DirectBuy

I enjoyed going to the showroom on a Saturday afternoon, sitting at a table, and looking at half a dozen catalogs of what we were looking for, to figure out which one we really wanted. We even brought tape measures so we could picture how big they were. I also enjoyed the interaction with the owners and their salespeople there, they're wonderful people and very accommodating. It was the personal experience that got us. Unfortunately, we don't have that anymore. They retired and they weren't replaced.

On the merchandise side, we're very happy with them. The last things we bought were Lenox Christmas gifts and they're very nice. We've been providing our family with Lenox holiday ware for 20 years. The drawer I bought my wife was a good bargain. I also just bought a watch for my nephew that's graduating in college this spring, and I'm paying half of what they're selling at the discount stores. Something that has a list price of 60 bucks, we can buy at The Outlets for 30 bucks, but we can get it at DirectBuy for 19 so we don't mind giving that stuff because we're paying the same amount of money, just better stuff. However, we noticed that the prices are becoming less and less of a bargain, over the recent years. We don't buy as much as we're in our 70s, so we're not in the accumulation stage of things. We don't deal with the hassles with large items from them anymore so we pay for the convenience of getting something locally.

In addition, we have to stay away from their travel organization. It's a rip-off. When they originally offered a new service, I trusted them implicitly and paid a couple thousand bucks upfront to be one of the members. But I'll never get that back. They've been jerking me around ever since. We were told that if we bought into this, we would get our money back. It was just over down payment. If I take a cruise, they use that money to deduct the certain percentage off the top.

The last time, we did all the work. We went to the cruise lines, set up everything, and then after we got what we wanted, we turned it over to DirectBuy. They saved us 150 bucks, but they didn't do the normal cruise agent things. The first cruise we took with them, they didn't pay the cruise line one time so we got kicked out of our handicapped room, and the only thing they would offer us is a substitute. We were booked into a handicapped cabin with a balcony. For the same money, they were offering us an inside handicapped cabin without discount.

They also keep calling us with vacation packages that are set up as a timeshare. They've messed us up several times and they keep calling me about these timeshare things, and I don't want to pay money to get into a timeshare. I tried to get out of it and they told me, when I started to figure, at the small fine print apparently was like two days late in trying to back out, and they wouldn't let me. Now, if I sat down with the owner over in Chichester, and talk it all through, I would've understood all this. But, that is not the way they work anymore. Other than that, although we paid extra money to get DirectBuy's concierge service, they've been very good.

I've been a DirectBuy member for about 15 years now. But in the beginning, making purchases was a little tough because you had to go to the store and look up everything that you were wanting. But at least you had some people there helping you while you were doing that. Then once the items came in, you had to go back to the store, have them unpack it in front of you, check everything and then get it home. Those were sometimes challenging. We were on our way home once and the one of my daughter's chairs was not secured in the pickup truck as well as it could have been. And we lost one of them on the road. It got rather scarred up and broken. She still has it but it’s not perfect now.

I always liked being able to go in, touch fabrics and look at different catalogues. It’s a little bit easier when it’s right there in front of you as opposed to looking it up online. But they definitely turned it around to where it’s more user-friendly. You can look at things up from their website and it's become a lot easier to manage when you're trying to get a whole bunch of things. You can also take a picture if you’re at a furniture store and ask DirectBuy, “Can you find this for me and send it to somebody there at the main office?” That's great. You can also have the furniture delivered directly to your home.

On the other hand, there were some purchases that we’ve made over the last couple of years that we did not purchase through DirectBuy although we could have. One of them was a hot tub. I didn’t feel that that was as much of a savings compared to going ahead, paying the extra percentage and having the ability to utilize the company that delivered the hot tub for me. With DirectBuy, I wouldn’t have known who to contact if I had issues with it later on. So there are pros and cons to it still.

