelievable. You’ll have to really do research on your future expenditures and try and decide if this method of purchasing suits your style. For some like my parents it’s not. They want to go shopping all around the city, buy it and have it in their hands yesterday (no patience). I’m the complete opposite. I like to research my purchase to the tenth degree and then commit. If that means waiting 3-4 weeks I can handle that. Don’t get me wrong, if DB sells something and I need it soon, I’ll just buy retail because I know I’ll save with something else.
Okay. It’s late and I’m done trying to explain my reasoning. Hope it helps.
Okay I work personally at DB. So I figure I might as well explain things about direct buy.
1)Due to the agreement we have with the manufactures, we are required to offer membership only after they have gone through an Open House. It’s part of the agreement we have with our manufactures.
2)It’s a VERY simple form asking just a few very easy items for you to answer.
3) If your no longer interested in our services, do us all a favor. Just tell us your not interested and to take your name off the list. It’s a simple and pretty painless way of getting you to shut your yap about phone calls.
4) Do your own research. With carrying over 800 different manufactures you still need to do some research to find the perfect item that you want.
My husband and I joined DB in 2002, a couple of years ago a lady contacted us and told us they had a computer crash and told us we had not paid our membership fee. After battling with them they told us it was straighten out and not to worry. last year another lady contacted us and told us again that we owed them money. We have talk to head office with no help. This lady has hounded us now every few months, today we received a letter telling us our membership has been suspended and we are no longer welcomed until we pay. Don’t ever join, what a scam
I am so thankful to have found this site. I had an appointment at 1pm today but there is no way in hell I will waste 2 hours of my life. Also with everything that is going on in the economy, I feel lke consumers have the upper hand in being able to negotiate with certain retailers, therefore I dont think DB would be of all that much help when you can search for deals yourself.
Thank you everyone!
I’m going to be doing over my kitchen and had flirted with checking out Directbuy. Thank you all for sharing your positive direct buy reviews.
Thanks everyone – I am going to attend one of their ‘visitors presentations’ in the near future and check it out myself
DB is NOT a scam! However, it is not for everyone. For those looking to save big bucks on small everyday items, its not going to work. For those who plan on MAJOR projects, it saves you MEGA BUCKS!! True that the membership is very expensive, but one can save so much more than that in a short amount of time. Between my kitchen appliances and living room furniture, I saved more than what my membership costed. I still have to buy bedroom furniture for 3 rooms, bathroom sink, faucets, tubs, showers, tile, doors, windows, granite, blinds, etc. I figure by the time I finish building my house, I will have saved $30,000!!!! Not a bad investment.
my wife and i joined. was about a 5000 dollar buy in over 10 years. we are financing the 5k over three years. so heres why we LIKE it. it is an expensive buy-in, but if you are doing extensive renovations than it can DEFNINITELY be worth it. we are buying kitchen cabs, counters, appliances, sinks, tile, hardwoods, carpet etc. and overall the savings are great! you are saving as much as 45% over what you can get at stores. realize you still have to pay shipping costs on things too, but again – the savings are there. you just have to be buying enough things to make it worth it. so… it can be a good deal, for some people. and btw – the staff there is super friendly and super helpful. we wouldn’t be able to do our renovation without them.
Thanks to such for all the direct buy reviews
Hey, all!
My wife and I joined over 2 yrs ago and we’ve only purchased a mattress, hardwood flooring (290 sq ft), a dining room table and our Christmas items through the center. I was hell bent on not joining when I went through the “Open House” because I do so much research before I buy. Some good friends joined about a year before we did and told us to use the club the right way and shop smart. We did. I’ve saved $6,134.88 so far (all shipping and handling included) compared to the absolute best I could do on the same products anywhere else. I found a big screen TV on the internet cheaper, which angered me but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m saving money. I think folks get upset when they don’t save $5000 in the first month and think they got ripped off, when in reality a lifetime of buying products adds up quickly for some and more slowly for others. Doesn’t change a good investment when you consider that if I had parked all of my money over the last two years at direct buy with the rate of return I’ve realized I’d have a lot more money than keeping my coin in the market. Diversify, baby, diversify!
Just one converted man’s opinion…check things out for yourself before you bite hook line and sinker on someones opinion that may not be quite as sharp as yourself!
Think about it.
My wife and I joined over a year ago. We were planning on a big renovation of a rental and some projects around our house. The presentation made it sound like we were going to recoup our money very quickly and it was going to be the best decision we have ever made. The sticker was that we had to join right then and there or we could not join again for 7 years. I like to research everything before making a decision, especially when it comes to spending almost $5000.00 for a membership. I wasn’t happy with having to make the decision without researching DB first, but we made the decision and hoped we would recapture our money quickly.
Went to a presentation today..I understand the huge amount diverstiy of everyone’s buying habits and that money may eventually be recouped at some point.
I know that 700 manufacters is loads to choose from, but I, for some reason, still feel limited.
Thanks for the honest posts
We went to a DB open house this past weekend, and they had a free 30 days trial membership promotion where you can buy up to $1000 worth of stuffs within 30 days without signing up and paying the fees (or you can join on the spot and get $1000 “instant rebate”). We decided to take the free trial.
We will go back there with model numbers of all the things we want (and the lowest prices we found on the web), and if they can offer it to us for much less, we will buy it from them.
As a former Employee I have seen all sides. This is a big franchise company, they are doing something right.
And there are good people in it, I know this very well.
YOU CAN SAVE MONEY.. No matter what the salesman sayss, YOU CAN REQUIPERATE YOUR MONEY IF YOU ARE IN THE HIGH END OR GOING TO RENOVATE A ROOM. Seriously, on the high end, big dollars can be saved. I used as an employee these discounts and I saved 20k on my house and I didnt even use all of their products, I am not that rich mind you.
I am redoing a kitchen. I do want high-end cabinets. I do all the leg-work myself…so I am considering it. PLEASE someone give me NAMES of HIGH_END cabinets, appliances, furniture. I am skeptical, BUT I know to save the money, you have to do the leg-work. Please…names….please….so I can determine wether I should even consider it.
We have a visitors pass for this month and I was wondering if there are ways of paying the membership fees over time, are there yearly costs to continue and how long are you a member before the price goes up (if it does). No one mentioned prices yet for goods so as an example, if I wanted to go to a local store and get granite or quartz counter tops at $80-$100 a sq. ft., what would I be able to get current colors and nice looking stone for at DB? I don’t own a “high end” home but my wife has expensive taste and knows the prices of things so is this really for us? Also, has anyone shopped in High Point for furniture and how does DB prices compare to that?
Thanks to everyone who took the time to post reviews.
We had an appt scheduled
Thanks so much to all who have posted!
The commercials make it sound great but i like to hear what customers say to avoid all scams!
Direct Buy is better for people who buy high end merchandise and are remodeling or furnishing an entire house. that is were you can find the best deals
Direct Buy is better for people who buy high end merchandise and are remodeling or furnishing an entire house. The quoted savings will be taken from the highest estimation of retail price whether or not the product was ever actually sold at that price.
I joined a few years ago. I had to renovate a couple of rooms and i saved a lot of money. i am now renovating my kitchen
i honestly dont think that anyone can judge this kind of thing without going and seeing for themselves. i’m about to buy my first house, i have almost no furniture and i will need all new appliances as well. i am personally very picky and have very exspensive tastes. i havent been to a show room yet, but there’s no reason not to at least chech it out.
Interesting comments.
I just happen to personally know a franchise owner and The Vice-President of Sales for a Direct Buy. They are the most honest people I have known for 30 years. A lot of people who have said negative things about Direct Buy are ill-informed. It’s as simple as that,…they comment without VALID facts. And it’s a shame that people actually listen to them,…and believe what they say, thanking them for posting their comments !
The over-whelming comment has been, “Direct Buy is not for everyone”. If you are going to doing a lot of remodeling, then it’s a good deal. If you’re NOT in the market of buying A LOT of stuff right now, then it is OBVIOUSLY not the thing for you.
But remember, if you’re the latter and NOT going to be purchasing A LOT of stuff for your house, that doesn’t mean Direct Buy is a scam !
It simply means that the membership is not a GOOD deal for YOU !
But it might be for SOMEONE ELSE !
We made a visit to our Direct Buy yesterday. While the owner gave us our tour was very pleasant and seemed to know what he was talking about,
After all the ads I was curious about what type of savings DirectBuy offered. I got the visitors Pass and now we are trying it for 30 days
each franchise is individually owned so your experience could be radically different from one center to another. In terms of customer service for example most of my members love us but at other centers that is not always the case. This happens because our money is only made on the membership not on merchandise sales (that’s why we can save our customers so much money… no markup). Some clubs focus on sales because of this and don’t invest time on the customer service side. This is changing with the corporate office stepping in and making the changes happen.
We do have shipping costs, handling fees (on some items) and taxes but so do all other retailers out there. The difference is that we break out all of those costs by line item while the other places will hide those costs (including markup) in your price.
The decision to join the day you come in is mandated by our manufacurers and we have to abide by it or risk losing the manufacturer(s) that have a problem. There is nothing that we as franchisees can do about that at this time. Maybe in the future that will change but I am not hopeful.
Yes you will make your money back quickly if you are doing a home renovation or building. The common misconception is that unless you are doing that kind of work DB is not for you. That is not true, if you are going to be a consumer for the rest of your life then it will work for you. DB currently has over 800 manufacturers for everything you can think of and are adding more all of the time in addition with setting up relationships with local vendors for the things we do not currently carry (at a discount for members).
As I said the fee to join is substantial because that’s how our money is made but if you think of this as an expense instead of an investment then this is not for you. We are selling a concept (a different way of buying and saving) and we understand that it is not going to be for everyone. Having said that please understand that it is a business and we are trying to make money so we are not going to be giving away the memberships for free and we do have sales practices that we use, but so does every other retailer/wholesaler who does sale. Do you think when you walk into a store and someone greets you that he/she wasn’t trained to say whatever it is that they say to you to get you to buy. It is a common sales tatic, if you don’t believe go to the library or bookstore and look at all the books on becoming a better salesperson. Read some of the chapters and then think back to your latest experience in any major retail store and you will see what I am saying. For those of you who were treated rudley/badly when you didn’t join I apologize for that. That is not the image that DB is striving for because you having a good experience in our clubs (even if you didn’t join) only increases the chances of you referring someone to us who will join. That is the best form of advertising and it is FREE. As I said before the franchises are individually owned and the experience differs from club to club. DB as an organization is working very hard to change the culture and make this a brand that we can all be proud of. There are some growing pains but we will come out of it stronger in the end.
Thank you
I have joined the DB as trial member. It is free
I have an appointment to an Open House this Sunday. I plan on adding onto my home in about 6 months and wanted to see what they were all about and if it would be to my benefit to join.
The old adage that the internet is the bathroom wall of the world rings true. To say a whole organization is failed by the rants of one employee is ludicrous. If you use one sour grapes posting to sway your thinking I believe you haven’t done due diligence. Using that model of reasoning every pimple faced kid behind the counter has failed me by their lack of product knowledge but I still buy gas for my car, I still buy clothes off the rack, I still buy CD ‘s. Poor service is every where. Ask GM and Chrysler. You spend your money and take your chances. DirectBuy member for 3 years and very pleased with more cash in my pocket.
First of all, hopefully you realize that they use a hard sell technique. When you go in there, they want a decision immediately. If you leave without joining, you cannot join. Many people get really pissed off about that.
I believe their biggest savings comes with cabinetry, especially kitchen cabinets. I had a drawing done by a local millwork place who gave me a quote of $30K for kitchen cabinets. I bought the same exact design from Direct Buy for about $16K. They are Omega cabinets, and I am very happy with the quality! I also bought all my bathroom vanities from them.
I also had success buying blinds from them and some area rugs. I haven?t bought any furniture yet, but their prices seem really good, so I know I will. They really aren?t good with electronics or appliances. These are low markup items, and you can get better prices. Especially when you add on their typical 8% handling charge (plus you?re paying for freight to their place!)
Their customer service is often lacking ? the people in the office try, but they don?t really know the products, so you?re stuck ordering out of a catalog, which can get confusing. Initially I looked into buying plumbing supplies from there, and it would have been a huge mistake! First of all, I needed to exchange certain parts which my local plumbing supply place was very willing to do (Direct Buy wouldn?t have accepted any returns!) and second of all, I couldn?t afford to wait the 6-8 weeks for the plumbing supplies to come in. In a local plumbing supply place, they usually stock the roughing whereas from Direct Buy you have to buy the roughing and the external pieces all together. Again here the handling charges also cut way into the savings.
Overall, Direct Buy is not for everyone, but it worked out well for me. As a general rule, if you’re doing a major renovation, you should carefully consider joining. If not, I’d say don’t do it.
My wife and I joined today. We actually got a great deal on financing the membership fee and it ended up not costing as much, especially with the fact there is no prepayment penalty. We also got a reduction by the independent franchisee giving us the fourth and fifth year for free when we balked at the idea of being interested but not financially able today.
I’ve read all 300+ entries in this blog, and am leaning toward agreeing with some bloggers who have said that they aren’t for everyone. If you are just going to update your furniture, you should shop somewhere else, but if you are going to renovate your place, there are really good deals
I just bought a house which could use (doesn’t “need”) all kinds of remodeling. I did a Google search for reviews of Direct Buy and was lucky enough to come across this blog.
After talking to one of my co-workers who says her parents have saved all kinds of money on Direct Buy, I am seriously considering it.
My husband and I of course were watching late night TV and saw the Direct Buy commercial. It intrigued us. So we set an appointment/ visitors pass and went in. we now have the 30 day trial and are thinking of joining. Does anyone have any direct buy complaints?
Brad,
Good to see a blog on here that exposes Direct Buy as a horrible investment. My wife and I too got taken and have been treated horribly by customer service ( a huge misnomer). I am interested in doing more than just pissing and moaning about Direct Buy’s myth of saving lots of money for its members. I would like to start some consumer actions against them. And I don’t simply mean writing complaints on blogs or ripoffreports.com and to the Better Business Bureau, but doing some things on a large scale to teach these a**holes a lesson.
When I was in college I read a book by Saul D. Alinsky, an organizer in the 60′-70′s, who was very successful and feared by corporations and public/private agencies for his organization of mass actions against them. I am almost finished with re-reading his book “Rules for Radicals.” No I don’t consider myself a radical, but I am all in favor of activism against company and corporate attitudes of “we don’t have to listen to you or respect you now that we have your money.” I already have plans to use one or more of his tactics. (yes some are still viable today)
I am even more interested in finding ways to organize actions on a local level. I live in California and we have 8 or 10 Direct Buy franchises. Can you suggest anything in that regard?
Thanks for the format that you provide for people to get information and communicate with one another about this “bad apple” company.
