Does Anyone Know About Direct Buy

I'm not personally familiar, but remember seeing a "consumer beware" piece on the news a while back.

Hi A.,
We joined Direct Buy many years ago. It's worth it ONLY if you have a big renovation job to do on your home or you know you'll be buying many large ticket items. We gutted our kitchen and started from scratch with cabineots, knobs, sink, etc. We actually got a $20K kitchen for $7K. So it was worth it for us, but if you don't have anything in mind, it would probably be too costly.

My husband & I joined Direct Buy about 6 years ago. It was very expensive to join (at that time about $1000/year for the first 3 years). Now it's about $130 for an annual renewal. We made our money back because we were doing lots of home renovations so we saved thousands on kitchen cabinets, applicances , ceiling fans, etc. We've enjoyed the membership, but it is expensive to join. If you're planning on doing an expensive project, it'll probably be worth it.

A.-

We were DirectBuy members for about 10 years. That is how long the membership was, after you paid the initial membership fee. At that time, it was not just 3 years, so I don't see how it could be that short for the amount you pay up front. There is a small ($100 or so) yearly renewal fee. We had just moved from an apartment to a 4 bedroom house, so we needed LOTS of furniture. I saved well over the membership fee on my dining room set, alone. They carry a range of brands (and pricing) so you can get more than most furniture stores carry at a MUCH better price without waiting for a sale. We also got granite countertops for our new house for about 1/2 what the builder wanted to charge. They have referrals to local contractors, decorators, etc. They carry an amazing variety of products - dishes, crystal, small appliances, window treatments, tile, carpet - you can build and furnish a house from the ground up almost!

I wanted to renew when our 10 years were up, but my husband said we weren't in the market for any more furniture. :)

My parents joined several years ago b/c they were doing a complete remodel of their downstairs... kitchen, two bathrooms, all new doors and windows. They had also just purchased a vacation home and needed furniture. In that case, it was worth it b/c they saved more than they spent. They let their membership lapse after that. It is a lot of $$$ to put out at one time, but if you are planning a complete renovation or have purchased a second home, AND have the $$$ to put out (not financed) then it's a good deal.

But, if you aren't looking to do any of the above, just wait for sales at the retail stores where they have 0% financing for a year if you use their credit card. That's how we refurnished through Thomasville. We did one room at a time, put it on their credit card (0%) and paid a little each month over the 12 months. We ended up with beautiful furniture with no financing charges.

I am pretty much with the first responder. We joined too, but have decided not to remodel our home (right now) and may end up selling. If you are not doing major renovations - it's not worth it. If you are - I'm honestly not sure if it's worth it then either! There are lots of deals out there to get without DirectBuy in my opinion. We have not purchased anything from them since we haven't done the addition we had been planning b/c you can't go see something, pick it up and take it home. You have to look through a catalog, buy it, wait for it to be shipped, then go pick it up. It really depends on what you are looking to do with the house.

Hi A.:
I agree w. a lot of posts here about the expense and the difficulty, but in our case Directbuy was really helpful. My husband and I weren't the greatest homemakers in the world, but once we made the investment, we were forced to use it and ended up making improvements to the house we probably wouldn't have, so it was very very motivating and good for us. There's no question we saved at least 30% across the board on everything, and definitely ended up getting higher-end stuff. We did have a substantial amount of improvements to make- we essentially furnished 4 room and did all the window treatments (levolor blinds) at very good prices. There are a lot of downsides however that makes DB a good thing only for VERY motivated customers:
-buy through catalogs- we bought living room couches w/o ever stting on them
-wait 4-6 weeks for delivery
-showroom is a pain- can't have anyone in there but the members and kids. Tried to bring my mom in there, she had to sit in the lobby
-although wholesale price is excellent, usually 50% or better, the shipping, fees, and other costs really bang the price up to yeild a 30% discount

Again, only for motivated shoppers with a lot of renovation that are OK working hard for their discounts. Hope this helps!!

A., my husband and I have had experience with them. A few years ago, the hubby was sucked in by the infomercial and called for an appointment. Long story short, there is a charge to join, which at the time I believe was $3,400.00. And that let you pick from anything in their warehouse/stock/books, etc but then you had to pay additionally for any items you purchased. There is a bit of a pressure thing to it also...they want you to decide right there and then. If you leave without taking the deal you can't come back/call again to be invited for at least another year or so. Our basic feeling was IF you had $3,400.00 hanging around in your bank account with nothing to do with it, it would be worth it. We didn't and we were not about to FINANCE joining the program (that's another option, believe it or not). That's my two cents. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

