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
    Kristi
    Long story short they are screwing with me too.  They have lied and cost me a lot of money.  I am trying to get an attorney right now to fight them and get my membership cancelled.  If anyone has any info to help my case, please reply.  I will keep an eye out.  I live in Sacramento CA and you can bet I am going to do anything I can to make them miserable, until I get my membership cancelled.  I have created flyers and a big poster to go on my truck as I drive around.  I will be going by their business on a daily basis or as much as I can to pass out flyers letting people know that they are a scam and not to become a member.  I know they do their open houses on the weekends.  They are going to hate me.  It will cost them more money by losing business than just to cancel my membership, but I guess they don’t care.
  • 0
    Nancy B
    DirectBuy Sued!

    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 May 11 Watchdog 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.
  • 0
    MIKEY
    Kristi

    GOOD  on you for fighting them.

    try contacting a few tv stations ( if you can find any that are not  greedy scum running db ads)  have them   mention the  fee to join.

    if people knew  what  it was up front they would not bother to go to the db  sales pitch

    direct buy is trying to  cover up sights like this:

    see this:

    dIRECT BUY IS A SCAM - BUYS OUT INFOMERCIALSCAMS.COM TO COVER ITS TRACKS !

    infomercialscams.com was strong-armed by direct buy and had to remove nearly 1,000 complaints about the direct buy scam. Why you ask. Cause when you google "direct buy" the informercial scam site was ranked #2 by google. All that is left on the site is the fake reviews by direct buy. I would say to be very careful with dealing with a company that is afraid of what it customers post about it on the internet. This company is a scam. Go there, read the contract, its all in the contract. The contract basically states that direct buy is bound to nothing and you are bound to paying the $5,000 member fee. SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM

    nothing ever goes away from the net.

    just check archives

    http://web.archive.org/web/20080203104709/www ... irect_buy_scams

    lets keep it in their (directbuy) face
  • 0
    Dewey67
    My wife and I were invited to a Direct Buy open house in our city of WINNPEG, and would like to pass on our experience...
    First of all, a lady called several times to scheduale an appointement to make sure we were coming on a certain day and time.( we were to get a free gift )
    After signing in, we were greeted by a lady and instructed to watch a 45 minute presentation with 3 other "couples" about the fantastic savings we could have by joining Direct Buy.Skip the middle man and avoid paying retail is their claim to saving thousands of dollars.
    A decision to join must be made that night, as you are there or you will not be invited back. ( added sales pressure )
    Now the fees....$4770.00 to join, for the first three years.Plus more for each additional year...NOT FOR ME
    They almost ran after us as we walked out the door saying NO THANKS, and the "couples" left in separate vehicles quickly after we left.They seemed so eager to join while I was there. The open house seemed "staged" to try and get my membership and money! Beware and be careful of DirectBuy.
    HAS SCAM WRITTEN ALL OVER IT
  • 0
    MIchael Tolliver
    We joined Direct Buy, assuming we would save money with our kitchen remodel.  Membership was $6000.  The cabinets we chose cost more than $40,000 at Direct buy.  We were able to get the exact same cabinets (same brand, same style and same features) with a local cabinet company for $23000.  The appliances cost less at the local appliance store.  Membership at Direct Buy cannot be cancelled --no refunds.  

