Don't make our mistake

Complaint

-1
Polly Globe
Country: United States
We attended their presentation and after some calculation decided to pay for the membership which was $4990. We wanted to update our kitchen and bathroom cabinets, as well as bedroom furniture. We put down about $1000, and the rest was financed through their lender Beta Finance.

A month later we started planning our purchases and realized we were about to pay more by buying through them than we would otherwise. What the don't tell you on their presentation is that while you save about 10% on furniture they add 8 % handling charge in addition to 7% tax, and that doesn't include shipping.

I am now trying to get our membership money back. Do not become a member! Buy from other stores.

Comments

  • 0
    David
    | 3 replies
    Can't believe the crap I reading here!! "Blame everyone else except yourself",  "I' need to be protected"
    "I was sold something I can't afford" Help Help Help.

    If 5% of you say here was actually true, the company would not be operating after 40 years.

    If your car gets repossessed because you can't afford it, it's not the car companies fault you bought something you can't afford.

    Anyone that say they can get most things for less is full of BS. Just show them and they will automatically take 15% off.
    • 0
      the previus replies to David
      'david' or whoever he says he/she is works for directbuy - this is our complaint site as  many many many many of us wish to high heaven we NEVER got jipped by db's high pressure sales tactics. after realizing the mistake, it's too late to cancel.. we lost over $5,000....
    • 0
      IhateDB replies to David
      I did show them they wouldn't take 15% off!
    • 0
      Mr & Mrs. Jenkins replies to David
      David you are full of bull****.  No one is feeling sorry for themselves.  We are all trusting people & would hope that someone would be honest with us just like we are honest with them.  You are probably saying this just to get a response but if you are, this is too serious of a subject to mess with people on.  Most of us consumers want quality items in our homes so it will last us a long time.  We see this as a way to get quality merchandise at a lower cost so our money savings in spent on much other needed items such as medicine, food, clothing etc.  I will not waste anymore time talking to your ignorant ass.
  • 0
    Truth from CT
    I recently attended an open house at the RI location. Long story short, the more questiones I asked the more annoyed the sales person became. Direct Buy personnel was so disrecspectful after I decided not to take on more loans, I was bacically throw out of the location. Very unprofessional. I wish I came across this site before I attended. Also they never answered my questions......
  • 0
    Jack and Jill
    We went to the DB in Ontario and after many discussions with the sales representative decided to buy specific items, they were a hudge help (we thaught). The shipment came and it was nothing what we expected and asked them to provide what we saw in the Catalogue. They told use we had to pay a restocking charge and had to pay additional shipping and handling. Their loyalty to their customers is terrible .... oh ya, I have been a DB member for 7 years too!
  • 0
    In The Know
    If you think they treat their customers poorly, just be glad you're not an employee!

    I worked in the corporate call center, which was recently closed due to the financial problems of the company. Employees were treated like slaves, given impossible to meet quotas and goals, and then fired a few days before they became eligible for benefits on some trumped up violation or another. There was always someone standing in line for jobs, so DirectBuy didn't care.

    The tactics of DirectBuy are not only as bad as everyone here says, but they are unimaginably worse. The company cares nothing at all about the members, the vast majority of whom should have never purchased a membership. They prey on the weak willed, and then suck them dry. Our call script was intentionally designed to weed out strong personalities who probably weren't going to join, and who may possibly influence someone else at the open house to not join as well. I asked dozens of times to be able to observe an open house, but was refused every time, being told that I didn't need to know what went on there, I just needed to do my job and keep the open houses full. That said, I made decent money. I received $50 every time someone on my call list came in for an open house, whether they joined or not. I usually had 20 a week or so show up. Not bad money at all for a six hour a day job. I just couldn't deal with all the BS and [***] attitudes and walked out.

    If you are reading these posts to make up your mind about becoming a member, take my advice and run away as fast as you can. I was, as an employee, given a free membership, and have never even bothered to walk into the showroom. I know that anything they have, I can get cheaper, faster, and with a lot less hassle elsewhere.
  • 0
    Lisa
    Wow....thanks so much for the information.  Looks like I missed a bullet.  My story is more convoluted.  I just look online at homes for sale and save nice decorating ideas and I don't know...I guess I must have tried to win something and filled out their form and tthey started ringing my phone and I'd put them off.  Like hellllllllooooooooooo I am currently unemployed a single mom alright?  So, anyway I finally agree to go and they send me an invitation and I don't show.  Next thing they call and want an appointment with me so I figure what the heck.  