Right now, we’re in the process of building a bigger new home down in Florida and I’m going to totally furnish it with furniture from DirectBuy as well. My only issue is that I don’t know what I’m gonna do with the furniture when it comes in and where I’m gonna put it until it's time to move into the house. That is about eight months away still. With a furniture store, you can absolutely purchase an item and they would hold it for you until you’re ready for it. This past week, my sister-in-law was bragging on this one furniture store and how they were 40% off. But comparing pricing, what I could get it for was still almost 50% off. So I said DirectBuy is still worth it to me and I don’t care if I have to pay for a delivery fee.

My sister-in-law was saying that the $150 delivery fee was all I gotta pay and it didn’t matter how many times they would get delivered. That’s fine and dandy but when you’re paying close to 50% more than what I was paying to start with, I still see it as a total savings. There’s still a little drawback here and there. But my recommendation for DirectBuy is If they can come up with some ways to have a storage facility for people that might need it like myself. Still, I would absolutely recommend DirectBuy to anyone that’s looking at purchasing large amounts or even smaller amounts of anything for the household.

I decided to buy the membership in case I needed more but didn’t buy anything else after that and I let it go dormant. Then recently, I bought a condo and decided to do renovations. I thought about reactivating my membership. When I was a member in 2006, they weren’t able to use MasterCard or Visa. One big change which convinced me to renew my membership was that they moved towards taking purchases by Visa.

My recent purchase went well. DirectBuy Mississauga has two design consultants. They're like liaisons. I chose Eleanor and she did all my kitchen and pantry measurements. She was very great to work with for all the adjustments and changes we made. We then put in my order for that. Then, I thought about getting a larger TV and saw the club exclusive for the 82-inch Samsung. I made the decision to buy it and then less than a month after I bought it, the price went down $260. I phoned up DirectBuy and their customer service department said they'd give me the difference as a coupon towards another purchase. I used it towards a bedroom set, which is a fairly high-end, expensive furniture by Alf. I was very pleased.

I've dealt with DirectBuy's concierge several times and they were helpful. I've been trying to buy an entertainment unit and I have to get the interior measurements for the shelf. They don’t have the answers right away and they have to call the manufacturer, which is understandable. I'm also looking for a dining room set and couches. I've been looking to find leather couches that have a sofa bed in them or a sectional that has a sofa bed. And it's been very hard for the DirectBuy representatives at DirectBuy in Mississauga. They can stick to the books, but they can't spend all the time on it. I don't know whether there’d be somebody that has a quick reference and could say if you are looking for sofas, these are the manufacturers we deal with. These are the ones that have sofa beds. These are the ones you can get in leather. These are the ones you can only get in cloth. I have to do the digging.

Not all the stuff in the catalog and in the online store are always there. I could call the concierge and I ask them to get me this model and they would say they could. Things like that are a more time consuming than just window shopping at a furniture place and seeing something. With something as important as a couch, I need to sit in it to see if it's the right distance for my legs, if it's the proper feel on my back, and if I like the cushion hard or soft. I couldn' t get that on DirectBuy too easily. I have to go to these big line stores and sit in the couch. Then see if I could get it at DirectBuy.

Meanwhile, I'm in the store and dealing with a salesman and he says they'll give me a really good discount and I don't know if DirectBuy is gonna have the same thing. From a marketing point of view, DirectBuy will have to deal with that. The clientele has to be willing to take a chance. Moreover, some places have the ability to say if you don’t like the product, they'll give you credit towards any other product you choose. DirectBuy doesn't have that ability yet.

We needed a lot and there was a good deep discount. We redid both roofs and we bought the materials through DirectBuy. I bought the hundred-year fiberglass shingles and they were about $18 a bundle. If I had to go to a box store, they would have been at least $25 a bundle. It's good savings. We also redid the bathroom at the cottage and that entailed a tub, a shower, a shower head, toilets, a sink, cabinets and countertops. We redid the kitchen and that involved a sink, countertops and cabinets. Then in the house, we redid the downstairs' bathroom so again, we got everything that involves a bathroom. We also bought washing machines for both the cottage and the house, as well as seven mattresses and four box springs. Somewhere along the way, I bought a few little appliances like a coffee maker.

