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Has anyone used Direct Buy? Its a store you have to be a member of before you buy anything. We know someone who claims he save hundreds of dollars on toilets. We are looking for living room furniture. Direct Buy is in many states. Supposedly, the membership is expensive but if you make many purchases it will be cost effective.
RE: 'Direct Buy' furniture a scam?
Posted by: jgs7691 (My Page) on Mon, Oct 11, 04 at 9:04
I have not used this service, but believe that this is the outfit that has been exposed in several articles/investigations. Do extensive research on this company before joining. I have included a link which is an example of the type of complaint I'm talking about. Remember "caveat emptor (buyer beware)" Check with the Better Business Bureau, and be careful of name changes over the years. Good luck.
Here is a link that might be useful: Direct Buy Complaint
Remember:
They charge EXTRA for shipping, and there are no returns or exchanges.
You can do better by taking a bit of time to research.
Quite awhile ago, there was a VERY long thread on here about Direct Buy. I don't have any first hand experience of this company, but I can tell you that most, at least 90%, of the comments on here were negative about this company. Including the pressure sales tactics to get you to sign on, etc. I have been seeing them advertise extensively in my local paper lately. Do your research before you sign up for anything.
Here's another recollection of several posts regarding DirectBuy . None of them were particularly flattering. Only one person seemed to advocate the program, and I think that poster was later identified as having a connection to the company.
"Search" this forum and do your homework, as others have advised.
We are former members who actively warn others considering joining DirectBuy . The membership costs(non-refundable) $3000-$5000 (depending on the greed of the franchisee).
A previous poster linked to http://thecomplaintstaion.com.
There are three separate stations filled with warnings, complaints and advice for dealing with this company once you have fallen into the trap.
The three stations are for the aliases that this company has used to try and escape the terrible reputation they have earned.
You are right in posting that company employees frequently pose as satisfied customers on forums such as this to trick people into believing they will get enormous savings just by joining their club.
Other employees will post deliberate lies to try and discredit those who speak out to warn others. The whole corporate culture is based on deception. The home office decieves the franchisees (see lawsuit in the Wall street Journal article on the website below), the franchisees deceive the employees (telling them lies to post about those who speak out) and the employees deceive the customers (contract allows them to tell whatever lie they wish to compel people to join).
Don't rely solely on the information from DirectBuy to make your decision, it can't be trusted.
Here is a link that might be useful: DirectBuy information resource site
I made the mistake of filling in a form to attend a visit to a newly opened Direct Buy in our city..I never went after reading so much negative commentary but since then for months they kept calling and calling on the phone, never leaving a message.. I just ignored it and they seem to have finally stopped..
My husband joined DirectBuy way back in 1994 (then called United Consumers Club) when we purchased our first house and were going to need lots of furniture. I don't remember what he paid at the time, maybe $2000? Plus the annual fee of $90 or so. We bought a large Rowe sectional couch thru them and were very pleased with the savings (this was in early 1995). Then in 1998 we bought bedroom furniture. Also pleased with that purchase.
We moved to a different area in 1999 and kept up our membership, even though we never bought anything else. Then earlier this year when it came time to renew and we were in the midst of remodeling our kitchen, I started to rethink about renewing our membership. I posted a thread on the THS kitchen forum to see what others thought about buying a sink and/or faucet thru Direct Buy. Like others here have said, the response was mostly negative. At that time, I was unaware of the newspaper articles about Direct Buy.
I ended up letting our membership lapse. The main reasons were:
it's very easy to get similar prices online now, which wasn't the case in 1994 when we joined;
the closest DirectBuy location is nearly an hour from my house;
I visited the "store" once to look at couches and was treated kind of rudely by the staff, who mostly just directed me to their computers to look up answers to my questions on their web site;
by the time I added their fee and shipping to their "wholesale" prices, it was about the same as buying from a true brick-and-mortar store;
I was concerned about not being able to return items (altho the furniture I bought previously was fine);
I'm not convinced the employees there would get my order correct and then would try to pin it on me and make me pay for it;
I don't like the fact that you can't use credit cards (I want those frequent flier miles!).
So, overall, I would not recommend joining, even though I personally had NO problems with DirectBuy . We felt like we made up for our initial fee with savings on the furniture we bought. But nowadays you can get good prices online, so there's no real benefit to dealing with DirectBuy .
I have saved money with direct buy but it has been a LOT of work. we did a renovation and the prices on mirage hardwood, vermont castings fireplaces, kohler, st thomas and grohe fixtures could not be beat (believe me, I tried) BUT I spent days/weeks educating myself because they have no expertise on the products they sell. If you are buying a huge amount of stuff and if you are willing to do a lot of research, you can save money (you sure won't save time).
We have been members for almost a year now and have saved a tremendous amount of money on furniture, electronics, jwelery (we are building a house)...we are the type of people that wont pay retail...when comparing prices you must considering the shipping and handling charges, but we have found is that because the purchase prices have been significantly lower than other "vendors" the s&h is balanced by the fact that you are paying less tax (same tax percentage ie 7% but lower tax amount due to lower price) Are all deals the lowest? No...but enough of them have been to justify the membership fee. By the way, a poster b4 indicated that credit cards cant be used...the Tampa Direct Buy allows credit cards
About 7 years ago we joined and although it was a weird scammy thing - or at least felt "icky" - we were building a house and were able to get all our Kohler and Grohe bath fixtures, Clopay garage doors, other name brand lighting fixtures (halogen cable lights), and some dining room furniture (Bassett brand product identical to local store). I got a $6,000 whirlpool bath for $3,000 + 6%, tax, and shipping - but think of that - my membership was almost covered with one purchase, and especially these first couple.
Here's something to consider: we knew in ADVANCE of going what we wanted, and when we were getting the "grilling" we asked to look in a few catalogs that were there - we picked the ones that were our brands and did the math on the spot - if not for having the brands we wanted and the prices 50% off retail, we would not have joined - it didn't make sense. Back then, furniture and fixtures were 50% off retail, plus the 6%, tax and shipping. We didn't whip out our list, but spend a good 20-30 minutes doing the math.
Also keep in mind: you pay IN ADVANCE and for furniture it might take 10-12 weeks of waiting! (It's not warehoused, it's made for you and other national orders.)
Electronics - forget it - too much competition.
If you are considering a bunch of purchases of big ticket fixtures, and furniture, and maybe appliances, get your items together and go to their pitch - and make them let you see some catalogs - and do the math.
Another site with many members relating their experiences is "Rip Off Reports".
DirectBuy employees have recently been posting messages about franchisees who steal from the members. The employees do not say where these franchises are located, but there have been several references to these criminal franchises.
DirectBuy does not seem interested in protecting members from these crooked franchisees any more than they want to refund the membership fees obtained by deceptive means. This is a company that has a deceptive corporate culture. The name changes, the blatent lies in the sales pitch, the attitude changes toward the member after the sale, all add up to one very risky gamble with your non-refundable $3500-$5500 membership fee.
Friend http://free.hostdepartment.com/d/directbuyinfo/
Here is a link that might be useful: Rip Off Reports for Direct Buy: http://badbusinessbureau.com/results.asp?q1=ALL&q5=DirectBuy
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