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1/15/2008 - Greg writes:
My wife and I joined Direct Buy about 4 years ago and from the first purchase we made we have been very dissatisfied. We bought my daughter a comforter set and included were pillow shams and a top sheet. The top sheet was discontinued but at the time no one in Direct Buy notified us of this and instead charged us for it and since you pay for everything up front getting a refund was next to impossible and I never did receive one. Since then we have tried to purchase a few other items only to find the service horrible. If you ask someone a question you always get a major runaround. Also if you look for a customer service complaint area in there website you will not find one. Do yourself a favor if you're thinking about joining Direct Buy, DON'T!
1/14/2008 - Mark writes:
Hi, my elderly mom recently watched the slick commercial Direct Buy has on TV and decided to call them about setting up an appointment. She'd been thinking about remodeling her kitchen as well as helping my sister remodel hers. When she was on the phone with the Direct Buy agent, she started to get that sick feeling and alarm bells started going off in her head. My mom wanted to know what kinds of kitchen cabinets Direct Buy carries but the direct buy agent only wanted to book her for an appointment. My mom said she'd be happy to book an appointment but that she didn't make major decisions without the consultation of her son (me). The agent then told her that she couldn't just come by herself and that she had to come with her decision making son. At this point, they had done us a huge favor. Five minutes later, my mom stumbled on this Direct Buy scam website and several others and we instantly knew that we did not want to have anything to do with this company. They are an outright scam! Shame on all legitimate media outlets that take advertising $$$ from these bottom feeders! ANYONE who runs Direct Buy advertising is INTENTIONALLY misleading their readers. SHAME ON YOU MICHAEL SAVAGE--I once held tremendous respect for you, but now have lost all of it, for your support of this scam that STEALS hard earned money from hard working people.
1/14/2008 - Gabe writes:
We visited a Direct Buy presentation in December just for fun after reading tales from this website. When the franchise owner repeated the ridiculous join-now-or-never policy lie about protecting their vendors I challenged him to a little role play; he be the customer and me be the vendor. I said, "sure, fellow, you go back to Direct Buy and make that better deal; just don’t be sorry when DB's lack of quality and service, and their hidden fees cost you time and pain, and especially if you’re not on their select preferred members (who DB treats right) list!" With that, he got stern and summarily showed us to the door. Cool to hit the nail right on the head!
1/14/2008 - John writes:
my wife and i went to the direct buy in kcmo last week for their openhouse and to see if we won 50 grand. we went thru the presentation, and was able to look around a bit. we decided this was a good deal so we signed up. came home and started thinking it was too much money so we called to try to cancel out. was told we would be refunded the very next day. no show. so we called again the next day and was told to wait and check in about 4 days. in the mean time we got in contact with our attorney. i checked again today and the money was refunded. it is to my understanding that db just does not give any money back once they get it from you. i really feel like it was only prayer that we got ours back. We learn from our stupid mistakes i guess, and not checking them out on the internet complaint site first. If we had seen this first we would not have wasted the gas and time driving all the way there. the Key" did not fit the door lock and instead of throwing the key away in a trash can they took it and kept it i assume as so they could send it to yet another person knowin it would not open any lock at all. People Do your Homework first before joining any place. including direct buy or any thing else. save your self a lot of headaches and heartaches in the end.
1/13/2008 - Tony writes:
a few years ago i saw this infomercial on tv. at the time my wife and i were thinking of re-doing our interior which included most of the furniture to be changed, so i called to get the free passes to the warehouse. when i called i went through all of the questions and towards the end of the conversation and setting up the appt. i was told that no children where allowed to come to the warehouse. well at the time my daughter was about 5 or 6. i explained that i don't have a babysitter and i don't leave my child with anyone and that she would have to come with us. they explained their rule again and i told them to stuff it. a couple of days later i recieved a phone call from a supervisor saying that they would make an exception but the rule is in place to prevent unruly children from being a distraction for the parents. again i told them that their rule was a bunch of bull and i do everything for and with my family and if their club could not handle that then it was not right for me! I saw the infomaercial on the tv again not too long ago and now they actually put in their dialog that children are welcome now. I can only assume there were too many others complaining about the same thing. I am only writing this to give others an idea of the type of company you are really dealing with.
