Home | Tell a Friend | Donations | Resources | Blog

4/8/2008 - Charles writes:
For all of you upset at DirectBuy, write to Christopher Lowel who is promoting this scam of a company and let him know what happened to you. Also, definitely report this to your local BBB and also call your local TV stations. They love to report on scams.

4/8/2008 - JIMMIE MCCULLOUGH writes:
My wife and I went to one of the "meetings" and was told that we HAD to join THAT EVENING or we could never come back. Well it sounded really good and they promised to get us a really good deal on a car so we joined for the $5,000+ members fee that was a loan which had interest. They don't (or didn't when we were members) take credit cards so you have to have the cash to buy anything in there, then you have to pay shipping AND taxes. So in the end you really don't save money on anything!! HUGE SCAM!!!!

4/7/2008 - Bruce writes:
After being lured by infomercials on broadcast and cable tv, I was defrauded of my $5,000 four years ago by UCC Direct Buy, and have not recovered since. It came at the worst possible time. I am near retirement, and just put everything I had into a home, and its remodeling and adding an expensive home business, a recording studio which was my lifelong dream. Not only is the expensive membership worthless, they derailed my two remodeling projects by mishandling and non handling my window and door quotes, costing me delays of a couple hundred thousand dollars, and my health. My home is uncompleted, as is my business. I have received no response from government or consumer agencies, or telecommunications companies taking money from these criminals to hawk their scams. They are all shameless. How is it they are all not in jail? Only in the shameless environment engendered by the current illegitimate administration could this be allowed to go on so long. This is America? I feel very badly for the countless infirmed retired elderly, and struggling newlyweds who are in even worse shape than I am who have been robbed by these cynical scammers. I felt a strong desire to bolt from the room when presented with their sleazy high pressure come-on. I have felt ashamed and greedy for falling for it over the years, but realize I was only trying to take advantage of a seemingly legitimate offer to save money. The first major clue was the fact that they were pushing franchises as hard as the memberships. That spelled Pyramid Scheme in capitol letters to me. I have been to [], knife selling, and encyclopedia hawking presentations before. I missed out on the time shares. This smelled bad from the git-go, but what suckered me was the high price, which seemed to offer legitimacy due to the fact it is grand fraud at $5,000 if not as promised. That is the rub, their written contract, 180 degrees contrary to the oral presentation, promises nothing. Exactly, specifically nothing. There is a "verbal exclusion clause", which in plain English means that they can lie to you verbally in the oral presentation. Since nothing is presented in writing until you sign a contract that pertains only to how much you owe them, that means the entire presentation is a lie, and that they are not obligated to provide or perform anything, repeat not anything, and there is nothing you can do about it. Sue your local franchise if you are a victim, that is your only slim hope. The parent company cannot be touched. They are a consortium of high-priced lawyers, and their contract is iron clad, even though it has been deemed "unconcionable" by the New York courts and "unenforceable" by the Canadian Supreme Court. Stay away. Run away. Warn your relatives and friends. Contact your government representatives. Shame on the courts, the television industry, the FCC, the FTC, the State and Federal Attorney General offices, and the United States of America. We are all sheep leading the great experiment of democracy to slaughter if we allow this kind of business, and the kind of government that allows it, to persist. May a higher purpose lead us out of this spiral, it is all I can hope for.

4/7/2008 - Jim writes:
I've seen all of those commercials advertising what great savings one can get from dealing with Direct Buy, so I scheduled an appointment to come in for a so called open house. Went there and they were very courtious to me, until they found out that I was un-employed. One of their requirements is that before one can attend their open houses that one needs to be employed full time. Plus their fee was an a outragious amount which I won't mention unless one is a millionare. And even if I were a millionare I wouldn't shop there ever! So upon finding out that I wasn't employed in a full time job, they kindly escorted me to the front door where I left and I personally won't be back. I wished that they would have explained in more detail what they were all about and what the qualifications were over the phone before I wasted my time and gas driving over to their showroom. These people are mis-leading the public with their mis-leading ads.

