Direct Buy

[winterulez]

Was just wondering if anyone has any experience with them, gonna go check them out one day, and see what all they have. Gonna build a new house in the spring, might be a better way of buying stuff and saving a bit of cash. Just wondering the pro's and con's with direct buy before i go in there.

 

[GRIZZLYCAT]

Funny enough i worked for this company quite a few years ago(10). They have some big savings, but it is a very high pressure sale process with a membership fee involved.
If you are building a home you would really benifit from this place.

~Grizz

 

[buck50]

i have a membership, and for the same reason as you are thinking of getting one. i just finished building my house. the membership is VERY expensive, BUT the savings more than made up for it. the exact cabinets that i have from direct buy i had quotes from several other places, all around $30 000. i paid $11 000 from direct buy. windows were $33 000 from several sources, i paid $19 000 from direct buy. pretty much all i used them for, and that paid for the membership several several times over. could have bought more, BUT it's a bit confusing to order chit all the time, and it does take TIME to get there, roughly 3-8 weeks. plus, you have to pick it up at the warehouse that THEY tell you, you can't have it shipped directly too you. so living out of calgary or edmonton presents challenges. like i said, i saved HUGE, but it did cost quite a bit up front

 

[Scuba]

My sister is a member of direct buy and really enjoyed it while they were building their house they saved thousands but you better make sure that you have the $$ to get a membership.....I think last i heard that a membership was just over $4200 but i could be wrong

 

[08154XP]

I have a friend at work that is building a new house and bought a direct buy membership but never used it for anything. All of the companies around here were so close to the price of direct buy that it was not worth the hassel. Maybe now that things have slowed down they have stopped gouging the customer in Alberta and got back to fair profit margins. Here's hoping as I am building next spring as well.

 

[Quagmire]

Biggest waste of money. $5000 membership fee. Prices don't include the shipping and handling fees. 15% on top of the price. Takes for ever to get what you order. I waited 2 months for a freezer.JMO...

 

[RETODD]

We found them VERY high pressure, almost cult'ish "if you don't purchase our zillion dollar membership tonight you are no longer eligible", "Can we think about it" ..."No, now or never"....the guy went as far as saying that we'd never be invited back if we did not buy that evening.

I told him to play hide and go fawk himself...no way I'll be pressured into chit like that...gotta be a catch somewhere.

Now...that being said...we have friends that swear by it BUT...it seems to me that they have to "settle" on what they can choose from...yes the got the nice living room furniture but not exactly what they wanted...yes they got the plasma TV...but not the one with all the features they were looking for.

I'm not about 'settling" to save a few bucks...factor in the ridiculous cost of "being allowed to shop" not too sure it is really worth it.

My 2 cents.

 

[bigdaddy35]

The membership fee is about $5grand.

 

[dlg27]

I am a home builder in saskatoon and bought a membership there thinking I would save a ton of money but after paying the 4400 membership and comparing prices to my suppliers I have found that I can get most stuff cheaper from my suppliers. I priced out a whole appliance pkg through direct and would have saved $400 bucks through them but then would have had to pick it all up and deliver it myself. You can save alot of money through them for home furnishings I have found but for building a house you are just as well going through your localsupplier

 

[JaySimon]

I am a home builder in saskatoon and bought a membership there thinking I would save a ton of money

This makes sense, you are getting contractor pricing from a wholesaler no? If that is true, of course it wouldn't work for you. For the homeowner who is likely paying 15-25% more than you on the same items, the direct buy may be a better bet.

Now if a guy could get his hands on wholesale pricing, he/she would be laughing, but wholesalers won't give out that pricing to protect contractors. At least that's how we did it when I was working at a plumbing wholesaler.

 

[summit889]

This makes sense, you are getting contractor pricing from a wholesaler no? If that is true, of course it wouldn't work for you. For the homeowner who is likely paying 15-25% more than you on the same items, the direct buy may be a better bet.

Now if a guy could get his hands on wholesale pricing, he/she would be laughing, but wholesalers won't give out that pricing to protect contractors. At least that's how we did it when I was working at a plumbing wholesaler.

Anyone can get wholesale pricing, just have to be persistant.

 

[JaySimon]

Anyone can get wholesale pricing, just have to be persistant.

That may be true for sure. I guess it depends on who you deal with, but the wholesaler is smart to keep his pricing competitive for the contractor. You may see 50,000 from one homeowner, but if you piss off their contractor, he may take away 300,000 of business a year to the competition. You may get better pricing, but I would wager you don't get the contractors pricing.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[blastoff]

I looked into it did not work for me, Because you buy all your sh!t in the big city then try to get local contarctors to install it. GOD LUCK with that, its part of the game for the contarctors to make a dollar on the supplies.
I feel the local suppliers do move on there items. Last summer I did a major reno job for 6 to 7 months with local contractors and supplies bought local this was still in the boom era and now to do this you would be hooped with trying to buy out of town using local contractors. Support your local economy!!!!

 

[JaySimon]

buy all your sh!t in the big city then try to get local contarctors to install it. GOD LUCK with that, its part of the game for the contarctors to make a dollar on the supplies.[/SIZE]

Yea, thats how they make a living. Without that kick back on supplies, a contractor won't make enough to stay in the business.

In the end, if a guy buys in town, hes supporting local business, which is an awesome thing in my opinion.

 

[buck50]

Biggest waste of money. $5000 membership fee. Prices don't include the shipping and handling fees. 15% on top of the price. Takes for ever to get what you order. I waited 2 months for a freezer.JMO...

for me, i knew i wasn't going to buy appliances from them, and they told me up front it probably wasn't worth it with shipping and what not. and they say right up front it could take up too 8 weeks to receive orders. but if building a new house or doing a complete reno, it works! like i said, only bought kitchen cabinets and windows thru them and we saved about 30 G's. so for the 5G's to sign up, it was well worth it. probably never buy anything there again, as it is on the far side of calgary from where i live, and a pain in the arse to pick stuff up, but it worked well for what i needed it for! and the shipping and handling wasn't that bad! on our cabinets, that priced out at $30 000 at every other store we went to, and that we paid $11 000, including shipping and handling. the cabinets were actually around $10 500, with about $500 for shipping and handling!

 

[buck50]

I looked into it did not work for me, Because you buy all your sh!t in the big city then try to get local contarctors to install it. GOD LUCK with that, its part of the game for the contarctors to make a dollar on the supplies.
I feel the local suppliers do move on there items. Last summer I did a major reno job for 6 to 7 months with local contractors and supplies bought local this was still in the boom era and now to do this you would be hooped with trying to buy out of town using local contractors. Support your local economy!!!!

i did all installs of stuff i bought from direct buy, which was cabinets and windows, that's it!

 

[Cowboyup083]

I look into direct buy last year, The wife and did some reno's in and around the house, It did not pay for us. When we started shopping around we found the stuff that we were looking for the same price or cheaper then Direct Buy.

The membership was way to much around $4000, No delivery's out side of edmonton.

 

[ESOX]

If I need a product from somewhere and/or someone to install or do some work, I always work from myself outward. Meaning, if I can't or don't want to do it- call a friend, if he can't do it- call local community folks...etc,etc. I agree, support your local economies. That being said...we all get to choose!

 

[dwayne2960]

built a new house last year bought a membership. bought appliances and flooring, and curtains, prices were good but takes a lot of time going through their catalogs!!! They say you can shop on the internet but thats very weak. found them to be a hassle to deal with!!! We did not have enough time to order window and cabinets. pretty hard to beat the quality of local built custom cabinets we found.

 

[Ryeser]

Saw this on CBC - Marketplace...




I would not join...