Complaint Review: DirectBuy - San Diego California

IT's not a scam, but very, very difficult to recoup your investment and very time consuming to use, so BUYER BEWARE. The main problems are overinflated savings estimates provided, poor selection, understaffed customer service leading to delivery problems and many other issues.

We paid $5000 to join in July 2006. We had just purchased a home that needed a big remodel, so we figured we would easily recoup on the kitchen alone. Further, they promised one stop shopping and lots of time savings. I've actually spent tons of time just trying to make it work and it's a nightmare. My conclusion is the majority of the $5k is a writeoff, because I'm only going to try for another month or so and then be done with it. I just can't bear to work with them again and the savings are small fractions of what they flashed on the board in the presentation. Of course, no one at DirectBuy cares as it is more cost beneficial for them if I just don't use them and they have lots and lots of complaints so I'm just one of many.

There's no compassion. The owners of each store bought a franchise and are just trying to make it work. Just think how they must feel as they probably paid hundreds of thousands to DirectBuy to buy in and they are stuck with mostly unsatisfied customers. And the customer service employees that you will work with are over worked and usually under qualified. IT's not there fault, it's just the business model. I always feel bad complaining to the employees because there's not anything they can really do to help.

Here's the status as brief as possible:

- Kitchen Cabinets, we've been trying to just place the cabinet order for a solid 3 1/2 months (and my husband is an architect so it's not like we need hand holding). Compared to the process at Home Depot where we designed and purchased our last kitchen, I'd give DirectBuy a solid F. Hopefully, we'll be ordered in 10 days and then another 6-8 weeks for delivery. Price - from what I can tell, pretty darn close to Home Depo Expo price. Almost impossible to compare on a custom kitchen unless you pay HOme Depo $750 to give you a quote. (However, I've been tempted to just forget DirectBuy and go back to Home Depo). Direct buy estimated our savings to be $38k! Ha! That must be compared to a Beverly Hills custom cabin shop! This is the same store that Direct Buy must use for all of its price savings estimates. IF you are someone willing to shop around even slightly, you can do as good on your own or better than with DirectBuy on ANYTHING. (On Kitchen Cabinets - Home Depo Expo has great high-end brands)

- Appliances - the high end brands we wanted were not available at Direct Buy, so we decided to go JennAir which is a good brand. If you got 3 appliances then it was free shipping per the Direct Buy rep. Well, that was only to DirectBuy. When they called to schedule a delivery to my home the shipping company charged $340 because the fridge was oversized (42 inch fridge), needed more man power and I needed it put in my kitchen instead of the garage (of course). Well, we plugged it in and it didn't work - broken compresser. Have to work directly with JennAir to get it "fixed"(thank god, because they are better staffed) even though they said it was likely broken in the delivery on DirectBuy's leg of the trip. It's been 4 weeks, and they still haven't fixed it.

- Our Quartz tops were the same price as Home Depo Expo. (counting installation)

- Furniture - I have spent a few months shopping for furniture at Crate and Barrell, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, West Elm and similar stores. I brought in pictures of everything I wanted -retail approx $20,000 of furniture from these stores. DirectBuy could only get close to having 1 dining table available for sale. Nothing really even came very close to what I was looking for at the stores above. I think DirectBuy's catalogs are mainly "country" style, not up do date fashions or maybe good if you are furnishing multiple apartment units and want very generic stuff. I was so disappointed, that I've spent at least 15 hours pouring through their catalogs trying to find interesting furniture. Not much luck.

- Delivery - everything takes lots and lots of time and more hassle and usually more money than you would pay to get delivered. Very unorganized and inefficient (eg. lots and lots of phone calls between Direct Buy and various shipping companies to coordinate deliveries and negotiate further shipping costs)

Bottom Line - I feel so embarassed that I didn't find this website before we bought in. I hope this can help someone else stay clear. If these comments end up putting DirectBuy out of business then we can all be put out of our misery in trying to "make it work" and "recoup our investment". Lesson learned in life I guess.

Chris La Jolla, California
U.S.A.