    Yeah I so wanted to save all that money, but I didn't like the pushiness and the tapes and the "guess this price" game and he nearly lost me when he said, "We are consumers and we will consume til the rest of our lives". I'm thinking.....no dude, I buy quality and use it for decades.  I am not into remodeling for the sake of it every 5 years and changing out my furniture every couple of years. Then he want into all this talk of projecting what I'd spend the next 5 or 10 years and I was like..."whatever".

    Finally, we get to the brass tacks of it and OMG I was with this "friend" who was really being a dope (you know acting all impressed and saying "what a good deal" etc <rolls eyes>) and that aggravated me a great deal because I'm trying to figure this thing out.  Then at the end the guy informs me this is a "now or never" thing and THANK GOD he did because I wouldn't have gotten repelled by it and decide to opt out it in the end.  I didn't even know anything about how much interest they were going to charge or anything like that and they made all of these grand promises of how you could buy anything through them and how easy and convenient it was, ect. which I now find out is a lie.  So I happened NOT to have my check book with me and I just didn't have the minimum balance.  They said they'd post date it.  I said ok.  Then I got home and thought about the fact that I'd rather get Lasix eye surgery and how important that was to me,  I also thought about the fact that it might be years before I used them to re-modal something.  I rent at the present time.  

    They said they'd call me Tuesday and I was pleased when they didn't.  So when Thursday rolled around and they called I told them I decided I didn't want it and the guy goes, "Ok.  I'll tear it up" and Rips some paper over the phone.  Good bye.  He sounded pissed and I thought ....that SOB just wanted my money, how sick is that.  I thank GOD that I did not sign up for that.  I really don't like people running my credit and all of that anyway.  It could have gone the other way and I would have been so demoralized if it had.  I am so grateful right now after reading these reviews....you have no idea how close I came to screwing myself over financially.
  • 0
    directbuy is crap
    DON'T MAKE OUR MISTAKE... nuff said  BUYERS BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • 0
    billie
    | 1 reply
    We have an invitation to go hear what they have to say...after reading all the drama you all have went through.  I will be turning it down.  Thanks everyone for saving me and my husband a lot of money.  I am glad due to the economy we want to save as much as we can, but not being taken advantage of.
    • 0
      unhappy member replies to billie
      great choice, your club might be closed the next time you visit. 50% club closing over the last year.
  • 0
    Almost taken
    My wife and I attended a meeting and were supposed to receive a free I Pad Tablet. They said they ran out of them. I called a week later and was told they did not arrive yet. Lets see what happens...
  • 0
    very upset
    | 1 reply
    i look online for the first time today, i do not see no saving, why are these people still in business, my husband  and i will be buying a house, we got direct buy for the furniturn,their is no savings.!!!!!!!.  my husband did not want to get this but i begged him,our first bill together since we got married and we got screwed with it.is it anyway we can get out of this.
    • 0
      Yolie replies to very upset
      Check with your state to see if there is a 3 day right to rescind on this type of contract.
  • 0
    NoMoreBuyersRemorse
    | 1 reply
    I hear stories like these all the time. I joined DirectBuy in 2007 so I have not only paid my membership, I have also renewed twice already and will be renewing again in July. And, YES, I was feeling squeamish at first after having joined. I immediately got cold feet about re-doing my kitchen even though that's why I joined. I would have gladly taken my money back if they offered it to me. And I bet I would have convinced myself I had dodged a bullet. But I would have been SOOO wrong. I have saved over and over and over since joining. I have bought shoes, a briefcase, luggage, Christmas ornaments, stationery, kitchen utensils AND appliances, a t.v., a radar detector, sports shirts, dress shirts, a barbeque grill and barbeque utensils, carpeting, 2 area rugs and on and on and on. And I still haven't made that one "big time purchase" that I joined for, and that I hear everybody talking about. Sure the jump was big to get in. But how do you think I'm going to feel when I spend $35,000 for my $85,000 kitchen in a year I'm only spending $200 to be a member? It's a true change in lifestyle, not "year style" LIFEstyle. Let me ask you, if somebody told you you could save $45,000 on your kitchen but you had to put $5,000 down first, would that still be a scam? So what is so different about paying $5,000 for a membership to save $50,000? And as a bonus get to save on just about everything forever more! I was a skeptic, now I'm a disciple. And proud to be. Even though sites like this one will probably engender me 100 posts saying I'm a moron or a shill for DirectBuy. I am neither. I merely have the long term perspective now after having been a member for 5 years.
    • 0
      Voice of Reason replies to NoMoreBuyersRemorse
      You are the person Direct Buy targets, a rich shopaholic.  Or, did you put these purchases on a credit card?  By the time you add in fees and interest you come out on the short end of the stick.
      BTW: Most people don't spend $85,000 renovating a kitchen, $35,000 does it very well (eighteen and counting).  NEVER spend more than 50% renovating part of your house (assuming a median priced home), you will never recoup it.
      When your estate is liquidated you will find out just how much that stuff was worth.  (I'll give you $20.00 for those shoes, $10.00 for the briefcase if you can find the keys, the luggage is a little dated, say $50.00?, who needs a radar detector?  Police use another system now, the thrift shop will take those shirts, wow! the grill was never used, how about $100?, meanwhile the ornaments sit on the floor, hey wait is that brass?  I can get $5.00 per pound scrap value for that ...)

