DirectBuy franchise in Southwest Roanoke County closes
A DirectBuy franchise in the Madison Square Shopping Center on Electric Road closed this week.
A local DirectBuy franchise has closed. Reporter Brian Kelley has the story:
A DirectBuy franchise that opened in Roanoke County two years ago has closed, the Indiana-based membership-only shopping company confirmed today.
Customers received e-mails this week about the closure and a letter posted on the door of the store at 4082 Electric Road in the Madison Square Shopping Center near Tanglewood Mall tells “members and guests” that neither new members nor merchandise orders are being accepted.
The franchise owners made the decision to close the Roanoke County store, said company spokeswoman Sara Butler. The store’s slightly more than 1,000 members are being offered access to the company’s online Home Shopping Program, and may shop at any DirectBuy store location. The closest stores to Roanoke are in Gray, Tenn., between Kingsport and Johnson City, or in Richmond.
Orders already placed and not yet picked up will be delivered through 3PD, a freight consolidator based in Lynchburg, and online orders will be shipped there as well. “We’re making every effort to continue their service uninterrupted,” Butler said.
The Merrillville, Ind.-based company considers the Roanoke region “a great territory,” Butler said. “We’d love to get some ownership back in there and get a physical location back opened.”
If you are a DirectBuy member in the Roanoke region and would like to talk about the closure or your buying experiences there, please contact reporter Brian Kelley, brian.kelley@roanoke.com, or (540) 981-3116.
February 10, 2011 - 12:43 PM
We received the sweepstakes”key” letter and invitation to go to a presentation late last year. I had to all but fight my way out of there to keep from paying Direct Buy over $3000. The salesman bcame very upset telling me I could not leave without signing up. I was wondering about the older people there hearing the pitch and their ability to say no if they did not want to sign up. Direct Buy trains their people to push hard. I’m surprised someone has not done an investigative report on this business. Is there any disclosure on the winners of the prizes they were baiting people with to get them in the store?
Wouldn’t let me in, wouldn’t answer questions about what they had till I joined. Gee, wonder why they didn’t make it. If you act like you don’t want my business, don’t be surprised when you don’t get my business.
My experience with Direct Buy was terrible. We bought in thinking we could get a custom kitchen cheaper through Direct Buy. We made an appointment to get a price on the kitchen cabinets and granite countertops. The price came out $10,000 over having custom cabinets made by a local cabinetmaker. The gave a price on wood and a cheaper cabinet which were just pressboard, not real wood were still much higher than my custom made cabinets.
They do only so much work and then you are on your own to call and get pricing. They have these large binders with bar codes and numbers, so you really have to know what you want to buy before you go in there. It was easier to go to Sears, Lowe’s and Home Depot to pick out your appliances. At least you can see what you are getting.
But wait when you go to the store, the receptionist was so rude when you walk in the door. She pointed to a book and said “Sign in”, then she told us to wait there until she got someone. You are treated you like you were going to steal something.
They feed you a bunch of crap, things are not cheaper through their business. I think that company should not be allowed to continue their lousy business. They should be shut down and people should get their refunds.
I’m no fan of direct sales anything. My experience with direct sales companies are that they almost always pitch products that are several times more expensive than comparable products you can get at a normal store like Lowes or Wal-Mart. They might have something fancy that makes it unique, but the premium price doesn’t justify the costs.
I’ve had experience with companies doing that kind of business before, though more the in-home kind rather than the way DirectBuy did it…but the premise is still mostly the same. We’ve gotten hard sales pitches from Townecraft Cookware, The Pampered Chef, Culligan, and Amway, and I don;t rightly care for them. We flatly turned down Amway and Culligan products because they were way, way too expensive compared to stuff we could get elsewhere. We did get a few small things from The Pampered Chef because we had a hard time finding them in stores. With Townecraft, I’ll say that is the one purchase we really have enjoyed because their cookware is fantastic. We’ve had it for 5 years now and it’s still wonderful. It’s the most durable set we’ve ever owned, and was well worth the cost.
But as soon as I saw DIrectBuy had that membership fee in the thousands of dollars, I balked at ever getting near their showroom. It struck me as more a gimmick than anything. I guess it was.
I have been a member of DirectBuy since 2003 I have saved thousands of dollars. If people think they are not saving on the apples to apples comparisons ie kitchens they are crazy I save over 30000, on my kitchen. On average I save about 30-50% of everything I have bought. Over the past few years I have spent 10,0000. So saving 40,000, has made ahuge inpact on my finacial freedom.