Anyone hear of it...?

You pay an annual membership fee and then you're supposedly given access to lots of direct manufacturer products for the home @ big-discounts...?

Anyone here a member of it or have heard things about them? Thanks!

 

I heard nothing buy scamsville...... If you go to a homeshow, there will be a few there.

 

So, the savings aren't that good overall...? Cuz, someone I knew just dished out some $$$$ for membership and is raving about the savings...I'm just curious if this place is really as good as it sounds.

 

Stay away from direct buy. They have so many complaints with the BBB. Here's an example.


BBB

 

If you do a search for Direct Buy on Google Groups you will find that its a scam. Membership is a few thousand bucks.

The only way it could be good is if you were totally doing your house over. But then I have no idea who they use for contractors.

The best story I have read is if you go to their free information thing and don't sign up on the spot they you from ever joining in the future. Nice hard sell tactic huh?

 

I looked into them and found out they were a scam. High pressure to sign up on the spot; can't sign up if you leave.

But I heard it was like $5K or so to sign up initially for the first year.

Only good if you buy tons of stuff all the time.

 

Same here. There are a few of them. We went into one of them (not Direct Buy, but same thing) for a presentation. I told them I wanted to see some examples of how good the prices are. We brought in some model numbers of stuff we were going to buy for the new place, but they wouldn't give us any info. No info unless you were a member. I told them unless I could see how much the savings were on some example items, I had no idea if the membership was worth it.

Well, they wouldn't give us any info, and, like GSR and Doopster said, we had to sign up right there, otherwise, we'd have to wait for a new invite which takes like a year or so... that's if you even got another invite. And they wouldn't even give us one pricing example. So, we pretty much said fine and left. I can't imagine their prices are that low where you'll recoup your $5k initiation fee, plus substantiate the monthly or yearly fees after that (think we had to sign up for 2 or 3 years).

Total ripoff in my book, and I'd stay far, far away. Do some compairson and bargain shopping online and locally and you'll save much more in the end since you don't have to cough up the initiation and monthly/yearly fees to shop that way...

 

i was wondering about this, sounded like a rip off

 

My parents did a lot of research about direct buy and actually learned what it was all about prior to attending the meeting. So, there was no pressure when they decided to join.

They knew that not EVERYTHING was at true wholesale, that you still had to shop around before buying something through them, but that yes you can get very good deals on certain things.

The reason they joined was because the starting to redo a lot of their house. So, over the period of time they determined it was the worth the cost of savings on materials to join. New flooring, cabinets, counter tops, carpet, etc etc etc.

When they were out here over xmas, they took me and the wife to be to their burbank showroom which is very nicely laid out. We went to go look at furniture prices and I went to check out some electronics prices.

Now, I did read a lot of the same complaints and scam alerts that everyone else has read, but if you read into its a lot of people who didnt bother to research before attending. I voiced the same concerns to my folks who said they have never had an issue. A new counter showed up damaged, but it was returned and replaced ASAP.

The company my father works for is also a distributor to them, so he also knew and understood how they buy things, and WHY they arent always the cheapest. Like Direct Buy doesnt stock anything. They are a piecemeal order store. So it can be a little more pricey for a company to sell to them. And sometimes things go on backorder or take longer to ship because of it.

Either way, if you do your reserach and you know what you are getting into, and you deem it financially worth it, then its not a bad thing.

Hell, I found the receiver I want from them. Which retails for $1200 and I haven't found it much cheaper anywhere online...through them and my dad I'm going to get it for $720.

 

So how much did it cost them to join? Is it $5K?

 

Not that much when they joined.

You pay a fee up front, then an annual for the length of the membership which is like 8 or 10 years.

I dont think they will renew their membership when its up...unless they are in a new house and redoing the one

 

Thanks for the info, Sarlacc!

I don't think I'll be buying enough stuff in the next while to warrant the cost of joining.

 

Anyone want to sell Amway for me?

