This direct buy has bothered me from the very beginning. From the start I have to blame myself or better yet to go along with my wife and sign up. Know its been 25 months of payment. They don't tell in the t v commercial that it’s going to cost you $4490 to join. Then when my wife has here eye on a Weber grill, we buy it, they have the basic charge plus shipping and a handling fee. When I checked with ace hardware and Costco it would have been cheaper. If there would be a class action suite I would jump right in.

My Mom and I are members of Direct Buy in Canada. My frustrations with DB began when I ordered a wedding ring mount and bands for my husband and myself. The trouble began when the DB sales associate processed the order wrong and I had to go back to pay more shipping. A couple of weeks go by - at this point we are less than a month away from our wedding and I am informed by telephone that the associate made a MATH mistake and that I actually owe them MORE money. I am about to leave on vacation two provinces away - I do NOT have time to deal with this. Anyway, I said fine, voiced my displeasure at THEIR mistake and said that I would pay the difference when the rings came in. I spoke to the Manager and made it quite clear that if the rings weren't in by the particular date stipulated (at this point I had been waiting longer than what the expected delivery date on the invoice was), I wanted someone's head to roll because they were going to ruin our wedding. I left for my trip and as I travelled to my fiancé, I got regular calls from DB staff telling me that the manufacturer had confirmed my rings would be in well in advance of the wedding. 3 week vacation goes by, fiancé and I are in town to get married and, guess what, NO rings!! When I called to see where the rings were at, I freaked out when I was told they weren't received. I was told someone would call back. A couple of hours later, this very cocky young lady returns my call and says "Well at the price you paid for the rings, I hope you realize you are NOT getting a diamond" to which I responded in a not very calm voice that she needed to learn to READ because I hadn't bought a diamond, only rings.. Anyway, to make a long story short, we had to push our wedding back by 3 days thanks to Direct Buy's incompetence and BS. You'd think that after that episode I would have learned my lesson and not ordered anything further but no, I couldn't resist.

On September 3, 2007, went to the DB showroom and placed an order for a 4 piece John Thomas dining set. I was told that it would take 4-6 weeks for delivery. I received the set December 22, 2007 and when we unpacked it, it was so damaged it was hideous and definitely not acceptable. I immediately contacted DB after the Xmas holiday and had to provide all kinds of pictures to prove the damage. I was initially told that I may not get a refund - that it was up to the DB adjustor and the Manufacturer to decide. The person I was dealing with prepared me for the worst scenario - that I might not get my full money back but would likely be offered the damaged set at half price. I said I wanted a replacement set. I was told that the manufacturer agreed to send a replacement set. This was mid-January. At the end of March 2008, I received a call that the replacement set had been received and thoroughly inspected to ensure it was not damaged like the first one. My hubby and I borrowed a minivan and brought the damaged set back and were about to load the new set when I insisted that the boxes be opened so "I" could inspect the new set. The warehouse guy didn't want to, stating that they had already inspected it. I was adamant so he didn't have much choice. When he cut the tape, I noticed that the cheapo packing paper and foam had not been moved at all, which meant that in reality, the set had not been inspected as I had been told. I moved the paper and foam and right away pointed out dents on the white tabletop. Needless to say, I was NOT happy and left both dining sets there at the warehouse. I immediately emailed the lady I had been dealing with to tell her of the situation and that I was INSISTING upon a FULL refund. To make a very long story short, I have had to chase after my refund for two months. I spoke with someone in their accounting department who told me the cheque had been mailed April 28. I waited and waited. In-city mail takes 3-4 days. As of end of May, I had not received my refund. I left a message for the owner who NEVER bothered to return my call - one of his underlings called and told me that the cheque had been mailed May 13 - I freaked out and called them all *** liars. Anyway, the cheque never came so I insisted they draft another and that I would pick it up. I FINALLY got my money on May 30th.

This whole ordeal left me with a very poor impression of the company, even poorer impression of the people they employ and overall just a very bitter taste in my mouth. Both Mom and I wish we'd never set foot there!

Is there anyone out there that has ever gotten out of this contract with this unethical company? Sadly, we went to an open house on Saturday, May 10th and, of course, was pressured by the notion that we'd never have this "money-saving" opportunity again. Unfortunately, I didn't see this complaint site before we foolishly signed on the dotted line at the Richmond store 2 days ago.

When I talked to the manager today to tell him I changed my mind, he was actually rude and pretty much said, "Too bad." Help! Is there anything we can do?

I wanted to start an email to warn people of DirectBuy, and how they conduct business. My husband and I are new-ish members, and have signed up for the initial membership of two years, wanting to renovate parts of our home.

In the year and a half so far, we’ve gotten nothing but hassle.

First and foremost, most of the staff who work there have no idea what they’re doing. We’ve gone in on a few Saturdays – that being the only day we have available to visit their ‘showroom’ – and we struggled with getting any help. We were told to make ourselves available on a weekday to talk to presumed ‘renovation experts’ and ‘electronics experts’ who don’t work weekends. The problem is, is that my husband and I have jobs that interfere with our weekday availability.

Secondly, there is no return policy when the staff make a mistake. Their kitchen expert had botched measurements for our kitchen, to the point where our contractor was unable to fit in many of the pieces that were custom made for us, and when we approached DirectBuy about it, we were given a hard time. I spent over half an hour on the phone with their kitchen expert trying to get her to just come out and see what the problem was, and remeasure the kitchen. She then also expected us to spend more money on buying pieces to replace ones that were ordered wrong from her end. After much persistence, she finally agreed to replace it for us, but not after a condescending lecture about how we, the customer, should swallow the cost of her mistakes (valuing at a few hundred dollars) when considering the thousands that we’re saving on this room’s renovation.

We’ve dealt with two different locations of DirectBuy, one in Mississauga and one in Brampton (Ontario, Canada). The reason why we left the Mississauga location was because of the incredibly poor customer service that we received from there, as well as us realizing that the staff, at best, are inept. By dealing with this second location, we’ve come to realize that this seems to be a common thread throughout the chain.

DirectBuy's gimmick is that they 'dont make a profit on anything they sell, just the membership fees' - but this has become an excuse. Abiding by this policy allows them to make whatever mistakes they want, and in tern, the customer looses hundreds of dollars (or more) because if their ineptitude.

I’ve been looking at a few links regarding DirectBuy and how they do business, and am glad to see that we’re not the only ones unsatisfied with the way they do business. It's unfortunate that we've spent the $4000 membership fee though before finding this out. Despite the fact that we've saved a substantial amount on our kitchen and other items that we've bought, it’s more stress than what it’s worth, and I would very much discourage anyone from even considering dealing with this company.

Thanks for reading, I hope this is shared and helps people in avoiding to deal with DirectBuy.

Sabrina Thompson
Mississauga, Ontario