I also bought a paddleboat but unfortunately, the quality is a hit-and-miss. When the paddleboat arrived one of the backboards was all scratched but I'd already gotten it at home. The Whirlpool washing machine that we bought for up north had a plastic or nylon collar around the outside and it was all shredded too. But it had already been delivered or picked up and inspected. I also bought a couple of cover doors for the bathroom and they were warped. Unfortunately what I did for a lot of the cottage purchases was to put them in the cottage until my older brother, who was helping me redo it, came up. So by the time we unpacked the covers and noticed the issues, it was about three months after. The damage doesn't impede the use of the product but it was a concern aesthetically. But most of the time, the quality's good.

The only thing is it's a pain when you already have to pick the stuff up. It's okay if it's a little thing but we bought a mattress for the cottage and we're both half an hour away from where the pick-up point's gonna be because DirectBuy closed down a whole bunch of their outlets. I used to deal with the one in Barrie and the one on Overlea Boulevard a lot but they were both closed. A lot of the stuff I've ordered has to go through Barrie. There is some holding company in Barrie but I still have to drive there to pick it up. They deliver but they're quite expensive. I bought two mattresses from DirectBuy last year and it cost over $100 to deliver.

I also had one unfulfilling experience when they had some big plumbing show in the spring. But when I got there, I found out that I'd have to order the shower fixture that I wanted through DirectBuy. They didn't have it at the plumbing company. So I left all my information with one of the salespeople from DirectBuy. He said that he would call me the following week and we could do the purchase over the phone but he never called me back. I ended up waiting about two weeks and then I found the company. I told them I wanted to order the item and asked why they didn't call. Maybe my paperwork was lost but other than that it's been good. That was the only bad time I ever had.

The customer service is quite good as well. I've started dealing with the chat line because there's always been questions. For example, I wanted to replace one of the bed frames that I have at the cottage and they had one on their sale page. But I couldn't tell from the description if it was the headboard or the footboard. So I wrote an email to the concierge and they wrote me back, saying that the thing they advertised on their webpage had been discontinued. Then they gave me the comparable one that the company was offering. I was all set to order it and I would have been annoyed if I ordered it, paid for it and found out a week or two later that I wasn't getting that. So that was helpful.

I decided after many years to go and see what it was all about. My daughter lives with me at the time and her name is on my account. She recently moved but she’s still member and I joined. I was very impressed with what DirectBuy had. It was difficult to come and look at things. You go and look at the catalogs. Some things you look online, but most things you had to order in person at the warehouse. But the quality of the items was much better than you could get in Home Depot or Lowe’s. I decided to join and since then, I’ve purchased cushions for my outdoor furniture, furniture for different rooms, China, pots, knives and that kind of thing and it has been nice over the years. It’s paid for itself and I enjoy using it.

For instance, a few years ago, I decided to do my son’s bedroom over again in our house. Now my son is 47 and does not live with us for many years but comes home to visit. And we have the old Formica furniture from the 80's in his room. We have a very nice house so I decided to do his furniture over again. Also I was looking online and found the most gorgeous bed. It was the weekend. They didn’t have prices online so I looked in the online catalog and they said that there was a store around my area that sold that brand. I called them up and had no idea how much it was. The price wasn’t in the catalog. I had to call the warehouse. It was a weekend and they were closed on Mondays. So I figured, “Gee, it’s Sunday. Let me see if I could find out how much this thing is.”

I called the store that the manufacturer said carried their merchandise. I said, “I’m interested in this bed and I understand that you have it.” They said they did and they had it in stock, and I could come and look at it. And I said, “How much is it?” She said the manufacturer’s retail price is $10,700 for the bed, not the mattress, a queen size bed. And I said, “Oh, isn’t that nice?” She continued, “And we have it for $8,700.”

I said, “Oh, how lovely.” I said you gotta be crazy, you wouldn’t even spend that much money on a full bedroom set. So I called the warehouse on Tuesday and it was $2,700. So I bought from the manufacturer which was a self-sustainable forest in upstate New York. It was a really nice and gorgeous stuff. I also bought a side table, a night table and a dresser -- all different pieces from that manufacturer.