 

Its nothing like that. And since I'm not a member I'm not selling anything.

I already said its most likely not worth it for most people. The only reason my folks did it was because the cost of membership did in fact save them money on the cost of materials with all the renovations they made/will make on their home.

 

I know, I was just teasing. It sounds like it works IF you have just the right requirements/situation (like your folks).

 

It is worth it if you have a big family and a big heart on your part. My friend has a membership with DirectBuy and he let everyone in his family and friends use it. We saved a ton of money thanks to him. The biggest saving is in the furniture, everything else I can get it cheaper elserwhere.

 

Family member and friend speak very highly of them. IMO, if you search hard enough you'll find a better deal.

They are supposed to get manf pricing right? Yet, my prices for cameras/video were much less than what Direct Buy was offering last I checked.

 

I realize this thread is old, but come on, any sales pitch that says that you need to sign up right then and there or lose your chance should be enough to send any smart shopper running.

 

^

That is exactly why we ran. They wouldn't give me any examples of prices so I could compare them to other sources to see if we were getting a good deal. I found that ridiculous. Why would I pay them thousands of dollars to sign up without knowing what I'm really getting in to?

 

You went to a different pitch, too. Now, I dont know if direct buy would have done the same thing or not. And if I had been looking at any of those places I would have been in the same shoes as you. I would have said no.

But Direct Buy has turned out to be a good thing for my folks, and I'm getting small perks off it, too.

 

Read my post. You still have to shop around before buying straight from them. They dont always have the best price. Cross shopping is still important.

As for why. Direct Buy does NOT stock any items. You pick what you want, they order it. Because of that it can be a little more expensive to buy from a vendor, because vendors generally stock and sell based on volume not piecemeal. So, like with the company my father works for there is a wholesale price...then there is the "wholesale" price Direct Buy buys at, which is a little more expensive.

But when I was there I found most furniture, building supplies and some electronics have GREAT deals. Like I said I am getting a $1200 yamaha receiver for $720.

And again, a place like this may only be worth it if you:

a) do the research before going to the meeting

b) have enough things to purchase over the membership time period to make it worth the money to join.

My folks ended up saving a TON on redoing their house. But, again, for most people these places just arent worth it.

 

Ahh, gotcha. I thought it may have been the same pitch across the board.

What I don't understand is... why not provide me the prices on say... three things to see if it's worth it for me, and to provide an example of their services.

When we asked they said no b/c they are not allowed to release the prices to the "general public". But all I need to do is find someone who is a member, they can check the price on something, then tell me the price (which we actually did up there). I am still the general public and I found out the price (albeit through a third party), but still... I found out the super-secret price. If they had done that for me, they may have enticed us to sign up.

We just found it odd.

 

Sounds kind of like Scientology.

 

I have a good friend that is a "sales star" at Direct Buy and he is always trying to get me to attend their 2-hour pitch presentation, but he won't give me any info about what they sell or how much it costs.

Why the hell would I waste two hours of my life getting a high-pressure sales pitch for a $3-4K membership and some products that I probably don't need?

...it may not be a total scam, but their sales tactics are shady at best.

 

my father's good friend uses it and loooovvveees it. BUT i think its such a benefit for him because was building his house himself from the ground up.

 

I was talking to my good friend last night and he mentioned his parents are a member of this cult. Apparently on big ticket items they seem to be pretty good, he said he was looking at a high end washing machine for his new house and direct buy was about half price of retail. I don't think i'd buy a membership, but maybe sharing one amongst a few people could be more beneficial.

 

my sister had it for a couple years. it's like this she remodels a room in her house like 1 or 2 a year.
so she'll buy like sinks and toilets for the bathroom one year. and last year she did her Kitchen so they got a new kitchen table set, cabinets, sink that kind of shit. so for her it pays off.
if your not doing a lot of home improvement i'd be surprised if you break even. even my sister said she'll be happy to break even.