1/12/2008 - Rob writes:
My wife and I were just beginning the construction of a new home and thought that this idea of getting many products we would be needing for "less than retail" would be great. We called and recieved our "visitor passes" and drove 250 miles, believed the sales pitch and borrowed the 3,000 for a "10 year membership". We called and recieved pricing on many products we would be needing for our home. During construction of our home, we also looked locally for exactly the same products. We could not believe how much cheaper we could purchase locally versus the "wholesale" pricing from Direct Buy. I sent letters with no response, and we are paying our final payment this next month. Now we are recieving letters suggesting our renewal. My "10 years" was really 3. What a complete joke, and I end up being the "fool". I tell everyone I meet that Direct Buy is the most legal scam around.
1/12/2008 - Lydia writes:
First, let me say that I should have done some internet research before wasting my time, but here is my story... After rescheduling my first appointment, I finally made the 45 minute trip to the Direct Buy showroom in Warwick, RI. I was greeted by a very friendly woman at the front desk and introduced to my salesperson, Heng, who promptly gave me a stick-on name tag - I felt as if I were at some kind of convention. I was given the chance to look around the showroom and peruse the catalogs, and was actually impressed with what I saw. When Heng mentioned that you can also buy jewelry I asked to see a Bulova catalog as I had recently purchased a watch (for which I thought I got a pretty good price). Imagine my surpise and delight when the catalog price was LOWER that what I paid. Hmmm, I'm thinking that perhaps this is going to be a good deal. I'm thinking that the membership cost will probably be a few hundred dollars, so I'm excited for the presentation to begin. That's when things started to get strange. About 20 of us were ushered into a small room for the presentation. Our presenter, Kimberly, identified herself as the sales director. I don't mean to be catty, but my first thought was that she should have been much better dressed if she was in charge of the place. Her presentation was obviously scripted and quite slick and I thought that perhaps she was an actress. She kept showing us ads that "our customers keep bringing in all the time" to show us how low our prices would be. At the end of the video part of the presentation she finally revealed the price. $4750 for the first three years and a chance to renew for the next seven years at an additional $197.00 per year. $6080.00 in total! I just about fell off my chair! We all were ushered out to begin the "question and answer" portion with our sales person. Heng asked me if I liked what I heard and what did I think of the presentation. I told him that I liked what I heard about saving money, but wouldn't be ready to use the membership for at least another six months, so I would come back then and enroll. He promptly told me that I either buy immediately or not at all. After I picked my jaw up off the floor I told him that he must be kidding. Who in their right mind makes this kind of decision without having the opportunity to think it over for a day or two? Well, according to Heng, everyone but me! He then told me that if I didn't sign up immediately I would never be allowed to sign up in the future. I told him if it's now or never then I guess it's going to be never!!! Can you imagine going to a car dealer and having them tell you that if you don't buy the car on the spot you can never come back???!!! Heng then became indignant, sat back in his chair, and said, "Well, what did you think this was? Please follow me." And with that, he promptly escorted me to the front door and wished me luck. Silly me - I thought he was going to have one of the big guns try to work on me, but he showed me the door!! I laughed all the way back to my car! What a scam! PLEASE, PLEASE, don't fall for this. Honest companies don't act in this foolish way. I can't believe they are allowed to conduct business in the way and get away with it. And Michael Savage, you should be ashamed of yourself for promoting this racket on your radio show. I heard your ad on your show last night and thought that if you were endorsing it it must be OK. Shame, shame...I think I deserve a Lobster-gram for my trouble!!!!!
1/12/2008 - lenora writes:
Be aware of this Scam and con artist attidue, I really wonder how are they in the business for all this long, and yet makeing this business to run. Sure poor people whom they love their interior and they want to make it beautiful with the minimum budget they could. Direct Buy takes advantage of this, the core of their business is selling the membership worth $5000. What kind of a memebership worth this price! although there are many established desingers out their could do better job than that, they even sell you the best u need and provide people with neat custoemr service. Be Aware of Direct Buy and their secretive attidude, they want to sell you a memebership and put you in their list. I never felt the pressure of selling in my whole life, as I love to shop around when I know sometime I could find cheaper product somewhere else if I just browse around. The sales person I've been introduce to was fake, I mean she gave 3 different names for her, i dont' know what her real name is, the second they ask alots of personal questions, they want to know every thing they could know without even giving you more about there service, ha service? what service??? it really a scam, and what that a selling from spec sheets, you could do that any where in any place you could use internet which is almost same manner at least u could return the products, beside how come a business could be without any profit, where are they getting there cars and so and so. if they are not making any profit,beside to that why are they the only people whom they sell without a markup products, what actually are they gaining if they really don't mark up their products... it just stupidity if you are not understanding that there is something not really right... think million time before you really get in to this Scame and con artist professions.
