Phone calls
Complaint
Brenda Walker
Country: United States
Two years ago I thought I would be interested in this company but I found out that I could not bring my 2 children. My children are well behaved I might add. They explained to me the policy in bringing children to the presentation. I said thank you but no thanks! Any place that does not accept my children does not need my business. I asked them to stop calling. The calls did stop for a while but now it has started back. I have caller ID and I ignore their calls. They will call 4 or 5 times a day. They are getting on my last good nerve. I wish they would leave me alone.
Comments
To expedite nailing them for violations if they fail to cease calling, send them written notice to cease, mailed certified, and also make sure your number is registered with the Do Not Call list. Keep copies of all communications. Then after 30 days, file FTC complaints and look for an attorney familiar with TCPA.
Rude, rude, rude! We received a letter in the mail asking if my husband and I would be interested in a showing at the local Direct Buy. We have always been curious/interested in their services. We made an appointment and went to the tour. As soon as the salesman (Patrick) found out that we didn't have $4000 to spend on a membership, he basically became incredibly aggressive, argumentative, and plain rude. As we were, rudely, shown the way out, he tried to get out of sending us the promotional products that we were offered at the beginning of the tour. There was no way for us to know that they wanted $4K! However, he certainly was unprofessional, condescending, and plain mean. I will never, ever become a customer!!!
Come on,now we are not talking about animals,this are kids.How screwd up and rude can you be to tell me infront of my kids that they are not allowed to come inside a furniture store after they been aggrevating the hell out of me on the phone.First question should have been,do you have kids.
They are scammers,please people don't let such a company with such low grade rip you off.Be smart,and avoid it,don't waste time.Very kids unfriendly.
After the salesman, Patrick, explained the system in a canned, but thorough pitch, he disclosed that the initial cost of membership would be about $4,900 for the first 3 years, payable that night and then about $200 per year to renew if we chose to do so.
Patrick, said he had been with the company for about 10 years and had just recently transferred to the Huntsville, AL area from the Houston, TX area. With that many years with the company, I would imagine Patrick is in a management position; so it was particularly disturbing to me when he stated that whatever decision we made this evening would be final. We would either agree to join and fund the $4900 membership fee or we would be banned from the opportunity of membership for the remainder of our lives.
However, being in sales all my life and, frankly being a pretty easy person to sell to - I decided to listen more and even engage Patrick with my main concern. So, I asked him if the $4900 was negotiable and tried to explain that I just felt that my families spending habits didn't justify our investing that much money in the club concept.
I really didn't mean to be argumentative or put Patrick on the spot in front of the other two couples he was presenting this to. I know from personal experience that I could have answered the objection in a way that would have both satisfied the prospective customer who asked it and build rapport with the others as well.
Unfortunately Patrick is apparently has not been professionally equipped to handle such a situation. So, he proceeded to berate and abuse me with snide barbs about how "some people are just smart enough to spend twice as much" and other such comments no doubt directed at the one person who dared to challenge his authority.
Patrick ought to know by now that when people don't ask questions in a situation like this, it means they are not interested. I actually was considering becoming a member. That is why I was asking. Frankly, I can almost hear Patrick's response that he probably figured that since I was so frugal (many word not his) I probably couldn't afford the membership fee. In case he is reading this, I'd like him to know that I could have paid it in cash and would have done so if he'd done his job and convinced me of the merit of the benefits of the organization.
Instead Patrick rudeness continued to the point where my wife - truly one of the sweetest and kindest people I know on this planet - simply had had enough and told him so in no uncertain terms. She told him he could keep his free prizes and he agreed he would. I on the other hand, decided that since I had endured his sales pitch and his offensive behavior; I ought to at least get the free gifts they'd promised. So Patrick gave me the certificates as we left and proceeded to try to throw insulting jabs at us right up until the door closed.
I would have probably chalked all this up to a bad decision on my part and just remembered to not talk to the next telemarketer who calls if it wasn't for one more thing. This morning when I tried to register the $100 restaurant gift card that we were given - it only had $10 of credit on it.
I suppose if I was locked into a career that forced me to work late nights with people who were roped into meetings by telemarketers who sold those meetings solely based upon free gifts; I might be bitter, rude and insulting like Patrick. I don't believe so, because I am fairly certain that, after a short period of time, I would have figured a way to work solely from referred leads and not have a need to still be at the office after 9PM dependent upon such wrangled leads.
I suppose if I was offering a product into the evening after a ten year career I might be inclined to try to shortchange people with gifts that were less than promised. I don't think so though, because my Momma and Daddy raised me better than that. And, frankly that is just lying, cheating and stealing - and I don't do that Patrick.
I suppose if I was locked into a career where the training was so poor that after ten years I still didn't know how to answer a basic sales objection -- or if I felt that I worked in an organization where having telemarketers secure new prospects by make false promises was more fruitful than obtaining qualified referred leads from the existing membership --- or if I, after 10 years of service and after moving my family across the country, still had to work past 9PM like a Radio Shack employee ---- I suppose if any of these were factors in my life, I would pick up the phone and call old Patrick up and complain about his Direct Buy short changing me on my gift card.
Fortunately for me, I am not Patrick.
Fortunately for me I do not work for Direct Buy.
Fortunately for me Direct Buy did not train Patrick well enough to do his job so that he could convince me to pay him the $4,900 it would take to join.
So, I will not be using the bogus gift cards Direct Buy gave me. Unfortunately for Direct Buy and for Patrick; I do know how to communicate.
http://www.bbb.org/northern-alabama/business- ... le-al-900079970
http://www.bbb.org/arkansas/business-reviews/ ... onville-ar-1864
Nice try.
The Moulton, AL Wal*Mart is the ONLY Wal*Mart in America in which I will shop. Well done, Moulton!
Not sure what YOU are reading, but Direct Buy absolutely DOES have a BBB score, and as of this date (21 Feb 13), it is "D minus." They are not an accredited member of the BBB; accreditation is a status a company must seek if they want it, and based on their business model and practices, why would they want to stick their neck in the noose by applying for membership in a voluntary organization whose standards they will never meet? See: http://www.bbb.org/northern-alabama/business- ... le-al-900079970
The reasons cited on the BBB's webpage for the "D-" rating include:
- 28 complaints filed against [the Huntsville] business
- Business has failed to resolve underlying cause(s) of a pattern of complaints
Seems to me they have built a substantive track record of deplorable performance.
You know what you are getting when you walk in the door.
Not so with Direct Buy.
Hard sell you to pay money, so that you have the privilege of continuing to pay money.