4/6/2008 - Agnes writes:
THIS IS A SCAM. I am still angry just by thinking of it. Yesterday I went to their office with my sister and her husband. The person over the phone named Jennifer told me that they can not let us going to the showroom b/c my brother in-law does not speaks English. When I asked her why? She " explained" to me, that non-English speakers would disturb other customers. When I told her it is prejudice and it is unacceptable, she said " of course not!" Wake up Jennifer for 2 reasons, first people use eyes to check furnitures and second the last time that I checked, United State is melting pot. Everyone really should careful with those unprofessional people and their business.

4/5/2008 - salaam writes:
ATTENTION HABIBA ATTENTION HABIBA. e mail me and i will give you advice about your membership. i got out of mine a while ago. ill tell you what to do. i cant beleive what bull crap the sales peopledo to you. i went in for a tour and the sales people rushed me at the front door with a fake greeting. one thing i cant stand is when people are fake and think they are good at being fake. yea they got me to join but i boned them by doin 50 products comparisons on items in the retai stores. i got 50 quotes total. 10 quotes for each category they offered. some had savings while others did not. so my quotes were my ammunition. i talked to one of the owners who was a jerk because i figured his bull crap out. so when he wouldnt let me out of the membership, i showed him the quotes. i never seen a person so red in the face. he was caught red handed. i got him his "apples to apples" comparisons and demanded a refund. once again he made an unbelievable attempt to re-sell me the concept. i finally threatened to expose the quotes from retail and DB to the media AND the attorney general. after hearing this he gave me a full refund but not after a longggg hard fight. ROT IN HELL YOU GREEDY BASTARD!!!

4/5/2008 - Valerie writes:
Thanks to everyone whom has shared their personal nightmares with DirectBuy. I am about to do a kitchen remodel and was looking to save some bucks. I initiated the contact with DirectBuy. They have made repeated calls to assure my arrival at their scheduled presentation. I have one scheduled for 4/8. I live a two hour drive from the nearest store so this has not been a convienent thing. I mentioned to neighbor about going Tuesday to DirectBuy, and she said be careful. Between her warning and their agressive phone calls I had red flags raised, so I googled DirectBuy and found this site. AFter checking out all of your stories, you just saved me half a day, a tank of gas and possibly thousands. Thanks

4/5/2008 - Keith writes:
First got an appointment for the meeting. Asked for the price, but they will not tell. Googled it and found its around $4000 to join. Canceled appointment. So anyway my father inlaw joins one day and tells us. Great, no fee and great prices. We get online with him and see what we want for our new kitchen. Prices are a few hundred less then []. $5000 worth looks to cost $4100. Great he orders on his credit card for us. We are not there and the total comes to $4700. What the !@#$. They added for 0-$125 each product in deliver fees. whew still saving a few hundred. O then they say "not delivered to you just to their wearhouse." You have to pay for delivery. and its 4-6 weeks. Sink comes in (my mistake)I didn't order enough faucet holes. Checked the site they only sell the 1 hole sink. Not allowed to return anything at all so don't make a mistake. 1 down A few weeks later appliences come in, we call and ask can they deliver, yes Direct delivery will bring them for $100. O well still saving $200. they bring in the range and dishwasher, boxes are open already. I look at them and they look fine but were open and taped closed. The frig has to come out of box to get through the door. they dent the front. I look at it and the back is also dented. @#%#. I send it back. We are told 4-6 more weeks. No frig in the new kitchen. Ok just cancel and we will get it somewhere else. Called local guy $200 more but $25 delivery and 2 days wait. Direct calls back not allowed to cancel and they are getting us 1 new door not a new frig. I ask about the back dents and she says she will give a extended warrenty, but does not feel that it did any internal damage. the new door will also take 4-6 weeks and Direct buy will install it. (I'm sure they are professional door installers) We ask if the stainless will match, and she said "if it doesn't we will order new doors" 4-6 weeks. Its been 2 weeks and we are still waiting. I did not pay the membership fee and could have got almost the same price shopping around. No returns allowed, long wait, slow non caring staff. They do have one good thing a con artist sales pitch. If you join this scam you will be sorry, the people who like it have no clue what things cost. You would have to spend around 100k to get your fee back. But the service will make you sick. I had to tell and help others from this scam. please think before signing up.

