The title pretty much sums in up. A DirectBuy membership in my opinion is beneficial only to a handy first time home buyer, a home owner moving into a bigger home, or a contractor/decorator. I won't get into many details, but here are some key points. For us, joining Direct Buy was by far one of the best choices we made, though that is only for a few reasons. For starters, the negatives.
First - I was not impressed by the sneaky tactics to get you to join - and by sneaky I do mean absolutely ridiculous. You had to sit through an information session, in which the (admittedly friendly) presenter provided examples of savings, which seemed "too good to be true". Once we sat through the information session, we had a moment (if I recall correctly, it felt like less than half an hour), to sift through some product binders and look at prices. Once we had sifted through, we were told that we needed to sign onto the membership before they closed that night or else we would lose our opportunity to join. As I said - absolutely ridiculous, and just because of that we almost walked out. I still cringe when I think about the tactic.
But as ridiculous as it seemed, we took a chance since we were after all, moving from a 800 sq ft condo to a 3300 sq ft house.
That being said, we have saved a fortune, making up for the membership cost in our first two purchases. Granted - they were large purchased - blinds (hunter Douglas) for the entire house ($4000 savings compared to the SALE price of 3 other "retail" stores, and our dining room table ($1200 savings over the sale price of a few retail stores - even $1000 savings over amazon sale price!)
Since then we have made a few other smaller purchases such as lighting etc, (savings still close to an additional $2000). We would have saved thousands more if we planned to buy our appliances through DirectBuy as well, but opted for higher end brands that were not available.
Long story short - customer service is pretty decent, not the best, but by far not the worst. You do need to be handy and careful that what you order is what you want - I found the best is to find a product in a store you like, and see if DirectBuy carries it, rather than buying just through a photo (I suspect this is where MANY of the negatives review begin). And yes items take some time to come in, so patience is needed as well.
But, If you find a product that works, and you would say "i'll take it" in any retail store - chances are you are better off at Direct Buy.
We don't regret being pressured into the membership, and would recommend the membership only to those in our similar position.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $5,000.00