DirectBuy?

[dcox20]

anyone ever heard of DirectBuy?

allows you to buy direct from the manufacturer, but requires a timeshare like initial outlay (roughly $6k) and yearly renewal fee of $200... however the savings are real I can't disclose the brand name but a high-end 65" HDTV (1080p) that retails at BestBuy for $3400 (on-sale) can be had through this company for $1800 (ish) every day.

good? bad? ugly? your experience?

My father purchased a membership and is giving one of his membership cards to us as an anniversary present... we're moving soon so it may come in quite handy.

[plumpossum]

I have an aunt & uncle who have a membership, but I believe it was gifted to them through my uncle's employer or some odd circumstance like that. They swear by the place, but they also are constantly remodeling and upgrading their home and make most of their purchases for their home there.

I would consider a membership if, say I were moving into a home and wanted to do a lot of upgrades and replace my furniture, and maybe keep the membership for two years. But once I had what I needed, I wouldn't continue to keep a membership.

I've never heard anything about how they handle membership cancellations though, and that's what I'd be concerned about.

[Aleta]

My son and his wife bought all of their baby furniture through Direct Buy (from her siste) I think.

The quality is amazing. You can hardly move it. Judging by what I see, the quality is there and they say that they would have a lot more somewhere else.

[dcox20]

I have an aunt & uncle who have a membership, but I believe it was gifted to them through my uncle's employer or some odd circumstance like that. They swear by the place, but they also are constantly remodeling and upgrading their home and make most of their purchases for their home there.

I would consider a membership if, say I were moving into a home and wanted to do a lot of upgrades and replace my furniture, and maybe keep the membership for two years. But once I had what I needed, I wouldn't continue to keep a membership.

I've never heard anything about how they handle membership cancellations though, and that's what I'd be concerned about.

The membership is frontloaded ($6000 total over years 1 & 2) then $200/mo for years 3-10, 11+ yrs they don't guarantee that the renewal rate will be the same.

Cancelling is easy - just cancel, no more web login and no more store access... but after your initial outlay - it would seem foolish to cancel if it only costs $200/yr

I'm just wondering if this is like some huge underground secret that no one talks about, or if it's a bit scammish? they have something like 130 locations nationwide... lots on the east coast

[davlat]

Please do research...

I saw negative review on Yahoo Answer... Also I do NOT believe in close deal or exclusive deal. If they are good, why not OPEN... Is it "TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE" I am also dissatisfied with their website which never show their product, actual deal (means $$$ + items' photo)......
OK.. I am not a member.... But if you are interested in it, do research... not only for their reputation but also for your life style.. For me I rather get $1000 worth 32" HTDV instead to getting $3400 worth 68" HDTV for $1800.... because simply I don't need it...
I don't need super grand king size bed for cheap price..
I won't buy a personal jet at 75% discount... unless I can re-sell it..

It sometimes happens to me that I look at the super low priced items that I will never need and then I happened to buy my necessary items at average or higher price at that shop. (that's how WalMart does with yellow label at their center aisle....) but NO I don't hate WalMart..

[DebbieL]

I got pressured into joining at a sales pitch in their "showroom" here. Back then it was called UCC Total Home (United Consumer's Club or something like that). It was something like $2500 for 2 years and them a couple hundred a year. I tried to get out of the contract (had immediate buyer's remorse) and wasn't able to.

I never wound up using the membership at all, so to me it was a total waste of money. I'll never forgive myself for being so spineless to a high pressure sales tactic. To give you an example of their tactics, you are told that this will be your only chance to buy that day. If you leave without buying, you will never be allowed back into their showroom (which is a large room with different manufacturer's catalogues). The woman phoned me several times to set up an appointment to get me in there for the sales pitch, then I finally went and got sucked into joining. What an expensive lesson.

My opinion is that it would only be a good deal if you are a real consumer. It was mostly expensive stuff I probably wouldn't be buying anyways (and you would have to buy a lot to make it worthwhile - thousands of dollars just for the membership - do the math).

[Hypersion]

Buy the Toshiba 65" DLP Rear Projection HDTV (65HM167) and other Projection TVs at circuitcity.com

Sounds like a ripe off to me.

Here's a link to a Japanese 65" HDTV at circuirt city for $1899.

[dcox20]

Buy the Toshiba 65" DLP Rear Projection HDTV (65HM167) and other Projection TVs at circuitcity.com

Sounds like a ripe off to me.

Here's a link to a Japanese 65" HDTV at circuirt city for $1899.

I may have gotten the numbers wrong - point is they showed name brands and compared apples to apples... savings was great.

I've now googled "DirectBuy Sucks" and found that there are many out there that see this as a scam... Hopefully my parents make good use of it with their current remodel - luckily we got it from them for free...

[Aleta]

It doesn't sound like you're saving very much if you have to pay those kind of fees up front and yearly. If it was so great, do you think it would be advertised?

[dcox20]

It doesn't sound like you're saving very much if you have to pay those kind of fees up front and yearly. If it was so great, do you think it would be advertised?

their big thing is secrecy - they say that their manufacturers require anonymity from the general public because their retail partners would get pissed if it was public knowledge that the manufacturer was circumventing the ability of the retailer to charge their inflated markups... I can see why they want to keep the manufacturer list under wraps.

Having walked through the showroom - they do have many many major brands and some really good high-end stuff.

They do advertise via infomercial I believe... having 130+ stores nationwide is a pretty big accomplishment, I'd think that if they were a true scam then they'd have been brought down by now...

but like i said - I got it for free so even if I save a buck, I'm ahead!

My wife (girlfriend at the time) and I were "invited" once to one of these secretive direct buy showrooms (May or may not have been DirectBuy, don't remember).

It was a high-pressure sales pitch which is always a red flag. They had several smooth-talking salespeople who were very good at convincing you that you would save money through their program. The bulk of the annual membership fee ($3,000 if I recall correctly) had to be paid upfront, non-refundable. And perhaps most importantly, you had to make the decision before you left. If you walked out the door, the offer was never available again.

Maybe 5% of people out there could squeeze a bit of profit from this. If you had a reason to buy a lot of stuff, for example if you just bought a house and need to do a lot of furnishing. Or if you remodel/furnish houses for a living. For anyone else, you start so far in the negative, it takes a lot of buying to break even.

Finally, anyone who is a real bargain hunter can find deals just as good or better than offered by these "direct buy" programs, without the sky-high membership fees.

[DebbieL]

After my own experience with them I would never recommend it to anyone. If your membership was a gift - great. Otherwise, think of how much you would have to buy to ever even break even? $6000 for the initial membership - wow, I thought it was a lot 6 years ago when I was sucked in (about $2500). The sales pitch was just as devils advocate described. They were called UCC Total Home back then. They changed to DirectBuy (it is in the same location still in my town, just a different name).