I ordered the test roses back in Jan or so, and they arrived last month and were nice big healthy plants. Right now, they're leafing out and looking good. Last month I ordered the Disney Princess roses on their free shipping deal. They finally arrived yesterday. I have no idea when they shipped out, but they arrived in pretty crappy condition. I have a feeling they were in transit awhile. They had lots of "white" new growth, some with nearly 2". Two of the plants had some mold and dieback. I had to cut out quite a bit. But the roots were nice and long, and plenty of decent green left. I'm sure the plants will do ok. But I guess this is the risk you take with FREE shipping! Personally, I would hate to see J&P go under. They have introduced many wonderful roses over the yrs.

Update from the "Whistleblower": On February 6, 2009, the law office of Pernell W. McGuire reported that they filed the petition for the chapter 7 bankruptcy, for their client Buycabinets.com/Trevor Grace, on February 5, 2009. They also confirmed that Mr. Grace would be filing for a personal bankruptcy as well. However, they had no idea as to the timeline for the filing of the personal bankruptcy. If you do not receive your official notice from the court, please contact the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Arizona, at 800-556-9230. The court-appointed trustee will determine which assets can be liquidated to satisfy the debts to the creditors. Since Arizona is a "community property" state, the trustee may be able to access the assets of Ms. Grace, who is a Vice President at a local Chase bank in Flagstaff. Aside from the assets of Buycabinets.com, Mr. Grace and Ms. Grace, the trustee should also be able to acquire the assets that may have been fraudulently transferred to TheDirectCabinetSource.com. Timelines are very important in determining the intent to commit consumer fraud. When preparing the documentation to support your Proof of Claim, please ensure that you include the dates of all communications with Buycabinets.com and/or TheDirectCabinetSource.com. You may also want to include a complaint to the court objecting to the chapter 7 discharge, and request that it be revoked on the basis that the debtor may have committed fraud. The Proof of Claim, which I will be submitting, will include the Whistleblower report that was filed with the Arizona and Nevada Attorney Generals office, the Federal Trade Commission and the local Flagstaff SheriffÂs office. This Whistleblower report contains over 30 possible witnesses and/or persons of interest, who law enforcement can question to establish the intent to commit consumer fraud, and to determine if assets were, in fact, fraudulently used or transferred to TheDirectCabinetSource.com. My Proof of Claim will include a list of at least 9 ex-employees and business associates who can corroborate that Mr. Grace used Company/Consumers money for personal expenses. I will also include my objection to the discharge and request that it be revoked. Whistleblower

Here is the latest update from the Whistleblower: I am posting the following information for those Victims/Creditors who have not received their official "Notice of Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Case, Meeting of Creditors, & Deadlines" from the bankruptcy court Case Number: 2:09-bk-02017-RTBP Please be advised, the Creditors are being advised NOT to file a "Proof of Claim" at this time. It appears that the debtor, Mr. Grace, is reporting that there are NO assets available to the Trustee to pay the Creditors. The Meeting of Creditors will be held at 1:30 PM on Monday, March 23, 2009 at the following location: U.S. Magistrate Courtroom 123 North San Francisco Street Flagstaff, AZ 86001 At this meeting, the Trustee and the Creditors will have the opportunity to question Mr. GraceÂs representative, who will be under oath. If you are unable to attend this meeting, I recommend that you file your list of questions, to be asked at the meeting, with the Bankruptcy ClerkÂs office. Address of the Bankruptcy ClerkÂs office: U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Arizona 230 North First Avenue, Suite 101 Phoenix, AZ 85003-1727 Phone: (602) 682-4000 Bankruptcy Trustee: Lawrence J. Warfield P.O. Box 14647 Scottsdale, AZ 85267 Phone: (480) 948-1711 I also recommend that you file a request with the ClerkÂs office to revoke the discharge. Please be sure to explain your specific experience including dates and all correspondence with Buycabinets.com and/or TheDirectCabinetSource.com. You may also want to mention the perception that Mr. Grace seems to have chosen to discharge all of his obligations with Buycabinets.com, only to continue "business as usual" with the new company, TheDirectCabinetSource.com. Also, please provide any information you may have that may suggest that Mr. Grace might have used and/or transferred assets to the new company, for which he is the "Senior Executive." Please note, you can now correspond with the Whistleblower at watch-bird@hotmail.com. All emails sent to this address will be forwarded directly to the Whistleblower.