    Also, there is NO incentive for Direct Buy to give good customer service because they know you will try to buy from them because you have invested so much in membership.  The carpet we ordered was promised to arrive in 1 week.  Now, they said it will be 3 weeks. Our carpet, of course, is non-refundable.
  • 0
    unhappy DB client
    I would like to know more about this suit and join in.  DB is a complete ripoff!
  • 0
    I really hate high pressure sale tactics
    Anyone know how I can become part of this class action lawsuit? My husband and I joined direct buy last year (Nov 2007). I was literally sick on my way home and thought that New Hampshire had a 3 day cooling off period and was going to cancel that same day. I checked on-line and found that that was not the case. When I initially signed up I gave a deposit and then would make 3 more payments. They ran my card and had the 3 payments scheduled for the next 3 months Dec, Jan & Feb. After my Dec payment we went to direct buy to have them change the last 2 payments from one credit card to another one. I remember specifically said to the high pressure sales rep who first sold us the membership- "Now your not going to charge both credits cards are you? I was half joking. He said "Absolutely not". Well the joke was on me. They charged my card for the last 2 payments and my husband credit card as well. I contacted Amex Express when I found out about the Jan payment on my card- they froze that transaction and the one that was pending for Feb; I spent the next month calling and calling direct buy to try to get them to take the charges off, they avoided most of my call. They never did take back the charge. Thank God I used Amex, I faxed them copies of both credits cards showing that we had been billed 2 times for the same services. They sent a letter to Direct buy that basically required them to prove that I owed them for Jan & Feb. direct buy never responded- Amex removed those charges from my bill. This was very very stressful for me and I felt duped and stupid. Since we were stuck with this membership we tried to make the best of it. We bought a propane fire place (which was less then the retail stores)and have yet to get the one to one help promised that is supose to show you how to make heads or tails out of fiquring out the confusing books. We went back in last weekend (again trying to make the best of it)to try to look for xmas gifts (computers were one of the big things they stressed when we first got the membership);we looked for a new sofa, tv, new grill, anything where we may be able to "save big money on" and to our surpise there were no savings. The retail stores are actually cheaper for the things we were looking for. One of the first things I noticed when we went in was they had half the books they had the previous year. So there are lot less manufactuers dealing with direct buy- doesn't that mean that they offered this huge array of manufactuers that no longer exist- shouldn't I be able to get some of my money back for breech of contract or something? They don't have anything really that I need in their books. Watch out! Not worth the money!
  • 0
    trinitee
    We joined Direct Buy September 2008. We have not been able to take advantage of the savings that was mentioned in the presentation. We hate it, it's been a great disappointment. They make you think you are going to save so much more than buying retail. They do not explain to you about the additional charges and handling fees. Our experience in trying  to order furniture was utterly depressing. Either the items have been discontinued or it took 3 months or longer before the item could be shipped. This company is a scam in the worst way! They should be put out of business and all members reimbursed. Would someone please provide more information on the class action lawsuit or any other recourse for cancelling this membership. Thanks
  • 0
    ann
    i would like to know about the lawsuit one tv station in richmond virginia alway have direct by on around 11: am in the morning. please call the us district court in richmond virginia to help the the the federal lawsuit
  • 0
    David
    How do I get on this suit?
  • 0
    Lor
    Hey Trudy... please help, I want my $ back from Direct Buy too! I unable to locate your letters. Thank you for your help!
  • 0
    Georgia *****
    We were remodeling our kitchen and went to DB who referred us to their contractors.  We ordered the granite through their source at no significant savings.  We had received a quote for the job by a contractor as $8200 for product and completer installation. We asked the contractor to give us quote for installation and we purchased the granite directly from source.  The contractor guaranteed us it would be installed and completed in less than 7 days.  They sent someone out to measure for installation three weeks later.  They gave us prices of $$1000 to tear out old tile. (Total hours for one man to do job was under two hours. $500 an hour was very high in my opinion.  Then two weeks later after many phone calls with no return calls they finally came out to measure the counter top area.  They said one area of the counter space was 1/16 higher than the other side and this would mean special projects would have to balance the counters out before they could install granite. This was an additional cost of $500.  