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.

I guess I will be the only positive post in this thread. ;) DH and I have a DirectBuy membership, although when we got it it cost around $2000 if I recall correctly. We were students at the time and have since gotten married (invitations and accessories came from DB) and bought a house. We also got our full set of appliances + big upright freezer for excellent prices. It's also a good place to get some gift items - like the Royal Doulton set we got for my MIL. Can't forget our big tv and entertainment set also. One of the good things is that they have a lot of different manufacturers to choose from with an endless selection. I can be indecisive so sometimes all the selection is a bad thing however. ;) Some items the deals are not that great on - for example certain electronics items. Others are more than 50% off (like that Royal Doulton stuff). Overall I think we have gotten our money's worth. It's also nice not to have to wait for sales, we can just buy whenever. Delivery times can be up to 6-8 weeks depending on where the item is coming from (I'm in Canada). However we got our appliances 3-4 days after ordering (was supposed to be 6-8 wks also) so I guess it depends on what the manufacturer has in the warehouse. Oh, one more thing they have at our local store - gas, grocery, and restaurant gift cards which you get at a discount (handy, since it's stuff I'd buy anyway, and very nice with the price of gas!). I can totally see how folks who are not planning to buy many "big ticket" items would lose money on this. Also, I was not a fan of the hard sales pitch, yuck! But overall it's not nearly as bad as the other posts made it seem IMO.

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...

We also are current members of Direct Buy but when we joined the membership was $2500. Their sales tactics are creepy and I was a nervous wreck after we joined. But we made up that money in savings our first year on furniture and I had priced out through several locations including North Carolina. We have purchased many things there at a good savings but I have also found things cheaper on certain items through the internet. We are in the process of doing out kitchen but I did not use Direct Buy for the cabinets. At our location you have to pay for the kitchen design (ridiculous considering the membership fee)plus they do not come to your house or do the measurements. You are solely responsible and if anything goes wrong you will be responsible unless it was an ordering mistake on their part. I do feel that we got a very good savings on the granite and tile and definitely furniture but I don't know if I would join at $5,000. I know there are mostly negative opinions about Direct Buy and had I read those when I joined I think I would have turned and run. I think it depends on the location but we have been very satisfied but I also think we are more the exception than the norm.