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5/2/2008 - Teri writes:
Thank you everyone who reported their experiences with Direct Buy. You saved my husband and I the time and frustration of attending their "open house" 30 minutes from now in Beaverton, Oregon. We are planning to update our 15 year old home and will probably spend about $20 - $30 K to do so. Direct Buy looked like a good idea but now I realize I can do better on my own. When we built this 3700 sq ft house, we purchased all of our landscape material at wholesale pricing by going to the landscape company and offering to pay cash and unload the truck ourselves. They delivered tons of material and we paid about 50% of the retail price. We also did the same thing with our audio/visual equipment - just called a wholesale distributer and bought all of the great brand name components on our list at less than half the retail price! All I do is call, ask for a manager and ask them if they will sell wholesale to me one time for cash. Everyone has said yes! My theory is: It doesn't hurt to ask, the worst they can do is say NO (but no one has turned down our cash). Anyway, I'm recommitted to my theory after reading all of your comments. Thanks again!

5/1/2008 - Barbara writes:
I hate to say this, but I fell for the scam and every time I think about it make me sick!!!!!! I am going to report it to my local BBB and write my states attorney general like someone else suggested! It was a hard lesson to learn and I hope nobody else has to learn the hard way like I did!

5/1/2008 - Andrea writes:
I am writing because I just had one of the worst experience in a store a few hours ago, this store is DirectBuy, you may have seen their infomercials on tv. They lure people with the promise of buying high-end furniture for a significant discount, my friend and I went to the store located on []; we were greated by a young man who looked at us like we were dirt....but believe it or not that was not the worst. My friend and I were asked if we were sisters, and we jokinly said yes (we look nothing alike), then my friend who is pregant was asked if she is married she said no, we were told she could not sit in on the two hour process it would take before they told us about their membership. My friend insisted she makes decisions on her own and makes her own money, this is true of both of us; the young man got up and went to speak with someone, he came back and told my friend she could wait on me for the two hours but she could not go back without her spouse. To make a long story short -I I found DirectBuy to have the worst customer service I had seen in a long time They refused to tell us their membership fee (a search on the internet told me it is between $5000 and $6000) Their high pressure sales tactics were almost discriminatory My friend told they young man she was insulted by his moral posturing and I told him I did not appreciate their high pressure sales tactics we left...... The young man told they DirectBuy has been in business for 37 years......37years too long.......

4/30/2008 - Carmen Cox writes:
About a week ago I was given a sales pitch over the phone. Since we are looking for a few peices of furniture and other things for the home, I thought this would be great. They said they would send me a key for a contest and when could my husband and I make it in? I explained my husband was deployed they said thats ok well send it to you and you can come in. Today I get a follow up call if I had received it, this lady informs me that I may not attend without my husband. I said he will be deployed for a year and a half we want to buy furniture now does this mean you dont want us to buy it they said the information I would hear would apply to both of us, I found this offensive like I cant make decisions on my own? To me this discriminates on Millitary in general. How RUDE! Oh well by the lady's tone and intense being on the phone, I think we may have been saved from a scam

4/29/2008 - Kim writes:
Today my husband and I sat through there presentation. I tried my best to convince my husband that this was not a good idea. However, he was determined to join since YOU CAN NOT JOIN AFTER YOU LEAVE. After getting home I was able to due some research and found how horrible the company is. I called within 2 hours of leaving to cancelle the contract. I am still awaiting a return call. Though I did get a fax number and signed the cancellation form and fax it to them. I have a feeling I will be contacting a family friend attorney tomorrow. DO NOT DUE IT. Here with interest of 17.5% you are paying $8,000 in Northern IL.

4/28/2008 - Tom writes:
My wife & I went to their Open House last Saturday, 4/26/08, and were appalled with what they offered. The total costs for the first 2 years was around $6,500, with $1,680 in annual fees and about $4,820 as Initiation fee (commission/profit) to the corporate/franchise owner/sales rep. One striking memory I have of the encountered was an example that the presenter showed was how an average 2-income family (with a combined income of $53,000, there or about) spends about $8,000+ in retail markup for the year. I'd like to find that family who blow their entire annual income buying furniture, electronics, and impulse stuff. Examples of misleading information like that just gnaw at me because we wasted our time there.

4/28/2008 - angel writes:
i, like too many others have fallen for the direct buy scam.$5000.00 poorer and hidden cost later to still not find that discount yet.heavy handed tacts to home buyers is the worst of all we all ready are stressed enough and are trying to save what we can to be took by vermin disguised as DIRECT BUY.any class action please let me know.have been so called member for2yrs. and have not been able to find anything we need withot trouble and waiting for return phone calls that donot come since becoming members .would like my membership moneys back.