My wife and I attended an Open house one Friday evening. I too was skeptical after hearing of all the savings and information they were pushing. I couldn’t help but think “What was the catch” as there had to be one, right? Yes there was, the price of membership and the one time offer to join (which kinda sucked). BUT to make a long story just a little shorter, we joined anyway.
We have somewhat medium taste, not high end, but far from low. We have a 4bdr 4000sqft house 3 levels that we had built some 5 years ago and since we already had everythng we wanted basicallyas far as furnitre etc. It’s just time to replace a few things, upgrade others, buy some some new. With 5 children (ranging 20yrs old to 10 mos old.) We know we’ll be buying “things” for a while to come anyway to keep up with family life changes.
I’ve recently made my first purchase: a new Diswasher and fridg and I saved over $700 after comparing prices of the same brand and model at 4 different well known stores. I’ve also compared prices on other items I know that I’ll be purchasing in the near future and I’m starting to feel better about my decision to join.
I figure over the time of our membership, we’re sure to save well over the cost of the membership…only $4300 to go hahaha
Next up, wife want a new mattress (save $500), while I want a Pool table and a game table for the rec room (save $850), new BBQ grill and patio furniture (save another $500), a riding lawn mower ($$$ saved). The babies room will need a new bed and dresser ($$$ saved). While our older son and daughter wants flat sceen TV’s for Xmas ($$$saved). NO this isn’t all being bought at once, but by this time next year. How much more would I have saved? $3000+
Too each his own. Make the best choice for you.
It may not workout for some, as well as it does for others.
Good Luck.
Thanks for info was interested but not any more.
My mother and I had a tentative appointment for an open house appointment. She is moving in and we are buying new appliances. Because I am married, and my husband could not attend, I was denied an invitation.
This is discriminatory.
Shame on you, Direct Buy.
Wake up, it’s 2009 not 1950.
The owner was so rude to my sales guy that he (sales guy) told me he was ready to quit and walk out the door right then!!! see below.
How is this co. doing? What happens if DB goes out of buz.? With the economy and so many discounts these days, it’s hard to imagine paying such a high membership fee! Any reviews done on DB categorized by location?
The sales guy finally agreed to let me come in w/o my husband only AFTER I cancelled my appt. -telling sales guy that if my husband has to come, forget it. I’M the decision maker. He finally said ok since i’m decision maker and said to allow 1 1/2 hr.
When I got there, solo, he asked where hubby was and said I’d have to reschedule when he can come. (Why did he have me come in, then???)Sales guy was really nice (though not very well informed. Didn’t have many answers.seemed like it was his first day.) He showed me around a little (which was VERY helpful-made me highly consider making hubby come back in w/ me for appt.) However, the owner came up and was RUDE, DISRESPECTFUL to sales guy ! The owner made a BIG mistake. His rudeness put a pit in my stomach and I WILL NEVER GO BACK!!!!
Thanks to this site. I had no idea the membership fee is so high!!! Other fees, having to pick up your stuff at warehouse (when out of state co.s can deliver and not have to pay sales tax…)There are so many deals out there these days-w/ customer service….and owners who treat their employees w/ respect when in front of a potential new member….
My wife and I went to a DB sales pitch and at first the savings looked good. The sales rep handed me an add saying, “Here is their sales price now compare DB’s price.” I noticed that the add was a regular price and not a sale price. The rep blately misrepresented the truth.
The guy from DB wrote in explaining that they must make you sign up right then due to a contractual relationship and exposing the manufacturer prices. However, they now have a 30 day free trial membership. How is that possible if the contract requires that once you see the pricing you must immediately sign up or be banned for 7 years. It looks to me to be a sales tactic to pressure a purchase without the consumer being able to take a good look at the pricing.
What saved me and my wife is I called my brother from the sales pitch anand he found this website and read part of it too me. Thanks for all of your comments. Even if you want to buy high end items I would not recommend DB since you are somewhat limited in selection and delivery is a pain and if you ever have to return something you are quite limited.
we got pulled into DB years ago, when it was going under another name, United Consumers Club, i got a flyer in the mail with a key and some scratch off crap that said i won free merchandise and the key was for a car, if it opened the door i would win, yada yada yada., so we went to check it out anyways. long story short, we fell for it, didint have the 2500 to pay up front so we financed. well that company went under and is now DB, my United Consumers Membership would not transfer unless i paid the additional fee’s that direct buy requires. we thought that since this had happened that we would be done making payments, BIG MISTAKE. i was sent to collections for the payments, still to this day i have it on my Credit report. we did try to use the membership while we had it, and i saved a total of $47 on a riding lawn mower that i wanted, BUT i had to drive 60 miles to Denver to pick it up. Well Home Depot had the same Lawn mower for way lower than what i got it for with United consumers. AND yes, it came with no warranty what so ever. i called the manufacture and they asked where i bought it, well when i told then United Consumers, the lady i spoke too didnt have any idea who that was and to return it to them, that they can exchange or order repairs, well United Consumers OR DirectBuy do not do such things. if you feel like giving $5000 away, there are alot of charities that could benifit from it alot!!!!!!!!!!
My husband and I joined Direct Buy Kelowna a year and a half ago as we were planning on a total kitchen reno and thought we’d save some money.
If you’re the type of person that buys high end stuff, there are really good deals.
I am pleased with my membership at directbuy. The gentlemen named Ben was very courteous and well informed on every question I had. The amount of products they have are unbelieveable. The staff was and still is very helpful to me and my wife. I remodeled my kitchen and saved more money than I realized. For people that say RUN!! or that it is a scam, I guess it’s not for everyone.
I have had the membership for three years now and I found so many great deals with direct buy.
We were curious about DB and are longtime, happy members of Costco, so we thought we might try it. We were about to do a whole house remodel, of which I was the “Project Manager”, so I called to make the appointment. I went there, compared prices and joined. i think I’ll save money
I have never actually been in or bought anything with Direct Buy however after hearing my sister in law talk about how they are members and how they saved thousands by getting everything at cost and she knows how much furniture actually costs and so on… I took a good look through their catalog. After all, I like a good deal as much as the next person.
From my experience I believe if something sounds too good to be true it usually is. From the start red flags were going off. The fact that no manufacturer is going to allow a dealer to sell current products to the public at cost (they would soon find themselves without any dealers) nor can a huge outfit like Direct Buy survive off membership fees alone.
I will be the first to admit I know nothing about furniture however direct buy seemed to me to have great deals and good quality. A Kitchen Aid mixer is a Kitchen Aid mixer. Yes it was cheaper. Electronics on the other hand is something I know a thing or two about. I have been selling it for nearly 20 years and have had my own company for most of that time. The first thing that stood out was their prices. I couldn’t believe i could get them for so cheap.
I am glad to find this website. Direct buy person called me and made an appointment with me and my husband for this Thursday night. I always like to see what the customers are saying. I red quite a few comments here and other blogs and it seems like there are not a lot of people who have any direct buy complaints
Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories.
Oh, I just signed up for the free visitor’s pass online and was curious to know about Direct Buy. I already decided to join the club. just seems like a good option for me if i want to save money.
Let’s face it, most people are like me and my husband – we see the ads and decide we want to learn more so we take them up on the offer to make a visit.
I wanted to add my own “old-timer” story. It was actually very easy for me to say no to DB in 1998. I was 21 and could have moved off the Air Force base but really didn’t want to. Regardless they got my name from a friend who was recently married and buying a house full of furniture. Note only furniture for an apartment she lived in. Not the major renovations other people had mentioned.
Well I get there and sit impatiently through the sales pitch. When they drop the price on my me, my jaw drops. There was no way. Now comes the sales tactics and desperation. they would finance me and I would get a discount if I referred X amount of people. Still the price was too high for me. Then the guy actually said…”Well your friend X signed up for it…you don’t think she’s stupid do you?” I said why yes, I do. She’s very easily swayed. I got the deer in the head light look I always get when I’m blunt. I even told the guy I had no need to even buy furniture for at least another year, he saw this as a plus! All this guy saw in me was disposable income since I wasn’t paying rent, utilities, etc.
In the end I WOULD NOT say they are a scam. I would describe them as money-grubbing slicksters. I hope no military person EVER signs up with these guys. I say that because I got orders right after that. I spent 4.5 years overseas. I would have been paying for something I couldn’t even use or cancel. If you’re military please consider that in your decision. If one of my young guys signed up for it I’d freak the heck out and try to get it canx’d…ASAP!
I too recommend this to home renovators, house flippers going high end and new builds. Even though I’m currently building a home, I’m going through the contractor and Home Depot for any “extras” not in our contract.
So to get this straight, I cant buy anything unless I become a member? What kind of membership fees are we talking about here?
There is so much garbage on this blog it isnt even funny. The fact that i can just type what I want is proof this is garbage. I work for a DB that has over 40,000 orders placed and 1000′s of members. Literally ZERO outstanding complaints and not one issue unresolved. NOt one. A+ BBB rating. Highly respected business in the area. Franchises are independently owned. Too bad some franchise owners are idiots. Mine are not. Do your research and go prepared. If you can save, join. If you cant, walk out. Pretty simple aint it?
Most of you have incorrect information on your posts. Too bad people who have legitimate needs are going to base their choice on your mis-information.
Wow, Cousin……sounds like you’re either a DB franchise owner or marketing company employee who is paid to put a positive spin on poorly run companies. The reason why DirectBuy franchises have great BBB ratings is because they paid for their membership. Therefore, the BBB protects their reputation. If you do your research in regards to the pending Federal Class Action lawsuits, you’ll find there are more than a few unscrupulous franchise owners. The DB business model only works for the corporation and franchise owners. You should do your homework, because it’s obvious you’ve been brainwashed by spending too much time watching the video presentations and breathing the air inside the DB facility.
I wish I had known to look on the internet and research DB before my wife and I went to a presentation and foolishly signed up. We have not been able to save a DIME on any purchase though we remodeled our home and two rentals. The Indianapolis store has horrible customer service when it comes to following through on complaints. I just e-mailed a concern to them and the first answer I got was, “membership must be paid in full”.
Mine was paid in full thank you so now I’m really mad. I will comment later on this page when the current problem is resolved, but in the meantime, DO NOT JOIN!!!!!!!!
DirectBuy is a rip-off! From the personal information they demand at the time you call to set up an appointment to the insane info sheet they force you to fill out once you get there (“Check off all of the items you plan to buy in the next five years.”) to the stupid, canned sales pitch that sounds like a 5th grade math teacher showing you what an idiot you are, it is a waste of time. You MUST stay there for at least an hour and a half to see/hear the entire pitch, which includes two videos, far too many “examples” of other stores’ sales ads vs. their “manufacturer’s cost,” a tour of their showroom (but you can’t check their catalogs), and last, but not least, the hard-sell to get you to buy the outrageous membership at $5,800.!! We asked if we could think about it for 24 hours and decide what we were going to buy and compare costs to make sure it was worth our while to invest in, but the sales woman said “NO, if you don’t buy the membership NOW, you’ll never have another chance for this opportunity.” Once she kept pushing us to buy the membership, I knew it was a scam. When we told her we weren’t interested if we couldn’t think about it for a day, she immediately dismissed us and was no longer our “best friend” looking out for our financial well-being. She was DONE with us and sent us on our way!
Think about it: DirectBuy is a company that touts itself as the deal of a lifetime and claims to offer such great deals on furniture, home improvement materials, appliances, jewelry, etc. If they TRULY were a great company, they would stand by their claims and allow a potential customer to THOROUGHLY check out the pros and cons of being a member before they were FORCED to pay a huge amount of money to join. If something is too good to be true and you have “one chance” to join or be banned forever, RUN, don’t walk from these scam artists!!!!!!!
Forgot to mention the store location: Jacksonville, Florida. BUYER BEWARE!!!!
There’s another Federal class action lawsuit being filed in California. If anyone is interested contact, John Davis, Attorney at Law @ (619) 400-4870. He’s looking for lead plaintiffs to file a new lawsuit as it sounds like DirectBuy wants to hold up all of the other cases by filing stupid motions. DirectBuy thinks we’ll get tired and go home. Little do they know that we’ll be diligent in our fight to do what’s right & get our hard earned money back.
I am building a new home and saw a direct buy showroom while driving home, and I stopped in. I need everything for a new home. The gal at the front desk informed me that its “usually by appointment only but I will make an exception this time.” They seemed nice, i looked at there catalog and checked prices. I ended up joining because i thought that i would save money
My mom got a membership to Direct Buy because she was buying a home and excited to find great deals.
I recently move and need furniture and other stuff and i am going to use her membership card to save some money
My husband and I have an appointment tomorrow. We are building a home and we want to save money. We initially thought that there was a direct buy scam somewhere, just because we don’t know much about the company. We are doing some research now, and we are now thinking that this could be a good investment for us. We will take a closer look tomorrow, but from what we have red, customers seem pretty happy with direct buy
I have a meeting with them tomorrow morning. thanks for the feedback!
I am a member of Direct Buy. We were completely refurbishing our home from basement to top.
We found most of what we bought at direct buy for a cheaper price. we also could afford higher quality items, which was nice.
there are thousands of people just like me who have saved thousands of dollars with Direct buy.
We recently bought a new house and have a lot of new furniture to buy so after getting an email inviting us we decided to see what it was all about.
We didn’t plan on joining or buying anything today at our appointment but rather just to make our own judgement.
It looks like there are some good deals with direct buy. Still considering, but seeing that most of you don’t have any direct buy complaints, i think we will join the club!
Thanks to everyone that told their story
I looked at “joining” direct buy a couple of years ago…and after the relentless sales calls and “free invitations” to stop in at a schudeled time, I decided to see what it was all about. I made an appointment for a saturday afternoon. We’ll see how it goes
I am trying the 30-day free offer. you guys seem happy with direct buy and apparently there are no too many directbuy complaints, so i will join the club in a few weeks.
This is our experience. We recently bought a old house and we were talking to friends as to where to purchase stuff to remodel our house and one of our friends mentioned about direct buy and also we saw this ad on tv. My wife booked an appointment with them.
I generally do lot of study before purchasing anything or even spending a dollar without real need but this time i was busy with meeting contractors and getting quotes that i did not get a chance to read about DirectBuy.
So we went to the place and my wife filled out bunch of things that we would buy in next 2 years. I was surprised at the number of people out there.
Then some one took us inside and introduce us to some one, and she started asking about our work stuff and talking nicely[offering coffee/drinks] and not telling a single thing about DB.
Then there was a presentation for like 30-45 minutes about what DirectBuy is and how it works. I really thought it was nice, we waited to hear the membership price.