1/12/2008 - Dana writes:
Posted complaints that sound just like the rest back in October. I have recently started complaigning over and over to the attorney generals office in Michigan and the BBB in our area. If everyone collectively does this maybe we can stop them from getting another middle class family's hard earned money! Still can't believe there has not been a class action started. They are in direct violation of at the very least Michigan Consumer Protection Act 331 of 1976 445.903 Sec 3(aa) which states, Causing coercian and duress as the result of the time and nature of a sales presentation. It is in our hands to complain until something gets done...we all know we won't be seeing a dime of our thousands ever again!
1/12/2008 - Dan writes:
This sounds like a self-help site I should have found before I laid out $4000.00 for a bunch of hype. My wife and I had just bought a home that needed a total up-date/renovation. We went over to our local DirectBuy Warehouse, went through the sales pitch and decided this was a great way to save us 10’s of thousands of dollars. So we laid out our $4000.00 + and weeks later we started our shopping spree. Not to get into an eighteen-paragraph letter I have to give anyone considering “joining” some bottom line advise, DO NOT JOIN DirectBuy! For the same money or less in most cases, you can purchase any of the products or services in your area or on line for less money and way less hassle. The first time we returned to “shop” our “sales person didn’t even recognize us or even acknowledge our presence. Being in sales & marketing myself, I thought that was sort of odd so we just carried on. Assistance is margin, catalog are spread everywhere and before you purchase anything you have to find it on the outside to compare if you are getting a deal. In the end, 95% of the items or upgrades we needed, hardwood floors, carpet, tile, granite counter tops, appliances, and furniture were purchased locally at much better prices. The one large item we purchased was a custom cabinet set for the kitchen island, it took weeks of back and forth e-mails with the design consultant to arrive at an acceptable design and another 12 weeks of waiting to have it delivered. We were so far into it with them that I couldn’t back out but I knew I was way over my “island budget”. In the end we purchased the Wolf cook top, exhaust fan and warming drawer from a local appliance dealer I had dealt with in the past. We just received our “Membership Renewal” with Priority Processing Instructions in the mail; I am going to enclose a copy of this letter and tell them fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Homie don’t play that game.
1/11/2008 - Amal writes:
at the currect i am browsing around to find out more information about design and vender and compare pricing, i reach to direct buy so i submitted for free visitor card. i recieved 2 call:both time the caller did not say names and has emphisis on assuring me to come and specifing how many person will be coming. some how i sense pushy attitude, but because I am a courious person i went through it all the way, i arrived an hour early the manager he greeted me nicly, and he sent sale representive. honestly she started greating and she was friendly, she took me inside then almost she spoke almost 3 minute and started asking personal questions, her questions offended me and i started to feel uncomfortable, in the 4 th min she started to emphisis on the membership and how i should make my diecision tonight, yet i did not recieve any information, the open house yet did not started(as i said i arrive early), she gave no information about any things and she only emphisis on the memebership, this has giving me a warning sign to be more careful, i just was completly nervious and i told her that i started to feel pressure of sales already, we had an argument, she took me at the back side, although she try to play with the word and she decided that this service is not for me and she went out and bought the manger for me whom he kicked me out of the show room. some how my heart was bouncing and just i felt completly discomfortable, worst i felt i am in danger situation. my heart lead me, and i insist before leaving the show room to delete my name from their list, and i said i don't want to hear any thing or be contacted by any mean no eamil no air mail, honestly if i recieve any thing from them i will sue them for harrasment. the sales perosn was programed to sell a memebership. the excessive secretive attidute is just wrong, i said to that sales person, that is better to buy paying extra 50% without feeling pressure to buy, at least still i have the option to return or exchange it. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE BE CAREFULL DEALING WITH THEM, I WAS UNDER GOD BLESS THAT I UNDERSTOOD THE SITUATION SO FAST, U WILL NOT BELIVE ME THE MOMENT I LEFT THE PLACE I JUST FELT FREE AGAIN, AS MY HEART WAS BOUNCING felt that I WAS IN A DANGER... IF ANY ONE WANT ME TO WITNESS I WILL BE MORE THAN PLEASE TO DO SO. DIRECT BuY IS A CON ARTIST, dress well and look sooooo beautiful from the outside but all that is only superfacial, from the inside is TOTALLY SCAM.
