Infomercial Scams: Direct Buy

I am sure many of you have seen regular commercials and infomercials for Direct Buy. They want you to believe you will save a fortune by not paying "retail" mark-ups for furniture, cabinets, appliances, and the like.

Here is the rub: In order to become members of Direct Buy, you will need to cough up a great deal of money. More money than the retail markup is, unless you are going to be buying tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. They will not reveal the price of membership on the infomercial, you will have to attend one of their sales presentations to find out. Recently the up-front cost to join is nearly $6,000. In addition, there is a handling fee of 2.8% on most merchandise. You may have to spend nearly $100,000 in order to come out ahead, and that is assuming everything ships on time.

Salespersons use high-pressure sales techniques and choreography to get you to sign up. You have to make an appointment to see the sales presentation. There are people who are in an office you can see from the waiting room, portraying a deal and handshake with a personal check being passed on. After you are given the presentation, you MUST make a decision right then and there. If you don't decide right then and there, you will have to either wait seven years, or in some cases, you will become forever ineligible. One couple said they would come back the next day with the money. The receptionist said they would need a copy of their driver's license and a credit card. Then the receptionist told the couple, if they left they would need to charge the credit card $100 of the membership fee. This was obviously to make sure they came back.

If you ask specific questions about how much can be saved on a certain item during the process, they will stall, and give you their pre-selected examples of savings. You may have a $1000 refrigerator that you want to buy for $500, or less, but they cannot seem to quote that exact model.

There have also been numerous complaints about poor customer service. Some people have waited a year or more for delivery of their purchases. They are supposed to arrive in 3 to 5 weeks, but that seems to be a rare occurrence. Many web sites can get the same products to you in less than one week.

From all I have found, you are better off going to you local big box stores for your furnishing needs.