I wanted to start an email and post this in as many places as possible to warn people of DirectBuy, and how they conduct business. My husband and I are new-ish members, and have signed up for the initial membership of two years, wanting to renovate parts of our home. In the year and a half so far, we’ve gotten nothing but hassle. First and foremost, most of the staff who work there have no idea what they’re doing. We’ve gone in on a few Saturdays – that being the only day we have available to visit their ‘showroom’ – and we struggled with getting any help. We were told to make ourselves available on a weekday to talk to presumed ‘renovation experts’ and ‘electronics experts’ who don’t work weekends. The problem is, is that my husband and I have jobs that interfere with our weekday availability. Secondly, there is no return policy when the staff make a mistake. Their kitchen expert had botched measurements for our kitchen, to the point where our contractor was unable to fit in many of the pieces that were custom made for us, and when we approached DirectBuy about it, we were given a hard time. I spent over half an hour on the phone with their kitchen expert trying to get her to just come out and see what the problem was, and remeasure the kitchen. She then also expected us to spend more money on buying pieces to replace ones that were ordered wrong from her end. After much persistence, she finally agreed to replace it for us, but not after a condescending lecture about how we, the customer, should swallow the cost of her mistakes (valuing at a few hundred dollars) when considering the thousands that we’re saving on this room’s renovation. We’ve dealt with two different locations of DirectBuy, one in Mississauga and one in Brampton (Ontario, Canada). The reason why we left the Mississauga location was because of the incredibly poor customer service that we received from there, as well as us realizing that the staff, at best, are inept. By dealing with this second location, we’ve come to realize that this seems to be a common thread throughout the chain. DirectBuy's gimmick is that they 'dont make a profit on anything they sell, just the membership fees' - but this has become an excuse. Abiding by this policy allows them to make whatever mistakes they want, and in tern, the customer looses hundreds of dollars (or more) because if their ineptitude. I’ve collected a few links regarding DirectBuy and how they do business, and am glad to see that we’re not the only ones unsatisfied with the way they do business. It’s more stress than what it’s worth, and I would very much discourage anyone from even considering dealing with this company. The best thing is to avoid the scam. http://edumacation.com/DirectBuy http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/080/RipOff0080721.htm http://www.complaints.com/directory/2005/january/18/14.htm http://www.bcctv.ca/displayresults.jsp?id=/olsen/stories/2005/11/olsen-20051121.htm http://www.bcctv.ca/olsen.jsp?id=/olsen/stories/2005/11/olsen-20051122.htm http://www.mlmlaw.com/library/cases/mlm/state/nyniemiec.htm http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/judgments/pc/2002/01/p02%5F0197.htm I know there's a policy regarding posting outside links, but I wanted to include it in the body of this post to show that this is not just a rant on my behalf, but it's been proven in both American and Canadian courts about how poorly they do business.
That could have been a warning. Either their slogan is a misleading lie, OR its a warning that once you've signed up, they are done with you. No, your repeat buisness doesn't matter (they don't make money if you buy something). (Heck, if you buy from their competitor they save the cash register tape.) Thanks for letting us know.
I took that as a warning, but at the time my husband convinced me that it was worth it. And, to be honest, we did save a good chunk of money in renovating our kitchen, so as far as that's concerned, I honestly can't complain. If the only profit they make is when you sign up for your membership, you'd think that they'd improve on the customer service in order to keep you to renewing your membership, but they clearly don't care about this. It's an unbelievable hassle. If you've literally got money burning a hole in your pocket, and don't mind taking the risk of going out of pocket a few hundred dollars on items that they won't return because of their policies and/or mistakes, and only focus on the fact that you do save money, AND of course you know completely what they're doing so you're not relying on their so-called experts, then by all means sign up for DirectBuy - I mean that with the least amount of sarcasm possible. But, I do honestly recommend to support your retailers when buying anything from electronics to home renovations. Wait for things to go on sale, stuff like that, to save money. DO NOT go through DirectBuy or something similar to it, it's absolutely not worth the aggrivation and hassle of dealing with their staff. I've been doing quite a bit of research and am finding out that a lot of people, in Canada and USA, are in the same boat as I am. Consider yourself warned. If something sounds 'too good to be true', it absolutely is.
update: We've found another peice that was mismeasured and does not fit our kitchen. Over the phone we were told by DirectBuy that the wholesaler has a restocking fee of 10%, which is fine. When we physically were at DirectBuy, we spoke to the owner of that location and he said that the restocking fee of the wholesaler is infact 25% - keep in mind that this is for a $500 peice. So, of course, I was bothered by this and asked for the paperwork from the wholesaler which states the actual amount of the restocking fee. After much arguing (25 minutes!) - much of it infront of other customers - I was given the paperwork and found out that it was infact only 10%! They were planning on keeping the difference for them in their pockets! Now, what part of all that isn't supposed to convince me further that this isn't a scam?
Im sure glad I got a local guy that builds for me and as for appliances I just goto Springfield and pick em out myself. Sorry to hear they are BS!
Oh I know! So frustrating... it seems like it's one thing after another. And - to make matters just a clinch more irritating - is that they have the oddasity (sp?) to tell their staff that we're problematic customers! I got into a conversation with one of their warehouse guys, who was actually empathetic to our cause and had apologized for DirectBuy's inconvenience, for what it was worth. He had actually admitted to us that the owners (who were essentially the only staff that we've been dealing with since we got our membership) had been telling the staff that we were the problem, and that we were trying to give them a hard time! Needless to say that once our kitchen is put in (which should be in the next couple weeks, we hope!) that we'll be contacting the Better Business Bureau and their head office, with a few choice words and complaints...