After that the lady met us again and showed the catalogs and showed us some samples. we took our list out and started to see the prices. They are very competitive and we calculated that we would get our membership fee back very quickly. We joined. We are happy with directbuy
WE RECENTLY BUILT OUR HOME AND WE DECIDED TO GO TO A DB SHOWROOM IN WESLACO,TX FOR AN APPOINTMENT. I WAS MOSTLY INTERESTED IN BUYING A KITCHEN AND GETTING A GREAT DEAL. I TOLD THE SALESMAN, WHO WAS ALSO DE OWNER, TO CUT TO THE CHASE AND FOR HIM TO TELL ME HOW MUCH A KITCHEN WOULD COST. I HAD THE BLUEPRINTS AND DIMENSIONS FOR THE KITCHEN WITH ME, SO I TOLD HIM IF YOU CAN TELL ME RIGHT NOW HOW MUCH FOR THIS KITCHEN IN WRITING AND IF THE SAVINGS ARE AT LEAST 50% OF THE MEMBERSHIP DUES THAT I WOULD BUY IN. HE DID.
I AM GLAD I BECAME A MEMBER. NO DIRECT BUY COMPLAINTS. I SAVED A LOT OF MONEY.
WOW! I literally just got off the phone with the direct buy representative to confirm my appointment.
Direct Buy is a hard sale organization. It is clear that 99% of their employee training is how to sell memberships and 1% customer service. These people are like timeshare salespeople, they will tag team you until they get $7,000 (Calif membership) out of you. I suspect they are paying their sales people 50% commissions.
Then, you can forget about customer service. DB hasn’t invested any money in their technology to facilitate searches through their labyrinth of available products, nor do they extend themeselves to resolve logistical constraints.
The bottom line is anything you might be able to save is spent the first day you on your membership fee.
You will never come close to saving the money DB advertises. I purchased a $7,000 bedroom set for $3,500. I then got quotes over the internet for white glove delivery (they deliver, set up and clean up) and it was only $400 more than DB total cost. When it came time for the big screen TV? Forget about it, I purchased the Sony 66″ over the internet and paid less than the DB price.
Don’t do it!
This site is fascinating. We are Canadians, we’ve been members for ten years and had no problems. We don’t have any directbuy complaints. When we fisrt bought our house we spent 5 years renovating and buying some furniture. Yes the ‘salespitch’ is not great- just like anywhere else-. I was VERY skeptical but found the entire sign up experience good. we have bought many many things including my wedding ring thru DB and have no bad experiences or regrets.
Thank you for this website! I had got myself a membership and were planning to visit them next Tuesday.
DB is a GOOD idea my friends!
We have been members for a few years now. We are moving to another city, and will have to renovate. I am glad that i can find them almost everywhere in the country
lol why would people that have Direct Buy Search it as a scam in the first place? If I use a service and I am happy with it, why would I research the bad reviews. Very interesting. Looks like DB reps writing more lies.
Some people do believe this is a scam because they really just don’t get it. DirectBuy doesn’t “hide” anything from you. That’s ridiculous.
People, if you don’t want to join, then don’t! Lol No one is making you!
If you are buying the high-priced items (big screen tvs, living room sets, kitchen remodeling, etc…) then you will save a TON and the membership will be paid for. If you are just interested in getting like a new love seat and maybe a new mattress in the next couple of years, this is NOT for you.
Just be grown-ups, do your damn homework, and make the decision for yourself! And stop complaining. It’s not like they tapped into your bank account and stole money from you. lol
Oh, and according to a few people on here, since I am not bad-mouthing them, I must work for them. Ooohhh…maybe I am a secret agent working for Direct Buy and my job is to seek out those who are against it and create positive postings to brainwash the non-believers….hahahaha!!! “I must return to the showroom now…master Direct Buy is calling to me” lmao
we went to Direct Buy to check out the place. As we are in the process of buying a house and thought it will be nice idea to check it out.
Received a phone call to confirm the appointment. went up and my first impression was pretty good.
Then they told me about the membership fee. I had a few complaints about that direct buy member fee. I thought that was like some sort of scam. But they told me that i could get the money back very quick if i was going to renovate a place. The guy was being honest. He showed me how much i could save with my renovations, and i calculated that only with renovating the kitchen, that was worth the investment. so i joined. So far so good.
Thank you all, I have an appointment soon; looking forward to it
Thank you so much for all of this. We are considering buying a house that will need about 50K in work including all new appliances. so i was thinking it might be worth it.
After reading all your comments, i realized that it will be a good investment. Thanks!
My husband and I became Direct Buy customers on December 31st 2008 .
We have no directbuy complaints, their service is good and their pricing for appliances are very competitive.
Anyone who is renovating a place should consider direct buy. I remodeled my house and i bought almost everything from direct buy. I could afford higher quality, and i ended up paying less than i had planned.
I went to a direct buy open house earlier today and my experience was good. The salesperson I had was very friendly and not pushy at all. I decided not to join because I’d have to spend much more than I originally planned to before I was able to save the cost of the membership. They let me look at any of their catalogs while I was there and the prices that I saw were not that great compared to the cost of a few items I’ve purchased recently online. It seems that directbuy caters more to customers that intend to purchase very high end furniture and merchandise. I’ve never considered buying a 6000 dollar bedroom set or a 4000 dollar sofa, so I wasn’t really sure how those prices compared to retail, but that seemed to be where the most money was saved. From my experience, I wouldn’t say it was a scam. For an upper class person that intended on spending $50,000+ in the next few years on items from directbuy, I’d say they’d probably save some money, but for the average middle class person, it would be stupid to spend the $5000-6000 on the membership since you’d never get that money back in savings. The way it was presented to me was that it wasn’t a now or never type of deal. They offered me a 1 month trial membership which I also declined, but could have signed up for. The downside to the trial membership is that you’d lose the $1000 discount on the membership if you decided to sign up later instead of immediately. For anyone considering joining, I’d say go to an open house. It wasn’t for me, but going to the open house wasn’t a negative experience for me and I have nothing against the company. Other people seemed to have had some very aggressive salesmen that turned them off to the company. If you’re planning on buying a lot and have some items in mind, make a note of the brands and check them out in the catalogs when you go and compare those prices to what you saw in retail. If you just sign up because you expect that you’ll save enough money in the next few years to cover the membership, you probably won’t and will just end up wasting money on the membership. If you’re smart about it and know what you plan to buy, it’s simple math. You can figure out ahead of time whether you’re going to save money or not. It’s not a scam if you actually save some money.
I first thought that directbuy us a scam. but a friend of mine, who is a member, told me that it wasn’t true.
She convinced me to join the club, she knew i could save a lot of money (i am a designer and i am always looking for a good deal).
well, it didn’t take me too long to see the savings. i had a client that wanted to renovate her living room, and only with this client i saved $7000.
Paying a membership fee to be able to buy merchandise from DiretBuy sounded like a scam to me.
I have a friend that told me that directbuy is not a scam, he is a member and he tried to convince me that they provide good service and that their prices are very competitive.
It’s true, I have seen their catalog, seen their prices, compared them and realized that their prices are very attractive. So i think i am going to give it a try.
All, thanks for your comments. I have a couple of questions:
1.- Why would you pay anybody to have the right to spend your money at one particular store?
2.- Every company’s purpose is to generate revenues and profits, why would you limit yourself to fewer customers?
“Common sense is very uncommon”
I hope it helps!
I am currently being ripped off by DB. I plan to sue to get my money back.
Crappy service, they lie to you about their products,and I have recently made a 6500 dollar purchase and beat direct buy price by 700 dollars.
When I confronted the manager about it he said for me to bring in the price from the other store so he could see it. I plan to do that, plus show him the 400 in savings on some patio furniture.
The place is a rip-off. I am going to ask for my money back, I may file a formal complaint with State of California if I don’t get my money back.
I went to the Direct Buy with a lot of anticipation of being slammed with a pushy salesman and I was right. The infomercial says there is no pushy sales pitch. They lie! After sitting through Chris’ little sh-peal about how much savings you could get, you are told the membership is $6990. Yeah they offer you 3 different memberships and different payment plans, but the salesman was totally pushy and unrelenting on the poor guy sitting next to me. Luckily he was smart enough to just say no walk away. Sorry, but if this is was such a good thing for the customers then the salesmen have no reason to be so pushy (except to get there commission) Do not use Direct Buy they are scam artists!!
Any company that do not post specific information on their website and is unable to answer your questions on the phone (kept repeating the same selling speech for EACH of my questions!!) has to be a scam in some way. Don’t beleive in things that are too good to be true! And remember that it is not because they have a commercial on tv that they are legitimate. I did not go to the private showing. After their phone call, I just knew something wasn’t right. Do not deal with Direct Buy and do not believe all the comments saying that they saved thousands. It is just damage control done by the company to keep their ‘good’ name.
We are having a lot of problems with Directbuy. We have spent hours trying to get delivery of a toilet and sink. What a hassle! They have our money and have been giving us every excuse in the book for 2 months now. If we cost our time at $ 5.00 per hour, the sink would cost us more than buying it at list price. It is holding up our renovation now. I am tempted to go out and buy a sink at a retail establishment but what would I do with 2 sinks then? They won’t give me my money back so that I can go and buy one somewhere else. I would really like to get my membership fees back. This is a waste of money and time.
If you are planning to spend 50k or more on furniture and building materials, then Direct buy is for you. but if you become a member with no plans on spending 50k in the next 5 yrs then it will feel like a scam. I just signed up last week and purchase an entry level dinning set that would have cost me 1,500 in the local store plus taxes or would cost me 900 plus taxes online. With direct buy I paid for the same exact item 642.37. Still a bargain on a small amount. The reason why I became a member and paid the fees because I will be doing alot of renovations in my house this year. I suggest that you do your homework and get your local pricing before going to an open house. make sure you get the local price plus taxes and delivery as well as online price plus taxes and delivery and compare it with the exact item at the open house. Direct buy prices by the way will not show shipping, handling and tax. Make sure you get those amounts when you compare.
Just in case it hasn’t already been brought to the attention of people researching DirectBuy’s legitimacy, there is a misleading web site out there designed to give you the impression that there’s an unbiased “rating” of DirectBuy.
The site is CONSUMERREVIEWS.ORG and would lead you to believe that since it’s tagged as a .ORG site, it may be associated with a not-for-profit organization. BEWARE – it is simply another DirectBuy site and the 3 links on it will take you to the DirectBuy.com site. For additional entertainment, read some of the reviews. Every one is an over the top review of price, service, selection and savings.
Just another “Red Flag” that should give you an idea of what DirectBuy will resort to to fool people into becoming members.
My husband and I recently attended a Direct Buy Open House – yes they did try the hard sell tactics with us, yes they used ‘real’ costco and bestbuy ads to show how much $$ can be saved by purchasing the identical item at Direct buy, however, once their 8% service fee and shipping costs are added, we could see little if any difference. We have friends who claim they have saved thousands, and yet we notice they have been shopping more retail and less Driect Buy…in fact we just purchased a spa locally and priced the same out while at Direct Buy – funny we would have spent over $3000 MORE if we had purchased from Direct Buy and that’s not taking into account the $5K membership fee! We have opted not to become members, however they have extended a 30 day ‘trial’ membership (Silver only – not the ‘good’ or ‘quality’ manufacturers reserved for the Gold and Platnium members)…..I’ll keep you posted – tomorrow we are heading off to the catalog library to do some comparison shopping!! (It’s my actual belief that with a little legwork, Driect Buy pricing is easy to beat!)
As a business owner myself in the wholesale industry i See these commercials and i wonder now who can someone such as this company beat the purchasing power of home depot, lowes and other companies? Even if you dont deal with the big box retailers and go to a local store sometimes they will even beat the price. Plus your helping a local owned business and when something goes wrong they are right there to fix it.
I can not believe all these posts about supposed savings. Its always so generic. If there are real savings give me a model # if its electronics or give me a item # for the manufacturer for a sofa or living room set or something.
I can spend 1 day doing some comparisson shopping and i can guarantee you that i can beat any advertised price of directbuy.
Someone who has been a member and thinks you really saved money please prove the rest of us wrong and post actual savings with actual items not just kitchen cabnets or sofa or something.
WHo in 2009 shops via a catalog? Im sorry if i want to go furniture shopping i want to see what im getting touch it feel it sit on it. My wife and i right now are looking for a sofa. And i can tell you that we have been to Nebraska Furniture mart, Furniture direct, and a couple other places sat on a couple dozen couches and only after that did we find we want. Suggested price is $4000 something and the cheapest anyone else has it is $2800 we bought it Nebraska furn mart for $1700.
Now being in the wholesale business i know buying power means allot. I can get much better pricing on things if i can purchase large quantities of it. And the more often i purchase the better.
Even if i saved thousands of dollars with this company the high pressure sales the fact that they dont let you see what your getting and all the other complaints here about late arrival and so on are enough to make me not want to shop there. I do not give my business to companies with hard edged sales people. Id rather pay more and do business with a company who will be my installer as well. Its usually much cheaper then to just hire an installer and buy elsewhere.
We were invited to go but i will stay far away. I thought they had everything in a show room then you just picked it out and they ordered it for you. There was nothing about delivery fees, other fees and they did not install when i talked to someone.
DirectBuy Orlando is a scam. I reluctantly signed up on site and the other bloggers are correct- never sign up when the sales pitch is you must sign up today or you will never have the opportunity again. I made the mistake and did sign up. I exercised my right to cancel within 3 business days (via certified mail) and 30 days later they still have not issued a credit to my credit card. When you call their office they never answer and never return calls. Buyer Beware!!
My wife and I went to the DirectBuy pitch/showroom in San Marcos, CA about 2 years ago. We are average folks and our annual income was in the 120k range during this time. Because we were new to the area when we received the flyer in the mail, we thought we’d check it out. We needed a houseful of furniture. The flyer also included a typical house key, to lure us in with the possibility of winning a condo?or something if we went to the presentation. When I called the phone no. on the flyer for more info, I was pressured into making an appointment on Thursday evening. This was only 2 days away. I typically spent about 1.5 hours in evening traffic to get home. My wife said she could go to the presentation without altering her schedule. “NO..NO..NO, it doesn’t work like that,” stated the person on the phone. If you are married (which they ask in the first questions when you call) both must attend at the same time. I then asked, is there any kind of membership fee. I was told “those details will be covered in the presentation.” I had about 10 doubts within this 5 min conversation. I don’t need to tell you the rest of the story which is the same as many have already so explicitly detailed. Becca (comment no. 98) gave the perfect representation of how our presentation went. Additionally, the key that was inside the flyer won us a flimsy steak knife set (supposedly valued at $250, maybe if it was really made of steel?it was likely worth $10) To sum it all up: Do you think as a grown man, I’m going to give somebody a check for $5000 and can’t even see what I’m buying or leave with anything the same day? Yeah,….right! NO! We left without any shame or feeling like losers, BTW, in middle/high school I was a master at using “reverse psychology.” I was able to deflect all the psych attacks being wielded from every DB rep in the showroom. I don’t care for those claiming that they saved $30,000 on cabinets. Who cares, are you going to be buried in the wood from those cabinets? Credit cards are bad enough, if not used responsibly…but at least you can have immediate gratification. Live life within your means, there will always be material things out of your reach. I would like a Bugatti Veyron…but, I accept the fact it’s not going to happen. Here’s a better idea…take $25 dollars and go to your local bookstore and buy a Holy Bible. Seek God, and secure your salvation to have eternal life with the Heavenly Father!