4/4/2008 - Don writes:
I joined DB on April Fools day one year ago, we are building a new home and figured it would be a great way to stay in our budget. What a mistake the 8% markup and shipping and handling destroy that concept. When ordering our cabinets my fiancé spent days trying to schedule with their designer, after finally getting an appointment and six weeks latter we are ready to order $18,000 in cabinets the designer tells my fiancé " I made a mistake the cabinets are really $25,000" as you can imagine we wigged out, we have a written quote from DB. We contact after a corporate name search Michael Ricketts the Vice President and he agrees with my better half that that was wrong and agrees to waive the shipping and 8% handling fee if we can work something out, we have incorporated a lot of the features of the home around the kitchen, so the little lady spends 1 1/2 hours trimming some features from the bathrooms and laundry room and gets the price to $21,000, OK if she's happy I can live with it. Along comes the Vice president today and has his designer call the little lady and tell her we can only do 4% on the handling fee, she tells him no this is unacceptable and if he has a problem with that we will contact the BBB, she gets a call a little latter from Mr. VP and says to her, " so your going to contact the BBB, fine we will waive the 8%" My problem after reading these posts, I do not trust these people not to screw the order up in retaliation, we are going elsewhere at this point. Michael Ricketts was very rude to my fiancé. I am sending him a copy of this letter along with copies of all letter e-mails and quotes along with my intention of reporting them to the BBB. In addition I plan on contacting Gary Harper at News channel 3 in Phoenix, and I will make a neatly lettered sign referencing this web site and spend some time on the public street in front of their place of business in Tempe AZ. might just get his attention by providing a public service. Am I angry? You bet, can I be the worst pain in his neck we will see. At this point all we want is out, I am retired I can spend a lot of time being a pain in the neck.

