DirectBuy.com Discount Home Products Review

I made an appointment today to go sit through the DirectBuy sales pitch. Prior to the sales pitch, the representative that called me on the phone warned me repeatedly about not being late, not bringing kids, not bringing friends, and on and on. Fine, we were 20 minutes early. We were supposed to get started at 10:00 sharp, but weren't acknowledged until 10:03. I wouldn't normally care, but after being scolded about being prompt, it tends to make one testy. The presentation was like sitting through a time share pitch, except you don't get the free vacation or token appliance at the end.

Finally, we got down to brass tacks and found out the price of membership. Holy Smokes, you could have knocked me over with a feather. The cheapest membership, which limited you to 170 manufacturers to select from, was $4,223.00 for 2 years. The mid-range membership (Gold) was $6,496.00 for 2 years. They offered to allow us to put down $1,300.00 and finance the remainder at 17.8% interest, with a payment of $250.00 per month for the remaining 23 months. The most expensive membership (Platinum) was $10,000.00+ for 2 years.

Even though they repeatedly claimed we would save thousands of dollars every year, they failed to show us how to read the catalogs (everything's in catalogs, you can't try anything out first), and find the manufacturers in which we mentioned we were interested. And, they don't allow you to return items, and if you cancel your membership you don't get the money back. The icing on the cake was that if you didn't decide to sign up right there on the spot, you could never come back.

Well, no worries, we didn't sign up, and we wouldn't want to go back. For that much money, they could have been a lot more service oriented and accommodating.