My wife and I just got back from a presentation in Omaha. Was not high pressure at all. In fact, we had to leave to go get our grandchild and they said to come back whenever. I just logged on to find out if there where any bad reports about DB and came here. Don’t know if that’s good or not. A lot of what I’m reading here is not accurate. We were able to look up prices. All of the prices we saw were the loaded price exclusive of taxes. It is, imo, a matter of mathmatics. The items I looked up were all current models #’s that we’re considering buying at Cabelas and Furniture Mart. The savings at DB, if what they showed us is accurate, were pretty good. The only thing I don’t like is you can’t kick the tires….ie; it’s kind of hard to see how a chair sits or a mattress feels from a catalog page. We spend a lot of money at the retail level so the savings could add up. Still not 100% sure we’ll go back nor can I say we concur with the negatives posted above.
My mom and I had an appointment. one of us ended up signing in, we shared the cost of joining and then we both are enjoying the benefits eheh.
we always do stuff like that. sometimes i feel like we are scamming direct buy.
I recently joined direct buy after reading all the warnings about joining. I thought I could beat the odds because I recently purchased an old house that I am totally renovating.
I have saved a lot of money on appliances, windows, flooring, furniture and more.
I recently bought 7 appliances – all GE profile. Fridge (PGS1PJXSS), wall oven (PCT916SMSS), microwave with trim kit (JEB186SCNSS), Electric cook top (JCP346SMSS), dishwasher (GLD8312PSS), warming drawer (PTD915SMSS)….Total price $5066 taxes included. Retail, these might be around $14000…but you might decrease this to about $4K if you catch the sales or go to a store like TASCO or Appliance Canada. So a I got the membership fee back.
I purchased JENNAIR appliances and right after realized it was out of stock.
It was mentioned but i didn’t see it. they decided to give me a rebate because of the delay ( it only took an extra week to ship it).
Direct buy is good with guiding you, the service is good.
If you are considering, there is a 30 day trial, which is a good way to test it
I’m glad I found this site.
My wife and I attended a DirectBuy seminar and we actually got into an argument on the way home because she wanted to join and I refused to.
I am so glad she convinced me. I originally thought that direct buy scam people, that is why i didn’t want to join the club.
But now, i can see the benefits of it. We can save a lot of money with direct buy. We calculated it by making comparisons with other stores.
I am also happy to see that customers are happy with them.
the bottom line is YOU WILL SAVE A BUNCH OF MONEY.
We moved into a new house that didn’t need any improvements as everything was new.
However we need everything for the blank slate backyard.
We saved over $7500 on our fence alone, well worth the cost of membership.
After the smoke clears and we finish buying everythig we need I can’t imagine how much I’ll actually save.
Whoever does not want to join, no problem, but I find it funny reading all the bashers that don’t have a clue what DB is all about.
My wife and I had some remodeling to do. We decided to call and make an appointment for their spill.
The adds they showed from other retailers compared to Direct Buy were higher.
These were things we knew we would need later on and thought we could save some money.
When comparing prices to a qoute we received for granite counter tops, we would be saving a lot of money (almost half)if we go Direct Buy.
So it looks like if you need to spend a lot of money on big items, you can save money .
Also you can probably make your membership back in less than a month.
My wife and I plan on doing this over the next couple of years so we’ll see how we do. If I didn’t have this planned, I think I would have chosen not to join.
You know the old saying “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is”.
Well, direct buy proves it wrong.
I joined 5 years ago, when i decided to make a career move and start remodeling houses for a living.
I save a lot of money, and my customers are happy with them too.
They get to have high quality furniture but they still get to save some money.
I would recommend it to everyone who is going to remodel a place
Direct buy is awesome. my wife and i saved so much with our house remodel.
If you are thinking about becoming a member but you are not sure, there is a 30 day trial.
Just check it out and see if its good for you
it really was a good investment for us. we don’t have any direct buy complaints so far, the service is great, the delivery is flexible and most of all we bought things we could not afford before, and still saved a lot.
I flip house for a living, so i joined direct buy a few years ago. just made sense to me. i have no complaints about direct buy s service. it s been pretty good for me for the past years.
saved a lot with direct buy too!
i am thinking of joining the club, is there anything i should know before?
I am a designer and i’ve been working with direct buy for years. some of my clients thought that direct buy scams people, but to be honest, i think it’s the other way around!
My clients are very happy, they can afford things that they thought they couldn’t. I am happy to pass the savings to them. if they are happy, they recommend me to others, and i end up with more clients! its a win win.
I was moving into a new house and I practically needed to replace all applicances, furniture and flooring. I tried their trial membership and then i decided to join the club. The service is good so far so i don’t have any directbuy complaints. I am also saving quite a lot so i am planning to take a long vaca soon eheh!
I am an employee at DirectBuy and I have read and heard it all about this company. What determines if the club will work for you is if you are into expanding and upgrading. Yes the membership is a bit up there in price, yet its that way for a reason. The cost of the membership is substaintally lower than what you pay in mark up at retail locations over the period of the intial 3yrs. An honestly after you get past the 3yrs, the renewal fee every year is less than my car insurance payment every month. As long as you buy one or two items a year, which everyone does, then the club is very bennificial. As far as help and customer service. Every center is different, Some employees know more than others because of experiance. I will promise you that if you have a question then service staff will do everything they can to get you the answer. Directbuy is NOT a scam. If you are smart enough to go over numbers and have a project you are wanting to do with your home or a new home, the club is perfect for you. And the reason it is sign now or you cant return is because they allow you to price match some items in the open house, and suppliers dont want the guests who didnt join to go haggle pricing. Not cool. Use your head and do your research.
first we thought that direct buy scams people, we didn’t believe that you could save so much. We are now members with direct buy and are happy we changed our mind. You really can save that much, specially if you have big renovations plans.
We had to remodel : 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, and 2 bathrooms. basically the whole house, top to bottom. We are glad we work with direct buy, we could really afford a lot of the high end things, and we ended up spending less than planned for our renovations.
Before my wife and I went to our appointment we both did a tremendous amount of research, both online, and speaking with people who were members. As such, I had my checkbook ready when I went in to sign up. the negative comments that i find here seem to be from people who never should have gone there in the first place, did anyway, and then were upset by what they offer you. Here’s a suggestion, if you tend to shop at Walmart for most items, don’t even consider directbuy. For our situation, it is a no braininer. My wife and I spend a tremendous amount of $ on items each year. We remodel frequenlty, often buy high end electronics and appliances, had some major projects ($50k + planned before we walked in there). The bottom line is that the $5K in membership cost was not a big deal to us given what we spend on purchases throughout the year, so we are really the people who benefit from the program. If you cant afford to throw away the membership fee, you don’t make frequent high-end purchases, and you don’t do frequent remodels, than don’t go to the presentation, and you won’t be dissapointed. For other people who are like us, it’s well worth it and you will save money.
We’ve been Direct Buy members for many years now. We knew it was going to be expensive to buy a membership but had to do a total reno of our home so we’d done the math ahead of time. We did save many thousands of dollars and were also able to afford higher quality items at what we would normally have paid for lesser quality. At our franchise where we live, everyone is very friendly and helpful. They answer questions quickly and when we had one difficult experience with an item that was very slow in shipping they refunded our money as soon as we asked them to. We saved big on flooring, furniture, plumbing fixtures, appliances, electrical stuff, electronics and much more.
Yes, we felt a little pressured when the salesperson told us we had to make our decision while in the showroom but we already knew approximately what objects we would want to purchase and added up the cost if we hadn’t bought a membership. At the time we joined it was $4000 and we saved many thousands of dollars more than the membership fee so for us it was worth it. I agree that if you aren’t planning on buying large items the membership likely won’t be worth spending your money on, though.
Now that we are past the initial three years in the contract we pay $199 a year (we’re in Canada so everything is more expensive here) renewal fee. If we don’t plan on using Direct Buy for the renewal year we don’t have to pay anything and just have to pay the renewal fee at some later date if we decide we want to purchase something else. We figure that’s very fair policy.
I saved a lot thanks to direct buy. I thought at the beginning that direct buy scams people with the membership fee, but the truth is that their pricing is so good that i ended up saving lots. plus i was able to buy high quality appliances and furniture.
it works well for me. You can also check them out before signing up. that is what i did first. but then decided to join as i had a couple of rooms to remodel.
Has anyone used the “free 30 day membership” without having to pay the high membership fee?
if you plan to furnish your house or just a basement, bedrooms, living/family rooms,patio, garage etc. etc. then you can save thousands of dollars. but you have to be ready to pay the fee for the membership which at the beginning made me think that direct buy scams. the truth is that i don’t have any directbuy complaints. I am happy with the company, and would recommend it to my friends.
its better for people who are planning on big renovations, but if you just want to update your old furniture, i think you can also save some good money.
if you have several residences, are buying a new house, furnishing your office, or are going to renovate your house 100% then its deff. really worth looking at.
the 30day trial is exactly like it says free. so you can check it out without spending money on the membership.
Thanks for the heads up. We recently closed on a house built in the ’60′s. It has a very tired kitchen and small master bed and bath so we will be be completely remodeling the kitchen, enlarging the master bedroom and adding an completely new master bath. it sounds like there is no direct buy scam, and that customers are happy about direct buy. We know that there is a members fee but we feel like we are going to save a lot of money.
wow 450+ comments later and I realize why society should take away commenting from some people.
I’m looking into my first house in the next month. Its a foreclosure and needs minor (note: minor) work to make it livable. My wife and I went to DirectBuy because there is a showroom on my way to work. We set up an appointment and went through the showing. Afterwards we began to compare their prices for what we are considering.
Honestly we would consider it in the future but it doesn’t meet our needs right now.
We have a small amount of work to be done and don’t care much for looking at over the next several years upgrading our stuff. Its not what we need. Maybe in another several years we could consider it. It is a good program, it seems, particularly for people who have multiple properties and larger homes. There is definitely a savings there.
For what we were doing we noted the following:
1. The applicances aren’t that much of a break than what we were looking at…certainly not enough to justify the expensive up front right now
2. The furnishings aren’t that much of a price break over what we are looking for. We usually buy higher end pieces that fit our design preference. Our last family set cost just as much as the Direct Buy set once you figured in taxes, shipping, and fees.
3. All of the flooring and surfaces we wanted replaced were marked down, yes. But after we would have to pay for installation using one of their “certified” installers we realized their price wasn’t any better than a local merchant.
Then I got a call from one of the sales people who sat there and acted very condescendingly towards myself and my wife. He tried to apply high pressure sales tactics over the phone and I am simply disgusted at his attitude and his pompous behavior. He kept telling me that he can’t understand how I could be so stupid and ignore their “obvious” benefits. After interrupting me for the tenth time I finally told him good day and hung up. The truth is that while the flooring was about $1/sq foot cheaper than some other places we would still have to pay for installation.
If I can I will certainly report them to the BBB around here. This guy is just a mean spirited person.
Use DirectBuy if you have a $25,000+ renovation. It is probably worth it. Just don’t expect friendly reception or adequate customer service. The showroom was very messy and not taken care of well. The presentation was pendantic.
I was very disturbed by the uncaring nature and arrogance of their sales people. One thing to note, when it is nearly impossible to find corporate information and customer service phone numbers for a company that usually doesn’t equal quality customer care.
I am very disappointed in DirectBuy. DirectBuy earned my membership by promising products at prices that were better than retail prices. DirectBuy has not lived up to that standard and in many cases, it is more expensive than retail stores after adding in all of the hidden charges, such as the hidden 8% profit on every item they sell and the extensive shipping charges. When I purchased door knobs, they ended up being an equivalent price (due to all the hidden costs) to what Home Depot offers for the same brand and the same product. When I looked at kitchen cupboards, they are less than the “suggested retail value”, but factoring in the installation by a DirectBuy business member, they are far more than it would cost to hire a kitchen designer for the same cabinets.
I am also very disappointed in the number of products that DirectBuy offers. In the sales pitch, I was led to believe that I would be able to find just about anything that I could buy at a home improvement store, from light fixtures to appliances to building materials. It is simply not true. When I have looked for building materials, they are not available. When I looked for air conditioners, they only had units that would not work with a forced air system. In addition to the lack of items I have searched for, I have been disappointed with the selection of items that are available. For example, when I was looking for a new bathroom vanity and faucet, I was unable to find a product that met my needs at DirectBuy, so I had to purchase them at a retail store.
Overall, I am very disappointed with DirectBuy and would recommend that other people steer clear of this deceiving business.
I was interested to see what people were saying about DB since my husband and I just joined. I appreciate the different points of view. Some people are funny though. One person made it sound like they had to buy and they were getting written up if they didn’t and they were pressured… What? Oh my God people. You know about free will don’t you? This isn’t Catholic School in the 60′s. You can politely get up and leave, right? No need for anger or violence. If it’s not for you then leave. Ok so other than that. I hate salesmen. I get turned off very easily from high pressure salespeople. If I had gone to a DB with high pressure people we would have left immediately. I guess you just have to feel comfortable with the people that are at the DB you join. I guess if you understand sales people and how sales work you understand why you don’t get the membership price up front. You also understand why the extensive sales pitch is given. So I get it. Then as a consumer you need to decide if you will be able to save money and get your membership dues back to make being a member worth it to you. It is important to investigate the costs, savings potential and hidden charges that may or may not be. It’s easy to call something a scam if you don’t see the value in something. I agree the hard sell is annoying, aggravating and gives the feel of hiding something. But if you are approached in that manner then walk away. If you are dealing with people who are more of the mind to either take it or leave it, if it’s for you great if not that’s ok. And maybe it’s more of how you personally deal with high pressure salespeople. Just know the choice is yours. “They” can’t make you do anything. Why so many of the people on this blog don’t understand that cracks me up. Anyway, I will be checking into the shipping and other hidden fees. I joined because I was under the impression there was no shipping fees added or any other costs involved other than tax. So I will check this point out and will tell DB tomorrow during my “training” whether or not we will still be members.