4/4/2008 - ANONYMOUS writes:
I disagree with most of the complaints on here. I got a Direct Buy membership after learning about DB from a high school friend who works there. I was lucky enough to be better informed. I found out all about the one time sales pitch before hand from my friend. I strongly disagree with their membership sales tactics but I do see the point. I believe if they used less pressure and offered a 24 hour decision period, they might get more sales. But they are bound by contracts to the manufacturers. My friend has related plenty of horror stories of how a visitor drives over to [] and demands a new plasma at cost (through price matching offers) right after the intro visit. The person went through the sales pitch, looked up the price of the TV. The person then threatens [] that he will join DB unless they give it to him at the cost price. Heck, he has gotten angry calls from [] Shop about impatient members who do the same thing, cause they don't want to wait 6 weeks for an order to come in. The Ottawa location lost a garden supplies provider when a member took a confidential Direct Buy quote and drove over and demanded the same price so she could save delivery time. Her membership was revoked and that business dropped DB as a sales channel. She violated the rules and other members lose out (we cannot access that supplier). Yet she is probably going to be complaining on a forum like this soon. Its hard to understand the concept that DB is not a retailer. Each location is an individual franchise. Service varies depending on which location you are using. So does the membership fee. The membership fees are how each franchisee makes money. They do not make money on what you buy. The showroom is simply a library with MANUFACTURERS catalogues. The catalogues are binders filled with product information and price information (ie MSRP, MAP, unit price, cost price, etc.). Your membership fees pay for access to this info. When I joined, I had my friend price out different items I intended to buy which allowed me gauge my potential return, before I visited the store. Lastly, I found out that since all DB locations are franchises, each one has a different membership fee. The newest locations tended to have the lowest fees but the highest annual renewal fees (for years 3 -10). Luckily one of these new locations was in my area. So I purchased the membership for around $3500 CAD in Aug 2006. I plan on renewing at a location with a cheaper annual rate. Find a new location, and you will definitely not have to pay $6000. You can bargain the fee, because its the income of the franchise owner. It comes down to how much of a break the franchisee wants to give you. Pretty much everyone who has a membership has purchased something for a close family member or friend, although its against the rules. The reason it's not recommended, is because the order and therefore, the warranty, is in the member's name. If it breaksdown, guess who has to deal with the manufacturer. And it erodes the buying power of the members at large, if too many members do this. If you have a close friend with a membership, it is one way to get some inside information before getting the full up sales pitch. However, don't expect any members to risk their membership by publishing information on the internet that is clearly marked confidential. I actually think its a bad idea to convince and persuade any friends to join. If they can't come to that decision on their own, DB is simply not for them. Some of my friends are now considering membership after visiting my condo. The happy members are by far the best sales pitch. They should quit doing those cheesy commercials and rely solely on word of mouth. As for other costs…the 6-8% handling fee is not applicable on most items. I have paid shipping or handling for only about half the items I have purchased. Electronics for example, rarely have S&H. And even then I have still found it cheaper in comparison to retail. And then there’s sales tax. I can’t see the argument of those who complain about sales tax. I would love to find a retailer that does not charge you sales tax. There’s also the comments regarding them not offering financing. I think this is a good thing. If you need financing you do not belong at DB. If you are a disciplined shopper who saves up for major purchases and does not impulse buy then you are definitely a DB fit. Given today’s instant gratification society (I am only 27 myself) and the piles of credit card and other debt, I dont think DB should offer financing any time soon. I have benefited immensely from this membership. I bought a new condo and I did purchase all my furniture and appliances from Direct Buy. By my estimation, within 2 years I have recovered my fee. They had all the brands and the models, the type of furniture (a particular Nicoletti couch - only sold in Montreal...and I confirmed that with Nicolleti in Italy) and rare items I could not find (an LG combo washer/dryer that was withdrawn from retail in Canada). In fact, I am always overwhelmed by the amount of choice (for example colours and materials on furniture) that I have at DB. Also, I appreciate having one location where I know I can get the lowest price on just about everything, without having to shop around and spend hours and hours on the net or driving to stores all around the city. As a young professional, I do not have the time or inclination to spend hours out in the cold for a boxing day sale, nor do I want to drive to the US just to pick up a mild bargain. I do shop around sometimes to make sure its a deal, but I have yet to find DB lose out to any traditional retailer. After all, the retailer is using the same manufacturer catalogues as DB, so I can't see how its possible. It makes me laugh when I see a Best Buy flyer with the exact MAP advertised as a sales price. Shows me, that the system works! The location I joined at, advised potential customers not to join unless they had major purchases and were likely to recover their investment. The reality of DB is that it takes some compromise and elbow grease on your part to enjoy those savings. This means you have to do the research before you buy. You have to pick up and install purchases yourself. And you have to have items you need to buy, (ie major appliances or home improvement items) or non-traditional items (like the aforementioned combo washer/dryer) that you would like to have. And you have to have major purchases to make. Unless, you are likely to purchase at least 15 000 dollars worth of merchandise in the next two years, you are unlikely to recover a satisfying portion of your membership. I think they should stress this point more. Realistically, if your personal income is less that $60k or you have a family income less than $70k, you’re probably better off at []or []. Though it is against their principle (they started out as a club of families who were buying furniture together), I personally think, DB should do an income screen before joining, to avoid signing on those who would feel ripped off after, because they only buy low end retail anyway. In my experience (and having inside knowledge from an employee), those who complain have entirely unrealistic expectations and a poor understanding of how DB and retailers operate. The fact that many contractors themselves (though they are not supposed to) use DB says plenty about how cost effective they are. But there are bound to be compromises. You don’t get the brand you want sometimes (very rare in my opinion) , they don’t sell low end merchandise, you can't return anything (they are not a store with a warehouse, they are a buying club), and you have to cart it away yourself or pay for delivery. If you want to join you have to weigh these issues out. If you are choosy on brands (ie Sony is not offered but Samsung is), DON’T JOIN. If you need to visit a showroom to buy an item, DON’T JOIN (isn’t that what the internet is for?). If you need to talk to sales people (I find them annoying, useless and uninformative), and you are not an independent shopper, DON’T JOIN. If you want everything to be delivered the next day after you pay for it, DONT JOIN. If you don’t like to set up and install things yourself, DON'T JOIN. And if you have no major purchases to make, really….DON’T JOIN. If you are satisfied shopping at [] and [], DONT JOIN. Direct Buy does not carry brands that can compete on price with gypsum or particle board furniture. Lastly, your expectations have to be realistic. Electronics tend to have markups of only 15-25%. The Direct Buy price compares well on the cost price for many electronics at retailers like [] (I have a cousin who works there and I have compared prices - their COST prices). Occasionally, however, retailers like [] do sell below cost so it will be cheaper to shop there than DB. This is however, the exception, not the rule. And if this happens, go with it. I am not one to turn down a bargain. With items like furniture, or home improvement and building materials there is no comparison. Italian made furniture sells for 30-40% of the retail price, and usually 50-60% of the MAP (the sale price retailers usually offer to customers) . Granite counters go for half the price of outside contractors with more choice of materials and finishes. Tires for my car are close to half off. On a set of winter tires for my car, that was over $600 in savings. A single purchase like that every year, could recover your membership value over time. In short, you have to have time and effort to put in, to truly materialize savings. And you have to have money to spend. DB is not meant for bargain basement shoppers. It is meant for those who are value conscious (not price conscious - there is a difference), who make informed decisions and take the long view of purchases they make (granite counters add value to your house, a new plasma tv does not). If you are not this type of person, do yourself, the staff and other members a favour, and stay out of the showroom. The rest of us have some shopping to do. ps. I posted the above comment as annonymous in various locations. I think the crap being posted about DB is entirely unfair and uninformed. The only reason I posted as annonymous is to protect info about my friend who works there who went to great lengths to help me decide if joining was right for me. He did all the research and disclosed some prices. I used that information to shop around and then decided DB was right for me.

