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.

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.

At one point we even ordered wedding invitations through DirectBuy. And we actually got to see the wedding invitation before we ordered 200 wedding invitations. The girl said they were gonna send us a sample and showed us what it was gonna look like. So, we had one sample that they made up for us, and then, we sent it. It was perfect. The girl was awesome because we used to do it with Leanne for 10 years. I would just phone her and say I was looking for this. She would say okay and when I would get there, she'd show me. She'd make sure they've got it all put aside. There was more help, where now, it's a little bit different.

So, now, the reason I don’t like it is because when I look at flooring on the internet, how can I tell what it looks like? So, I have to go running around. I have to phone stores and ask if they sell this kind of floor or color. So, it's a little bit awkward. If I'm going to go all online and catalog-shopping, to me, paying what I do for a membership is crazy ‘cause I'm doing it all myself.

I also find their website horrible. I was on it last night. I was looking for Napoleon Fireplaces. I put in “fireplaces” and then, it said there isn’t anything in that name. So then, I put in “Napoleon” and I got one Napoleon fireplace which came from one of their catalogs and the rest was furniture that had names with Napoleon in it. Also, when I was looking for a certain name brand of furniture, if it's Hooker, I could put Hooker in, and I might not have it on their website, but when I phoned and asked if I could get that, they said yes.

One time, I had an order and it was supposed to come in and it was white, and I told the girl the numbers and everything else. She ordered it, I got it, she had written in the order form that it was seashell white. But when I got it, it was gray because the number didn’t correspond with what she wrote. I didn’t know the number because it wasn’t on their site. So, it's still better to deal in person if we can.

I am a firm believer in DirectBuy. So, I'm still here. I would probably keep my membership because I will probably do another move again and nothing ever fits the same, but DirectBuy is just sometimes a bit of a pain. The other day with my husband, he asked why are we even bothering. We might as well just pay the extra 500 bucks and just go get it because I'm running around like crazy trying to research it and I couldn't. I would recommend DirectBuy to a friend as far as the price, but I don't know if I would recommend to a friend the way it's gone because brick and mortars cost money. But for some people, we need that one-on-one service rather than talking on the phone.

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.