Don't make our mistake
Complaint
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.
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
Here's how it works: the potential victim is baited to call for more information after seeing a tempting infomercial and how on the "inside" someone can get better deals or a telephone "tickler" call is made to a potential victim and an informative letter or brochure is sent afterwards inviting them to an open house so they can see for themselves how much others like them have saved and how much they themselves would save, along with some form of an invitation to join. The letter and subsequent follow-up telephone calls promise rich rewards of savings by buying direct from the manufacturer, at cost, with no Mark Up, No Middleman if only they were "members" of this so called highly esteemed and long time in business organisation. Typically, the pitch at the open house includes mention the so called fact that tens of thousands of other smart and savvy consumers have saved along with a slick selection of what they have saved on -- and you, too, can begin saving as soon as you join this elustrous group by signing a "membership agreement" costing thousands of dollars payable in advance of receiving any benefits - you are told that amount is paltry compared to the savings you will obtain over a 10 year period - and you must sign the contract on a now or never basis. You are even made to feel stupid if you don't sign - only a fool would not take advantage of the savings - spend a little to save a lot sort of thing.
If you're not saying "scam" by now, you should be. Should you agree to participate in this Advance Fee savings scam, something will go wrong. Savings evaporate ... or.. Wrong or defective merchandise will be ordered ... or ... Order delays ... or ... Order mishaps and screw-ups. You will not be allowed to cancel your "membership" and get out of the deal.
If you decide to order merchandise, money from you, in advance of receiving the merchandise -- an insignificant sum, really, in light of the windfall of savings about to land in your lap -- will be required to order merchandise without any written guarantees of actually saving money.. You pay, you wait for the merchandise . . . and all you'll get in return are more excuses about why the order is held up and assurances that everything can be straightened out if you'll just be patient and wait a little while longer or send a bit more to pay for this or that price increase. Once you start making threats, these scammers will threaten to sue you if you don't make good on your end of paying for the membership contract in full.
Beware that the Membership Agreement is in reality nothing more than a legally binding sales contract that may have been glossed over in light of all the savings you are excited about expecting. Carefully look at it - it contains NO GUARANTEES OF SAVINGS - instead there is a "NO ORAL PROMISES" clause: "No oral promises or statements not contained in this Membership Agreement shall bind or obligate the club." It's like a get out of jail free card - they can tell you anything pie in the sky in the open house tour or over the phone to get you to join, but once you sign the sales or Membership Agreement, you agree to the NO ORAL PROMISES clause! So what happens if it turns out not to be what you expected? Ouch. Too late. You're stuck. That NO ORAL PROMISES clause comes back and bites you. Want a refund? Beware that the Membership Agreement states: "Members understand this program is not sold on a trial basis and that no refund of membership fees will be made." So you only partially paid on your contract and think that you're just not going to pay the rest of the contracted amount? -- beware that the Membership Agreement states further: "Members do not have the right to terminate the Membership Agreement without paying the amount remaining for this Membership." And if you think you're going to get a refund because you never found anything cheaper and therefore didn't use the club, think again. There's a clause in the Membership Agreement about this too: "The Membership Agreement is not conditioned on the use of this Membership."
In a nutshell, the con works by blinding the victim with promises of an unimaginable fortune of what others like them have saved, what they could have saved if only they joined earlier, and what they can expect to save by joining now. Once the sucker is excited and sufficiently glittery-eyed over the prospect of what he or she would do with all the money he will save, he is then squeezed for however much membership fee in full at the time of "joining" or have the sales contract balance immediately financed by a separate finance company, actually a subsidiary of the parent scam company. The money the victim parts with willingly, thinking "What's $5,000 here when I'm going to end up saving over $50,000 when this is all done?" He fails to realize during the sting that he's never going to actually get the promised savings because all of savings are expressly disclaimed in the fine print of the contracts and merchandise ordering materials. The very sales contract, which the victim was at first eager to sign, now comes back to bite him with all those adverse terms and conditions. All of this messing around is designed to part him from his money.
Once the scam is explained, it seems so obvious a con that you'd wonder who would fall for it. Yet fall for it people do because they're mesmerized by the wealth that will soon be theirs in the form of all the savings by not paying any markup or middleman costs - and how smart they are by taking advantage of the join now or never opportunity. They also fail to realize there's a hook hanging just out of sight; at first all they see is that others are getting savings and they want to join this cadre, thus they're ill-prepared to mentally shift gears when the con artists turns the tables. Because the premise of "saving tons of money" is wholeheartedly swallowed early on, it's not at a later point questioned when things begin to go wrong with the transaction and the dupes who have been targeted find out the hard way that there is a no refund policy on all the money they have paid in advance of receiving these now questionable "savings."
Beware paying in advance for something for nothing - no written guarantees of promises made should send you running - especially in light of the tactics of "Be like me, I'm a member and I've saved money."
http://edumacation.com/DirectBuy
If you are meant to appear stupid for not signing up, it could just be that missing the opportunity could be a very foolish mistake. The savings are incredible!!! People have been very nice too, although you should try to work with the more experienced people as they know some of the shortcuts to cutting through some of the manufacturers' red tape.
The one big issue I currently have is the attitude of most of the employees....at 3 different locations. The try but are unable to get things done which leads me to suspect that they are extremely understaffed. And since most stores are closed Mondays and Tuesdays, or more days, it is hard to get things completed, paid for, and processed in a timely manner.