When I bought the dresser, the bed, an end table, a night table, plus a recliner chair from BarcaLounger they were having a special on. Everything cost me about the list price of the bed. And I ordered two lamps, one standup floor lamp like an apothecary pharmacy lamp, and a lamp that took about eight months to get but I loved it so I waited for it. But the mattress was another thing. Now that they had in their warehouse I went to look at it. They had them in a bedroom setup. And it was a very nice memory foam and it was a branded name and I looked it up. DirectBuy had it for $1,000. I looked it up on the manufacturer’s website and it was $2,500. I said, “Okay. I’m gonna get this thousand dollar.” And I paid for it. And two weeks later before the furniture was delivered, I got a call from the DirectBuy office, saying that they now had a special on the mattress and it was $600 and they were sending me a check back for $400.

I would always recommend DirectBuy to people who are building houses. I said, “I’m not talking about furniture, but you can get your flooring, tiles, marble, granite, cabinetry, moldings and everything including screws and nails. If you have a builder, they’ll deliver it to the street and the builder can bring it in." So it’s well worth it for somebody who just bought a new house or is building a house -- saving thousands and thousands of dollars.

But it’s difficult to find things. I was looking for office chairs for a waiting room and I didn’t know how to look them up. There’s thousands of them at DirectBuy, for all different prices. But there was no way for a more detailed selection and that’s a complaint that I have. To look through thousands of chairs, it takes hours. There are things that are more discounted than others. Like if you buy a name-brand appliance, you might get a few hundred dollars off and you might do better off buying it from Home Depot or Lowe’s. But the cabinetry specially if they have a special on it, like club exclusives, is very good and I like it. So I have to rejoin DirectBuy every year. I'm very happy with my selections and prices.

You can look-up a brand which is nice. If you see something in a store that you like, you check to see whether DirectBuy has that brand. They weren’t advertising what I was looking for years ago so I called them up and they helped me get it. But now they don’t have a warehouse anymore. Everything’s online, but it's fine. I had gotten prices for outdoor furniture which I never ended up buying, but I will eventually and it will be from DirectBuy.

I placed my full order on May 21st (bedroom sets, dining table and chairs, sofas and chairs, tables, washer and dryer, dressers, bunk beds, mattresses, etc). Today, June 19th the only item I have received is the Washer and Dryer and no one has even contacted me to schedule delivery for any other item. I spoke with Drew from the escalations department. I wanted to cancel my remaining items that haven’t shipped, and get my membership refunded. She was completely unwilling to help or understand. She just kept saying "you're past your 30 days to cancel, and there is no one else you can talk to about it." Even though, I was not even notified until after 30 days that the items weren't available or they were delayed. She even said they couldn’t tell which items had shipped, and every manufacturer would have to be contacted separately.

The worst part, I even asked the sales rep before I purchased my membership, if it would be possible to coordinate the delivery for all the items, and he said "he was sure they could, just use the concierge service". This was a LIE! I can't even get furniture items before 3 months, or items fulfilled that aren't discontinued. At this point, coordinated delivery was the least of my concerns, but that was flat out a lie. The sales guys will tell you anything to get you to buy. I even asked Drew in the escalations department; “would you really prefer I leave my negative experience on the review websites as opposed to just refunding the membership fee?” She said “I hope you wouldn’t do that, but you are past the 30 days so we will not be refunding your fee.”

Don't fall victim like me. If you are looking to furnish a house, go to a local furniture store, pay a little extra, make a deal with them and get your house furnished in a timely manner. You will save yourself SOOOOOO much hassle, disappointment, stress, etc. Direct Buy savings is not worth your mental health through the process!

The process is much better now in the time that we renewed for the two-year term. Previously, you had to go down to the showroom and do a lot of legwork picking out books, measuring, and that kind of stuff. The online ordering is way more convenient and easier now. Everything that we ordered in this last purchase, we did online.

