Direct Buy Caution, scam, price was double of a retail store Norristown Pennsylvania

I believe the consumer in this case for certain. Direct buy hides their prices for a reason, and it is not the reason they tell you.

I took a month free membership in Calgary.  I had gone in there with five products in mind.They had to prequalify me by making sure my wife came with me and I couldnt say I need to talk to my wife.  Who hasnt been on these type of condo sales pitches in Disneyland or whereever. So we went through the video first to soften their pitch and try to lull us into a state of compliance. Then our rep took us to a table where he had some loss leaders he wanted to show us. We had our own plan.  We want to see the items we are looking for. One of the was the Sharp Aquos 80 inch TV which had just come out at the time.  We looked at the model and features to be sure.  Direct buy gave us a price $5400.  The retail store we looked at was $3500.  Needless to say the other 4 items were more than retail, plus there were going to be more charges.  He was not happy with us as we voiced our displeasure with the prices louder than they would have liked us to.  Needless to say, their main objective was to get us out of there as fast as they could.

I recently stumbled across a site that offers good savings called Factory Direct Group Buy. Huge savings that are posted and no membership fee.  What a concept.  If you have true savings you dont need to hide behind some BS excuses.  You post them.  I am surprised Direct Buy has been in business this long.   With Internet and improved logistics, everyone
will be able to buy direct without the use of middlemen and price gougers. Their model will not survive as more and more people will voice their tactics on the net.  Also more companies like Factory Direct Group Buy will pop up adding savings direct to customer which will put and end to these scammers.

After signing up and realizing DirectBuy of Indianapolis was not for us, we did get our refund with no questions asked. Might try that.

There's a reason that businesses have a 'Now Or Never' policy. They have such a poor offering they need to put the squeeze on people because they know that once they leave the store/presentation they'll check out the deal on the Internet and discover it's a sham. Deal lost.

Throw in a 'No Refund' policy and you see why NEVER is always the best choice.

Wow this is so strange to be writing this 6 years after the original post.  When I went on my open house at Direct Buy and wrote my report after deciding for myself that it was noting but a rip off and bogus savings plan, I walked away and was okay as I had no intentions of revisiting the decision.  It was only AFTER my negative experience that I bothered to research Direct Buy online and found that most of the reviews I read were very negative so frankly I was just glad that I had the good sense to walk away from a scam.

For some reason I received an email link today to this report and I was surprised but curious I clicked the link.  This is when for the first time I saw Tracy's response.  Well Tracy you lied and you know you lied.  My price comparison was NOT at a "bargain basement" store and you know that.  When I asked for price information I asked for information on an "entire suite of patio furniture" not just a single chair.  I was interested in a table and chair set along with lounge chairs and side tables.  I had no intention of buying the set at a high end store, I consider myself a smart consumer.  So I go  to high end stores to find what I like and then I do my research to find the item at the best price.

The model of furniture I was looking at was for the current year, it was not an old model because if it was then how come you had it in your current catalog.  You were just surprised because I didn't fall for your scam.  As an informed consumer when I went into the pitch I planned on doing price comparisons, it is your policy that would not let me do that.  And let's get a few other things straight while we are at it, your rule were not included in the invitation, nothing but a telephone number to call and set an appointment was included.  So let's not further the lie and try to put out that I had an opportunity to read something that was NEVEr sent out.  And I wasn't the only person who was shocked, the other people were just smarter and walked out the door.



Because I was serious about making major purchases I stayed to try some comparison shopping.  Another lie we need to get straight is you were not a Director or a supervisor, you were nothing more than a floor sales rep and you had to keep going to your supervisor to figure out how to handle my questions because I insisted upon seeing at least something to demonstrate that your products were cheaper.  Don't complain that Direct Buy didn't have the opportunity to handle my concerns at the time because Direct Buy wasn't interested in hearing my concerns because they don't care about my concerns, all they care about is ripping people off.  You had ample opportunity to give me a positive impression but you failed because you had nothing to refute my observations.



So bottom line, the high end patio furniture store had the suite I was looking for at a price significanlty less than the price you were offering.  When I didn't buy your lie about your price list being out of date, I asked for price comparison on another item.  You went to your boss who told you to basically get rid of me before others could see what was going on. So you came back with some lame excuse about your lists were being updated and I needed to just understand the deal and then you tried to insult me by saying something to the effect of "perhaps if you can't afford the fee you might not want to join as Direct Buy isn't for everybody".  Well Tracy I could afford the fee but I prefer to not just throw my money away.  I would much rather give my $4000 to some charitable cause rather than to line the pockets of a company that I found out later has a long track record of ripping off customers who are foolish enough to fall into their trap.



