Direct Buy

[Snug 2]

I will be building a new home in early 2009. I keep seeing the ads for "Direct Buy" and how I can save money buying direct. The smaller and smarter part of my brain says it is a scam. The larger beer driven part of my brain says ask Ifish...

Okay everyone, what can you tell me?

Thanks.

[Fishingfanatic]

My uncle is a member of it and uses it for his rental properties. He says he averages about 40% savings.

[Space]

Go with your gut instinct. You were right the first time. Look into Contract Furnishings Mart(CFM). They can help on cost.

Space

[Small Fry]

We set through their membership spiel and walked away wishing we had those 2 hours of our life back. I suppose if your going to spend 10s of thousands of dollars and don't mind the hassle of going there and ordering and waiting for orders to come in it might not be to bad.

Oh ya did I mention the $ 6,000 membership sign up fee and the annual fees?

[Shortbus Flashers]

With a policy of no returns period, it would make me a little worried.

Let me tell you being in the business of plumbing and hardware sales, people will make mistakes be it you, the specifier or the builder. One number difference can be huge, with one mistake killing all of your savings on a product that will be sold at a garage sale for pennies on the dollar.

Stick with a local store employing local people. The knowledge you can get from them will be worth a couple of bucks. And if something is wrong you have someone you can go back to, not dealing with the factories direct

[blackdog]

I don't know any of the specifics of their memberships, but a buddy of mine is a member and I've bought a few things through him. On a new king bed we saved $1750 ($750 vs $2500) over the 'sale' price at our local retailer. And on a new Dyson vaccum, we spent around $150 compared to the $490 retail.

It would seem like real savings could add up awfully quickly if you were furnishing a house.

[mike5097]

Google it.
One site I found had about 40 pages of complaints and regrets.
It doesn't look to promising.

[byebyeducky]

Does the saying "You get what you pay for" come to mind? Keep in mind the local economy, the service and the warranty you can get from buying from a local supplier.

I'm not saying they are a bad company, because I don't know.

[bassettmama]

I was pulled into one of those scams, paid $1500 start up fee, and then yearly (lifetime) maintence fees, to supossedly save 40% on any appliances and furnishing. Never again. The place then closed, a few years later, taking everyones money. I don't know about this company, but it is too familiary for comforts sake. I promised myself that I would warn anyone thinking of these "discount" companies of what could happen. Just check them out really throughly before buying into anything

[Just_learning]

NOt too familiar with them. But the company I work for, we recently had a Sr. Vice President who was extremely well known in this organization (250k+ people) leave to open his own.

He raved about it, but said its good if you are spending a lot of money to refurbish or building a home.

[Swift Fly Guy]

Don't do it......You would be much better off focusing on a proper buyout of the contracts on your home. That's where the savings are at on building your own home. Get a minimum of three written quotes for everything based on your written specs, scopes of work and take offs. Follow a set way of buying out the items and you will save tons of cash and get a higher quality home for less.
Companies like this can not save you any money over what you can save on your own!

[mitch]

I Googled it and besides a few plant positive feed backs everyone said it was a scam. Its your money but 6k plus just to "belong"?!? Heck, I thought 50 bucks for Costco was marginal.