Direct Buy
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Category: Home & Garden
Contact Information
United States
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Direct Buy Reviews
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Lisa
January 23, 2009
Sales Pressure- RUDE
I was invited to an open house, and told I could possible win $50, 000, and get two free gifts just for comming. Me and my husband went, and although we were open to the pitch, we were also thinking that this was a scam. After the pitch, which included the "join today...or never come back..." and after a tour of the showroom, we me with the store manager ( they are all "managers" apparently, because when my husband dared to ask what the commission was and refer to them as "Salesmen" we were belitted and more or less ushered out the door. This was because they knew we wouldn't join and I believe fearful that we would sway the other couples who were sitting down about to sign to leave. We were almost out the door when I remembered the $50, 000 key contest and my free gifts. I did not win the $50 grand but did walk out with a free dinner and movie tickets for two. I was happy, after all I ended up with at least something for my time, and I can get a good laugh everytime I think of the pathetic SALESMAN who seems to think I would be impressed by his self assigned title as store manager...he was reallty just a rude a hole who I feel sorry for, had we been interested in joining his attitude would have been enought to kill the deal. Long story short..if you want to go to check it out...do so, its worth a laugh and you could get a free dinner out of it. BUT DO NOT FALL VICTIM TO SIGNING UP...THE SAVINGS ARE NOT GUARANTEED. AND REMEMBER...THEY CAN SAY ANYTHING THEY WANT TO REEL YOU IN, BUT ARE BOUND LEGALLY BY NOTHING!!! BUYER BEWARE...YOU WILL BE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PYRAMID...
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Cole
January 23, 2009
Fraud and cheating
Any time you want to buy anything, you need to sleep on the information. Never make a decision at the same time the information is first presented. After 1 and a half hours of listening to a sales pitch, we had no resistance left and, regrettably, signed a contract! For what we must pay in joining fees and yearly dues, we could have bought all new stainless steel appliances, put in new floors, etc. What a rip-off! The interest is exorbitant and we were advised to refinance as soon as possible to a company with a lower interest rate by one of the salespeople--another red flag!
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Thrown out of Direct Buy Store
December 9, 2008
Thrown out of Direct Buy Show Room
We are in the middle of adding a second story to our house. We saw the advertisement of Direct Buy on TV and decided to visit their showroom to check it out. The main purpose was to find out what products they carry that could look good in our empty home. We have five bedroom to fill, one empty kitchen with no cabinet, no appliances. For all likelihood, we remodel only once in our life, and we don’t really mind spending a little more on furniture and appliance. But who can pass up an opportunity to save money? As I soon find out, at the Direct Buy that we visited at Mountain View California, the manager did not care about what I want for my house. All he cares about is to sell me the membership for $6, 340.00.
We filled out the on-line form to get a free pass to visit their showroom. A lady called and told us that we cannot bring our minor child along. So we arranged to send him to a baby sitter.
I and my wife arrived at the showroom and greeted by a host and the store manager. Then we were shown to a desk by the host for a short interview and to wait for the start of the infomercial presentation. While our host interviewed us, both I and my wife noticed the hardwood floor display behind the host and imagined how it might look in our house.
The infomercial was long and boring, and we found out how much the membership would cost. I was almost ready to pay that, if we find the right furniture in the showroom. After the infomercial, we were walked to the showroom for more presentation on how low prices were at Direct Buy. Surrounded by interesting furniture displays, my wife started to walk around to examine them. She did that also to escape the never ending presentation. She was immediately told by the store manager that she is not allowed to walk around and that she has to listen to the presentation. At that point we were offended. We are not used to being told what to do and what not to do within what we considered our right. Then we were told to fill out a survey. At that point I started to feel that we were being herded around like animals; that basic rights were violated, and that common courtesy of a business to host a guest visitor was ignored. I told the host and the store manager that we are not going to fill out the survey and the manger quickly showed us out of the door.
While at the parking lot, I had a second thought. I have a free visitor’s pass to Direct Buy’s showroom, so I don’t have to listen to the store manager. I asked my wife if she wants to go back to see the show room and to challenge the store manager. She declined. But I went back in and demanded to see the showroom. He said that I cannot see the showroom because there is proprietary information there. I insisted that I have a free pass to do see the displays and that those are not proprietary information. He started calling his security team to throw me out. Two heavy looking fellows and their security manager came. The heavy fellows started grapping my arms. But then the security manager stopped them. He started reasoning with me. I gave my reason and he said that any store has a right to throw any customer out. He seems to be a more reasonable person than the store manager, who appears to be more concern about exerting his absolute power like a dictator. I told him that he has to call the police to throw me out. I ignored all their order and walked around the showroom. But needless to say, by that point, I was in no mood to examine any merchandize. I did that just to make a point that a customer does not need to be bullied around. I don’t know if he called the police or not. But I am not a lawyer. I don’t know what the limit of my right is within their store, and I don’t really want to go to court to find that out. So I left after I proved my point. I plan to report this incident to the corporate headquarter of Direct Buy.
