DirectBuy Pressured Me Into Membership But Won't Let Me Buy Anything I Want

It’s kind of like DirectBuy is just refusing to be cool, ever, even once: Adding to the long list of complaints we’ve received and read about, a woman who says she was pressured into buying a $5,000 membership to the home club says she hasn’t been able to buy anything she actually wants from them. Wait a darn tootin’ second, DirectBuy is being difficult? Go figure!

Karen O. wrote in to The Star Telegram complaining about her experience at the Fort Worth, Texas location. She says:

I can be intelligent at times, but when I joined DirectBuy I was grasping at straws to get my mobile home repaired. It was falling down around me. The floor had large holes. I saw the TV commercials and flew from my home in Midland to the Fort Worth location. DirectBuy promised it could help and rushed me into signing and leaving their showroom. I paid $5,000, but since then, I have not been able to purchase anything that I want from them. Their prices were higher than what I found at Lowe’s Home Improvement and Best Buy, so I bought everything I needed there. Is there anything I can do to get my money back from DirectBuy? You have been a lifesaver to others.

Dave Lieber of the Star-Telegram advised her to send a letter demanding a full refund, or take her case to arbitration.

DirectBuy is known for their “buy a membership now or leave and never, ever come back” high-pressure sales tactics, along with other terrible practices like not letting a woman even tour the showroom without her spouse present, or even, without letting a lesbian woman get their sales pitch without her partner.

When Lieber attempted to ask some questions of the Fort Worth store about their controversial selling practices, he was met with the usual runarounds from their spokesperson, including the fact that he was unhappy that “irresponsible media outlets brushed off their duty of fair and balanced reporting and chose instead to run inaccurate reports based on misinformation and hearsay.”

Perhaps instead of just bemoaning your awful reputation, the company could start working on better business practices. Just a thought.

Have you had bad experience with DirectBuy? Or, shock us — have you had good ones?

Woman pays thousands to join buying club, but can’t get merchandise she wants [Star-Telegram]

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