Direct Buy from Consumer Report's YMMV

Interestin information & thanks for bringin to our attention ~

We had an interesting experience with these guys.

They romanced DH over the phone until he made an appointment. Of course they made it sound like you could buy everything you would ever want for half the price. We drove 2 hours to view their warehouse (?)

Once there we filled out a very lengthy questionnaire. Apparently we answered the questions wrong (we were not in the market to renovate) because they then flobbed us off on some sleepy salesman who just went through the motions of spending time with us.

I found it to be a total waste of time and yes, they do indeed want about $5000 of your hard earned dollars right off the bat!

I posted because we have had inquiries previously. We do have some Tuggers who have been happy with their purchase of Direct Buy. There is a lot of negative stuff on the www about them, however.

In 2005 Joyce and I

built our house, nothing from Direct buy was competitive to what I could get from other suppliers.

What a huge waste of $3995.

Joyce was having that anurisium coiling and we weren't at the top of our game when we fell for this pile ....

Thanks for bringing this up again, as I am trying to forget this fopah..

Greg

Direct Buy For Us

Direct Buy has worked out fine for us. So far we have only bought a few things but we saved a few hundred dollars on each and actually bought better quality then we would have. The few hundred we saved was even actually more because of the quality.
We are still waiting to see what we actually save as we are getting started with contractors on remodeling 2 houses. The one we are moving into and the other that we will be selling. We will first remodel the one, move into it and then remodel the other.
Bart

Much like timeshares, Direct Buy is appropriate for a limited audience. We were members for 3 years when we lived in Maryland, and saved quite a bit - and yes, I was quite good at comparison shopping, and compared not only local stores but anything I could get over the internet or through other sources.

But, we were remodeling our kitchen (gutted it, saved around $6000 purchasing almost everything through Direct Buy, and using local affiliated contractors), 2 bathrooms (did ourselves, but saved a bit), 2 bedrooms (completely outfitted these 2 rooms, as our first child was born 1 year after we joined), and bought a variety of other items. After 3 years, we decided it was no longer of particular benefit to us, and ended our membership. But we did save far more than the membership cost us, and ended up with better quality than we might have been willing to pay for otherwise.

We can say the same thing for timeshare - it works for us, but we know many people who wouldn't do well with it. These are people who would really benefit financially, even with a developer purchase, but would never take the time to understand what they own - the type who end up paying top $ for their airline tickets and hotel rooms because they decide where they want to go fairly late in the game. The same ones who think I can't possible be getting the same product if I buy it at a discount.

I would say the same thing to someone looking at Direct Buy as I do to the uninitiated who attend timeshare presentations - take a deep breath and decide if this is really for you. The salesman does a wonderful job of showing you how it "could" be for you, but if you're having second thoughts, don't join.
Don't fall for imagines saving - it's only true savings if you were planning on spending the money in the first place.

We did very well through Direct Buy.

Accept that you're paying a chunk of the profit margin at the front end and you're expectations may be more in line.

We purchased all top end appliances for our new home as well as furniture which included the following:

Jenn-Air - fridge, gas cooktop, warming drawer, microwave, oven, range hood
GE - washer and dryer
Pennsylvania House - 4 piece Bedroom suite
Sealy - mattress and boxspring
Couch and loveseat (can't remember manufacturer)
Danby - wine fridge
Vermont Castings - BBQ

I did extensive comparison shopping and can safely say that we saved (after paying the initial fee) approximately $4,000 plus 15% taxes (that includes package quotes from competitors).

In the right circumstance it makes sense. FYI I estimated the break-even point to be roughly $12,000 retail based on our buy-in of $2,500 Cdn.

Last year ABC news NY did a report on Direct Buy because of numerous consumer complaints. They found that every item they checked could be found cheaper elsewhere. In the end the reporter said DB wasnt worth the money.

The most significant savings with Direct Buy are purchasing furniture. You can truly save a lot of money on furniture through Direct Buy.

Appliances are not worth the time and effort to get them.