1/11/2008 - Susan and Jeffrey writes:
2 days ago my husband, Jeff and I went to DB to hear the presentation about their service. We only wanted to see what types of products and vendors they were associated with. We had no idea what we were in for. The location of their "showroom" was in an industrial park and it was no more than 2 what would be offices combined. They had many bookcase with 3 ringed binders on every shelf and some displays that looked very old and tired. We did not think that where they held this presentation was the exact place where one would eventually "buy" from. Anyhow we sat through the 1 1/2 hour video and product showing. The products that they did examples with were dated and NOTHING that we would ever consider buying. When my husband raised his hand to ask a question about a particular vendor...the person making the presentation asked himn to hold his question because ti would probably be answered within the next video, which it was not. He simply wanted to ask if DB was associated with Thermador, Viking and Sub Zero. All of which they are not. I have whispered some comments to my husband during the presentation and was glarred at by the presentor which made me feel uncomfortable as well. When the lame video's ended we broke off into groups and the pitch began. $4900.00 for 3 years and $200.00 per year after that for 7 more years for a total of a 10 year membership.We weren't seated for more than 60 seconds and the person said, if you don't join today you won't be invited back. We were puzzled. We thought what type of REPUTABLE company wouldn't want to do business with us when we felt comfortable enough to join. They offered an answer that didn't make sense..."you need to join right now so that you can't use the fact that you'll join while shopping in a retail store in hopes of getting the store to lower their price"...and "then the vendor will stop doing business with DB because of this". We tried to ask more questions and they simply were not able or just flat out could not. The person even went and got another person to sit with us, I guess the "closer" which he introduced himself as the owner. He was also high pressure and didn't have clear answers to our questions. He also said that if we wanted to "think about it" we would sign up tonite and we would have 3 days to cancel...wrong. Good thing that I am in retail sales myself and in the state of Illinois where we reside this is not true. We said tohim, that why would we join if we have any reservations that we would cancel? A that point the said, I like to have your name tags back, you know the sticky paper ones that just press on your clothes and it is time to "SHOW YOU THE DOOR". They had placed people far enough away so that we didn't hear nor did the others hear our discussions about membership...the owner went on to say "We don't have people come in here and waste our time,,it'll be a long 7 years for you" meaning that we wouldn't be welcome to join anywhere else for 7 years. We were dumbfounded that we had just gotten "thrown out" of the DB sales pitch. The next day Jeff did the research that we did not do prior to going and we are SO glad that he did because we found that this is a SCAM and we didn't get involved. Any person considering doing business with DIRECT BUY should RUN THE OTHER WAY and tell everyone that you can as well.
1/11/2008 - Kimberly writes:
My husband and I also went last night to the open house. We went in with an open mind that it was going to cost us a membership fee. However, we didn not know that it was sign up tonight or you can never come back. We listened to everything they had to say and sat down with a salesperson. I told him yes we understand everything on how it could save us money but, we dont want to finance for 17% (this was one of the options). If I would have known we needed $5,000 when we walked thru the door I would have saved some money and waited to another time to come in. He said so if your not joining tonight, what your saying to me is that you dont trust us. WHAT! Dont put words in my mouth. What I am saying is you do not know our life and how we have built a family and outstanding credit and I refuse to get caught into charge cards @ 17%. and we just cannot do it today,. He was furious. He said I will show you to the door. We stood up and my husband went to extend his hand and the guy actually snub him! I thought if we are treated this way because we are responsble then how are they going to treat us when we actually become a member. After thinking about it this morning I am so glad I didnt sign. I think it is terrible to put people under such pressure.
1/10/2008 - James writes:
Ihad all the good intentions to go with this program and signed up with 3 posted dated check. Then family members started to ill and I had to become a caregiver and temporarly relocate. I then needed every dime I could crape. So I called Direct Buy and explained my situation to a clerk or so, and was promised the information would be given to the proper people and to expect a return call. I did this twice and no call. I stopped payment on the checks. They tried to cash them any way,but my bank honored my request. To date they've referred me to collection agencies and for 3 or more years have harrassed me by phone. I'm now retired living on fixed income in a senior home and have no need for their service. I have never used their service, the catalog and membership card is still in the drawer unopen. But they still call!!!