You people should be comedians. Using every trick in the book and tactic to sway other FREE WILLED individuals not to make a decision that may be best for THEIR family. It is nice to see that people TRY to do some research before attending a DirectBuy Open House, however, it is sad to find that most of the information is thoroughly INCORRECT. First, the membership fee varies depending on the DirectBuy Club and its location. People in New York will definitely pay more for a membership than those in West Virginia. You do not have to pay for the membership in one lump sum (as some very UNintelligent individual mentioned above). The membership fee is pretty standard and what you are shown is the cost of the MOST POPULAR membership plan. In my area, the cost is a little under $5000 which can easily be broken up into payments plans until paid off. This is for a membership for 3 years and guarantees your membership for 10 years. Just think about it, statistics show that a family pays 35,000 in retail markups in ten years. That is ridiculous!! Yet, we do it because we see nothing wrong with it, many times we are not aware of how much we are actually paying in markups. The difference is incredible. Also, there are membership plans for people who want a membership for 3 months, less than $1000. Get your facts straight! Now, many clubs are offering the Free Trial Membership. I believe this is ideal and is the perfect opportunity fore people like many of the above, who are not sure about DB, to see if it is worth the savings. During the Open House, you will be given all information on membership pricing, of course. They would like for you to decide to be members that day..HOWEVER if you are eligible for the free trial, then take it. No one can pressure you to buy something. You tell them no, you want the free trial and if you are happy with the service, you will think about becoming a member. If you take the free trial, no one will ask you for any credit card information. You will not “automatically” become a member after the 30 days unless you call and let it be known. On the phone, employees can only give you the information they are told. Due to agreements with manufacturers (which makes DB possible AND successful), they are not allowed to give you every bit of information over the phone. That is for you to come to the OH and find out for yourself. At that time you are also given the opportunity to compare pricings to see if it will be of benefit to you. DB is not for everybody, let’s face it. But what I find hilarious is that most of the people who complain are people who are upset that they are too poor to afford a membership there and that is not fair to the millions of people who can benefit from DB but won’t because they are intelligent enough to form their own opinions by attending an OH. How sad we have come in our society.
DIRECT BUY IS A BIG SCAM. Stay away from this outfit!
DO NOT SIGN ANY CONTRACT.
They are a bunch of crooks, pressuring people to pay big membership fees. When you sign their contract, be aware that you are waiving your right to cancel your membership. You are also waiving your right to sue. You must agree to go to arbitration with the Better Business Bureau. These people make you sign the contract without informing you of what you are signing. But you are not allowed to take it home to read it. You must sign the day you came in. There are no savings involved. Nobody pays retail price nowadays. People buy things on sale, without any hassle. If you buy from Direct Buy, you cannot return what you bought. TAKE MY ADVICE. STAY AWAY FROM DIRECT BUY! DO NOT SIGN ANY CONTRACTS! THEY ARE SCAMMERS!
We have been members for about 3 years and have never used it. Huge waste of money. Do most of you use it by driving to the store? Our problem is the nearest store is 150 miles away. We were hoping to rely on the website which is very unfriendly. We want to get out money’s worth and just find the whole thing inconvenient. We wished we’d never done it, but we’re hopeful that we can still make it work for us. Usually when we do research something, we can find the same thing at a local retailer for the same price or cheaper, so why drive? I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody. We definitely should have done our research first. Live and learn.
We just bought our first house and know we have a lot of shopping on our hands when it comes to big ticket items. We were very close to going to Direct Buy and then decided against it as the people in the salespeople in the showroom did not know all the details. I actually caught a few of them giving conflicting information. A few days later I bumped into one of the salespeople from Direct Buy and we ended up having a conversation and she said that it is a scam and that they are trained to get around objections to “make the sale”. Luckily for this we made our final decision to not go with Direct Buy. The funny thing is when reading some of the comments above that people are writing positive about Direct Buy, especially the people with the rude attitudes, they remind me of some of the salespeople there. I would not be surprised if they were the ones writing on here to try to “sell” people Direct Buy. When a product is good and deserves good reviews it should never be an issue… Direct Buy has way more negative feedback then good. Go with your gut feeling, don’t let anyone make it for you. My gut says no to Direct Buy…. That is my opinion and I’m entitled to that.
Just bought $500,000 house and looking to furnish top to bottom with a $100,000 budget. I went to the direct buy “showroom” today which i guess is a loosely applied term because there’s no furniture in it. they expected me to watch a 40 MINUTE sales pitch video about basic economics and how awesome it is to be a member, and I basically felt like I was at a Tony Robbins seminar so walked out after 5 minutes. They wanted 5000 dollars without letting me look at any products or prices; are you fucking serious? They act like its pentagon classified information but basically they just don’t want you going to any other retailer and finding out that you get the same price because ITS A FUCKING RECESSION AND YOU CAN GET EVERYTHING AT COST ANYWHERE YOU GO. So they try to make it seem as “exclusive” as possible, if it was really such an AMAZING opportunity do you think they would have informercials that run between slapchop and cash 4 gold? DO NOT EVEN ENTERTAIN THE POSSIBILITY OF SIGNING UP HERE. THEY WILL TRY TO INTIMIDATE YOU INTO SIGNING A LEGALLY BINDING CONTRACT TODAY DO NOT DO IT. Their hostile sales tactics are as outdated as their tacky “high end” (insert hysterical laughing here) Ashley Furniture. I was not going to be threatened by the “now or never” campaign, and the sales guy who was socially retarded didn’t like that very much. And by the way HE TRIED TO MAKE US SIGN TWO DIFFERENT CONTRACTS: OUR COPY SAID THAT WE HAD 2 WEEKS TO CANCEL OUR TRIAL MEMBERSHIP, BUT HIS COPY LEFT THAT INFORMATION OUT BECAUSE HE DIDN’T WANT TO “PISS OFF HEAD OFFICE”, WHICH HE “INITIALED” WITH A BUNCH OF INDECIPHERABLE SCRIBBLES. And just to add insult to injury, I’m pretty sure we were solicited by actors pretending to be direct buy “customers” at the table next to us that “just happened to overhear our conversation and want to encourage us to join because you really DO save money”. Overall WOULD NEVER GIVE THESE SCAMMERS A RED FUCKING CENT AND CANNOT INSIST STRONGLY ENOUGH ON NEVER EVER WASTING YOUR TIME AND HARD EARNED DOLLARS SO SOME GROSS SWEATY DOUCHE CAN BUY A MAZDA MIATA WITH YOUR MONEY.
PS TO “UNKNOWN” ABOVE WHO SAYS WE ARE ALL COMEDIANS, YES YOU CAN MAKE PAYMENTS…..AT 17% INTEREST RATES. AND YOU CAN HAVE A TRIAL MEMBERSHIP……WITH A $1000 MAXIMUM PURCHASE CAP. I’M AFRAID YOU’VE MISTAKEN COMEDY FOR BASIC FUCKING CONSUMER LITERACY. AND I HATE TO BREAK IT TO YOU, BUT $5000 FOR PURE NOTHING IS TOO EXPENSIVE EVEN FOR BILLIONAIRES LIKE YOURSELF. SO GOOD LUCK WITH THAT.
I am a builder and i privately use direct buy. it works for me. Don’t have any direct buy complaints. They have quality furniture at a fantastic price.
i attended one of the presentations that directbuy offered today, the whole concept of saving money on purchases intrigued me.
i was expecting a couple of hundred dollars as membership fee, but not the 5k that they are asking me for. It is high, but i decided to join just because they do have good prices on the things i want. So far i have renovated my living room. I still have to remodel 3 other rooms but i don’t have any direct buy complaints yet. The service is pretty good, and flexible which was important for me and my busy schedule.
I consider myself to be very savy in regards to money and deals but was completely blindsided by DirectBuy. My wife (now ex) made an appointment to go see the presentation and I was not interested but decided to attend. I left all the details and research up to her. I thought we would see it and then I would research myself afterwards and we could discuss if it was something we wanted.
During the sales pitch we get the cost which is 5k, they were pretty straight forward about this. We thought that it was a little expensive, just to join the club, but my wife told me that it would be worth it. For once she was. We really have no complaints about direct buy. we are happy with them. Yes, there is a members fee, but if you are like us, you will make it back. We did only with our living room.
If you are thinking of joining, just make a list of what you want, check the prices at different places and then go to direct buy and you will understand that there are really a lot of saving with direct buy.
Thanks for the heads up! We’re building a home and I have found incredible deals at direct buy. we just wanted to know how people feel about it and make sure there is no directbuy scam. we will be joining the club soon!
My wife and I are interested in getting some bedroom furniture. We have a friend who is a member, and has good things to say about Direct Buy…although admittedly has not used it much, but is planning on building in the near future. Anyways, she let us use her username to search the DB website. My wife and I found some furniture we wanted for our son’s room, and then did some comparison shopping. We found the EXACT same bed for $225 more at the local store. so we are happy we joined.
The nearest DirectBuy showroom is only 25 min. away. We signed up for the open house in a few days….our intention is to use the Free 30 day membership to buy some furniture , and then if you want you can decide not to join. pretty fair no? we decided to join, an so far so good, no direct buy complaints.
Direct buy, do I have things to share with the people who are sitting on the fence wanting to purchase a membership or who are thinking about renewing the membership. A few things have been purchased over the years we have had the membership which did save us a lot of money.
I am a plumber, one of my clients joined and told me it is a good deal. He hired me to pick up and install a new dishwasher for him. He gave me the sales slip, I saw the price 389.00 plus tax for the new stainless steel huge fridge. I was amazed he could get it at this price as it would normally cost at least $800.
My wife and I have been a member for 10 years. I thought it was expensive when we joined and worried about recouping the costs. I am very good at finding deals and can negotiate discounts at major retailers easily but i found that there are always good deals at direct buy, and it saves me a lot of time.
If you do not have a major remodel or large purchases coming up shortly then Direct Buy is not for you.
Here are our experiences:
1 – We joined when we first got married and had to buy furniture for our home. We easily saved over 40% for moderetaly priced furniture over the offer I received from retailers offering the same manufacturer. Still have most of that same furniture today, it’s pretty good quality.
2 – My father remodeled his kitchen and as a gift we chose to buy his cabinets that he wanted. Compared to the cabinet company he chose we saved over $10,000 on the exact same custom cabinets. he had a large kitchen and his cost would have been over $37,000. You do the math.
3 – We recently moved and I had 26 windows to buy blinds for. We went with some nice high end cordless blinds. Even with the Lowes and Home Depot offerings of 30% + 10% discounts going on I still saved over $2000. Same blinds, same manufacturer, big savings.
Bottom line, there are some serious savings to be had . Anyone else trying to tell you otherwise is lying, not a member, or trying to find savings on the cheapest, low margin items which will disapoint them.
Direct Buy is not for everyone but I guarantee anyone that has joined recently and feeling buyers remorse like we did, the first time you have a major project for your home or office, you will be happy you have your membership.
Problem is that Directbuy keeps discounts and rebates for members only. I have a few bad experiences with other companies… and i am not sure about this one. apparently people are happy and don’t have too many directbuy complaints, so i will at least check it out and go to a meeting.
My husband and I took a tour and we decided to apply for the trial membership. it just made sense for us. having to renovate an entire house, we didn’t want to waist time or money. so far we have a few project finished such as the kitchen and 2 bedrooms. We don’t have any directbuy complaints yet but we will keep posting here.
I found the info I wanted here. I wanted to see if the customers are happy, i wasn’t sure if direct buy scams or not. I always check before making any decisions.
Great Blog. After watching DirectBuy ads all over TV and Internet, I decided to visit nearby Direct Buy store (Since, I am planning to buy my first home in comming November). I joined and now i can’t wait to start seeing how much i will save with them!
Hi All,
I’m very happy to hear all the positive feedback about Direct Buy. I think that they are wonderful. I agree with some of the other comments – If you can’t afford it, then don’t sign up. It’s a great deal for what you get. I signed up after finding these through this site: Hardwood Flooring Experts. I used that site to find someone to install my floors, but purchased them through Direct Buy. I got a fab deal on the floors and got choose from several contractors.
We’ve been Direct Buy members for many years, and i can tell you that i save thousands. now. We did save many thousands of dollars and were also able to afford higher quality items at what we would normally have paid for lesser quality. so far we don’t have any directbuy complaints
LOL! there are some pretty happy customers here! you guys really don’t have any directbuy complaints? I mean i know that you can be happy about a company but i am here to see if something is not going well with direct buy
The customer service at Direct Buy is so good. I felt like i had to share with the world. i had a lot of bad experiences in the past with other companies, that when you find one that is good, you have to share. plus, thanks to direct buy i saves a lot of money. When you compare with other companies, you won’t have any direct buy complaints.
I have read many of these comments. My experience is as follows. It is clear that Direct Buy is only good for those who plan on remodeling. If you are just thinking of replace a few pieces of furniture the, it not for you. But if you are like me, and want to remodel your place, you will save thousands.
Using my usual “plan of attack” when dealing with a new company I know little about, I used an email address specifically for new companies so they can’t bug me if I don’t like them or I’ll update it if they pass muster. But the truth is that there is no direct buy scam, which was one of my fears. I am a member now and i can tell you that if you want to update your house, direct buy is well worth it. I could afford high end furniture and the price is just unbeatable.
I have been Direct Buy member for many years now. I knew it was going to be expensive to buy a membership but had to do a total reno of my house so i did the math ahead of time. We did save many thousands of dollars and was also able to afford higher quality things at a great price. At my franchise where I live, everyone is very friendly and pretty helpful. employees answer questions quickly and when i had one difficult experience with an item that was quite slow in shipping they refunded our money as soon as i asked them to. i saved big on flooring, furniture, plumbing fixtures, appliances, electrical stuff, electronics and much more.
Now that i am past the initial three years in the contract we pay just $199 a year renewal fee. If i don’t plan on using Direct Buy for the renewal year we don’t have to pay anything and just have to pay the renewal fee at some later date if i decide we want to purchase something else.i figure that’s very fair policy.
My wife dragged me along for an open house meeting when I was off one day from work, and I knew from the beginning how these types of sales approaches worked, so I went in with my defenses flying high. After the initial cheesy videos we sat down with what I thought was a sales associate who explained everything to us in great detail, allowed us to browse through catalogs are things we were interested in and took over an hour with us before we made any decisions. I appreciated the low pressure sales approach, and it made the difference when my wife and I signed up for their silver (lowest end) package. We were buying furniture for a new home and the savings alone on basic furniture (we checked multiple catalogs to make sure) were almost enough to pay back our deposit. Crunching some numbers for a two year time span of very conservative estimates would pay back the entire 2 year membership plus around 250 dollars net in our pocket savings… and we do NOT spend much money on expensive furniture (if you are a well established middle-high income family, you can save thousands.. and if you are affluent you can save ten of thousands easily, and I am not exaggerating).Every year thereafter up to the 10 year mark is only 198 dollars….thats YEARLY… even if you only bought minor appliances for the next ten years you would save a few thousand dollars. Turns out the sales associate was one of the part owners of two of the local Direct Buys and has been very helpful ever since we obtained our membership for even small requests (emails about pricings if we cant make it in… which really makes or breaks the place for me). I am VERY skeptical of sales tactics, and Im sure other Direct Buys may NOT be as considerate or as well run, but the one in Rancho Cucamonga and Corona California have been nothing short of impressive and as long as you have a moderate amount of money to spend in the beginning (around 700 dollars down and 2 years of payments approx 150 dollars for the silver membership) AND you at least rent or own and plan on making semi serious purchases (some basic furniture, television, fridge, bedroom stuff or have kids who need bedroom stuff), you will without question save a minimum a few thousand dollars over a 5-10 year period and probably in the low tens of thousands of dollars. If you are in the area or Rancho Cucamonga, I highly recommend the Direct Buy off or Arrow and Rochester. It was very well run, laid back, with helpful people who at least in our experience, gave us plenty of time to throw around questions and do some basic in-store research to make sure we were comfortable with our decision. On a side note, the owner said the retention rate he has for employees is phenomenal. The least senior employee has been with the company three years and they only lose people to retirement or promoting to different lines of work. I hope this review was helpful to those who are skeptics (believe me, when I was sitting through the silly video presentation, I was giving my wife the evil eye the whole time for dragging me along).