DB is creepy. That's exactly what I implied 9 years ago when this thread started. LOL. Article from Dallas News - Nov. 2016 This is a story about a creepy business gone bad that is now trying to go good. Do you remember DirectBuy? The company used to advertise in TV commercials as a members-only savings club for every kind of household item. You'd go to their showroom for a pitch and that's where the wackiness kicked in. If you didn't bring your spouse, you couldn't come in. If, after listening to the sales job, you decided not to buy a membership package right then and there (as high as $7,000), you were banned from coming back. If you bought and then found out that you couldn't buy what you wanted and the prices were not cheaper as promised, you couldn't get a refund. Lawsuits piled up. Consumer reviews were awful. I remember trying to interview franchise owners in 2010. They wouldn't talk to me. The PR guy for DirectBuy in Indiana didn't bother to answer all my questions. Yes, indeed. DirectBuy was a truly crummy company. Then the company disappeared. The TV ads stopped. The last of the 160 franchise stores, including one in Carrollton and another in Fort Worth, closed forever, leaving high-paying members angry and confused. Where did DirectBuy go? Answer: This month, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing $185 million in debts to the best-known home furnishing and supply companies in the world. Sounds like the final act of an old-line company that couldn't cut it anymore, right? Turns out, it may be the beginning of a new DirectBuy. Chapter 2 I'll admit that I had to alter the course of this story. A crummy company filing bankruptcy? What's left to save? Turns out DirectBuy has quietly remade itself, as executives describe it, into an Amazon wannabe with "concierge customer service." No more 20,000-square-foot showroom stores. Everything is now online and mobile-ready. You want a certain sofa? You take a photo of it, and the new DirectBuy app recognizes the sofa and shows you their cheapest price. If it's not low enough, DB will drop even lower. Need a home decorator to come and help you? Sure. Got that, too. Live chat? Yep. The price for this service is $200 for a one-time initiation fee, and $40 a month in a one-year contract. That's thousands of dollars cheaper than the old cost that came with a three-year contract. DB also promises a refund if not happy within the first 90 days. That's a jolting change for the company's old ways, fighting to hold customers to their wacky restrictive contracts. DB claims 200,000 customers nationally. They now switch to the monthly subscription model when their contracts expire. Six years ago, my records show, DB had 10,000 customers in North Texas. Chief marketing officer Curt Hilliard says his mobile-ready company uses search tools to find the lowest price, including delivery charges. "We don't just meet the price," he promises. "We drop the price a guaranteed percentage." The bankruptcy establishes a "clean slate," says spokesman Mike Georgeff, the PR exec who was hard to pin down in the old days. Now he's pretty talkative about the future. The company expects to be acquired by its lenders who become the new owners, he says. "We can establish a clean slate for our future business and prosperity," Georgeff says. Be skeptical The company must prove itself as a reincarnated version of its old self, says Julie Baker, retired TCU professor of marketing. She checked out the older version years ago and realized the offerings were better suited for someone furnishing a house or doing a major renovation. Otherwise, initial costs to join were too steep to overcome. She told me this week that turning around a company with a bad customer service culture is very difficult. "For me, it just doesn't make sense, especially over the long term," she said. "I don't see how they can be profitable charging $40 a month. They have to make a profit on the furniture even if they say they are not. There are warning flags for me." Can the same company come back in a bigger and better way? I hope so. Remember, this is a story of a creepy business that's trying to reform. Certainly, we need more of that. Staff writer Marina Trahan Martinez contributed to this report. Check out The Watchdog on NBC5 at 11:20 a.m. Mondays, talking about matters important to you.