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December 2, 2008
Membership Open House Experience
Our personal experience with a DirectBuy Open House in Knoxville, TN
My wife and I went to a DirectBuy warehouse tonight after being invited to attend an open house. The center manager was a really friendly and personable guy from Missouri (the show-me state). We both signed in, received a name badge and were introduced to our "host" who was the center manager's son-in-law. He interviewed us and we shared with him that we were remodeling and would be purchasing carpet, tile, windows, kitchen and bath appliances. He said DirectBuy would be able to save us money and seated us in a room with a TV monitor. There were two other couples in the room and the meeting started out with a seven minute informercial on what DirectBuy does - in short, they claim to save money by bypassing the local retailer and purchasing direct from manufacturer - the proposition sounds cool (emphasis on the word "sounds").
The center manager speaks for a while, shows us another video and then proceeds to show us a wall of products covered with post-it notes. Each product has two post-it notes with a suggested retail price shown and the DirectBuy price underneath. They showed us furniture, washing machines, pots and pans, vacuums, mattresses etc. The DirectBuy price offered averaged 20-50% less according to the center manager. BUT, I wrote down a few prices and the magic ended when I researched the first item, a 46" Sony Bravia - the manufacturer's retail price matched DirectBuy's example - MRP $2799 but the actual DirectBuy price of $2251 was still more than my local Circuit City's price, $2099. The second item was a 21.8 cu. ft. refrigerator - the manufacturer's retail price matched DirectBuy's example - MRP $2299 but the DirectBuy claimed price of $1419 was lower than the $1900 retail price shown on the internet. The third item was a Jacuzzi - we were particularly interested in that one since we had priced them two days ago at all the local retailers. DirectBuy's price of $1131 was blown away by Lowe's price of $974. [Note that we didn't know the prices on the TV and refrigerator at the time we were at DirectBuy's office but when we we did know the price of the Jacuzzi] Needless to say, the Jacuzzi sowed some seeds of doubt in the process. And it got worse from there...
After the price game, the TV was switched on again and we were treated with a list of DirectBuy member rules (if we were to join). "Be nice to retailers, don't leverage DirectBuy prices against retailers, blah blah blah and then we got to rule #6. Rule #6 is a slick sales tactic that says, You can only decide to join DirectBuy right now. If you said no today, then it was no forever. DirectBuy said it was to protect their retailers. . . you decide. Not good. But not the end of the world. Maybe they are committed to making me happy. So I asked, about their written Customer Satisfaction Policy - "What happens if I am unhappy with my DirectBuy membership". The answer was that they don't have a satisfaction policy as to your membership. However, they will replace a defective product (well, so will Sam's Club). In my mind, I am thinking - they want me to decide RIGHT NOW and they won't guarantee my happiness. Bummer, could it get any worse? The answer is yes because they finally revealed their membership fee - $4500 for two years. And guess what, they want the $4500 today. In DirectBuy's defense, they did offer 10% down and they would finance the rest with no satisfaction guarantee.
Additional fees revealed by DirectBuy in their example was a $110 delivery fee (based on $70-90 per hour delivery rates) and a "handling fee" which worked out to a little under 9% in their example. The concept of buying at cost is a compelling one - I really would like to buy at cost, but I also don't want to be taken advantage of. So, I figured out a win-win for this bad situation which I offered up to the DirectBuy sales team (the center manager and the son-in-law) I would generate a list of what I wanted to buy with dimensions, stock numbers etc. and they could give me an aggregate price (so they would not have to disclose confidential manufacturer prices). If their aggregate price justified the membership fee, I would join. Not only did they turn me down, but they started getting smartass and asked where I had priced out my Jacuzzi - I told them Lowe's and Home Depot and the son-in-law said, "that explains it - we can't compete against the big box home improvement retailer".
Well that's my experience - The handshake was good as was the soft drink (did I mention they had free soft drinks). And they started out by being very nice.
I would recommend checking them out for yourself ... maybe you will have as much fun as I did.
