Yesterday, my husband and I went to a sales pitch at a Direct Buy showroom. Having seen the infomercial, it seemed like it might be a good deal so we went with open minds. Once we got there we sat through a long presentation that seemed on point. The surprise came when we were told we had to sign rght then or never and the price was $4000 for two years with the option to renew for another 8 years at about $160 per year.
That seemed steep but we figured we would look around and see. That's when we knew this was really a big scam. We were not allowed to look around but when I insisted I was told I could do a price comparison of only a particular item. Since I had recently been looking into replacing our patio furniture, I asked for the Direct Buy price on a particular set I had just looked at two days before at a local retail store. Well the Direct Buy price was double what I saw in the retail store. The sales rep said it must be a typo so I provided another piece to the set and not surprisingly, once again their price was double. The sales rep checked with her boss and then gave us some lame excuse that their price list was out of date.
I then gave her another item to check out for me in a totally different category. This time she claimed the price list was missing. She then asked if we were ready to sign up. Of course we said no and high tailed it out of there. What are the odds that I randomly search for two specific items and they just happen to be errors or missing info on their part? I suspect that maybe some big ticket items like carpeting might be good deals but laying out $4000 to see if I can find a good deal is just way too stupid. They claim that you can't look around before signing up because that is against their rules but in the formal sales pitch they have no problem quoting actual prices and comparing them to retail prices. Based on what I asked them to compare for me, I have to wonder if their price list in the sales presentation was totally bogus.
BarbaraBlue Bell, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
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