4/28/2008 - Jed writes:
Years ago, when my wife (before we were married, back when we lived in sin) & I were poor college students in Boston, we heard about DirectBuy (although it wasn't called DirectBuy then). We had the same experience everyone else had. We were invited to a private sales pitch, had the chance to look around at rack after rack of "secret" catalogs with the wholesale prices manufacturers didn't want us to see. Then came the pitch. I can't remember the precise figure (this was back in 1992), but it was enormous -- way, way beyond what we could have possibly afforded. And, of course, there was the kicker: We had to decided right that moment, or we could never, ever join again. This is where the B.S. comes in. The reason they gave us, and the reason they're still giving, is that manufacturers don't want you comparing prices with regular retailers. So, it isn't Bestbuy that's forcing you to commit -- it's those pesky manufacturers, and their evil partners-in-crime, the retailers. Sounds great, if you're fairly stupid, or in the habit of not thinking too deeply. Or if you're right smack-dab in the middle of a sales pitch and afraid of passing up the chance of a lifetime. But if you stop and *think* (which is what they can't afford to allow), you quickly realize something: Making you sign up right then does NOTHING to protect manufacturers from price comparisons. The only thing it does is try to force your hand, and prevent you from making an informed decision. Once you join, not only is there nothing to prevent you from comparing prices -- invariably, that's precisely what members do. If they didn't, how would they know how much they'd saved? How would they know when, or if, they'd saved enough to make back the cost of their membership? The ONLY way they could do so is to compare prices -- so if that's truly what annoys manufacturers, it's happening anyhow. In fact, if they want to avoid retailers hearing about how Directbuy undercuts them, prospective Directbuy members should be ENCOURAGED to go out and get a bunch of prices BEFORE they come in for the sales pitch, so they can compare notes. After all, that way they get comparison prices before they know how cheap Directbuy is, and can't tell the retailer how badly Directbuy is undercutting them. Even being a sceptic, I almost signed up back then. At a time when we were using cinderblocks for furniture, their sales pitch *almost* caught us. The only thing that saved us was some on-the-spot arithmetic, when we realized that the membership fee was nearly as much as we'd be able to spend on discretionary purchases for at least the next year. Put in that light, it was insane, no matter how many glowing promises of deep discounts they offered us. [] claim to also be "buying clubs", yet you don't see them saying that you have to join the first time you're pitched: And that if you refuse, you'll be blackballed. Quite the opposite. I hadn't realized when I saw the commercials for Directbuy that it was the same company I'd run into all those years ago (although it has to be, judging by the stories I've read). Frankly, I'm astonished they're still in business. I guess they've got a point when they use that to defend themselves: What they do must be legal. The horror stories of members are chilling. Almost as chilling as the "copyrighted" cease & desist letter. It's a sad day when a Web site can come under attack simply for allowing regular, everyday people to come in and share their experiences. If Directbuy is such a great deal, you'd hear about it SOMEWHERE from a friend. I've never heard anything positive about them. Instead, we've told all our friends and family to avoid them (or did, back when we went to their pitch in Boston 16 years ago). Good products sell themselves through word-of-mouth. Scary products sue you to keep your mouth shut because they're so afraid of the words that come out.

4/27/2008 - FRANK writes:
Yesterday my wife and I had the unfortunate opportunity to sit through the Direct Buy "open" house. All I can say is that I just lost two hours of my life that I will never get back! Our friendly sales pitch person, before and after the demeaning video and sales pitch, spent most of the time talking about nothing but herself and all the wonderful things she had bought. At one point she said as you know its all about me. Yeah no kidding! At the point of the pitch when they get to the DUES section, $5150.00 for the first three years, I couldnt believe my ears! After some discussion with my wife, I told our sales lady that it made no sense to me to pay someone 5000 to shop in their store. Well that completely changed the tone of the day, she proceeded to ask us for our name tags back (handwritten stick on name tags as if they are worth something) and escorted us out of the building. It was like since we said no, now get the $#%% out! Stay away from this place at ALL ALL costs. SCAM and a half