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November 15, 2008
Very rude Sales people
We made our appointment to check out what Direct Buy is all about. We went in to have the 45 min presentation, since we plan to do some major renovations to our kitchen and baths in a few years but nothing at this time. The spresentation person said after the presentation we should look around the store because they have access to millions of things and Cris a salesperson would be with us in a few. When the sales person came up to us I asked the question: If I dont pay 50 dollars now to start a membership can I never come back to become a member at a time closer to renovation time. Sales person Cris turned his back and said I will escort you out since you dont want to be a member now, I tapped his shoulder and said:(Sir what I'am saying is my wife and I dont know anything yet we have not seen anything and cant deside blindly why we need to pay out $6, 000 and sign a 10 year bindable contract.He jumped back and claimed I grabed his arm and I am not welcomed at the location so please leave. I asked his name ( he would not give it)and requested to talk to Mgr who came up to me and proceeded to hustle me and my wife out the front door, I stated (so what your escorting me out before I, ve seen anything about the membership or true money output to join)I asked for you so I could complain regarding service practice of his employee Cris when I tapped his shoulder to ask a question he jumped back as if I was there to Hit him and claimed I'am not willing to spend money to join so I NEED TO LEAVE NOW. He stated If you dont want to join now then never again will I be able to return, I stated that's FuXXed up after the time I have invested to go to the location and cant even see if there are any product lines I need .He told me I need not come back because I used the F word outside to him although no other people other than my wife and the shift mgr. were in the conversation I feel that no matter what the savings might have been for us we will never do business with people so rude and thier only goal is to get the new members to sign a contract prior to seeing any product is BAD FOR BUSINESS. and I did expect more than thier crappy way of presentation.
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November 13, 2008
Total rip-off
Direct Buy gets you to sign up and pay thousands of dollars for a membership promising discounts on big ticket items. In reality, you can get just as good or better deals by shopping around and you will NEVER recoup the huge fee you paid upfront. I found out that they have bought up or created websites with reviews that you find when you google them to make you thnk that most people are happy with their services, but if you dig deeper you will find many, many complaints about the company.
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November 3, 2008
do not fall for their lies
We were strong armed into joining without knowing all the details. We are kicking ourselves over and over for falling for their B.S. We are building a brand new home so we thought it would be worth the membership fee but we have not found ONE thing that we couldn't get just as inexpensive and as good a quality elsewhere.
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October 10, 2008
Fraud and scam
I have recently joined Direct Buy and I have not been completely satisfied. It seems as if every time I go and make a purchase initially it seems like a wonderful deal until they give me my form back with the shipping cost. All of my savings that I think I am getting ends up going to my shipping fee.
I made one purchase for $85.00 and my total after shipping and taxes was $153.00!! There went my savings I thought I was getting. Another purchase of 2 items that cost $231.00 each had a shipping fee of $150.00 each!! I was shocked.
I was informed in my introduction that I would have to pay shipping fees, but was told that they are usually very reasonable and with some retailers it would be free. I do not think the total price should double after shipping fees. That is not reasonable and they should not lead people to believe that.
I am having a hard time seeing the good that is coming out of my membership. I have not saved any money yet. I'm not giving up hope just yet though. I'm going to attempt a few more purchases to see if they work out better for me. If things go as they have been though I will definitely declare Direct Buy a rip off!
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October 9, 2008
Fraud and cheating
I also think Direct buy is a SCAM!... my bf and I got sucked into there "script" of a presentation, they told us we would save big bucks on all of our hardwood, tile and granite amongst other things... well after paying our $5000 membership fee we realized that there was no saving on any of our hardwood and tile... we ended up buying it retail... and as for the granite, it was actually cheaper to get it at the same manufacture as direct buy!... We furnished 4 of our rooms with plasmas and it was A LOT cheaper to buy the t.v's @ best buy!... The pricing on all leather couches were ridiculous at Direct buy the only things i can honestly say were cheaper were the mattress sets and a hutch for our dining room(and might i add very very little selection)... very very sour... i wish these was a way to get out of this financed membership fee!!
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October 7, 2008
Rip off
My wife and I signed up and paid $5000.00 after submitting to the high pressure "pay now or never." I have been kicking myself ever since. I planned on doing my shopping online more than 90% of the time and inquired about that before signing up. I was told everything I wanted to hear. I was also told that we would have access to every product that each manufacturer made. Not so. The majority of the manufacturers were very high end and had products that were too high priced. The ones that we were familiar with had very limited selections.
The website was extremely poorly put together and it was hard to see or know what you were buying. On one link there was one picture for fifteen different items and the short, vague description only let you that it was an item you didn't want.
I spent hours and hours online and spent just as much time traveling to their showroom and looking thru their catalogs and came away frustrated and pissed. The minuscule savings are not worth the extreme time and effort and does not justify the high membership fees. Shopping with Directbuy is very time consuming and very, very inconvenient.
Those members who criticize us disgruntled members are either retired old *** with crazy time on their hands, or they are Directbuy employees who have infiltrated the complaint sites to try and balance the comment. They are liars and scammers. I wish there was a class action lawsuit in Florida so I could sign up. I am so pissed, I am contemplating picketing in front of there warehouse to warn off as much people as possible. I have contacted one of my local news stations in the hopes they will run a segment exposing the scam. I am so pissed.
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