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
them; apparently they did not count in the scenario since they do not pay the bills. I never went and do not care to ever. I went to a bigger place and spent well over $5,000 .
I looked at my girl and from that moment i knew it was bs. Well they told me i wasnt gonna be able to come back if i didnt leave any money.
Direct Buy in Tinnely Park.
Thank you Directbuy!!
Drop me a reply if you want to and I'll be as honest as I can. When I joined with my wife it was $3500, which was a lot for a newlywed couple but we figured we'd buy a house eventually and all that, which we did. And we've saved EASILY over triple what we bought into it for. So as i've told people before, if DB up and vanished as a huge scam....I've already saved my entry fee three times over.
So we, as DB members, can sit and read all these articles from people who spout off and scream about how its a scam and the entry fee is outragous and unnecessary, and how their tactics are terrible for them, and we can sit back and smile because we know the truth.
I've saved triple my investment on living room furniture, golf equipment, flooring, dining room furniture, window treatments, and presents for friends. And if DB up and vanished tomorrow, i wouldn't complain about how my 3.5k investment (back in 2006) is gone because i've saved 10k easily.
Sorry "Thestorm" but you can scream and call names all you want to.
We know though, we know. Its okay buddy, the sun will still rise.
If your so *happy*, you wouldn't be here unless your a troll or an employee of DB.
You said EXACTLY how I feel. All of your points are EXACTLY true. You do have to wait for your merchandise and you wont save on certain items. In fact some stuff I still buy at Best Buy because you get no interest payments and the markup is negligable at that. But I would ABSOLUTELY do it again, i've saved 10g's easily over my investment.
I dont actively search out DB items but if i know i'm going to make a MAJOR purchase, I will ALWAYS scope out DB and see what the savings will be, sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it's not.
Kudos Matt, you said exactly what I was thinking. Well said. Now people can bash DB all they want to. I know what I know, and I'm happy I joined.
Geez, you could at least wait a day for the fake "me too" post.
We are aware that we are able to purchase items via the internet but the reason we joined Direct Buy was to receive professional assistance at a Direct Buy Service Center that was reasonably close to our residence. If we wanted to make our purchases on line we certainly wouldn’t have spent 6,000 on a “Club membership”where we didn't receive personal assistance. I asked the representative from the Corporate Office how we could get our money back since the services offered in the contract were not available. I was told that since each location is an independent franchise, Corporate couldn’t assist me. The person I spoke with was very apologetic and offered to extend our membership for an additional year at no cost to us. (I had just renewed the membership in October and it was already valid until October 3, 2012.) What good is the extended membership if the services offered are not available?
As CURRENT members we should have received a Christmas Directions catalog. We didn’t even receive that. One of the guarantees that Direct Buy states that they will honor is comparison shopping. If we find an item that is being sold elsewhere at a lesser price than by Direct Buy all we had to do was bring in the add and they would honor the price difference. Who do you take it to if there aren’t any locations available in your COUNTY? (I am quoting their brochure/contract. The low price guarantee is only offered at Direct Buy of West Riverside County and San Bernardino County. Other Direct Buy Centers are not obligated to honor this agreement, nor will they.) I feel that Direct Buy has misrepresented their services. If you are reading these comments, I recommend that you don't purchase a membership
Corp directbuy screwed over the guy that was trying to keep it open.
Good luck hope this helps ..
I want to close by telling some of the previous writers such as David/Sharon, and Matt that just because they had a flawless experience with DB, that does NOT negate or minimize the bad experiences that others have encountered. David, I too have worked 30 years at one company and I wouldn't think about treating a customer like they did - - whether the customer had spent $1 or $50K with my company. Saving $$$ isn't everything. A company or owner with integrity and a little common sense and respect wouldn't think to behave so poorly. And Karma is something else - - since this happened last fall, I have had no less than 15 opportunities to describe my experience to neighbors, vendors, financial people, etc. who I have encountered and they asked because they knew we were remodeling. I'm sure you have heard of the research that reveals that when a person has a "good" experience with a company they may tell a few people, but when they have a "bad" experience they on average tell 50-100 people. Too bad that specific DB location had not learned consumer marketing 101.
And as I'm sure you can deduce from my note, we won't spend another dime with DB.