4/26/2008 - Katherine writes:
Stay away, total scam, buyer beware!! My husband and I went to the orientation with another couple, good friends of ours. I am a retail buyer and our friend is a contractor. In our estimation, this is a total scam and does not offer much savings to the consumer. To all of you that have already posted, they were asking over $6800+ for the membership for 2 years and then an additional $198 for each year after that. This was at a brand new location in northern California. I didn't buy their reasoning that they had gave us such secretive information that you can't walk out and decide tomorrow that you want to join. Everyone knows that goods in retail stores are marked up! Furthermore, large retailers do not pay the wholesale prices when they buy from manufacturers. So even though retailers are marking up products, because they are buying in bulk, they have more buying power and therefore get a much much cheaper price than wholesale price. Direct buy claims that you are paying for the markup after the wholesale price which is simply not the case. The only retailers that buy wholesale are usually smaller chains and mom and pop type retailers. They use scare tactics to get people to join, since they tell you it's your only chance, one shot deal or you have to wait 7 years. They use retail terminology that the average consumer doesn't recognize, but as a retail buyer I knew better. So did my contractor friend, who can get much better prices on appliances, cabinets etc. They truth is, you have to spend tons of money, just to try to recoup your huge membership fee. People in our session actually joined today, I could not believe it. I wanted to tell them they were being tricked! As some others that posted, I was completed turned off buy their hard sell tactics. They claim they are not sales people, yet they pressure and scare people into signing that very day. The other thing that bothered me is they kept disregarding the amount of money. Oh you'll recoup your membership fee in a year, year and a half tops. Oh and we won't even talk about the tiny fee of $198 each year thereafter, it's so minimal we just don't even want to mention it. Seriously, this is what our sales person told us. It was an awkward and creepy situation and it really saddens me that unknowing consumers are being sucked in. Why don't all these manufacturs simply start selling direct to the consumer if it was that easy. They try to simply and really complicated manufacturing and shipping process. I know this is a long winded post, but I'm pretty mad I wasted hours on a beautiful Saturday afternoon on this scam!

4/26/2008 - Jim writes:
Went to Direct Buy in El Paso, TX after reading the positive and negative feedback on this website. I wanted it to work and went in with the attitude if you can sale me I will spend $4800 for it. I asked the salesmen if this is such a great deal why don't I just pay $480 per year and good service/value would keep me coming back year after year. Response was it doesn't work that way without any justification. Salesmen claimed it was easy to find items. I asked him to show me and he started back peddling. At that point the whole pitch changed and they started getting biligerent. I was shown to the managers office where he tried to convince me I was an idiot for not spending $4800 now to save a lot of money on my purchases. This experience confirmed the negative responses I read on this website. Needless to say I won't ever return to that place.

4/26/2008 - kelly writes:
My mom got the direct buy card in the mail..come see what we have seen on the tv...buying furniture and house related things much cheap..we showed up and was treated really nice. taken to a room after the show. it would be 5000 for my mom to join. but because my mom was a senior citizen it would only be 3500. my mom was already ready to join and i refused to allow her to..but because we came to see the show we was to recieve two free airline tickets to anywhere to be used within the next year. just follow the instructions on the card..ok..the card says send 20 bucks for processing. a few months later we get a package in the mail. so we fill out the package paperwork..and have to send 100 bicks for taxes..and submit the paper work within 30 days from the date on the paperwork..which had already passed. my mom called them and they told us to follow the instructions they would disregard the date..so we now our free tickets have cost 120 bucks..and we also could only submit the dates we wanted to fly- we couldn't fly 7 days before or after a holiday..so we calulate the times we could fly since we had already sent 120 bucks in..today we get another letter..they want another 100 bucks. if we send it in..our free flights would now cost us 270 bucks and upon checking with the airlines..we could fly to where we wanted to go..round trip for 200. for both of us..i am glad my mom didn't buy the membership..and we only got scammed on the "free" airline tickets.. i can only hope more people see this..so they don't fall for this scam.

4/25/2008 - T.W. writes:
My husband and I were hit up to attend a presentation. There was the lure of a possible $50,000 makeover. Even though we were beat, we decided to go check it out. The sales person was relentless, telling us we needed the membership, and worse telling us we would save on comparable stuff we already buy. We tried to compare apples to apples, but the subject continued to become "frayed" and "unclear." She kept at it, and we were getting so very tired, we finally relented. We signed the paperwork and paid the membership fee. I awoke at 1:30 a.m., having a panic attack. It was then that I realized: the "discounted" stuff they were offering would be more expensive than we could afford, even with the "discounts." We have two kids with chronic illness and other disabilities we are trying to put through college. My husband was injured in a terrible accident, which started this mess, as we wanted to have someone else do all the work we needed done because he couldn't anymore. I felt like I'd been hypnotized. And I was, only worse, we were both coerced and lied to to get us to agree to something we normally wouldn't have even fallen for. We then contacted our local BBB, who stated we had "buyer's remorse!" What??? We've been swindled. It's funny how different BBBs have responded differently to this particular business. Are they on the take in my state?

4/25/2008 - Lisa writes:
I purchased solid cherry kitchen cabnets from Brookwood Cabnetry ordered through Direct Buy in mid December. The shipping on the item was to be 1/23/08. I received the cabnets on 4/8/08. Every box I opened had a problem with the cabnets. The stain was not properly applied. There are cracks in the wood. The corners of two of the doors were poorly cut, then patched and stained over the patch. There are dents and scratches in the wood panels as well. I made it very clear to everyone the quality issues I noted with the merchandise. I still do not have resolution to the cabnets and they have had $10,000.00 since December. They handeling fee was waived due to the long wait. The sad thing is that Brookwood only sells cabnets to DB members. You would think they would be more involved in making this right. I have lost my installer twice to other jobs while waiting for a resolution. I wish I had never become a DB member. You can save money if all goes well. If it does not, you are left hanging. Become a member at your own risk. I still am waiting for a resolution. The head of DB in Cincinnati will not return my calls or meet with me. I have made multiple attempts to communicate with Tony without any response. I have learned many lessons from this experience. I will see this through. I hope this helps others make an informed decision. If you are already a member, keep all paperwork and samples of items. It helps in resolving situations like the above experience I am having.