I am so happy I found this website. I thought that direct buy scams and was afraid to join the club. Happy to see that it is not and that you can actually save some money. thanks!
I don’t have much experience with DirectBuy. I had signed up for a open house once and didn’t show up (I don’t know if this means I’d be black listed if I tried to sign up).
With that said, my father has since gotten a membership and has flipped a home. He’s saved a ton of cash on cabinetry, windows, furniture, etc. He says that some things are not much cheaper, but some have a significant difference (ie, he said that hardwood isn’t any cheaper, for example).
I’ve also had the chance to go in when he came to visit me here in my home town. We had to pretend that I lived with him though, which was a little weird (and I forget how we pulled it off because they asked for our driver’s licenses.
However, when we went in, I looked around at the catalogs and things really were significantly cheaper.
I don’t know if I’d sign up for Direct Buy, but I’m happy I have him to buy through. It just sucks that I can’t go in and shop with him.
Direct But scam? i don’t think so. they saved me so much money that sometimes i think i am scamming direct buy
I joined Direct Buy for home remodel savings as well, I had the renovate a few rooms in my house including the kitche, twou bathrooms, and 3 bedrooms. I also purchased gas fireplace after checking out through local retail showroom as advised by Direct Buy rep. I saved at least 25% with that item. I bought a lot of things from Direct buy, save tons and had the opportunity to have the upgrades that i wanted but couldn’t afford before. So far, no direct buy complaints but I will keep you guys posted if i have issues with them in the future!
Thank you for your postings. My husband and I are scheduled for an orientation tomorrow. We planned to bring our father because we were excited about the possibilities for him and ourselves (and he wouldn’t come on his own, he thinks the systems like direct buy scam) . We are building a home with Mcmillin homes and though they offer luxury upgrades, we are not willing to pay the mark ups. So I thought Direct Buy might be a way to get the luxury items we desire without having to pay the retail costs. I went to the meeting, which was overall pleasant i sign up. Now my husband my father and i are saving a lot of money, and we are still able to afford quality appliances, furniture etc… We are happy we joined.
Just remodeled my bathroom, bedroom and kitchen and for the bedroom alone you can get the money back form the members fee.
I first thought that Direct buy is a scam, but a few friends who are members told me all about it, so i decided to join as well. I had to renovate my house, and i am happy that i ended up joining direct buy. I can honestly say that i have no direct buy complaints. their price is amazing, you can get quality furniture at a great price and also, the delivery is very fast and convenient. they are very flexible on hours, which is great for me and my crazy work hours…
I am a Direct Buy member and former employee of the Direct Buy from another state. Some people are posting negative comments like direct buy is a scam, but my question is: are you guys members? If you are considering joining direct buy, here is my advice: Direct Buy is not for everybody, its only for people who are patient and smart enough to realize a good deal. You need to be patient because you need to be able to do your own research, the staff is not there to pressure you to buy or tell you what to buy. That falls on the member to make their own decisions. Direct Buy is not a retail store. The employees that work there dont receive commission, their only objective is to help members. They could care less whether you buy something or not. They are there to make the experience as easy for the member as possible. People who dont use their memberships are stupid for signing up in the first place. You have a few days after you sign your contract to change your mind and receive a full refund, granted you dont purchase anything in that time frame. The people who complain about that are people who let the alloted amount of time to change their minds pass and are stuck with the membership. Everything you buy is direct from the manufacturer which is why you dont pay retail. The salesmen make you fully aware of everything before you sign a contract. There are no hidden fees. You know exactly what you will pay when you make a purchase. Since you are buying directly from the manufacturer you have to pay for the item to be shipped. That’s not a profit for Direct Buy. Even with the shipping you still save way more than buying from a retail store. Items that are purchased are not used, dented, or whatever other lies people are saying. They are brand new and if your item came in damaged, they return it for a new one. Once an item is discontinued from the manufacturer it is discontinued from the catalogs because Direct Buy cant get it from the manufacturer anymore. If you find it in a retail store, its because they have a butt load of stock. Every order from Direct Buy is considered special order from the manufacturer. They cut out the middle man and that is why you get everything at a wholesale price. It bothers me to see how many people are so naive and gullible. Get your facts straight before you start bashing a corporation you know nothing about. Tell me what company doesnt have any complaints against them. I have seen some of the owners I worked for bend over backwards for their members. I have known members that have built their houses from mostly Direct Buy catalogs. People do and can save thousands of dollars. In California, people even save a hundred thousand dollars. But you have to use your membership. You cant make your investment back if you dont purchase anything. Direct Buy is not for everyone and as a former employee I would rather people like you that post negative comments about it rather not try to be members. FYI, I have seen many people turned away from Direct Buy because the salesmen dont want members that are not going to take respect the staff or just be negative about the whole experience. People complain about paying a membership, how else do you expect a business to sustain itself. I guarantee you will not find better prices. The reason you have to make a decision that day is because you are looking at confidential catalogs when your not a member and Direct Buy has a deal to protect the manufacturers from people who will go to retail stores and try to use the confidential prices to get the retail stores to lower theirs. That is why you have to make a decision that day or not come back for seven years. I have also seen the salesmen turn people away because they changed their minds after they refused the offer. If it was only profit oriented, they wouldnt turn away money. My point is that if you dont believe it, that’s fine. Direct Buy is exclusive. Only the salesmen are trained to explain the concept of Direct Buy, that is why when you call them, they only take your info and not answer questions. The rest of the employees are not trained to discuss the concept, they are only there to assist the members.
I am so glad i came to this blog to have some info about direct buy. I fist thought that direct buy was a scam, just because of their business model that i am no used to. I red a few nice things about them here, apparently people don’t have many direct buy complaints. i have to remodel my house, and as always, I am looking for savings, so i think i am going to join the members club. I’ll come back with my feedback in a few months.
I saved a lot of money with direct buy while remodeling my house.
I considered DirectBuy twice. I have purchased whole rooms of furniture (greatroom, dining, informal dinning and bedrooms) The second time I went, my husband found out we would have to shell out almost 5500.00 for the right to use them as a resource to find inexpensive deals. We left, thinking that direct buy is a scam. After that, we did a little research, because their prices are really competitive. I ended up joining the club and i have to say that this was one of the best decisions. Direct buy has pieces of furniture that are very affordable but most of all, they are also good quality (which i would have been able to purchase without their price reduction). I am very happy with them, i saved a lot so i would recommend it to anyone who is going to do renovations and want to save some money. They have good deals.
I bought a thomasville bedroom set for 40% off the regular price in other retail stores. I almost got the members fee money back only with this room! so far so good, i can’t complaint about direct buy
My husband and I just went to a DirectBuy open house and sat through the sales presentation. We have been to many timeshare presentations and have been able to walk away from all of them knowing that they would be a complete waste of money, but DirectBuy made sense for us. We are a very young couple with two young kids and we know we are going to be buying a lot of stuff over the next several years. Yes, the up-front cost was a lot to take in, but I truely believe we will make up for it in savings. We were able to but the membership fee on our low interest credit card (compared to the 17.75% apr DB used for financing). After 3 years we are garenteed a locked price of $199/year (That’s only around $17/month). Our sales person was very upfront and helped us weigh all our options. We didn’t feel like there was any pressure. After coming home we decided to do more research to see if we made a total mistake. I looked up several items from the Directions catologe we received and I found out that the savings really is true. For example: a Samsung dryer at Best Buy is currently on sale for $999 and i found it for only $699 at DirecBuy. I can comfortably say that I am happy with our INVESTMENT and feel that in the LONG RUN our family will greatly benefit from it. This doesn’t mean that I will buy everything from Direct Buy now without doing a ton of research first, but I do this anyway. I went in knowing the sale prices I have paid on items and I was appauld at how much money I have wasted. Our sales person also reminded us that this is a member owned company. If we do not like something then we should complain about direct buy services or the products. I don’t think they would still be in business today if people were losing money.
I’ve been a member for years, I saved a lot of money in my home renovation so i don’t have any complaints about direct buy.
A friend told me that direct buy would be a scam, but i didn’t let this stop me. Direct Buy is a ligitimate company with ligitimate savings. I became a member 7 years ago, i have remodeled a few houses since then, and i can tell you that i saved a lot thanks to direct buy. If you are about to renovate your place, this is the place you should shop.
I am so glad I found this blog site before our scheduled appointment today! It is always good to have some feedback from members. Glad to see that most of you don’t have any complaints about direct buy! I am going to remodel my entire house, so I am going to join the club and save money! thanks to all of you who have shared you experiences!
I’ve just completed a TOTAL house remodel/addition including 2-bathrooms, kitchen, windows, doors, flooring, hardware, etc…….. Huuuge savings thanks to Direct buy
Just found this website. I am a member of DB since late 2009. Here is my experience. If you are not building a home or doing major renovations this place is NOT for you. We are building a house, and we will recoup and save even with the $5,600 entrance fee. Some things are very little in savings and not worth it. Electronics especially. Very low margins on these things make it so Best Buy sales can match or come close – difference is I get to walk out the door with the product. I
On other stuff like major appliances, windows, flooring, etc it was a huge savings. We even bought our lumber for our home through them. I will be buying over 250k of material, so, for us it was worth it. Its for this reason only that this place becomes worth it.
As for the time consuming searching through catalogs. I have helped this by walking in with my laptop and a wireless card to search the catalogs online to narrow my searching. That helps.
Again, if your doing major building it works, otherwise its not for you.
I work for them , and I can tell you that direct buy is not a scam. direct buy save many families money and help them to purchase more with there savings. Yes, we do have a memebership fee but our customers get the money back with all the savings… To be honest the ppl that are saying bad things about the company couldnt afford us anyway so of course there a little upset.. But I learned along time to not allow another person decison to shape my choices. For example My girl friend and i went shoe shopping and picked out the same shoe same size and color she took hers home and wore them but comlained hurt called me up ask if mines did the same I reply no so my girlfriend throw the shoes away.. Was warning me to do the same.. I now had those same shoes for three year and I love them.. Bottom lines is everything isnt for everybody..
Take care all you nay-sayers Enjoy the retail marks
for all you smart families out there congratulations on the Long term SAVING Im sure your friends are impressed..:)
F.y.i Ive been a memeber for 7yrs before i became an employee; and have save or 15,000 on my entire home. with the money i saved I was able to take and extended vacation. Gotta love those Saving
My husband joined several years ago when we were building. IT WAS WORTH IT. We saved up to 30,000 in furniture, appliances, cabinets etc. We reclaimed our start up fee easily. Once we had everything bought, we ended the membership. plain and simple. bottom line – if you just want to replace a couch, don’t sign up, it won’t be worth it for you. If you are renovating a place, do it, you will save tons of money.
If you are going to remodel and want to get tons of great unique stuff, spend the $4k on the membership fee. Direct buy is not a scam, and believe me, you will get your money back pretty fast. I renovated my apt. and i saved thousands with direct buy. It really is worth it if you are planning on remodeling
Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You for that site!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Direct Buy is sooo worth it!!
I thought at the beginning that direct buy was a scam, but believe me, I have been a member for 5 years now, and I save so much!!! Yes, you have to pay a members fee, but if you are like me, and are looking to renovate a place, you will get your money back in such a short period of time. You just need to buy more than just a piece of furniture.
So, my husband and I went to the open house this past Saturday. We are buying a multi-dwelling property in about 6 – 12mths and we are planning on getting into the real estate business. The start up cost was a surprisingly high for us. The guy that served us told us that it is a little high but that it was worth it over time.
We are newly weds and currently rent and need EVERYTHING including a baby room, in our current apartment and will need a lot of raw material in our fixer upper (for sure).
I HATE PRESSED WOOD, and have been looking for QUALITY furniture, but cannot afford the quality prices *smile*. I came home, researched some of the stuff I wanted (bedroom, living room, and babyroom), created my excel spread sheet (I’m an account by day) and did the numbers. Just in those 3 rooms we recoup the sign up fee. What I have noticed is the electronics and appliances are really were the savings are. Also, the high end furniture and the newer / avant guard models of electronics are at a great price. We (meaning I) really want to get a 3D TV and the prices right now are CRAZY, if I’m to buy it today from Direct Buy, we would save 2750 on just that TV!
Yes, looking at catalogs is annoying, but when renovating and choosing cabinets, flooring, windows, light fixtures etc, I would not want to pick this stuff out on the internet. I want to see it, touch the quality, imagine it my home… My husband works in the construction industry so he knows a lot about pricing and the flooring is what sold him. For me it was the furniture manufacturers, I’ve been looking at most of them before hand and knew the pricing and was taken a back by the difference in pricing.
Direct Buy is worth it if you are a home owner looking to remodel, have expensive taste like me lol and already have some ins on the remodeling. If you are the average renter only looking to refurnish your place or buying new stuff every few years, I don’t think you will be saving as much.
There are definitely savings to be had with direct buy.
DirectBuy has changed much of their policies since this blog was first started. Click on my name to view their newest policies.
A friend of mine had a membership and was always bragging that he was getting such a good deal. I just bought a house and I am going to renovate top to bottom. Direct buy seems like a good choice if i want to save some money, so I was thinking on joining. After reading a few comments, and seeing that most of you don’t have complaints about direct buy and are happy with it, I think I am going to join, so thanks so much for posting your feedback!
We went to their “open house” last weekend and the experience was exactly how some of you described it. They quickly showed us through their showroom and explained the concept, ad how we would save money if we were to renovate a house or if we had a big project. They were pretty honest as they also told us that if we were thinking of just renovating a room or update a few pieces of furniture, this would be a good fit.
Next they took us to the presentation room and showed us infomercial and some example of how much certain items cost in stores and in DirectBuy.