The membership fee is outrageous, in my opinion, about $4500 for 3 years where we went. BEWARE of the introductory meeting, where you are escorted into the "showroom" which is nothing but a room full of catalogs, told to wait until all new potential members are present, you are not allowed to bring your children...then they start the sales pitch. You are not allowed to ask any questions until the ridiculous video ends. Then we were given a very long spiel about how they cannot tell you the membership fees until you hear about the tremendous benefits of joining and how much lower the prices are than the retailers. Then you are given the fees and told that if you don't sign up today, you will not be allowed another opportunity to join, because they are afraid you will tell the retailers about this great deal and why can't they lower their prices. It was coercion and did not make any sense, but we signed on because we thought we would be able to do our major remodeling projects within 3 years. Then my husband lost his job and it looks like we're going to have to sell our house. So we're out $4500 bucks and no way to recover that from any purchases we make from Direct Buy....
NOW, if you have many big remodeling projects or furniture purchases to make in the next 3 years or so, it could really be worth your while but you should know a few things: you have to use their contractors, you cannot return anything if you are dissatisfied, and you must wait at least 4 weeks for most items to arrive whether you are having it shipped to you or to the showroom.

This company would have worked out all right for us if we had not run into such financial trouble...but I wish somebody had warned us about their shameful sales tactics. Read the reviews online, you'll see what I mean.

Unless you have a whole house to furnish and you like the high-end stuff, or big kitchen remodel or something like that, I wouldn't bother. There are ways to buy furniture and home items more cheaply without going this route - they claim to save you a lot, and they probably do, but they are showing you the high-priced labels for furniture, luggage, electronics, and jewelry - and yes the savings would be significant, but if you want to save money you could probably get something reasonable at IKEA or Walmart... and as for the home improvement end, I was uncomfortable with the idea of using contractors I didn't know.

If you are still interested in joining, you might be happy to know that they sell just about everything for the home, including irons, window treatments and sewing machines. You go to the showroom and look through stacks of catalogs and drink coffee and just fill out a form to order what you want and pay. It's a nicer way to shop in some respects, but you don't get to feel and see the product, you know? You still have to shop in stores to see the item, then look for it in their catalogs. You can shop online, but their site is cumbersome and not all items are shown.

Okay, I've given you all the information I wish I had before I walked into that first meeting. Do your research on these people. Some consider it to be a scam.

We joined several years ago. I agree that the sales pitch is agressive; however, we have been very happy with our membership. We first used it to buy some furniture and saved more than we paid for membership on the furniture we bought. You also can get deals from various local venders and we have used that feature too and saved a lot. We then built a house and saved a ton. You do need to research the products you buy on your own. But then again, most people do that today when they purchase a big ticket item anyway. My suggestion is think about what you need. If you are building or reonvating, it is worth it. If you are furnishing a few rooms, it might be worth it. You can really save on expensive items. We also registered there when we got married and got our china for well over 50% off. I would think about what you are going to buy, even price the items you want to buy, go for the demo and when they let you look at the books to show you the savings, ask to see the items you have picked out to see what you would save.

Hi A.,
Our friends joined about 5 years ago and paid $3500 for their membership. They did a complete kitchen remodel. They said they saved about $18k but when the kitchen came in, it didn't fit. The contractor that came out to do the measurements and layout screwed it up and the cabinets didn't fit in the space and he reversed the layout somehow. They didn't return everything to DirectBuy b/c it would have taken way too long to have new ones made and shipped and they needed their kitchen. So my husband fixed DirectBuys mistakes and installed the kitchen for them. I'd do as much research on the company as you can before going to their sales pitch. Good luck!
Alexis

DO NOT DO IT

We STILL haven't even come close to the saving enough to re-coup our membership fee. It is A LOT of research and A LOT of work to buy anything and 9 times out of 10 you can find the discounted price on the internet!

They don't carry as many brands as they would have you think and then some brands only let you order certain things.

Unless you are re-modeling a kitchen, I would stay as far away from them as you can.
C.

we just joined, its around $6,000 to join, you can do a monthly payment plan, membership is good for 10 years. The savings is amazing on furniture, china, sporting goods, flooring, siding, almost anything that's high end. We haven't used it yet, but we just did a bunch of renovating and need to buy furniture.

I can't speak to the sale tactics, but I know a couple who joined when they rennovated their whole house. They said the membership fee was somewhere in the neighborhood of $5000, and for them it was worth it because it enabled them to go higher end with kitchen cabinets etc. on the same budget. I think the key is not so much that you save money, it's that you get to upgrade everything, sort of like having champagne taste on a...merlot budget.

I used to work for a builder - and a lot of people we built homes for would swear by Direct Buy. It's a great place if you need a lot of stuff. Not just one room. People we dealt with would buy all their faucets, kitchen cabinets, whole rooms of furniture, lighting fixtures, tile, marble.. If you are buying a lot, it;s great, if not... don't join. The fee to join is high but worth it if you buy buy buy. The homes we built were in the 800,000. range.. and as you can guess, the home buyer was buying very high end things. Think about it before you sign on the dotted line.. the internet has a lot of deals too.. and your contractor can usually get discounts for you... so do your homework.. and read the reviews on line about direct buy.. just put in direct buy pros and cons.. and see what they day. good luck