4/24/2008 - Lynann writes:
Warning to anyone in Jacksonville Florida who is a member of Direct Buy or contemplating buying into this scam; the owner has recently closed 5 other businesses in the area and rumor has it that Direct Buy of Jacksonville is about to go bankrupt and close.

4/23/2008 - Bruce writes:
My wife and I attended a Direct Buy open house tonight. Our adventure was pretty much the same as others. They wanted $4,800 for the first year, nothing the 2nd and $160 for the following eight years. I expected a fee, but not that much, and not right then. They did offer two payment plans at 17% APR over a two year period. But they wanted money and a contract signed now. We would have to spend at least $10,000 more to break even. We could just buy a little at a time over the two years, and spend the $4,800 without that unreasonable APR. When I said the APR was too much, the sales guy retorted "beggars can't be chosers". I beg for nothing from no one. On the drive home, we got to wondering how do they stay in business? The membership fee might cover two months salary for one salesman, but what about the rest of the year and employees? What about the building, utilities, etc? That has to be a hidden markup to cover all that. And they insisted their price is the manufacture's direct price. I smell something fishy.

4/22/2008 - nadia writes:
4/22/08--Nadia First of all I want to say Thank you to all of you. I was ones pressured by DirectBuy through the phone. I went online and registered for a free pass and they started calling me after that. I never visited their show room because they said, "Kids are not a lowed." There was no way to go without our three year old. The sales people are not polite, they are very rude people. They used bad language on the phone and were laughing at me when I was questioning their company. The question I asked was about the membership. How much I have to pay and the lady could not stop laughing at me, and you know what I did, I hung up on her. And that was the end. This company should go out of business. I hope someone does something about that. Please be careful don't do anything stupid, don't let them ketch you. They want easy money, they should try to earn it the harder way, then they'll know if they would spend it on something stupid.

4/21/2008 - James Jones writes:
I did work for a DB office and did the purchasing for them. Sometimes, they can really help people who want to spend exhorbiant amounts of money. Usually, the best bet is in the Flooring and Cabinets department. But, most things otherwise can turn into a nightmare. Their catalog department is soo bad, that almost everything is either discontinued or prices have gone up as nothing is updated. Thus, most time is spent calling back customers to ask them for another $50 to $300 per purchase. This happens around 30-50% of all purchases. Then, everything has to go through corporate and basically by the time the customer gets the product, 8-12 weeks may pass. Time is money to me folks, so I would rather get what I want in a reasonable time. If you only save $100 on a purchase and have to wait 3-6 months to get it, is it really worth it. As far as the people running the franchise, they are decent hard working people. But, when I mentioned to the GM that I saved a customer who was threatening to sue, he mumbled something to the extent of "We don't make money of of customers purchases". They really only make money off of the customers memberships.

4/21/2008 - Sonia writes:
Glad to see I was spared the pain of dealing with them...I just now understood why, after reading some of the other complaints. There is a DB showroom right by my office, so one day I just walked in and the girl at the front desk asked me if I had a membership. I said no and she told me to wait, that someone will be with me shortly. I'm very impatient by nature, so in my one minute "waiting" I asked her how this works. I was very perturbed when her answer was: "Please sit down and someone will be with you, I can't tell you how this works" (she was very rude in the way she said it). So my reply was "If you can't give me a 30 second explanation of how this works, I think I don't want anything to do with buying anything here" and I walked out. NO WONDER! they can't tell you in the first few seconds that your membershit (this one's on purpose) alone costs thousands of $$$. Nobody would last any longer than I did. Thank God now that my experience was only 2 minutes long!

4/20/2008 - blanca writes:
My husband and I have plans to remodel our kitchen, so when I saw all of the informacials on tv I called, made an appointment and attended an open house. When the sales person mentioned the $4990.00 membership fee I said to my husband that's a lot of money this is not for us, but then they go on and on about how much you would save over time by being a member. They ended up convincing my husband and I and we signed our membership on May 2007. We have not used it at all because they want you to pay up front for things that you want to order. Also if you want to shop online they don't have the prices for a lot of items, you would have to go to the showroom which is over an hour from our home and the shipping costs and all other fees, it's just ridiculous. If anybody has beign able to cancel their membership please let me know how you did it, because I seriously want to cancel mine.

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