Unbiased Truth about DirectBuy...
Complaint
DirectBuy Employee
Country: United States
I worked at Directbuy in California for 6 months, if you want the absolute truth here it is. DirectBuy is the worst company on earth to be employed by, associated with, or have a membership with!
Directbuy is a corporation that is franchised, which means that someone owns each center, so they are all run differently. The one I worked for was Directbuy of Burbank California owned by Greg and Gail Ruetz. They are absolute blood suckers! They promised each employee a 401k when the center opened in 2007, not one employee has seen a 401k, any type of retirement plan, or even a christmas bonus!!!! All they care about is YOUR MONEY. They know nothing, not one thing about the products they sell, but you can be assured one of them will greet you with a fake smile as soon as you walk in the door.
From the moment you walk in the door, you will be preyed upon. Its costs $6500 to join this garbage corp for 2 years. They say they dont mark anything up, but there is a 8% handling charge on everything, isnt that a markup? None of the employees are actually trained, I was thrown onto the floor and forced to learn about 800 manufacturers on my own. Then, two weeks later, 75% of our staff was laid off. Wow. All the owners want is more money and more members! To give you an example of the service you will get, our center has 1500 members and 3, yes 3 people that work in the service department!! Unbelievable.
When you walk in the door, everything is set up. From the way the greasy salesman shakes your hand to the "hows your day going so far" questions, its all script. Then you hear the stupid story about Directbuy and they act like your friend with small talk. Then, you watch 3 horrific movies about DB in a presentation that is much like a timeshare presentation. After the ordeal, where they lie to you about many many things, then you are sent off to a high pressure salesman who will tell you to join or never comeback. If you are not smart enough to smell scam at this point, you are simply weak.
Once they have your money, they couldnt care less about you or what you need. The fake smiles go away, and the truth comes out. You will wait from 4 weeks to 16 weeks for your merchandise, and if it comes in damaged, you will wait that long again. Shipping is expensive and in most cases will bring the cost of the merchandise well above what you could have gotten it in the store for.
You will not save money at Directbuy unless you are remodeling a kitchen with $100,000 budget, and even then its not worth the hassle, problems, and the wait!!
I despise this company. They are immoral, they treat their employees like garbage, and they lie about everything.
Bottom line, run away from Directbuy! Thank god I no longer work there. Now I can sleep at night.
Directbuy is a corporation that is franchised, which means that someone owns each center, so they are all run differently. The one I worked for was Directbuy of Burbank California owned by Greg and Gail Ruetz. They are absolute blood suckers! They promised each employee a 401k when the center opened in 2007, not one employee has seen a 401k, any type of retirement plan, or even a christmas bonus!!!! All they care about is YOUR MONEY. They know nothing, not one thing about the products they sell, but you can be assured one of them will greet you with a fake smile as soon as you walk in the door.
From the moment you walk in the door, you will be preyed upon. Its costs $6500 to join this garbage corp for 2 years. They say they dont mark anything up, but there is a 8% handling charge on everything, isnt that a markup? None of the employees are actually trained, I was thrown onto the floor and forced to learn about 800 manufacturers on my own. Then, two weeks later, 75% of our staff was laid off. Wow. All the owners want is more money and more members! To give you an example of the service you will get, our center has 1500 members and 3, yes 3 people that work in the service department!! Unbelievable.
When you walk in the door, everything is set up. From the way the greasy salesman shakes your hand to the "hows your day going so far" questions, its all script. Then you hear the stupid story about Directbuy and they act like your friend with small talk. Then, you watch 3 horrific movies about DB in a presentation that is much like a timeshare presentation. After the ordeal, where they lie to you about many many things, then you are sent off to a high pressure salesman who will tell you to join or never comeback. If you are not smart enough to smell scam at this point, you are simply weak.
Once they have your money, they couldnt care less about you or what you need. The fake smiles go away, and the truth comes out. You will wait from 4 weeks to 16 weeks for your merchandise, and if it comes in damaged, you will wait that long again. Shipping is expensive and in most cases will bring the cost of the merchandise well above what you could have gotten it in the store for.