Many phone calls later and another two weeks they came out and balanced the counters.  The following week they installed the granite. We assumed it was properly sealed since the installers stated the sealing is done at the shop before installation.  To our surprisel two weeks later we found the top to be showing dull spots.  At this point, we called again to find out if they had sealed the granite. No one had record of this and said it is normally done on the job site.  We watched the installation and knew it had not been done on site.  Not only were there numerous problems and "add on costs" we now have damaged product (at no fault of our own) and have paid more money than we would have if we had gone to "Home Depot" who guarantees their products and installation.  We did not even get a "I/m sorry for your inconvenience" from anyone on the job or Direct Buy.  I also believe this to be a scam and would not recommend it to my best friends.
  • 0
    Bobby B
    | 3 replies
    I and My wife attended a local Direct Buy location and was impressed with the presentation. We bought in a little over $4500.00. We are in the process of re-doing our kitchen cabinetry. It is quite extensive and we stand to save over $16,000.00. So far everything appears to be above board. I will report the results of our experience once the work begins. to me is seems a pretty good deal. I see just as many satified customers as scammed, go figure.
    • 0
      Larry Berk replies to Bobby B
      | 1 reply
      My wife convinced me to join and am I glad we did. At first, I didn't know if we would save enough, but after five years with Direct Buy we have saved over $40,000 plus some great savings from local merchants. I dont' know why people are complaining unless they are not really customers of Direct Buy. I convinced two of our friends to join and they love it also. TVs are not as great a value as most other items, however. With $5,000 for a membership, considering home furnishing discounts of about 50%, you would need to purchase about $10,000 worth of items to break even. After that, it's all gravy.
      • 0
        AlexK replies to Larry Berk
        Scam posting from a company operator.  Whenever someone has a complaint about DirectBuy, someone says, "They wouldn't complain unless they're not really customers." It's boilerplate, and demonstrates that the person posting it either didn't read the complaint in another post or simply chose to misrepresent it.
    • 0
      Kittycat replies to Bobby B
      Anyone giving a favorable rating to this outfit is being paid to say it or are working for DirectBuy, like the earlier post by someone saying, I bought a diamond ring from DirectBuy for $5000 that appraised for $15,000!  NO ONE sells jewelry at discounts like that, a jeweler could not get a buy like that.  Unbelievable, but looks like DirectBuy is trying to cover their tracks knowing their reviews (the real ones) are so bad they can throw some good ones out there hoping there's a few folks gullible enough to still give them a chance.  This whole bunch belongs in prison, they're no different than a bank robber, actually worse bc they target the hard working people in this country.
  • 0
    A . Harrison
    I am a license contractor in Sacramento California. I purchase material all the time and know pricing. direct buy is so full of it. I had priced corral fencing. With thier discount came to  21,000 I located the same for 9800.00. I want to join this class action suit as a expert witness. This happened with all of my research purchases... When my clients want items most will not wait for Direct buys time schedule. Anytime so one tell you that you must purchase now or you can't let that statement be your warning GET UP AND WALK !!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • 0
    J9
    I couldn't agree more. They should be fined for false advertising. I just ordered some TV and sound equipment. I wanted to return the surround sound and they wanted to charge me a 50 % restocking fee for an unopened item! DON'T JOIN DIRECT BUY!!!!!!!!!
  • 0
    J9
    Please tell me more about the suit. I want to start a class action against them!
  • 0
    Linda
    WE JOINED DB A LITTLE OVER A YEAR AGO.  WE MOVED TO ARIZONA AND HAD TO FURNISH A WHOLE HOUSE, SO WE THOUGHT WE'D SAVE SOME MONEY, EVEN WITH PAYING THE ENORMOUS MEMBERSHIP FEE.  ORDERED BEDROOM SET.  WAITED SIX WEEKS.  FURNITURE WAS DAMAGED.  SENT BACK 2 PIECES, DRESSER AND CHEST.  ORDER WAS DELIVERED SECOND TIME - DAMAGED AGAIN.  SENT BACK AGAIN.  ORDER WAS DELIVERED THIRD TIME - CHEST WAS OK, DRESSER WENT BACK AGAIN.  AND SO IT WENT WITH ALMOST EVERYTHING WE ORDERED!  I THINK THAT THE FURNITURE YOU GET FROM DB ARE "SECONDS".  I HAVEN'T FOUND ONE PIECE THAT THERE WASN'T ANYTHING WRONG WITH!  WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THE SHOWROOM AGAIN.  I'M DONE WITH THEM.  WHAT A WASTE OF $5000!  NEVER INFORMED THAT SHIPPING WAS SOOOO EXPENSIVE, ON TOP OF TAX, AND THEN A DELIVERY CHARGE ON TOP OF THAT!  NEVER, NEVER, NEVER JOIN THIS CLUB!!!!!!!!  YOU WILL BE SORRY.  WOULD LIKE TO JOIN ANY CLASS ACTION SUIT PENDING.  PLEASE TELL ME HOW!!  THANKS!

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