Recently they made a huge error with 3 major appliances that were to be delivered and installed. It was clearly their error-they agreed, but failed to take the necessary steps to correct the problems so that the delivery would be on time. Therefore, we were without appliances in our home for a week. I am done with them. I cannot ever imagine saving enough money to completely cover the membership upfront cost of $4000 plus unless you are doing major, major shopping. Even then, the headaches and aggravation of dealing with them is not worth it. TRUST ME.
please let me know if you can find something, and if we will find we will let you know
How many people have been hit with additional fees/bills after paying at the showroom and picking up their merchandise?
Also DB charges sales tax on everything...including the shipping costs, freight fees, and handling fees. I think I will drop a line to our state tax commission on that one.
Has anyone gotten their money back from these people at DB??? Is there any recourse?? Class action lawsuits??
A federal lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court in Hartford against the national high-end DirectBuy franchise operation, accusing it of falsely telling prospective clients that they are getting furniture, appliances and other household products at manufacturer prices. In a lawsuit filed by attorney Seth R. Klein of Hartford, DirectBuy is accused of hiding the fact that DirectBuy receives rebates from manufacturers which are not directly passed on to their members, who pay as much as $7,000 to join for two or three years. The lawsuit, which seeks to be certified as a class action representing thousands of present and former members of the more than 100 franchises, was filed earlier this month. It follows a column on DirectBuy that disclosed the rebates, which are kept secret from its members and from those it entices to join through high pressure sales techniques. DirectBuy officials had no comment on the suit but had said earlier that it uses the millions of dollars it received in rebates to the benefit of its members. We will see what a jury has to say about that.
Well here we are 6 months later and I have tried and tried to use the service but with no success to date. I am a pretty savvy shopper and I am absolutely frustrated that I could purchase TWO Side -By Side Top Brand refrigerators delivered for $1,000 LESS at Sears.
Top Brand Front Load Washer AND Dryer delivered for several hundred less at Home Depot. The sofa I have chosen, Direct Buy does not deal with that manufacturer. After hours in the showroom going thru catalogs and finally choosing three sofas from pictures that I MIGHT want to purchase but only if I can see the actual quality, color, construction, etc., I have not been able to locate any dealer or place where I can actually see any of them. And by the time they add on the shipping and their unmentioned handling fee and then shipping to my home from their warehouse, which they forgot to mention was sky high - the same as the shipping cost from the manufacturer to their showroom - the prices are much higher than what I can buy from other retailers.
Then I find that the roofing supplies and contractors for shingle and metal roofs that they guaranteed they had sources for do not exist. We have two houses that need to be roofed now. First they gave me a name of a lumber supply store - not a chain - but then called me back to say no, they do not sell roofing material or supplies. Now they say it was a new salesman that told us this in error and they actually do not have a source but they will research it and get back to me. It's been three weeks and nothing from them yet.
I even tried to purchase an entertainment center furniture piece for my Mother as a gift but the price after all the fees is 150% more than if I bought elsewhere.
I know that they misrepresented their service and the membership benefits to us. We had so many specific questions and wanted to delay joining until we purchased a home or land to build on but they insisted we had to join now.
I am reading complaints on the web now like yours of people building that are unable to use Direct Buy because they are actually paying higher prices than other sources. It's not looking good for ever being able to actually benefit from this membership.
Has anyone ever actually gotten a refund of there membership paid based on these misrepresentations?
Have you ever heard of any lawsuits - maybe class-action?
Thanks, Elaine
Well here we are 6 months later and I have tried and tried to use the service but with no success to date. I am a pretty savvy shopper and I am absolutely frustrated that I could purchase TWO Side -By Side Top Brand refrigerators delivered for $1,000 LESS at Sears.
Top Brand Front Load Washer AND Dryer delivered for several hundred less at Home Depot. The sofa I have chosen, Direct Buy does not deal with that manufacturer. After hours in the showroom going thru catalogs and finally choosing three sofas from pictures that I MIGHT want to purchase but only if I can see the actual quality, color, construction, etc., I have not been able to locate any dealer or place where I can actually see any of them. And by the time they add on the shipping and their unmentioned handling fee and then shipping to my home from their warehouse, which they forgot to mention was sky high - the same as the shipping cost from the manufacturer to their showroom - the prices are much higher than what I can buy from other retailers.
Then I find that the roofing supplies and contractors for shingle and metal roofs that they guaranteed they had sources for do not exist. We have two houses that need to be roofed now. First they gave me a name of a lumber supply store - not a chain - but then called me back to say no, they do not sell roofing material or supplies. Now they say it was a new salesman that told us this in error and they actually do not have a source but they will research it and get back to me. It's been three weeks and nothing from them yet.
I even tried to purchase an entertainment center furniture piece for my Mother as a gift but the price after all the fees is 150% more than if I bought elsewhere.
I know that they misrepresented their service and the membership benefits to us. We had so many specific questions and wanted to delay joining until we purchased a home or land to build on but they insisted we had to join now.
I am reading complaints on the web now like yours of people building that are unable to use Direct Buy because they are actually paying higher prices than other sources. It's not looking good for ever being able to actually benefit from this membership.
Has anyone ever actually gotten a refund of there membership paid based on these misrepresentations?
What can we do about this?
What does this Federal Lawsuit mean for us as indivuals?
What action can we take?
Thanks, Elaine
I hope the class action lawsuit come about quickly. Can someone provide more info about the suit? I am absolutely frustrated with dealing with this company.