You will not save money at Directbuy unless you are remodeling a kitchen with $100,000 budget, and even then its not worth the hassle, problems, and the wait!!
I despise this company. They are immoral, they treat their employees like garbage, and they lie about everything.
Bottom line, run away from Directbuy! Thank god I no longer work there. Now I can sleep at night.
Comments
It takes longer to cost compare to ensure you are actually saving than to just buy the product from a local retailer. I will say that you can save some cash at DB, but at what cost to your time and efforts?
What's more, I saved around $150 for a futon but it took from August to November to arrive...I bought a gun case and had to ask for an adjustment because Wal-Mart had it cheaper...had I not price shopped I would have lost!
DB is a scam in my opinion. The sales pitch makes it sound like all the shipping & handling charges are avoided by going through DB, but the truth is they are passed on the members!
My question is, can we file a Class Action against this company? Even if I get half of my money back that's still a couple of thousand dollars. Anybody in on that?
They will be more than happy to "babysit" your comments since they bought the damn site and try to trick people into complaining directly to them so that they can intercept and respond to the complaints so that they do not ever reach the public.
Only "sweet" comments like yours are perfect for their site.
In response to "Unbiased truth about Db, you are absolutely telling the truth and I have heard so many similar complaints from ex-staff members.
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
In my 3 years there I noticed one bad employee, who lied to a customer, but the owner fired her upon getting the complaint. Other than that I just saw hundreds of happy people, happy with the service, and happy with the savings.
I could never afford a DirectBuy membership myself when I was employed there, but I can now and once I buy my house, I will have a membership.
I'm sure if you checked out how many complaints there are against Sears, or Home Depot, the results would be staggering as well, but try and keep it in prospective. They have sold over 1,000,000 memberships in 37 years, and there are 600 complaints online? Not too shabby in my opinion.
I did my research online and found all the negative comments, most of which are about the marketing and sales tactics. I do agree that their high pressure tactics are pretty shady, so I went in very skeptical. It's always a very high pressure "do it now" pitch very reminiscent of time share sales, and some locations seem to be worse than others. I firmly believe that your experience depends greatly on who owns the specific showroom you join. When I went in for the open house and sat down with my sales rep (who happened to be one of the owners) after the "pitch," and she helped me go through the list of items I brought in. She told me up front that they didn't carry the brand of appliances I wanted, helped me price wood floors, and showed me the high end furniture catalogs of one of my favorite Italian designers. I was familiar with the prices of some items and could see exactly how much I would save even with the shipping and service fees ... which she was completely open about up front. Both owners of my DB are VERY nice people, and everyone there has been very friendly and helpful even after I joined. Do they know everything about every vendor? Of course not, but they have helped me decipher catalogs and price sheets and get the order forms filled out. Let me also say that, as nice as the owners are, I'm sure they would sell a membership to anyone who walked in the door, even if they couldn't afford it or didn't need it.
Here is the recommendation I give my friends, and anyone else who asks, along with some things to be aware of:
If you are doing major renovations (flooring, cabinets and more) and want high end, high quality products, then the membership may be worth it to you.
Of course you should be aware of what you are getting yourself into. Everything I’m saving in dollars, I’m paying for in legwork. I’ve had many conversations about this with my contractor. If I were purchasing through him, I would pay more for the same cabinets (seriously, the exact same manufacturer he recommended before I joined Best Buy), but I would have saved a lot of time and effort. He would have brought the catalogs to me; I would have pointed at the things I like; and he would have done the rest. With DB, I have lost count of the hours I’ve spent on just the kitchen cabinets alone:
- driving back and forth to my local DB (45 min each way) to look at samples
- pouring through catalogs and parts lists to find item numbers for all the parts and pieces that make up these high end cabinets with all the bells and whistles
- meeting with the cabinet designer to enter all this information into the system to generate a quote
- comparing details of cabinet hardware and having to learn things like CTC vs length measurements just to order something as simple as a cabinet pull.