For all the examples they showed us, it is true that they have better pricing that other retail stores. They gave example a 55″ LCD TV (Mitsubishi) which the store was setting for $2200 and directbuy was selling for $1200. I looked online and found TV with similar specs (but LG) for $1500. Same thing with the fridge. They gave us an example of a 22CuFt french door fridge (Whirlpool) which was sold by retailers for $2600 and by DirectBuy for $1500. Later I found a similar fridge (Samsung) on clearance at BestBuy for $1800. They also showed a dining table and chairs set which was sold at retailers for $12000. DirectBuy price was $3100. I could not have found a similar set for less.
To sum up, it is good for people who are planning on renovating their home, not so much if you are just looking to update a few pieces of furniture.
1. I am a Direct Buy member in Ontario, Canada. Most of the comments I am reading on this site seem to be from people who are not members. I can?t believe some of the things they are saying. They know nothing about Direct Buy. Direct Buy is not a scam.
2. I have only been a member less than a year. I was planning on renovating my home and my brother, who was already a member, filled me in on the benefits of membership and suggested I join. I was pretty prepared when I went to the membership seminar but the membership fee was so high it was pretty scary ? I almost walked out of the presentation ? but I did sign up because I knew it would be worth it for me.
3. Since I joined I have purchased appliances, granite, flooring, faucets, blinds, and door knobs (to name a few things) and so far I have saved over $8,000 dollars as compared to if I had bought these items at retail stores. I have made up the cost of my membership fee. That was the one thing I wanted to be able to do ? recoup my membership. I have done that and more.
4. Yes, it?s a pain to have to drive to the center. Yes, you have to do a lot of the research work yourself. For instance, I knew I wanted GE appliances and I viewed and priced them at various stores at retail prices. I then went to Direct Buy and ordered them out of a catalog and saved $1,000?s of dollars in total. I needed a new sink. I checked out the retail prices, and then went to Direct Buy. The sink I wanted was not in the manufacturer?s catalog at Direct Buy. I asked a customer service rep if I could get the sink and she checked with the manufacturer and they said they would sell me the sink I wanted, even though it wasn?t in the Direct Buy catalog. For everything I bought at Direct Buy I checked out the prices in the stores first and, so far, Direct Buy has been cheaper for everything.
5. No, I have not purchased everything from Direct Buy. For instance I wanted to buy some bathroom light fixtures and picked Kichler products. These come from the U.S. The catalog price was great but by the time the U.S. exchange, duty, shipping, and taxes were added, the price went from $300 to $500. It was still cheaper to buy through Direct Buy but, because I was so angry with all the extra fees, I decided to buy from a retailer. I paid more, but I walked out of the retail store with the product in my hands instead of having to wait 2-3 weeks for the product to be delivered from the U.S. to Canada. You have to do your homework with Direct Buy. You have to take everything into account before you make a purchase, including final price, delivery, return policy, etc.
6. I don’t have complaints with Direct Buy so far, nothing that would make me walk away from my membership.
Thanks for this website. I got a call this afternoon from DirectBuy. I was seriously considering going to the Open House. We only need a few things for our home, so we don’t think that direct buy would be good for us since we have renovated almost our entire house. We remodeled a few years ago and have just finished buying all big items. I am sure that you can find great buys with direct buy, but to make it worth the member’s fee you should renovate more than just a room.
A former Directbuy location is now being transformed into a pub:
“With that weight now off their shoulders, the pair, who founded Bowen Island Brewery in 1994 and sold in 1998, are hard at work to transform what was a Direct Buy outlet at 305-B Bay St. into an idyllic pub experience”
Lol!
You really have to be purchasing big ticket items if you want it to be worth it.
I co-own my home with my fiance. We share all our home investments 50/50 and have remodeled our home over the last 6 years. Having heard about the great deals and going to DirectBuy’s website…I signed up for their appointment. This is usually a red flag to me…having to make an appointment at all. But since my friends (who used their family member’s account) spoke highly of this I thought I would check it out. As many have pointed out…it’s not rocket science…it’s simply a numbers game. So I had planned to go to my appointment on a Friday afternoon. My fiance and I received some promotional materials and we went to the meeting and signed up. In this economy…we wanted savings, and thought that direct buy would be a good way for us to save some money with our renovation. I have absolutely no complaints about direct buy. People might think that the membership fee is high, but if you are undertaking big renovations, believe me it’s way worth it.
I have read quite a few of the comments about Direct Buy and can honestly say I went to a presentation but did not join. It would be worth your while if you were building or buying furniture for the entire house, or starting a large project. I was given a #1,000 purchase allowence just for coming (which I liked) so did my daugther and I used both of them. We ordered a few items, and everything went pretty smooth. Overall, we had a good experience with direct buy, buy we don’t think we are going to join right now, as we just want to renovate our living rooms and it wouldn’t be worth it. If you have plans to renovate a bigger project, then yes, joining DirecBuy is the way to go. I liked their service and their pricing, so we don’t have any complaints about directbuy, but we are going to wait to have a bigger project to join the club
I have been reading a few negative comments regarding Direct Buy. I have been a member of Direct Buy now for two years and have found it to be an excellent experience and a great cost savings. People who have said negative things about Direct Buy – like direct buy is a scam- apparently have not done their research about it. It is only beneficial for people who are planning to undertake a large job, such as building a new house, renovating a house as I did, furnishing a house top to bottom or other large project. Because of the membership fee, a member has to be planning to spend a considerable amount of money on some project and should be interested in purchasing good quality, top brands of items. Then the membership is well worth the membership fee. I have literally spent thousands of dollars on a house renovation and saved probably 20 to 30 percent and in some cases even more on the items which I purchased (e.g., windows, doors, carpet, tile, plumbing hardware, kitchen appliances, furniture, etc.). I compared the prices which I paid through Direct Buy to retail prices and in all cases the Direct Buy prices are significantly lower than retail prices. It is definitely not worth the membership fee if you are just wanting to purchase a few items (e.g., a couch, a stove, a diswasher, etc.) because the cost savings will not offset the membership fee. Also, as they explain during the preliminary presentation, you also have to be willing to wait for delivery of the items because you are ordering them through a distributor or manufacturer. If you are in a hurry for delivery, this is not a good option for you. However, if you are working on a long term project and can plan ahead with your purchases, this is an excllent source for purchasing materials and items. I have found that the quality of service varies from facility to facility. Actually, I live in the Washington, DC area where there are several Direct Buy facilities but was renovating a house in South Carolina. I identified the items which I wanted to purchase through reviewing catalogs in a couple of Direct Buy facilities in the Washington, DC area, filled out preorder forms and e-mailed them to a Direct Buy facility in South Carolina. I then had the items delivered to the facility in South Carolina and they in turn arranged for delivery of the items for me to my home 60 miles from the Direct Buy facility. I literally placed dozens of orders through Direct Buy in this manner (i.e., identify the items in catalogs in facilities in Washington, DC, order them by e-mail through a facility in South Carolina and have them delivered to my home in South Carolina after they were received at the Direct Buy facility in South Carolina). Every order went smoothly and efficiently. And, in spite of having to pay delivery charges from the Direct Buy facility in South Carolina to my home in SC 60 miles away, I still saved probably 20 to 30 percent and even more in some cases on the various items.
In conclusion, Direct Buy is not a scam. It is an honest operation; however, if you are looking for a discount on a few small purchases, this is not the option for you; however, if you are going to undertake a large job and then may want to purchase an ocassional item, thereafter, and plan ahead with your project to allow for the delivery leadtime, then this is an excellent purchasing option.
Direct Buy is not a scam. I investigated the business model off and on for a few years before scheduling an appointment, so was well aware of what to expect. The only complaint I had was about the incessant reminder calls I got prior to the appointment, but realize that this is necessary in light of the lack of integrity in people that rudely no-show w/o a cancelation call. It would be bad business for the club to divulge certain info over the phone, and impossible for a consumer to get the full picture w/o going in for the meeting. I have been a very perceptive shopper for many years, getting the best possible wholesale and retail deals from storefronts as well as online. It is true that it may be possible to occasionally obtain a better price from a retailer for an item, but only if that retailer is selling it at a loss to move it out. All those “great” deals you think you’re getting because they state they’re 10% – 50% off, have already been marked up so high that you’re still paying much more than what the seller did. Of course, they’re in business to make a profit, as they have to be. As a member, you cannot take non-members into the DB Club because they cannot see what the DB item prices are. Additionally, DB has agreements w/the represented manufacturers that these prices will not be shared w/non-members, and members agree not to share them as well. Hopefully, the members will have enough integrity to honor this agreement so as not to spoil the relationships w/manufacturers and destroy the agreements. As for the practice of not being allowed to join if not done on the spot, it is statistically true that if people don’t buy in the moment, they rarely do later anyway, and it’s more productive for businesses to move on with more interested clients. As far as savings go – the sky is the limit, and it’s not just on big-ticket items. If you don’t shop, this is not for you. I, on the other hand, have not had to buy very much to recoup the initial investment and what’s purchased beyond that is just money in the bank. Now when I tell my husband how much I saved on an item, he’s buying it and enjoying the shopping/savings himself. I do not work or have any financial interest in the club, other than to shop through it.
If you are broke and want to buy cheap furniture, DirectBuy can help!!! If you want a large selection of big name quality brands they have it!!! No one works for free Directbuy has to make money on the membership since they dont mark the product how else can they service anyone or pay for their location. It appears the only people bitching are the ones who can not afford it or just do not understand the concept. Also once you become a member you are treated like a king by the staff.
Tom- Members since 2006 Texas saved over $17,000 + membership 5,000
This blog in particular I found very informative. I am sure that.i really like it very much.
My wife and I went to the open house last night in Tempe, AZ and we thought it would be a great deal. We asked for some pricing on some large ticket items, (LG washer and dryer and an LG dishwasher) to check and see the savings. The gentleman who was our “guide” was very helpful, and provided us with all the information we needed. We decided to join because we did our own research on prices, you can’t find better deals on merchandise anywhere else. For us it would take just a couple of months to recoup the member’s fee. If you don’t want to shop around and still have great deals, then this is a good deal. So far so good, we don’t have any complaints about direct buy.
I signed with for a membership last year. Some of you might think that directbuy is a scam but I have no complaints about direct buy. Great costumer service, huge selection and most of all they have prices you can’t find anywhere else! I recommend it to anyone who is thinking about renovation a place.
We’ve been members for 10 years now and i can assure you that direct buy is not a scam. Originally we paid around $1800.00 for the first 2 years and then $200.00 for every year up to 10. So our membership will expire at the end of this year but we are going to renew it just because we saved so much money and we are planning on renovate a house soon.
I joined before finishing a house renovation because I knew I needed a lot of stuff. I truly believe that I saved way more than the membership fee. In some cases, I ordered a few items and they called to say that the item for delivery has been discontinued and they have a replacement. In each case, the replacement item was as good or better (and in one case, slightly cheaper, too). So yes, I think if you are gonna be ordering furniture and big electronics, you are going to save a lot.
I went to the “open house” today. I like the concept of DirectBuy
I agree with a lot of what is said here but don’t understand why a few of you guys think direct buy is a scam. Are you even members? I do know there is a free 30 day trial membership offer which you can try it out and see if its worth your money, PLUS there is about 7 different levels of membership starting at $99!! So, anybody that is seriously interested in Directbuy doesnt need some bonus prize or food card to attend an open house and see there is A LOT of money to be saved there! When my wife and I attended the open house there was no pressure and in fact we could browse manufactures and compare pricing prior to membership being offered and we could clearly see that the money we save makes the membership fee a moot point.
Two years ago my husband joined Direct Buy. We were about to build a house and doing this was the smart thing to do. We had to make a payment to join the membership, but at the end, it was worth it. Before buying from DirectBuy, we always took a look at the competitors, to see if they were offering a better deal. DirectBuy always had a cheaper price. We have no complaints about direct buy.
My wife and I just joined the Direct Buy on Germantown Pike in Norristown, Pennsylvania today. We’re going to gut our kitchen and remodel it top to bottom, eventually buy a new bedroom set and living room set. I’ll try to post my experiences with DirectBuy of Norristown whenever I can.
So, the initial appointment, I was given a discounted membership. Anyway, we are going back to learn how to use thier library of catalogs and sit down with thier Kitchen designer next weekend.
Before we left, we looked in a few of their catalog for a "big" item that we are planning on purchasing. We wrote down the model number, DB's price and the MSRP of the item. When we got home, we looked up the same item at one of our local retail stores. The local store's regular price was about $800 higher than DirectBuy…the item was on sale and it was still higher than DirectBuy.
Well, I'll try to post all of my experiences with the Norristown Direct Buy. Btw, If anyone has any recent experience with Norristown Direct Buy…2010 or 2011 only…please let us know about your experience.
Thanks
My husband and I have been members for 5 years. The staff is great about pointing to the direction we need to go. We just love this store because we found lots of items that were way cheaper than the other stores.
My buddy and his partner joined direct buy, and since then every time he considers a specific item, he researches it online and then researches it with Direct buy and he found always a better deal with direct buy. Direct Buy is not a scam, they’re only selling you a membership, you pay, you’re a member and the you enjoy the benefits.
I’m really bothered by some of these posts. Direct buy is not a scam, those of you who think so, are you guys even a member?? I have a business that I work from home….we have a ‘specific’ way we present our product. So I was not turned off by their informative presentation at all! I’m a very frugal shopper….I shop ads, clearance, Craigslist, Ebay, Amazon, etc…. I refuse to buy anything full price. I buy ‘used’ items of furniture I really want because I refuse to pay the full retail price & even the sale price is over my budget. Just from the presentation alone….we can buy 3 pairs of the same boots my husband wears for work that we purchase a year for the same price we pay for one pair. The sofa set I bought used w/ some sew patch jobs that I love….I can buy new for my ‘budget’ amount….nearly $700 off the retail….they had no problem letting me see the catalog books on the items I requested to see. I could see right away we would save money. While I have not purchased anything yet. We are still ‘budgeting’ our house fix up plans as we normally would & paying for cash as we go…..I’m not turned on by some of these reviews because the majority have not even been a member! I did not find the presentation to be ‘high pressure’ at all!! We walked around the sales floor after the pitch….which we saw nearly 20 ads of items I intend to replace this year & already know what the best ‘sale’ price is because I already have a budget fund set up to replace those items & did research on best prices….the prices they included their “shipping & handling fee” into the savings….and it was obvious that even for normal every day purchases on the things I want, I would save money. We plan remodelig our kitchen this year. We also are wanting to replace furniture. This is our first house. We do not plan on retiring here. I am going to keep a ‘journal’ log of everything we purchase so that I can see if it was worth the savings. I figure if we save an average of $500 a year on purchases….then it will be worth the investment long term. I guess because I have my own business….i understand that it takes money to save money….and I also know that in order to get any kind of ‘return’ you have to invest in something to begin with. I see this as a long term investment for our growing family. And time will tell if it was worth it. But the people were nice. There was no high pressure sales. In fact, we had to tell the guy we were ready to sign the paperwork and that’s what we were waiting on. How often does that happen? OH the other thing I can’t wait on… is to order the curtains in the patter I want!!!