      All in all there's a lot of people in China very happy with purchase that you make.
  • 0
    Friend
    I am not mentioningmy name for a reason. I am a formal employee I recently quit. I agree with every one that direct buy lutes aboit every thing, when I started I was told that after probation time I will get raise which never happened after seven months.they dont have employee hand book or any thing my part checks were short every time I jave to beg for my money I earned and they still owe money for chritmas and new years day.
    I met very nice people there and I am sorry fot every one who are going through direct buy lies. I quit crevasse I can't lite to people every day it's a karma which I guess I am paying fot it still. I wish I can drop flyers from plane aboit direct buy our sure them.
    Only you guys can do is yell scream and be rude to managers thats how direct buy works our else they will think you are a joke.
    I have so much to say but my anger our my frustration making me upset.gud luck to you all
  • 0
    Mel from NYC
    We also signed the contract recently, and asked for a no obligation letter which we can cancel within 30 days.  Now they are saying they need proof that we did the research and that we don't see any savings, Only then they will cancel.  This is ridiculous so we are getting a lawyer to fight this.  Even if we lose a few hundreds it is worth it than losing thousands and we want to help others. When we signed up we felt like we were under duress and it was insane how their sales pitch is scary to foolish and innocent folks like us. I'm going to fight this and not lose money esp. when we have a letter that says we have until 30 days to review and cancel.

    Thanks,
    Mel
  • 0
    Buyer Beware
    We received an invitation to Direct Buy.  Not knowing what the company was, I first checked the internet and Direct Buy complaints.  We were offered a $100 dining card and a Google tablet.  We went to the showroom and sat through the 2 hour presentation and video.   The video was informing but the people must think Direct Buy is the only place to shop.  You need to listen to it carefully.  THEY USE IT AS BAIT.  Both employees were very knowledgeable about the product and membership. (MORE BAIT)  They even showed us examples of how we can save -(MORE BAIT) but they were careful in never mentioning anything like guaranteed savings.  When it came time for the membership  price I almost fell off the chair.  $4990.00 for years 1 to 3 then $150.00 a year thereafter.  I couldn't believe it.  Takes some big balls to try to lure someone in with that kind of invitation for a membership.  Oh one tid-bit, they came down to an even $4000.00. How generous.  Made me feel warm all over.  When we flatly turned it down they offered an internet only membership for I believe $2000.00.  Yea, spend $2000 for a freaking user name and password.  ANOTHER RIPOFF!!!!!!!!!!!  And they did mention we could finance the membership with their company.  Now I wonder what the interest rate would be.

    We had a lot of questions they did answer, but when they said they had "THEIR PREFERRED CONTRACTORS AND VENDORS" the red flag went up.  And when I asked about shipping, it was either shop from a catalogue, internet, or come into the store to see samples.  Items get delivered to their warehouse, they inspect it, we inspect it and we pick it up. NOW GET ME OUTTA HERE FAST. Never once did they mention anything about any fees except for shipping.  Oh, and they NEVER ONCE OFFERED TO SHOW ME A CONTRACT.  I should have asked for a blank contract, and request to have an attorney review it. As for shipping they did mention shipping at the table.  They made it seem the shipping charge was minimal.  Again no guarantees with this either.  When I buy large products I get free shipping from almost all businesses I deal with.  

    While we were there we saw a grand total of 3 people in the showroom looking at interior decorating items.  Where are the members??????  Is was late in the afternoon and by all fairness maybe it was a bad shopping day with it being an overcast day.

    So before anyone even thinks about signing a contract, do your homework.  Don't fall into their trap either sign not or never as some mentioned.  That was never mentioned to me.  Anytime someone wants you to sign a contract right away, something is wrong.  Your internal antenna should go up warning you to STOP RIGHT THERE-GO NO FURTHER-DON'T SIGN ANYTHING.   They have alot of bait to throw perspective customers.  DON'T TAKE IT.  BE CAREFUL.
  • 0
    carolyn
    We just bought a direct buy contract today and we want too cancel. There is nothing in the contract about a cooling off period. We live in the state of va. They r closed on sunday and monday when does the cooling off period began. We plan too return to direct buy and ask to cancel the contract please advise. We should have done the research first. Thanks

Post a new comment