OK> So, I'm reading this post due to a recent experience with the plumber my GC is using for our renovation. I got a babysitter to watch my toddler so I could go look at fixtures at their showroom with my baby. So, I get there and they don't have many of the nicer brands on display- they want to show me everything in a catalog!! Well, thank you but I can do that at home. So, fine- I briefly look at the catalog and pick a few things to get prices. They gave me some pricing and I left. So- wouldn't you want to see products in person if you plan to invest nearly $2000 on them?? I dragged my two small children to another local plumbing outfit to see the higher end stuff I got quoted for at the previous place. The prices were more than $500 different!!! I mean to do I have stupid written on my head b/c I have a newborn? Do they just think I don't have time to research and will just take their price?? This mother has an MBA thank you very much. Fine. So I talked to my contractor and he said to approach them on the issue. I did. They claim their product is better quality and that you can get the same things from other dealers but they aren't as heavy... blah blah blah. That may be true for some Kohler fixtures, but not Rohl!!! And I don't even believe them at that. For the amount of money saved I can buy a whole new fixture in a few years if I decide to change it or it goes bad!! Can someone please tell me if these people are just jerking around with me?? I thought about how they may try to pad the rest of the bill if they adjust the fixture prices, so I'm not really sure what to do with this mess. This is why I do NOT trust vendors like this- b/c of dishonest people who try to make excuses for their ridiculous prices.

So, I have read several of the posts and for some unknown reason felt compelled to leave my 5c worth of information. My wife and I joined direct buy in 2005, and we paid about $3000 for our membership. At first, I was afraid we had made a huge mistake, because the savings with our small purchases were not making up for the membership costs. $100 back then was a lot of money for us; $3000 was a fortune! In 2006, we bought a Condo and we re-did one of the bathrooms. Travertine and glass tile, granite countertop, 2 sinks (Kohler), 2 faucets (danze), 2 shower heads and 2 body sprays (Kohler), shower valves and diverters (Danze). I shopped online and found that prices for fixtures were about 40% cheaper at DB, and for granite countertops about 20% cheaper than local quotes. I figured we recouped about $1500 to $2000 that first project. Nevertheless, back then, I often would become frustrated because I would find products which were cheaper or really close to the prices at direct buy elsewhere. After the initial 3 years, we began paying $150 per year to keep our membership. We made several small purchases, which did not amount to a whole lot of savings. Things really changed in August 2011 when we bought a large foreclosed house, a total gut job. This is our dream home. Our new place has about 10K square feet, 5baths, 2 powder rooms, a sauna with a shower. We purchased through direct buy: - all plumbing fixtures (kohler, hansgrohe) - tile / marble (emser) - hardwood floors (indusparquet and homerwood - $7.80 for solid walnut floors vs $16 per sqf locally) - heated floors / heated towel bars (warmly yours / Amba - kitchen cabinets (Omega solid walnut) - vanities, laundry room cabinets (Brookwood) - bar cabinets (Ultracraft) - Fireplaces (Regency) - Sauna (Amerec) - Steam generator (Kohler) - appliances for a second kitchen and bar (kitchen aid, marvel, Perlick kegarator, summit) - all light fixtures, including trims for recessed lights, LED strips, exterior lights (eurofase, Eglo) Direct buy does not offer Thermador, which we bought for our kitchen from Nebraska Furniture Mart. Regarding costs? Our kitchen cabinets were 22K for solid walnut cabinets. 20K local quote for veneer doors; 23K for solid cherry local We used Kingston Peninsula 16x32 for 3.50 per sqf, vs $11.40 per sqf at wayfair / walmart, but I think you can find it for around $8 per sqf. Assuming $4 difference, in 5K sqf we saved about 20 grand. Now, let's say you shop online or somewhere else and you find a product cheaper than DB's price. It actually happened to me. I was looking at the Hansgrohe raindance imperial 600 ( retail $4500, cheapest online $2700). I actually found one at plumber surplus for $1600. I requested a price check at direct buy (sent internet link, showing lower price and item in stock, available for purchased). Direct buy lowered the price to $1150 (all fees included). Is direct buy perfect? Not by a long stretch. As other members pointed out, there is little support in terms of selecting or getting info about products. You have to do the leg work yourself, research products online, etc⦠Not all manufacturers ship to home, but nowadays a large number of them do. Also, as pointed out earlier, items are not available off the shelf. This is a problem if you need something right away. Our washer broke, and we bought a new one from Lowes⦠All and all, I think direct buy is a really good deal if you have a large project (even a total kitchen redo). It is a bad deal if you require a lot of assistance, are not willing to do the research on products yourself, cannot wait 1 month or more for shipment, and if you are not planning to buy a lot in the near future. I hope my experience helps...

Jam: The Lugano floor by DuChateau was wonderful! It hid dents and dog scratches and the color was exactly what I loved...and it was a great price! If you are fine without sand-in-place flooring (expensive!), then you should go ahead with this flooring. I am definitely going to have exactly the same brand/color when we re-do our new house in April. It got raves from relatives and friends, and while that certainly wouldn't be my deciding factor whether people thought it was beautiful, the fact that it was so darned great for our common area IS the most important thing. The variation in color didn't bother me...as you saw from the pictures, once installed they blended pretty well. Admittedly I did "throw out" three boards that were too dark. During install the workers put one in and immediately I saw it and said, "Not that one!". The rest were all good. I did find another oak flooring that came close to the color I wanted--it was a white oak with an oil finish but was more than twice the price. Since I had a 42 x 22 ft room, that added up pretty quickly and I opted against it. I think it was a custom stain too. They also needed 3x the amount of time to install since it was not engineered, but full wood. I can look back in my files and see what the name of that company was if you are interested. We didn't have the budget, but you might.

For anyone with same dilemma--if you go on the delta website to the product and look at the Q&A, on the trinsic model q&a they answer the question and say they are exactly the same--only difference is slight handle design and that both are solid brass. Height is about an inch shorter for trask--as I noticed from spec sheet. make sure you are looking at most recent spec sheet because an older version of trinsic was height of trask. to make matters more confusing the q&a on the trask says it is not solid brass but they are not specifically addressing whether it is different or same as trinsic. https://www.deltafaucet.com/kitchen/product/9659-AR-DST. so delta is contradicting itself on the q&a. I tend to think the guts are the same and believe the guy answering the q&a that is specifically addressing whether they are the same. The msrp on the trinsic is 619.50 and it is 682.80 on the trask to account for the soap dispenser and plate it comes with. I think if there was a difference in the quality it would be reflected in a lower msrp for the trask which we do not see. With a 10% off coupon at lowes, the trask becomes significantly cheaper (and I need 2). Plus we have the added confirmation of margaritaville2 who says they confirmed on phone for her that they are the same. Also note, the lowe's model only comes in arctic steel and trinsic has more color choices. If you really need that extra inch of height--another reason to get trinsic but I actually prefer shorter.