So it is 6 years later and I am sure Tracy is no longer at Direct Buy as I suspect it is a high turnover operation as sales people encounter difficulty running this scam. But I will not let this lie stay on the record with out a rebuttal even if it is 6 years later.  If just one other person is saved from being victimized by your outfit then this has been worth my time.

As a member of directbuy I always hear the good and bad. We have ALWAYS recieved GREAT service, we ALWAYS save money on what  we look to buy. With that being said if you are looking for a $20 toaster your not going to save 5k. If you use your membership it works. We saved THOUSANDS... We also paid attention. We know on appliances and electroincs there isnt much of a savings becuase the technology  changes so frequent. We know we may save a few dollars not hundreds on a tv or dryer BUT the convienence of being able to one stop shop is what matters as well.
We priced out ALL of our furniture... I have never saved less then half, same with window treatments, wall art and carpet. we saved about 40% on kitchen cabs, that was with an upgrade and got a chance to work with A great kitchen designer, who actually had MY best interest in hand since he wasnt trying upsell. He didnt have too, he doesnt make money on the products.
My membership was almost 4k but if i would have  known then what i know now I would have paid DOUBLE!

People DO YOU HOME WORK! We did and were/are VERY happy.
Have an open mind and stop trying o find the bad and embrace the good.

I have been a member of the Direct Buy in question for over a year. They are good people.



I have saved 10's of 1000's of dollars. The 4,000 membership paid for itself after my second purchase.



There's only one catch. Direct Buy works the best for people who spend a alot of money on their house. The more you spend, the more you save. If you are spending $30-40k or more on your home in the next 2 years (not an unusual amount for newlyweds or people buying a new home) you'll save a fortune. If you are looking to spend $10-15k, it's not worth it.



Also, the margins are better on certain things than others. You can probably get just as good a deal on TVs on the Internet. They are totally upfront about that. Even those prices are still on the low end



Home furnishings are another matter. I saved $3,000 on a set of theater seats. (I spent a week scouring the Internet for better prices.) You also get the best savings on luxury items like high end furniture. I saved a fortune on flooring and lighting. I had a bar built for my basement and saved $4,000 over a comparable unit at Lowes.



In short, the best thing about Direct Buy is that it allows you upgrade and buy better merchandise than you might otherwise be able to afford.

Well I went to my Direct Buy over here for the first time since I signed up. I went with a list of things that I had researched, price wise, hopeing to get some saving. I have read alot of bad things about direct buy, unfortunately shortly after becoming a memeber.



All the items I went to see if I could really save through direct buy, were more at Direct Buy than I can get from online sources. Shipping charges were taken into account, but is usually the same everywhere for the product it seemed.



Note: Direct Buy says to keep prices confidential, but since there is no real savings in these items, I will share my pain.



JBL Active Subwoofer (SUB10)

MSRP-$329

Direct Buy-$205

B&H Photo-Video-$189



Toshiba Regza 42" LCD TV (42HL196)

MSRP-$2999

DirectBuy-$1758

IBuyDigital-$1599



Oh and the list goes on. Stuff I wanted to buy and get some savings on, was cheaper elsewhere. I looked at 7 different brands of Active Powered Subwoofers for my studio, and 3 different TV's.



At Direct Buy they have Binders with catalogs of the products from the manufacturer. Well as you know some items will be marked up more than others at retail. Their pitch is that the more marked up an item is,(the more dollar signs on the Binder) the more you will save. I went for the binders that showed that I would be getting the best savings. But I have yet to see the savings.



I am very unhappy with this and will more than likely be taking the necessary steps to get refunded, if possible. Or I can remain a member and maybe in 20 years I can buy enough stuff to make my money back.



I will say however, That the customer service so far has been pleasant. The manager even came up to me and asked if I needed any help, dont hesitate to ask. But since Ive never purchased anything yet, well thats another story.



I believe you should be able to be refunded. I was told I would be saving money and I havent seen it yet.



I will go back with more Items and see if there is some savings. I do see that I could have saved $120 dollars on my stove I bought recently. So im sure there are some things you can save on.



But that is the thing. They make it sound like your gonna save on everything they carry. At least some anyway.



So Unless your makeing big dollars and have a couple of home projects, then you might save.



I guess you could win in savings after your yearly membership goes down.

It's my impression that you have to be ?invited? to be considered for membership in Direct Buy. I may be wrong, but it seems that while I am sure Direct Buy would love to have oodles of well-heeled members, the people who post with negative experiences are just regular people without big checkbooks.



I'm not 100% certain of this, but when positive rebuttals are posted, it seems like they are always people who have either professional business interest in furniture, such as house flippers who do a lot of volume, and/or have large remodeling or furnishing budgets.



Again, the people who are complaining, and who HAVE BEEN SOLICITED FOR MEMBERSHIP BY DIRECT BUY, appear to be just "average Americans", who like to save money, but are being misled and deceived.