In 2007, I was rennovating two bathrooms and wanted to use Kohler fine fixtures and such. I looked on-line at a great number (10 to 12) of discount sites BEFORE I went to DirectBuy. None of them could match the discounts, including the tax, shipping and handling charges, that DirectBuy offered. I spent $26,000, but saved nearly $14,000 over what the nearest competitor would have cost...and the salesman helped walk me through the catalogs and helped me fill out the forms (which, I grant you, can be a pain). I made back my $5,000 membership fee on that purchase.
I went back the next year and had some furniture reupholstered. The discount on the materials was great (the markups are always high on fabric) and the customer service lady spent two hours with me explaining all the details (I knew little about fabric) and helping me get the right combination for elegance and wear (I have a dog). Then they arranged for me to talk to several "preferred" upholsterers and get competitive pricing. The firm I selected did outstanding work and and I saved 75% on fabric and 50% on the labor to have my stuff done. I had two very large sofas, two very large chairs, and a built-in media pit sofa (fourteen feet long with eight large pillows) reupholstered. It cost me $9,000 for both labor and materials and other estimates I got outside of DirectBuy were in the $15,000 to $18,000 range.
Recently, I converted my garage into one of those "Man Cave" type garages, with the epoxy floor, white and black rubber tiles, TV/Stereo etc. I bought the garage equipment from DirectBuy and saved 27% over the nearest competitor. I purchased everything through their on-line catalog and everything was delivered directly to my door. One piece was out of stock and the manufacturer stopped making it and the DirectBuy customer service manager sent me an email asking me to select some other options. There were five other similar pieces and she called the manufacturer to see which of the five items were in stock and available for shipping to me.
What's the secret? First, you have to have large dollar value projects in order to amortize the cost of the membership over your purchases. Second, you have to be willing to do some work reading through the catalogs and filling out the forms (the on-line catalog is much easier) and doing your home work so you know what is and what is not a good deal. Third, you can't buy crap. The high priced manufacturers rarely throw their products into the web discount houses food chain so you are not going to find great deals on high priced items elsewhere. If you are looking to buy a $350 kitchen set, DirectBuy is not for you. Go to COSTCO and BJ's where the lower priced items cost less because they buy trailers of obsolete merchandise (especially electronics--that's their business model) and then sell it cheaply. Buy the high-priced items at DirectBuy.
I am a new member (joined Nov 2011) but have had a pretty good experience so far, and I saved well over the cost of my membership on a single purchase of high end custom kitchen cabinets.
I give people the same recommendations you do. Membership is worth it if you have a large project and plan to use high end products and materials, and you are willing to put in the work. For example, I now know the difference between CTC and length measurements on a cabinet pull, something I never would have had to learn if I just turned the whole project over to my contractor and pointed to pictures in catalogs and magazines.
For me, it's worth the extra effort on my part to get the best products, and like you, I had very helpful people in my local DB showroom. 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 dozens of other cabinet upgrades.
My initial impression is DB does not have much selection for usual items you could find at HomeDepot. The price markdown on a Delta Faucet I knew the price of was about the same as I paid. The tile I bought from Lowe a couple years ago was not even in the porcelein tile category (they only had like one or two vendors in there).
I do not ever want to walk back in there. I felt like I needed a shower after I left, and I was in a different world of different rules and monarcy for a few hours!!
I almost made it out the door without putting my name on anything but since the owner (who quickly booted the salesmen out of the way after he was getting no where) didn't get the right message back to his own employee, the guy thought I was 'all set' with some deal me and the owner worked out and just let me leave. As I was getting in my car, he came outside yelling my name and asking me to come back in. I hesitated but reluctantly went back in for another 5 minutes of filling something out, then I faked a phone call and took off.
Upon opening the tablet, you will realize it's the cheapest hunk of plastic you will ever (never) use as a serious machine. Most stuff is stuck in Chinese, the battery won't last more than a few hours with it completely blank (no use) , it's touch screen is one of those old-school milky surfaces that really needs a hard-press and fingernail or stylus to use. It's 2.3.3 Android by the way, nothing special. Less RAM than my 3 year old Droid!!!
I wanted to check out some items but they really won't even let you look without being pushy or following you around.
I lost a lot of money FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCK
Direct Buy isn't a scam, you just have to know what kind of buyer you are. If you're okay with a 6-8 weeks wait (and for the record, we have never waited more than 4 weeks for our shipment), and you like nice high-end furniture, Direct Buy is for you. If you're just looking to purchase the cheapest furniture you can find without worrying about quality, you may want to rethink the investment.