I have been searching high & low for curtains. I don’t like the styles out & the styles I do like….I don’t like the price. I even am willing to make my own curtains but can’t find the pattern/color I want. Found the pattern right there in the store….Voila! I was elated with the choices I can get…..Anyway, we will see if I am still excited next year. But so far…I disagree with the high pressure pitch and secretive information. They told us up front about shipping & handling. They told us upfront about shipping to wear house…etc…. They were honest with us. So far, I do not have buyer’s remorse in this ‘investment’ for future savings!! 
Ok..we went in to learn how to use DirectBuys’ catalogs and have a meeting with their kitchen cabinet woman. First, we were shown how to use the catalogs and all the ins and outs of reading them. I didn’t really comprehend it all, but I think I got it down.
We then had a meeting with the kitchen cabinet design woman. She seemed very knowledgeable and she was very helpful. I believe we spent 2-3 hours with her.
So overall, our experience with Norristown DirectBuy so far has been pretty good.
We want to do some home improvements so we were interested in seeing if Direct Buy of Palm Beaches could save us some money. The salesman showed us all the great deals we could get, we did a research ourselves, to verify the prices. After that, we signed up and got fantastic deals, so we are pretty happy with directbuy, and don’t have any complaints.
People who buy in to this bullshit are morons, DirectBuy is a scam – yes, that just might be you!
And another thing – these f***ing tv ads are fucking idiotic – are they waiting for the ad to run each time and waiting on that go**damn stopwatch to start to answer their phones.
There must be a Lot of stupid f(((jng people. Whoa.
Spent thousands. Bought nothing. Getting chased by collection agency for dispute over final payment in full. Direct buy is an extremely bad purchase. Strongly recommend that you avoid signing up with them. You would have to spend a few hundred thousand to make the math work in your favor. Trust me…it’s a bad idea.
We have belonged to Direct Buy in Saskatoon, Sk. Canada dor three years and yes you can save some real money.
As a soon to be married couple, we thought this would be our first great investment made towards our new life together. There were a number of draws to signing up and some name brands that got us excited. After we signed away, we looked into different products that would be helpful to fill a home and we found a huge selection that we liked. We found all our favorite namebrands at very affordable prices, so we are happy with Direct Buy.
Okay, it’s been a while since I’ve reported on my experiences with the what I thought was called the Norristown DirectBuy, but now I realize is the Montgomery County DirectBuy. Anyway, I’ll get on with it.
Prior to ordering from DB, we had priced Decora cabinets elsewhere and couldn’t even begin to afford Decora. We then priced Kraftmaid and the quote was $8000.00 with no glass.
We ordered Decora kitchen cabinets from DB. The DB price was approx $7000.00 all taxes/shipping included. This also included very decorative glass doors. DB said the MSRP was $24,000. Not exactly true, but pretty damn close.
Anyway, with the savings on the kitchen cabinets, we’ve already recouped our initial membership fee.
We also had a billing mistake when purchasing 3 appliances. Apparently, the customer service woman accidentally put through 15 purchases instead of 3. Luckily we had called the bank before leaving the parking lot. We went back in and the same woman said she would take care of it immediately. We contacted the bank the next day and the bank confirmed that they did receive a call from DB and the mistake was fixed.
So far our experience with DirectBuy of Montgomery Couny Pennsylvania has been pretty good so far.
I recently completed a visit to DirectBuy without first visiting any of these blogs. Based on my own life experiences and the fact that none of the advertisements for the company even hinted at the membership fee, I expected a fee in the thousands of dollars. I was not at all surprised by the $5500 price tag presented to me.
Unlike some of the posters on this site, I found the representatives to be very polite and helpful. They even allowed me to look around while I waited for the official presentation to start. I was disappointed that, despite their representations, I was not shown any prices on specific items that I had priced retail and had in mind in making my decision to attend the appointment. My sales representative did tell me that given my situation (having a home warranty that covers appliances) that I should not consider DirectBuy for purchasing my appliances. I was also offered a cheaper membership for $3000 that did not give me access to most of the products but that would suit my personal needs. When we discussed the types of items I would buy, the representative honestly stated I could expect to save 10-20%. At that rate, the membership did not really seem worth it to me based on my current needs and plans. I also was quite put off by the fact that I had to make a decision on the spot and could not take the time to carefully read the documents and ask necessary questions without being there all night (due to some confusion and a delayed start I sat down with my representative at 9 p.m). Overall, I found the experience to be perfectly tolerable and pretty much as expected.
After seeing the examples in the video regarding huge savings, I agree with the posters who say the club is probably worth it if you’ll be making big purchases. I’m open to reconsidering joining in the future should my plans and needs change. This time, I decided it wasn’t for me but I don’t think it’s necessarily a scam. It’s just not something that is for everybody. In fact, the people at the club I visited actually said DirectBuy was not for everyone and that half the people who visited chose not to join.
DirectBuy is awesome! I am NOT am employee nor am I affiliated in any way, so please consider that.
I spent $25,000.00 on a dining room set that was advertised locally for about $36,000. DirectBuy is AWESOME!!! In addition, I purchased a new fridge/freezer for only $1500! Wow – the local Sears could never beat that price!
Good morning!
We’ve noticed some very opposing feelings toward DirectBuy in these comments. To those who have had great experiences with us, we are thrilled you have taken advantage of the big savings. And to those who have either had less than favorable experiences, we appologize for anything that has caused inconvenience or disappointment. We want to be completely honest with you, our main goal is still to give you the opportunity to buy more, buy better, or just save some cash compared to spending it on hidden retail markup. And you are sure to find great savings on over one million products spanning from the best in kitchen equipment to car audio and everything in between. If you haven’t experienced DirectBuy for yourself, you can sign up for a free visitors’ pass and check it out!
Hey I was hoping that someone that is a member would mind checking the prices of an ashley’s bedroom set for me….I am thinking of joinging direct buy as we need to redo the furniture in our home and someone had tols me that direct buy does ashley’s furniture at almost 1/2 the price….would a current member be willing to help me out? Thanks in advance
My hubby and I bought a membership last month. As of this month we are buying a new ashley furniture bedroom suite called North coast. We went today to Ashley furniture to do our touchy feely thing (I wanna see the crap before I buy it). We were priced for the canopy king bed, 2 night stands, dresser with mirror. All of this totaled over 6k regular but they have a sale going on today and offered about 3500. Well Hubby and I went to DB to get OUR price. All of the items plus a chaise that goes at the end of the bed, tall chest of drawers and stand up mirror for 2836.
I have been a member for a few years now and I like it. Yeah the sales pitch is hard but the savings are true. The last item I purchase was a Samsung UN46C9000 46″ LED TV, after all the fees were applied it came out to half of the price mark on Samsung.com. Don’t get me wrong I have found website that sell it for the same price but I don?t feel comfortable shopping on them. Plus Direct Buy gives u the chance to inspect and accept or decline the merchandise after it arrives at the warehouse, all their products r guarantied, and (at least the Direct Buy close where I live) have great people that r willing to help you find what you need. So far if I was to add all the purchases I?ve made I would say that the subscription fee has paid itself and then some. But I’m not trying to paint it all rose color, it is a pain having to wait for the items to arrive, the longest I?ve waited was a month and a half for a bedroom set, so even after I moved I had to sleep on the floor n wait for my furniture to arrive and once u inspected and it’s busted then u better b ready to wait yet another month or so. Like everything in life direct buy has its ups and downs but I find it unfair for people without a membership to talk down on it. All n all I would say that Direct Buy is a great place to save if u are about to make a purchase of $15000 or more. So if u own as much as I did when I was moving into my home (3 pans, 9 different glasses, 2 fork, 3knives, n 5 spoons, and about 3 dozen shot glasses) then directs buy is for you.
P.S. my membership was 5k but it was for 5 years and I got 2 cruise tickets with it.
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic.We offers plywood construction and wood drawers with soft close glides. Half price kitchen cabinets Kitchener .
I am member with DB for one year, and I paid $5,000.00 for three years membership. Including this membership I saved $1,000.00 on the kitchen cabinets purchase from DB, comparing to identical kitchen cabinets from Lowes. The discount for Electrical and Electronics are 5 ? 10 % lower than other stores, sometimes I found out that there was no difference. For furniture and construction material I saved around 40% per all products I purchased. The only problem I had was low quality of the products, and a lot of defects which I had hard time to exchange or get my money back. DB they are trying to convince customers that their products are high quality, but I think that the manufacturers are not supplying the top quality to DB customers.
I have been a member of the Spokane DirectBuy for a year and was really surprised by the closure this past week. I had noticed over the past several months that the hours of opening had been reduced and the number of people inside at any given time had decreased. The employees at the store were fantastic and I felt they went out of their way for their customers. In general, until now, I have been pretty satisfied.
Before purchasing, I did check them out and took my list of products I wanted to buy into the meeting. The savings were impressive so I bought. Since then I have saved thousands! We are building a house so we are buying a lot. For those of you not doing major purchases, I would really think this through. However, if you are buying major items, it’s a great deal. Between cabinets and stone for the counter tops I have saved thousands. Plumbing fixtures, appliances, etc. have been a great deals also. I still shop internet and local business’ as sometimes you do find a better buy at these locations.
I am disappointed with the closure and a bit concerned as the help I received from the employees will be no longer. Also, the web site is not the easiest to navigate, but it is much better than when we joined. DirectBuy of Spokane has returned my down payment for counter tops and the supplier is honoring the commitment made on price so they have gone out with ‘class’ in my opinion.
Have been a DirectBuy member for 10 years. For us, it’s been an excellent service at times. We’ve definitely saved $10s of thousands of dollars but that’s based mainly on large capital projects such as a kitchen and library. You definitely have to put in your sweat equity in terms of researching the catalogs and figuring out if DB has the best fully loaded price relative to a retailer on a particular item. As our 10 year period is coming to an end, I’m wondering if anyone has negotiated an extension such that you’re not coming out of pocket with another initial membership fee. Seems like they’re hurting for members so I’m wondering if they would want the ongoing cash flow from the $250+ annual renewal fee and forego the $2,000+ initial fee. Thanks.
I have been a member of Direct buy Calgary for about 6 months now.
When I went in for the ‘open house’ I was greeted by a nice gentleman, Travis and he went through some history of the company and what the basic idea of their concept was. After that he took me and my wife into a tour room and we watched a roughly 25 minute video on how the company works, and whats involved….
Then he gave us a tour of the building and showed us how things worked and what the price lists were.
He showed us all the pricing we wanted to see, he showed us the savings associated with it and then he showed us the Cabinets pricing. It was a quote from another kitchen reno from a member but it was close to what we were looking for. Travis was awesome at handling our requests and was very open and honest about everything…I think he was a bit mis-guided on roofing quotations, and later said he didn’t know a whole lot about roofing, but we could save about 10-15% on the same roof from their supplier.
I have seen a lot of bad stuff written about the ‘high pressure tactics’ and I honestly didnt feel that way. He did say to us that if we declined, we had 30 to think it over and after that, we couldnt come back for 7 years..I asked why, and he said it had to do with the manufacturers pricing and that people have come in to only look at pricing and then left to barter with the big box, and it was to prevent that…I believed him and its apparently true. We got a membership, and we saved just over $14,000 on our kitchen cabinets…apples to apples comparison.
Also, in the video, it says you have to pay shipping, and handling and service charges…the only difference between direct buy and the retailer is…direct buy shows you all the costs associated with getting the item from the manufacturer..at the store, its all included in their ‘markup’…
And ashley furniture wanted to charge us $3900 for a couch and loveseat…At Direct buy, we purchased it for $1400..including delivery and service fees!!!….
Anyone who actually IS a member and has purchased similar things will attest to that!!…
We love Direct buy and plan to refer our friends who are renovating or building…
We’ve been Direct Buy members for many years now. We knew it was going to be expensive to buy a membership but had to do a total reno of our home so we’d done the math ahead of time. We did save many thousands of dollars and were also able to afford higher quality items at what we would normally have paid for lesser quality. At our franchise where we live, everyone is very friendly and helpful. They answer questions quickly and when we had one difficult experience with an item that was very slow in shipping they refunded our money as soon as we asked them to. We saved big on flooring, furniture, plumbing fixtures, appliances, electrical stuff, electronics and much more.
Yes, we felt a little pressured when the salesperson told us we had to make our decision while in the showroom but we already knew approximately what objects we would want to purchase and added up the cost if we hadn’t bought a membership. At the time we joined it was $4000 and we saved many thousands of dollars more than the membership fee so for us it was worth it. I agree that if you aren’t planning on buying large items the membership likely won’t be worth spending your money on, though.
Now that we are past the initial three years in the contract we pay $199 a year (we’re in Canada so everything is more expensive here) renewal fee. If we don’t plan on using Direct Buy for the renewal year we don’t have to pay anything and just have to pay the renewal fee at some later date if we decide we want to purchase something else. We figure that’s very fair policy.
Hi there,
Man, you guys have quite a debate going here. I just wanted to make you all aware of my review website for DirectBuy.
I am a former employee and I have been working for DirectBuy members for years as an outside kitchen designer. I have a lot of experience and insider info about the company.
I have written what I think is a very fair and accurate review of DirectBuy.
Check it out at http://www.directbuyreviews.org and feel free to leave your own comments.
Danya
I work with Direct Buy, in the customer service department. Direct buy saves the customers soooo much in the long run. We are a members only club simply because we buy directly from the manufacturers so we can make our customers save lots . So youre getting exactly what Walmart or Target gets just at a direct price. Direct Buy saves families SO much money, in the last month, our direct buy has had over 20 memmbers, and its only the ninth of september!!
thanks you for making my point for me. Nice way to defend yourself by attacking others. You get more flies with honey than vinigar.
I renovate and flip houses, what better than to have a direct buy membership…..
now going into my 3rd year i have yet to find something that I could not get for the same price or better elsewhere..
I just renovated my own kitchen.. I ended up getting cabinets from Directbuy because they were cheaper. I really don’t have any complaints about directbuy, they provide quality, good service and most of all it’s very affordable!
So, thank you guys, with the type of business i’m in I have had to work to save money and Direct Buy has very competitive prices that make it happen!
Hi, this is a great post! Thanks..
I signed with Direct Buy recently. I when to the presentation, and the salespeople seemed nice to me. I didn’t feel any pressure.
I knew there was a membership fee, but that didn’t bother me. I knew that i would save a lot of money. I am remodeling my house so i need to buy almost everything.
Direct buy is really working well for me, so far so good, i don’t have any direct buy complaints.
If you want to check it out without paying the membership fee, they have a 30 day trial.
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