If this is a buyers club for affluent, and beyond!, customers, that's terrific. But they should reconsider SOLICITING business from people who are not in the upper echelon of income. It's unfair, and sucks in a lot of people who aren't going to reap large benefits from the discounts.



Also, their policy, when they send out the information, is to state that you must decide the day you are there. What kind of nonsense is that?



If they can't allow you to do price comparisons, they are DEFINITELY trying to hide something.



If they don't want people coming in, who NEED to do price comparisons, get better leads!



If they can't risk a prospective member going out, and asking others about the company, again, what kind of nonsense is that? It blatantly sounds like they don't want INFORMED members, not from the class they are fishing from, anyway.



If Direct Buy is intended for the "average" furniture buyer, as their invitations would seem to imply, why can't they withstand price comparisons and word of mouth? Refusing these two privileges sounds like FEAR to me. Won't hook 'em if they know too much.



They don't have a website that I can find. Plenty of websites reviewing them, yes, but dug a bit, still no ?directbuy.com?, or similar name, THAT I FOUND. A business, in 2006, who doesn't have a website that pops right up? Again, this may be s****.> I wish a higher-up of Direct Buy would explain their marketing rationale as to why they solicit people who NEED to comparison shop, while their benefits seem mainly tailored for those who HAVE NO NEED to comparison shop. Everyone loves a bargain, and I believe the man who got a $17,000 desk for under $5000, but membership doesn't seem to be a bargain for the people they seem to be targeting, to a large degree.



And even the man who got the amazing discount doesn't sound 100% sure that customer service will treat him right! With that kind of expenditure, I bet they will.



Their tactics don't demonstrate a whole lot of faith, by the company itself, in the quality of the "services" they offer to the people THEY SOLICIT.

$5300 is certainly a lot to join a buying club, I'll grant you that- and it's a whole lot of money to most people.



I have a furniture resale license and my wife spotted an elegant office furniture set which consisted of a peninsula desk and some modular hutch wall units at the LA Wholesale Furniture Mart.According to the salesperson- this set retailed at $17,000- my cost was a little over $11,000. My wife was taken with the set - which was handsome indeed-but wanted her decorator to approve the color of the stain so we didn't order that day.



A week later we attended the Direct Buy open house in Costa Mesa, California. We were debating whether or not to join until we saw the very same set for $4800! With tax,handling and freight, the total came to about $6100 or a little over half of the LA Mart wholesale price. This purchase alone would recoup our membership over my "wholesale" price at the LA Mart.



After coming home and reading these horror stories about Direct Buy, I called the furniture manufacter's representative and asked which was was the best to go. He recommended Direct By as by far the way to get the lowest price. After that I decided not to rescind the contract. The savings on this particular set may be an abberation, but it really doesn't matter because one purchase will recoup our investment.

If the customer service is not horrible, we'll be money ahead.



These Direct Buy stores are franchises and you are going to get a different customer service level from each store. If your store is a stinker, I understand you can trade at another store. Hopefully it will not be too far away.



Still, if you are not going to buy big ticket items, don't join. The plan is perfect for us because we are remodeling our home and furnishing our vacation investment homes as well.



Just to be safe, check out the best prices BEFORE you go to the Direct Buy Open House so you'll know if it's worth it. At the Costa Mesa store, they had absolutely no objections to us checking catalogue prices BEFORE we joined. If they hadn't let us verify the savings, we would not have joined. If they won't let you see the prices, don't join. Also call the manufacturer to make sure the item is still available. Ours was.



If I have a horrible experience, believe me, I'll come back and let you know.

Nice try, Tracy, but you're not fooling anyone.



Even if we take your rebuttal as the "reality of the situation" we are left with the following:



1) A buying club that costs almost $4000! Holy S*** is that expensive! AND



2) Numerous sources of evidence stating that your prices are not all that competitive AND



3) A refusal on your part to allow potential members to do a price comparision AND



4) A policy that REQUIRES potential members to refrain from making a thoughtful decision as to whether or not they should join.



To sum it up, you are charging a RIDICULOUS fee for a product of unproven value and doing everything you can to avoid the evil of the "informed consumer." Patent ripoff.



Being that you engage in practices that are the hallmarks of scam artists, your company is presumptively a scam, and the burden is thus on YOU to prove that it is not.



It's not sufficient for you to deny the allegations of a consumer who refused to join without the opportunity to be informed. Specific, positive information is required.

Over $4000 for my membership and havnt saved one penny yet!!!!! Everything I attempted to buy I found cheaper elsewhere. I spent hours upon hours upon days searching through catalogs! Was NEVER offered help. Once they had my $ i was ignored and treated like dirt.



The owners are rude, money hungry jerks!! NEVER EVER EVER give this company or franchise your money! I dont know how owners of these stores sleep at night.