4/4/2008 - boris writes:
Thanks to this site and to everybody who has written his opinion.It helped me a lot! Me and my wife bought a house. furnishing it is a major p[roblem. So we saw on the TV the DB add. I told my wife-let's go and check it. She looked over the internet and told me that there a lot of negative feedbacks about the company.I said "well..nothing better to check it personally". So we called. We asked about the membership fee..." no we can tell you over the phone" was the answer. so we went.I wanted to look around in their show rooms. Was told I can't. This is the 1st selling place I was told "No"-RED FLAG. We listened to the presentation.A lot of savings. There was another couple who left after the presentation when they heard the membership fee. I was told the usual thing" Now or never" So I signed up without puting much thought. Then I came home. looked at this site. I have to aggree that most of the impression of people who did not use the service but visit the showrooms I experienced. I asked myself: Do I want a membership with a company which treats customers in this way? Restrictions and unable to take timeto decide. Plus I leave 100 miles from their showrooms. You nput all the expenses and it is worthless.So I read quickly the contract. There is a clause that say you can cancell the contract up to 3 days after you sign it. So that's what I did. DB refunded my money($990) paid in 1 week. I have to admit that I did not get any hassles obtaining my refund. The DB staff was professional and polite. I cannot give an advice whether to use DB or not.But I know that it is not for me! Good luck to everybody!

4/4/2008 - El writes:
I contacted Direct Buy after seeing one of their ads on TV. I was interested in finding out how much Direct Buy would save me on new appliances but the operator told me I would learn that at a presentation. I was sent a brochure and was contacted soon after to set up an appointment time. In the meantime a friend told me that the fees were several thousand dollars to join the club. I was not able to make the first appointment because of illness, and I was called regularly after that to rebook. Finally a woman called a week ago inviting me to attend a presentation, but she needed to ask me some questions first. She asked me what category of income I fell into, and apparently I answered the wrong category because she instantly became rude and told me I didn't qualify and hung up. She didn't even ask about my net worth. If you are being hounded by Direct Buy - let them know you have no or little income! Then go and spend your 4 or 5 thousand membership fee in a real appliance store.

4/3/2008 - Glorya writes:
One observation both my husband & I made during the Direct Buy "open house" we attended was that the people the sales person referred to as "current members" who were in the showroom "shopping" actually appeared to be people hired to pose as member shoppers. One man was sitting in the same spot gazing at the same page in a catalog of wall mirrors with a blank stare when I walked past him about 45 minutes later. OTher supposed "member shoppers" seemed to move as robots. Eery! When my husband & I attempted to look at a appliance catalog to see what manufacturers & models they offer, the saleman snapped out of our hands & helled at us. We quickly walked out & are not sad that we will not be invited back for ten years.