Purchasing used to be a whole lot easier than it is now. I really don’t care for the fact that they got rid of the showrooms because I found that the selection went down. The selection used to be better because you could actually get in. If you didn’t like what you wanted, you could see something else. Tying to find how to get all the options is harder to do. A lot of the companies have extended selections that all you have to do is order them and order it through DirectBuy. You get it, but it doesn’t say that. I found that out by just ordering something.

It was a whole lot better when there was a person I could work with. Sometimes, working with people on the phone and on the computer is not the easiest thing in the world. I also found that the computer shopping used to be a little better than it is now, too. The number of local installers virtually dried up too. We couldn’t find anybody to do what we needed and we used to be able to all the time.

My purchasing experience with DirectBuy has been easy. I like the concierge-type thing. There were some products that I really want that they're limited on. And I wish they had those products. You could tell they're gonna go hot and then when you call it on, they discontinue it. But they always got good replacements. Still, you fall in love with a beautiful piece of furniture or whatever it may be and you call, and they'd be like, "Oh, we discontinued it." But now, they got concierge and the item I want may not be in the catalog to be sold, but they'll track down who sells it. The quality is A1. It's anything you wanna get. I used to go the showroom and go through the books. If I want a Whirlpool, I'm going in and get Whirlpool. It's whatever you want. I am definitely recommending a friend to DirectBuy.

DirectBuy had stores and some stores had more plumbing than the other store or this or that or they tell could you, “They sell those furniture at this furniture place. Go look at it and then come back.” I kinda missed that ‘cause I kinda like being able to kick the tires before I buy something. This time around, I bought everything on the internet. I used the concierge once, and both the internet and the concierge were very easy, user-friendly and very helpful. The concierge was great. There were two separate ladies that helped me. They were extremely helpful and went out of their way. I've been very pleased and it's a nice option to be able to have that available once.

The items are all high quality and that’s kind of what I'm looking for. If we're gonna spend the money, I want something that’s gonna last and I haven't been disappointed yet. Also, I received my shipment earlier than expected on one thing. I'm waiting for the tub that's supposed to be coming in from Georgia. It's still within the time period when it said it should be shipping out but my bathroom remodel is going a little faster than I had anticipated. But at least on my plumbing, everything else that I had ordered has already come in so that’s great.

Before, the merchandise needs to be delivered to the store. They would check it to make sure that it wasn’t damaged then they would call you to come pick it up. But now, it comes directly to you. So, I was a little nervous ‘cause I gotta check everything just to make sure it's not damaged. I ordered plumbing fixtures and stuff and the delivery person was gone before I even realized that the plumbing stuff was out at the front. They rang the doorbell and by the time I got out there, they were gone. But there wasn’t an issue and everything was well-packed.

However, we bring in things in quantity and before, that has never been a problem because we always go into a local warehouse and then I could pick up the items with my own car. That stopped about a year ago and now, I must use this local shipping company. As a result, we've had so much stock delivered damaged. Also, it costs more money because I have no option to use my own pickup. Instead, I have to use home delivery which is a couple of hundred dollars. Last week, I bought another five or ten levelers. We’re always buying stuff so there are always shipments coming in. The heavy furniture comes in damaged but not in a good way. It’s at the point where we just can’t take the damage.

Still, DirectBuy's act of closing the showrooms and replacing them with a concierge service has been a very positive thing. I’m buying more with the showrooms closed because now I have somebody who looks out for my best interest. I just call up my concierge, Rick, and tell him I need something. We search and the item gets back to me. This is better than going to the showroom where there are 1,500 manufacturer's books and I have to sit there for five hours trying to figure it all out.

DirectBuy is not for everybody and people considering it should know what they're getting into. It's not Amazon or Macy's but if you know what you want and what you're doing, you can save a ton. Also, the shopping experience and their website has been getting better and better. It will probably bring in a broader band of true retail people eventually. But until the website is meticulous, DirectBuy is always gonna have a bunch of people who just don’t get it because they’re used to a more complex website where you buy and everything’s available. People don't have the patience to do a click-through. Still, in the last three years, I've probably spent $250,000 on DirectBuy. I look around my house and there's nothing that I can see that didn't come from there.