For me, though, this was all worth it. The budget for my condo renovation was the same regardless of whether I joined DB or just ordered things from local retailers or my contractor. I don’t mind doing the research and legwork because it means I got high end luxury items for the same dollar amount I would have paid for mid-range items locally. To meet my budget without DB, I would have had to settle for lower quality or had to give up some of the cool things I love about my kitchen like the pop-up mixer shelf, pullout shelves and other cabinet upgrades. I might have also had to settle for engineered wood flooring instead of solid oak. The money I saved on just my kitchen cabinets more than paid for my membership. Now everything I save moving forward is true savings.
So if you are planning a renovation project and want high end, quality products, then it's worth a visit to your local Direct Buy showroom. Just be sure to do your homework before you go, and bring a list of items to compare. If they have what you want, and you don't mind putting in the time to get some great savings, then go for it. If the employees at your location won't help you with your list, if they are rude or mean, or if you just don't feel comfortable, don't join! If they can't make you comfortable in a meeting where they are trying to get you to fork over $3-7,000 (depending on location and membership level), then they are not going to make you comfortable after they have your money.
Direct Buy membership has worked out well for me, but it’s definitely not for everyone. If you are not planning any major projects, or if you are planning a project but are looking for the cheapest materials, it is unlikely you will save enough to recoup the cost of membership. They will tell you that you can, but I doubt it. If this is you, then skip the open house ... even if there was a TV ad for a free Android tablet.
INFOMERCIALSCAMS.COM WAS BOUGHT BY DB
IN ORDER TO
ERASE OVER 1,000 COMPLAINTS about a year ago,
THEY EXPECT YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS SO THAT THEY CAN RESPOND TO THE REAL DB COMPLAINTS WITHOUT EVER ALLOWING THE PUBLIC TO SEE THEM.
THEN IF you don't believe it, check out the phoney complaints for yourself
At the end of the site they advertise themselves & invite you to join
I GUESS THAT THE
5 CLASS ACTION SUITS IN THE STATES
ARE "not too shabby" either
I wonder how many of your 1 million memberships that you have sold are in any of the class action suits?
CHECK OUT THIS SITE UNDER "SCAMS" TO SEE THE TRUTH
They really think that people will not do research and never find out the truth.
There is another lead into this site when you google:
directbuycomplaintwire -go to: DIRECTBUY COMPLAINT-DON'T MAKE OUR MISTAKE
This is the site that we use to help people get their $ back & to list the names & numbers of people to contact for the 5 or more, CLASS ACTION SUITS IN THE STATES. You can reply to comments without having to give your e-mail address...
There are a few dedicated people on the site who are determined to help people fight DB in any way possible.
One of the sad things about the "DB DEFENDERS" is the fact that they do not have one ounce of compassion for ANY PERSON WHO HAS BEEN SCAMMED BY DB
& THEY NAME CALL & RIDICULE & MAKE UP UNBELIEVABLE "STATISTICS" ABOUT
-how many "happy customers" they have
-they defend "no refund" policies ("oh no, we can't have a cancellation policy, people might cancel")
One of the scam tactics used, was in the States where they finally added a 3 day cooling-off period, & they conveniently waited until a week later, before they gave the member the password, that they had promised to give her within 2 business days of joining. They took advantage of the fact that she urgently needed new major applainces and they obviously knew that she would find cheaper prices...which she did...& she showed proof immed.
so she has to fight them, to get her $ back.
...GO AHEAD, DB DEFENDERS, DEFEND THAT SLEAZY TACTIC...AMUSE ME...
-& TRY TO DEFEND THE LIES ABOUT "only 600 complaints" in 37 years
to find all the complaints on deceitbuy before they corrupted infomercials.com
Oh, I like your one spelling mistake "treaded". Yes they tread on anyone that joins them. I'm so glad I put a stop on my pre-authorized payments. DirectBuy only got a small portion of my membership fee. Gosh.