1/10/2008 - Chad writes:
I am a contractor that researched the idea of becoming one of Direct Buy's "Vendors." I even went as far as to submit an application, even after the owner of the San Marcos, CA branch said things like, "Be sure to price accordingly because the members will try to 'JEW' you down, and then present the card to you for additional discounts." Luckily, they denied my application because they said that my prices were too high after asking me to do an estimate for them at their personal residence. Since I was not willing to give them additional savings on their own home, they said that I was not eligible to be one of their "vendors." Good thing though because I have since heard dozens of nightmare stories from my clients who tried to use Direct Buy's service to no avail. I feel like being associated with them could possibly have done me more harm than good. The other thing that I think is important for consumers to recognize is that even if the savings that you are getting through the membership IS a real one, at the tune of $8,000.00+, you would have to be doing a project of at least $75,000.00 or more to break the point at which you have actually seen a real savings. More importantly, by using individual contractors for a job, you have no one "General" contractor to over see the entire job, provide accurate timelines and schedule, pull permits, take responsibility, etc. In essence, you become the general contractor, and as if remodeling was not stressful enough, now you have to take on the role (a full time job) of expediting work crews and scheduling product delivery. Not exactly the kind of savings that I would sign up for. There is a huge intrinsic benefit to having one person to hold responsible for everything, especailly when spending that kind of money! Think about that before signing up with any DISCOUNT agency in any industry.
1/9/2008 - Cleo writes:
Like many others, they decieve you with hype and lies about the products. I lost my job and was unable to pay, they took me to court garished my wages for the $4k and have not honored the contract and placed me in the credit bureau. I tried contacting them in writing and even visited the showroom and NO one was able to assist me. They never responded to my communication (telephone and u.s. mail). Class action lawsuit I want to be in on this too.
1/7/2008 - darvin writes:
A very good scam!!!! And a very good sales pitch ,I am embrassed to admit I got taken for a ride. I really want my 5Gs back and I regret not doing more research on Direct Buy Deal me for class action law suit
1/7/2008 - Jay writes:
I was just let go from this company. Yes they are a pressure sale with memberships being 5,100 when i left last week. but i was told as a members service rep not to go above and beyond for my members. I thought that this was totally wrong. I was told that our "rich snobby" were to high for their horses. I went to our international sales conference this past year and was hit on by a another man from another center. I was fired because i have a skin diease that cannot be cured and the other staff ridiculed me for it. SO Yes directbuy can be pushy and yes unless your are having a huge project DONT GO THEIR
1/7/2008 - Bruce writes:
I saw the infomercial 3 years ago and my wife & I went to the seminar. I brought along the specifications for my kitchen cabinets as we were shopping for new countertops. The saleswoman at DirectBuy in Shrewsbury,MA priced out the countertops with Corian. She told us it would cost $1200.00 installed. I asked for the quote in writing and she said she couldn't give it to me because we were not members. So we joined. (I still didn't get it in writing). This year we are ready for countertops. We changed our membership to Stoneham Ma club as it was more convenient. I had them price out the countertops with the same spec sheet and using a Corian knockoff. The price was $6800.00. I got a price retail for $4300.00. Again They didn't give it to me in writing. I called the original club we joined and they said the price should be 40% lower than retail. I can'tg get my membership back ($3000.00) So if a class action lawsuit is in the works, I'm in....
1/7/2008 - Michele writes:
In March of 2006 my husband and I foolishly toured the Direct Buy open house and were pressured into signing on the dotted line or lose the opportunity to ever consider becoming members again. So we did for $4300. Being that we are still in the process of building a new home we thought it was the deal of the century, more like the scam. To date we have not purchased a single item from DB and believe me we have tried to prove that they are cheaper, they simply are not. I have gone to small businesses that beat them.. They have designed my kitchen twice to the tune of $22,000 [] and [] prices were $8000 for the identical Kraftmaid cabinets, the list goes on and on. I even went so far as to have my attorney write them demanding my membership back to no response. Help...I want my money back,,,I need it to finish my home.. any advice on where to go from here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Shelly
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