4/3/2008 - gretchen writes:
on November 11th i visited a direct buy show room that is located in Davie Florida .WE WANTED TO WHAT WAS DIRECT BUY AND EXACTLY WHAT THEY DID WE WERE SHOWN AROUND THEN WE WERE TAKEN IN THE BACK TO ANOTHER ROOM WHERE WE WERE TOLD OF THE TREMENDOUS SAVINGS WE WOULD BE ENTITLED TO .WE WERE TOLD THAT WE WILL BE ABLE TO GET MERCHANDISE FOR EXACTLY WHAT THEY WERE PURCHASED FROM THE MANUFACTURER FOR.WE THEN ASKED IF WE COULD SHOP AROUND AND THEN COM BACK WE WERE TOLD THAT WE WOULD NOT EVER BE ABLE TO RETURN AND THAT WE HAD TO PURCHASE MEMBERSHIP RIGHT AWAY I HAD ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS ON ME AND I GAVE IT TO THEM .2 WEEKS AFTER THIS I CONTACT THEM AND THEY TELL ME I AM NOT ABLE TO GET MY MONEY BACK I HAD 2 DAYS IN WHICH TO TRY AND GET MY MONEY BACK.I KEEP CALLING THEY TRANSFER ME FROM DEPARTMENT TO DEPARTMENT .THEY HAVE NOW GIVEN MY PHONE NUMBER TO A BILL COLLECTOR WHO KEEPS CALLING ME TELLING ME THAT I NOW OWE THEM 4 THOUSAND DOLLARS .AND WHAT MAKES IT EVEN WORSE THE PRICES ARE EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE OTHER STORES OR EVEN MORE EXPENSIVE I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE MY MONEY BACK AND SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE ABOUT THEIR LIES AND STEALING HABITS

4/3/2008 - Karly writes:
I got a call from Direct Buy saying that my husband I have had our name drawn and had the chance to win $50,000 in cash or a $50,000 home make over. All we had to do was go to the showroom and listen to the 90 minute presentation. For showing we would also get 2 prizes. We thought about it and decided to go. WHAT A WASTE OF TIME! We knew going into the thing that we wouldn't sign any contract. For 1 because we are renting an apartment and don't plan on building a house anytime soon if EVER. And 2 because we knew we wouldn't be able to afford the sign up fee. But.... we still went just to try and win the "grand prize". After sitting through the mind numbing presentation where people talked at us like we were in 3rd grade... We were finally herded out to talk to a sales person. The sales person was VERY pushy. She was friendly enough, but still very pushy and insistant that DB was the best thing for us. Even if we don't use it for 3 years... we'll have it in the future after we move out of our apartment, and it will be all paid for and waiting for us to make our first big purchase weather it be electronics, appliances, furniture, gym equipment, ect ect. We tried explaining to her that we could not do it right now and might be interested in a few years. But the fact that we had to sign up today or lose it forever was very disheartening. But that it just "wasn't the right time for us". She wouldn't stop insisting we NEEDED it. We asked for some time alone to discuss it (mainly to try and figure out a way to GET OUT OF THERE!)... When she left us alone, we noticed a small microphone looking object taped to the window seal right next to the table they told us to sit at. At that moment we felt violated and repulsed. We weren't sure why the microphone was taped there, but we had had enough. When the sales rep returned we told her we weren't interested. She again insisted we re think it, and proceeded to offer to get her General Manager over to see if he could help us out. He came over, telling us stories about his wife and family and how wonderful DB is and how much money we'll save. After seeing the numbers AGAIN, and how much it was goin to cost us... I finally shook his hand, said no thank you, and got up to leave. At that point the sales rep became rude, and practially rushed us out the door. She didn't even wait for us to get up from the table. She just said "I'll meet you over there" and got on her cell phone. After we made our way to the front, she tossed some papers and what not n our hands and took off in the blink of an eye. I don't blame her. We obviously weren't going to sign. But GEEEEEZ!!! All I can say is I am so so so glad we didn't try and kill ourselves to be able to afford DB. I'll never go back there (Not like I could apparently)

