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
A year passed and still no Direct Buy has come to Miss.We have not used our membership the first time yet.I have been ignored with my attempts to recover any refund from D\B,even from the corporate level.We were informed our $4790.00 was just GONE!!I am so angry how they lied and took my money then tried to ignore my concerns even though I made numerous phone calls,left messages,faxed letter and sent letters certified!!
Direct Buy is nothing but a SCAM!!!
you are a fat LIAR! DON'T THINK FOR A MOMENT THAT YOU ARE GOING TO GET PAID FOR YOUR COMMENT.BY BD. YOU ARE STUPID YOU JERK~
My wife is pissed at me and herself for having allowed ourselves to be suckered into the membership.
With out mentioning the 3hrs. of hypnosis they put you through that is originally explained as a show room tour, intended to lure you into signing the sweet thirty something savings as monthly payments) so that you can leave and later be furnished with a contract from Beta finance company outlining your payment of 4 times more which the experts were throwing in your face during the hypnosis.The financing company audaciously inform you that you can not opt out.
I ordered furniture that could not be delivered , because the system of Beta finance, charged my card an extra 2 cents,(How that happens when I am not paying cash is a mystery. The DB representative who had taken my payment information "the only one" who had ever been decent to let me know that he could net make money by taking payment for delivery because of the flag is the one who advised me to call Beta finance to take care of the flag which they call deliquency while inaction fact they had charge me more than they out to have taken off my card !
The legal suits should be raised to senatorial level to save the masses who are cunningly lured into this scam
When the store was pulled apart they told me they were simply fixing up. All along they knew they were closing.
I never used their service. I have a lawyer and now feel like a fool. I will research the Class Action route. If you got taken in South Jersey let me know.
We (my fiance and I) were at a DirectBuy two days ago (6-28-11) for there presentation and chose not to join. The presentation was OK but there was definitly a pressure to join. Why? because it's how Nancy (the owner who was doing the presentation for us) makes money. But this was no more than I get any time I step into a store that sells expensive things (e.g. a car showroom, piano store, etc.). If you don't realize when you accept there invitation that they are going to try and sell you something then you are probably stupid. Nancy was VERY clear on the fact that you have to be in a position to make some major purchases over the next 3 years to make it worth our while. The cost of the 3 year membership was $4,800.00 (WOW). That was a bit of a shocker for us and that was a discount on there normal $6300.00 (GULP) full price "Gold Membership" (yes they have more expensive plans!). They were very clear on having to wait on the purchases (4 to 6 weeks) part of the deal. Now others on this site have said that it is much longer than that and I can't speak to that but I do know that Nancy did stress that this is not a walk in with cash and walk out with merchandise deal. The selection of stuff in there catalog showroom was overwhelming and they DID let us peruse ALL of their catalogs without signing up.We ask if we would be banned from joining if we didn't sign up that day and she told us no but that the discount ($1500.00) would be lost. Yeah I hate crap like that too but lots of companies besides DB use this lame pressure sales technique. In the long run we realized that though we just started a project of gutting and rebuilding a home, Sharon and I are just too poor to spend the kind of money in the next 3 years it would take to see the big saving. On the way out to our car we stopped two members on their way in to see what they had to say about it and they swore they saved $31,000.00 on there kitchen cabinets alone. I believe them. the problem is that this couple had purchased a old convent and were turning it to condos. I don't now what there budget was for there kitchens but ours is about 12 to 15 grand and I don't think we would see that same kind of saving. I guess in the long run it may come down to "you have to spend money to save money". Sharon and I just don't have that kind of money to spend now. This experience didn't in anyway make me thing they were a "SCAM".
P.S. All you "I used to work for these crooks/thieves/bloodsuckers but was fired/laid-off" people here some advice. Don't work for dishonest people. By admitting to knowingly doing so it makes you dishonest too. And therefore nothing you say can be believed. I have left three jobs in my 30 plus years of working because the people employing me were not in my opinion honest people. I didn't wait to be laid-off/fired.