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.

Planning on remodeling my Florida kitchen, I paid the high price of joining DirectBuy in 2006 based on promises that I would save at least $5, 000 on kitchen cabinets. I spent 8-10 hours each week for several months in their showroom going through catalogs and working with their kitchen design “expert”.

There was a 3 week wait for a price update every time the design was modified to try to reduce the price. I wasted 7 months trying to get something within my budget. Also you had to find a contractor to pick up and install the cabinets. You had to be able to pick to appliances at their showroom.

Eventually I realized that there were not savings in the kitchen cabinets compared to other local companies. And there were not savings in their appliance prices compared to internet vendors. Most local and internet vendors deliver and/or install for free.

In the end, I went to a local kitchen design company and got excellent cabinets at $4, 000 less than the DB prices. Being a DB member was a very expensive, frustrating and stressful experience.

Don't be fooled by their lies and smiling salespeople.

I received a call from a Direct Buy telemarketer who told me I had been selected to get into a contest in which I could win $50, 000. It had to do with getting a key that would open a box or something at their showroom.

I thought about it for a minute, I had heard about the membership costs, and knew I wasn't going to sign up. But, I am doing some upgrades in my home over the next few months, and the guy on the phone was vague when I told him what I had heard about the membership fees. He gave me examples of people he knew who had bought a $700.00 couch for less than $400.00, and I should have stopped right there. I've seen $700.00 couches, and that was not what I was looking for.

I eventually said that he could send me info, and that I would like to participate in their contest, although at the time, I didn't exactly know what my obligation would be.

Ok, here's the clincher, after talking to me for almost 15 minutes, the guy asks me my income range, 20, 000-40, 000, 40, 000-60, 000, etc. When I told him my income was between 20-40, he said I didn't qualify for their contest and hung up. Just that fast.

They only people happy with Directbuy are those who are to arrogant to admit they were screwed. I am a member (3 years now) and I KNOW from experience that on at least 3 out of 4 products if you shop around you can get the same deals, often online stores offer free shipping and let you use your credit card, thus sweetening the pot.

The fact is they lie, the savings are not what they make them to be because the MSRP is never what retail stores charge anyway. And the service is very poor. I didn't do my due diligence so shame on me. I read about some class action suits in the US and you can bet that Ill be on that bandwagon if ever I find out about one in Canada.

These are some items I DID NOT buy at directbuy recently as I found them CHEAPER online. A queen size mattress set, a 52" LG LCD TV, a samsonite luggage set for my daughter. I did some comparative shopping this morning and found may other things that I could get for a very comparable price if I needed them.

Directbuy is just another type of retail for those of us foolish enough to join. But something should be done about their sales pitch as it is a lie.

I was online sometime ago and search of some new furniture for a new home that my wife and I just purchased. I happened onto the Directbuy website and filled out the information. I was contacted a day or so later by a sales representative, who made arrangements to attend their open house. We did attend, and I can tell you that you can feel something is not right. The spokesperson gave several examples of what appeared to be best case scenarios with highly discounted consumer electronics, furniture, and other items. There were comparisons directed related to major club wholesale chains. Although many of thier examples are highly attractive, thats all they are. They are presented in a way to draw you in. Admittedly we joined the membership, we fell for the initial scam, wrote a check for 2500.00, with the rest of the total of 6000.00 to be financed. After we were given our contract and other brochures and the like to take home. After we signed up we were allowed to walk around and view thier catalogs, Directbuy is tiered by a star system. 1 star being value, 4-5 stars being high quality products. I went directly to thier electronics in particular big screens, since I had shopped these extensively I knew where the pricing was at. I went directly to a 1 star catalog in which I found many models that I had shopped and oddly enough these models were NOT any cheaper at Directbuy. In fact you would find a better deal and better models at Major retail electronics chains via thier outlet stores, or sale priced items. Another thing that I found odd was that this 1 star manufacture was actually one of the better manufactures of big screen in terms of quality and picture, again I have researched big screens for the last 6 months. When I questioned the pricing, I was told that electronics is not where I would see my biggest savings, that furniture and other items would net the biggest savings. I also went through thier value catalogs for furniture and found that several retailers/wholesale outlets offered the same if not better pricing on things that I was looking for.
When we got home that evening, we quickly changed our minds. I read the contract and we were given three days to back out. My wife called and put a stop payment on the check the very next morning at 8 AM. I sent an email to thier customer service, and also took back the contract. When the wife dropped off the contract she was told it would take 10 days to get our refund. I immediately called Directbuy and questioned why they would state refund when we wrote a check, and we barely left that check 12 hours before? They claimed that they thought we had used a credit card, then quickly said well we ran your check through our machine last night, we got our money. I then told them nothing cleared my bank and I put a stop payment on the check this AM. She then said hold on a sec, let me check to see if they took the deposits to the bank. She came back and said we will refund you if the check clears, then hung up. 3 days later Directbuy attempted to cash our check, because of the stop payment there were not able to get our money. We consider ourselves fortunate to get out of what have been the worst financial mistake we have made in the last 10 years. Directbuy is a scam, its not geared for the everyday consumer.