4/3/2008 - Mary writes:
I have been a member of Direct Buy for almost a year. It was the worst mistake of my life. Let's rewind and go back to the begining. After watching an informercial on TV I called the number and then the harassing began. First I was harrassed, receiving 9 phone calls in 2 days. Finally after a pushy sales person forced us to go in that week my husband and I went into the showroom for a tour. Mind you we had to get a babysitter. The pushy salesperson told us it would be a 90 minute presentation. We were there for more than 3 hours. First we were greeted by acocky girl who was very rude. She said we must fill out this survey before continuing. They asked our income and what we were looking to do to our home. After 3 other couples showed up we were all herded into a tiny room like cattle. We watched 3 videos, and the girl told us how much money we could save. After this little seranade we were given the price of the membership and told we had to make our decision that night. My husband and I were building a home and thought this could really save us a lot of money. We did not like the fact that we HAD to make our decision that night. But we did. Once again, the biggest mistake of our lifetime. We completely wasted over $5,000. We tried to order cabinets, and there was a 3 week wait just to set up an appointment with a cabinet designer. Then it took 8 weeks to get our cabinets in, which were the WRONG SIZE. Took another 8 weeks to get back the right cabinets. OH and lets not forget the 8% handling fee that is charged on every order!!! This is where they make their money. I have tried to cancel my membership but there is a 3 day period where you can. DIRECT BUY IS A SCAM. Take it from someone who is a member. Do yourself a favor and DONT EVER TOUCH FOOT IN A DIRECT BUY SHOWROOM!

4/3/2008 - Christine writes:
I got a call yesterday to set up an appointment for an open house at the new Direct Buy showroom in Cleveland. I asked the very friendly salesperson what products or manufacturers did Direct Buy represent. He told me he couldn't tell me that. I know this is a high pressure sales effort - but that's ridiculous. Why would you give anyone the time of day when they won't even tell you what products they are selling. "Duh" is right - I don't think DB is on the up and up.

4/2/2008 - eddie writes:
Just for the record, when I did compare real prices for goods I had already researched, the prices were EXACTLY the same as regular retail. And that was BEFORE all the crazy shipping. What a shame. . . .the idea of a actual direct buy club is so possible, but unfortuneately that's NOT what's going on here. . .VERY upsetting to say the least!

4/1/2008 - Charlie writes:
My friend & I 'wandered' in to DB and after seeing the infomercials we though that we could just look around a bit to decide if this were for each of us (our husband's weren't with us). We walked right in & were practically tackled by sales people that wouldn't let us look. They made an appointment for us instead. My appointment time is in 1 hour from now.... can I say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all who have made postings with your stories. When I left the facility I wondered why it was so empty inside, LOTS of catelogues, but now I understand thanks to all of the posts. No, I am most definitely NOT DB material! I hope that for your sake you run, not walk away when they call on you!

4/1/2008 - Marilyn writes:
Last evening my husband and I attended a DirectBuy "Open House." As other testimonials, we were initially separated from the larger group and assigned a sales rep. Then the larger group was assembled to view the sales pitch with testimonials. Somewhat impressive, lots of general information, but little true cost vs. membership fee information. Following the presentation, my husband and I were taken away by the same sales rep and asked to answer some questions. One of the questions was "how do you think you would use this service and what would be the benefits for you?" At this time I began wondering how anyone could assess the "actual benefits to you" having never used the service or done basic price comparisons. Following the question and answer dialog, we were asked if we were interested in becoming members and, if so, how would we pay the $6490 three-year membership! (Remember this is California now and even with the higher cost-of-living here, the $6490 fee seemed ridiculous.) Upon replying that we could write a check, the sales rep calmly informed us that our decision to join or not join had to be made on the spot. Duh, run don't walk to the nearest exit! I tried to explain to the sales rep how unfair I felt their demand to "pay now" was and truly believe that this hard sell technique is very unattractive. At this point, the integrity of DirectBuy plummeted in my estimation. No one should be told that unless you commit "now" you will not be allowed to become a member later - or ever. Fortunately we left without hesitation or a doubt in our mind. During our ride home, we discussed the reality of recouping the initial $6500 fee, and what, if any, recourse you would have if DirectBuy were to close the local showroom. Yes, we were told you could shop online, but sometimes you actually want to touch the item you are purchasing. Do your own research prior to attending the hard sales pitch. Additional fees (handling and freight costs) most certainly will dramatically increase your true cost factor. Unless you plan to purchase substantial items, your initial membership fee is your hard-earned money down the drain. When you hear the little bells going off in your head that say this is a hard-sell, run and don't look back!

Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38