Direct Buy members???

[sillywilly]

What do you guys think? How much cheaper is the stuff if you have a membership. Anyone regret dropping 4k-5k on the membership?? THinking of becoming a member

[Colby]

Silly,

I've been a member for years. If you are buying furniture, appliances, etc., the savings can be substantial. For example, I have saved several thousand this year furnishing my house.

You have to plan on using it, that's when you see the savings. If you are looking ofr one or two things, it probably is not worth it.

[Bidou]

I did regret it.

I found that the savings were not sustantial enough to warrant the memebership fee. Also, on alot of high end devices (HDTV, Receivers, etc) you are very limited on what you can get. I went into to Futureshop and made a hdtv top 3 list of what I wanted, not one model of the 3 were available through direct buy.

If I remember correctly, it worked out to be worth it if I spent 10k to 12k to recoup the membership fee.

As Colby mentioned, it would be worth it if you had an empty house to fill but otherwise it's not in my experience.

[Baxter]

Can you pay a buddy to buy something for you? Say half of what you would be saving? or do they have a good way of stoping this from happening?

If you are going to save $500.00 pay the guy $250.00 to buy it for you!

[sillywilly]

i told my buddy to get the stuff for me, told him I'd give him a grand. He is going to do it. He didn't say anything to me about it being against the rules so I'm going to assume that its not.

[Bidou]

In my orientation meeting, they did address that issue. They said there is no hard or fast rule but if there is an obvious example of overpurchasing, they reserve the right to investigate or deny the purchase. The exact example was he used was on televisions, if you were to buy 3 or 4 for your home no prob. 10 to 20 tv's, they process may take longer to complete and warrant some questions. They want your friends membership fees is what he was getting at, that way there are no rules being broken and the result is a stress free environment for customer and company.

Man, you'd think I've worked there!

[Colby]

From the Direct Buy Member's Site:

Buy for yourself and your family
Purchasing items on behalf of others or for resale is not permitted. Purchasing gifts to present to family and friends is encouraged.

Enforcement is another issue I suppose.

[John]

How much is the membership?

[jeffc]

about $5K

[mpare]

Paying that much money to any company for the "privilege" of buying goods from them just strikes me as odd. However, many are obviously prepared to do so.

[Indio]

It is only worth it if you are building your own home or doing major home renovations as well as purchasing several pieces of quality furniture/appliances. If you are just looking for good deals on normal purchases, you may as well forget it.

[jonf]

Having minimal knowledge apart from a couple peeks at their website, I would definitely say that Direct Buy is designed for a homeowner going through major renos. If you're about to spend 20 000 redoing a kitchen, its probably a good idea. If you're looking for a new washer, dryer, and fridge, you're best to stay away.

I would have though you understood the economics of this, Silly. Even to a simple mathematical mind like myself, the theory is pretty simple. Calculate the cost. Then calculate the savings. Then figure out whether the savings is greater than the cost. If your savings are greater than the cost of the membership, your bank account wins. If not, stay away.

[sillywilly]

Having minimal knowledge apart from a couple peeks at their website, I would definitely say that Direct Buy is designed for a homeowner going through major renos. If you're about to spend 20 000 redoing a kitchen, its probably a good idea. If you're looking for a new washer, dryer, and fridge, you're best to stay away.

I would have though you understood the economics of this, Silly. Even to a simple mathematical mind like myself, the theory is pretty simple. Calculate the cost. Then calculate the savings. Then figure out whether the savings is greater than the cost. If your savings are greater than the cost of the membership, your bank account wins. If not, stay away.

Jonf, i never said I didn't understand then math. Its a 5k investment I want to know what other people thought about the place first. Do they have all the top lines of everything? Any horor stories ect.

[Colby]

Paying that much money to any company for the "privilege" of buying goods from them just strikes me as odd. However, many are obviously prepared to do so.

Mike,

It really depends on what you buy. A few years ago we bought a Kohler leather couch and loveseat that we saved over 3K on. I just bought an Ashley dining room set that I saved close to $600 and a Whirlppol washer and dryer that I saved over $400 on. Some things you save more on, some you don't. You need to shop around and compare. The Internet is the best way to do that. Electronic devices are not the best buy. I bought my big screen elsewhere.

[jeffc]

Colby, when you say you saved $400 on your washer and dryer, what are you comparing it to? Just curious, is the comparison to MSRP or the same thing at Sears, Corbiel, etc?

[Colby]

I do checks at the different websites (all of the stores have them listed) and the savings ranged from $400 at one store to close to $700 (that's taxes and delivery in). I'm also replacing my furnace and air conditioning and saving between $1200 and $2500 depending on who I got quotes from.

[dbleber]

I went for the sales pitch, which is really cheesy, and then they sit you down and you get to price out some stuff. I just bought a new home and needed 6 appliances. I had already bought them at Sears and I was good at getting them to price match from other stores. DB was only $200 bucks cheaper then Sears for all 6 and these were Maytag’s top of the line everything. The other thing that bothered me about the whole thing is the rep I had was talking to us like we were in the second grade. Talking really slow and asking if we have ever heard of M-A-R-K-U-P. As if it was a huge secret that stores by things at a cheaper cost and MARKED it UP to make a profit. She must have gone on for about 20 mins on this, wanted to shoot myself. Then they give you the big pressure sales tactic, if you say no you can never return because now you know about M-A-R-K-U-P. Knew that about 10 mins into my Bach. Commerce, thanks moron. Walked out with no regrets. From others I have talked to who are members, the cost use to be $2000 for the first 3 years and then around $200 a year. Now at $5000, it isn't worth it unless you are really planning to do some major buying. Home Reno, entire house of furniture....,plus you really have to be prepared to buy everything from them. Which means driving out to the east end an buying from a catalogue, so you never get to see what you are actually buying until it gets there, then you have to pay for delivery and pay everything in cash. So if you need to buy $10,000 worth furniture, you better have the full $10,000 in your pocket.
Wasn't for me, but I do know some you love it. To each their own on DB, it depends what type of shopper you are.

[Jaybird]

I'm a member there and am glad that I am however I joined at 3k. At 3k we debated it hard, at 5k we'd have said no. At the time we were redoing a house and planning some significant furniture purchases so it made sense. I don't have anything terrible to say about them other than the cheesy sales pitches (we've gotten our money back and then some) however I would caution that you do look closely at what you plan on buying in the near future. Also if you like higher end things there is money to be saved but the savings are far smaller on lower end items. If you can't see how it will save you money in the short term then I think it's a big risk for what will likely turn out to be little reward. If you have legit plans to use them then by all means look seriously.

[dwalker]

I joined last year because I'm building a home this summer. There's big savings on furniture, window treatments, and major reno items. Also, if you looking for high end electronics there's pretty good savings. For example I bought the brand new model Samsung LCD 46 inch tv last September and saved about $1400 from Best Buy's price at the time.

[sharkshooter]

...So if you need to buy $10,000 worth furniture, you better have the full $10,000 in your pocket.
...

That's just good financial advice anyway.