The products are great. The hardest thing is finding a good contractor to do the work. The first project we did was the kitchen, and the fellow that we had do it did an outstanding job. Unfortunately, he was not available to come and do the most recent one which is the upstairs bathroom. We had to put it out for a bid and find somebody. I did get in touch with DirectBuy, and they hooked me up with the designer who helped me lay everything out and hooked me up with the cabinet designer who we worked with by email and over the phone. He did a good job and not ever actually coming up here and seeing the project.

I have recommended to a lot of people, especially when they bought a new home or they were building a home, that they should connect with DirectBuy. It’s well worth the price of the initial membership. After we started on this house, we also bought a home out in New Mexico in Las Cruces. It was a brand-new home so all we needed was furniture. So, I bought a lot of the furniture through DirectBuy and that was a pretty good experience. They still have the showroom in El Paso and someone there helped us go through the books and find what we were looking for, and it worked out really pretty well. However, you can’t go into the showroom anymore and ordering is tricky. It turned out we did run into a problem where the designer ordered the wrong size for the shower door. Now I’m sitting with a brand-new shower door in my garage that I can’t use.

When they had a showroom, I used to enjoy going there. But since they have a smaller area, I haven’t been there at all. So, if I had a bigger showcase, then I would go there and sit around, and order a few things here and there. But now, I feel that I only have online to buy on internet, and so that is restrictive. So, I’m not buying much stuff. Still, whatever I did buy were really good. But we bought a bench, and it was broken. So, then, we had to wait another few weeks for it to be delivered back. I think things should not be broken when we go there to see the delivery. I like DirectBuy overall.

I have no complaints on the cost and quality. You’d always like things to be less expensive, but for the quality that we’re getting, the pricing is very good. I’m quite happy with the service that we had. If someone has some reasonably large purchases in mind over the next while, it would be worth their while to join DirectBuy.

Most of the stuff I've purchased and done are furniture and home repairs. But I didn't get some of the stuff from DirectBuy because they were taking too long to give it to me. The shipment costs get you as well. When I was living in Delaware, I was beating the taxes but the shipment cost was really high. This year, I bought furniture and my bed. I like to buy my stuff early when I see sales and I mostly get furniture stuff from them because my supplies and tile would be more beneficial for me because I'm local, considering the weight. The one bad experience I had was when I ordered one of those recliner beds and I got the wrong bed.

I never had a problem with the people in the concierge though. I like the internet when purchasing but sometimes, it's best to go there. They can work it better. When we try to compare prices and look at different items, that has still been a little difficult. You gotta have some of the numbers to actually identify the stuff but sometimes, they know the names so I usually have better deal going through them. Back when DirectBuy first started, this is what I used to love about them. They used to have sample stuff that they will buy to show you and then they will let you buy that stuff sometimes. But now, there's no warehouse to go to. I used to come pick the stuff up myself. Now, you can't even go do that. They have to ship it to a place.

I also don't like the different type of people that took over on it but I don't get any consideration for that. They also have this travel thing involved now and we had a little misunderstanding when I first joined. The rep was telling me one thing and we had a few differences of opinion. We were at the airport and they couldn't match the stuff. We cancelled it and I had a problem getting my money back for a little while. But overall, I like the program. Despite the little personal things or issues I had, it's still a gem overall because it was revolutionized from what I've seen. I have some misunderstandings but most of the stuff were adjusted or corrected as well. There were a few things I didn't like. But there are some perks about keeping things exclusive too. I've been satisfied with all my furnitures and purchases from them.

Respectfully Kurt

After ordering appliances, they send an email saying what warranties they offer and the prices, and then it adds to the process a little bit. It would be nice to have some information offhand on the warranty itself. They could provide more information on that on their website. The last purchase we made with them was two weeks ago. We had some issues with that and we've had to use the warranty already. They responded quickly and it is being fixed. We've been pretty happy with DirectBuy. Initially, the sign up was pretty expensive, but to keep the membership going is fine. It's not expensive.