First visit to DirectBuy

Well...buying everything at manufacturer price is very tempting...but...$5000 membership fee?!
HOLD IT!

June 30th 7:30pm, Grace and I made our first visit to the Direct Buy Toronto show room... we didn't get out there until 2 .5 hours later...
When we first arrived, a sales guy named Sal took us a quick walk around the show room and got us coffee. Surprisingly enough, there were actually a lot of people flipping through catalogues and shopping for their homes at the show room centre. Then we sat down with Sal and started talking about random stuff...from job occupation to traveling to food to something I can't even remember. About 15 min later, another sales guy came and put Grace and I in a room with a big HD TV in front of us along with 6 other people. The second sales guy started with an introduction about the company and how it works, then we were put to the "brain wash mode" with the 30min-long professionally done advertising video clip. We even went through a classroom excercise brain storming the items that you would need to buy for the next 10 years of your life - cars, furnitures, grocery, gas, flooring, electronics...etc. and guess what, they could ALL be purchased at 20-60% off retail price for the REST OF YOUR LIFE! Sounded great, didn't it? The sales guy even provided flyers from Best Buy, Home Depot and compared the prices...all sounded so real! Here came in the big secret after listening to the well-directed program for 1 hour, the membership fee is $5990 for the first 3 years! Yeah, you wondered why they did not put this number out in the front when you first came in, now THAT was why. After the group session was finished, Sal came and picked us up to a small table and said "so, do you have any questions?" Grace and I used up every drop of our brain power and asked many questions...but the answers were just getting more blurry and I found that the guy was just repeating himself with the same argument over and over...Anyway, so at the end, we were like, "We need to consult our parents, can't we get back to you tomorrow?" The answer we got was "Well, it is our policy that you must make the decision on the day of your open house, and if you decide not to join, you'll never be able to get the same offer again!!" Then I called my mom and explained to her the situation, she said "No" and that was the end of it! hahahaha....
After we got out of the building, we were quite happy about our decision, because in order to really save more than 6000 dollars, we need to at least spend 25k (in cash) or more cuz not everything will be saving at 50%, some only save 10%! Also, if the product and service were so good, why did they need to pressure people to make the decision in such a short time? Something was fishy about it I said to myself...Besides,I say,if everyone buys from manufacturer, then the retail stores will disapear...and job opportunities will decrease, then the economy will crash! so in order to save the world and stimulate economy, (and save myself from a 6000 contract), I decided to stay away from DirectBuy!!

Later that evening, i got this link from david, http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2009/the_price_cut_promise/main.html


PHEW~~