I cannot get my money back, owner banned me from the store when I told him that if I was asked by a prospective member my opinion I would tell them. How can they kick me out and not refund my membership?? I would really like to know. JERKS AND SCAM ARTISTS is all they are!

I cannot remember the 'operations name', but they did tell us that "....we had to sign right then or never...." which is always a "scam-sign" to prevent you from getting the real info so you can make a good decision. A good deal will always withstand the test of time. Besides, if their prices were 'wholesale' (50% to 75% of retail prices) you would have to spend $8000 to $16,000 just to break even. That is hard to do unless your last name rhymes with Rockefeller.

And so Director Tracy of Souderton, Pennsylvania, how can we be so sure that YOU are not the one falsely representing the conversation?



Based on my experience here in Austin, Texas I'd say Barbara is being completely truthful.



I just wished I had taken the time to gather pricing information to take to the presentation, but unfortunately I didn't and I got suckered in. I found out way too late that not only are their prices not the least expensive, that in several cases I found the EXACT same item at Lowes or Home Depot for less. Not a whole lot less, but still less. So MOST people won't realize enough savings to justify dropping $3990 on a 2 year membership. (and now in Austin I understand it's $4990.!

And so Director Tracy of Souderton, Pennsylvania, how can we be so sure that YOU are not the one falsely representing the conversation?



Based on my experience here in Austin, Texas I'd say Barbara is being completely truthful.



I just wished I had taken the time to gather pricing information to take to the presentation, but unfortunately I didn't and I got suckered in. I found out way too late that not only are their prices not the least expensive, that in several cases I found the EXACT same item at Lowes or Home Depot for less. Not a whole lot less, but still less. So MOST people won't realize enough savings to justify dropping $3990 on a 2 year membership. (and now in Austin I understand it's $4990.!

And so Director Tracy of Souderton, Pennsylvania, how can we be so sure that YOU are not the one falsely representing the conversation?



Based on my experience here in Austin, Texas I'd say Barbara is being completely truthful.



I just wished I had taken the time to gather pricing information to take to the presentation, but unfortunately I didn't and I got suckered in. I found out way too late that not only are their prices not the least expensive, that in several cases I found the EXACT same item at Lowes or Home Depot for less. Not a whole lot less, but still less. So MOST people won't realize enough savings to justify dropping $3990 on a 2 year membership. (and now in Austin I understand it's $4990.!

And so Director Tracy of Souderton, Pennsylvania, how can we be so sure that YOU are not the one falsely representing the conversation?



Based on my experience here in Austin, Texas I'd say Barbara is being completely truthful.



I just wished I had taken the time to gather pricing information to take to the presentation, but unfortunately I didn't and I got suckered in. I found out way too late that not only are their prices not the least expensive, that in several cases I found the EXACT same item at Lowes or Home Depot for less. Not a whole lot less, but still less. So MOST people won't realize enough savings to justify dropping $3990 on a 2 year membership. (and now in Austin I understand it's $4990.!

I am the Director with whom this person spoke during her visit to the Direct Buy showroom. I remember our conversation very well. I don't understand why this person has chosen to falsely represent that conversation. After I disclosed the price of one piece of patio furniture, the guest told me she had found it cheaper in a "bargain basement" type store. I explained that the item she found could have been last years model, and the items in our catalog are current and brand new. If the guest came into Direct Buy concentrating on a patio chair, then it's no wonder that she missed the point entirely. It's not about buying a chair, or a cabinet, or a television, it's about a smarter way of spending your money.



I feel disappointed that this person has chosen to falsely represent our conversation. I have no hard feelings toward anyone who doesn't understand the concept of Direct Buy, and who is unable to see the benefit. I realize that not everyone will be able to understand. If this guest didn't understand the benefit for her family, then she has the right to voice that opinion here. However, I wish that she had chosen to honestly handle her questions and concerns face to face while at our center instead of choosing a website wherein she may not have been counteracted.



Finally, no, the decision policy should not have been a surprise to the guest as she states. I asked her before the Open House began if she had read all the information that was sent and she said "yes." The explanation of the same day decision is included in that information. So there was no surprise.



To any potential Direct Buy guests: Please feel free to voice any concerns or questions during your visits to our showrooms. We're here to help and to answer, honestly, all your concerns.

The above writer references the higher prices at Direct Buy versus what a savvy consumer can obtain at more reputable stores. I have been following newscasts and newspapers reporting on Direct Buy in Minnesota, and they also come to the same conclusion... A person will pay more at Direct Buy, suffer inferior service, and be nickel-and-dimed with freight charges. And God forbid the hassle when Direct Buy screws up an order, which happens frequently; Direct Buy blames their screw-ups on the manufacturer, when the problems are usually at Direct Buy's end.