Commercials for Direct Buy
Have any of you signed up for directbuy? I see the commercials on tv late at night and have always wondered if it is a good deal. That and the SMC commercials! (I love infomercials!) By the way, I just bought the pedi-egg, the cheese grater thing shaped like an agg for your feet- it works amazingly. You should see my hubby’s before and after (my darned camera is still in Ocala, they are suppose to mail it back ASAP!)
Back on topic- any one have experience with direct buy or SMC? I would love to hear your thoughts on those two!
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Eve, 26, housewife, blogger, located in Lake City, FL 32024
Comments (3 comments)
DirectBuy appears to be a scam, and SMC doesn’t look good either.
Check out:
http://www.infomercialscams.com/scams/direct_buy_scams
http://www.infomercialscams.com/scams/smc
That site is good for checking on other infomercials, too.
Meg from The Bargain Queens & All About Appearances / January 21st, 2008, 2:41 pm / #
thanks meg- great info!!
Eve / January 22nd, 2008, 9:55 am / #
DirectBuy isn’t a scam, but their sales approach is pretty cheesy and has led most to believe it is a scam because of it.
DirectBuy makes no money selling items, so it makes a profit on membership. The membership is high, so you have to be buying a lot of high-margin items to make it worthwhile.
It makes perfect sense if you are:
- buying a large new home and need to furnish it
- doing a major remodel of your home
It makes no sense (and therefore feels like a scam) if you are:
- living in a fully furnished home and have no plans to move
- have no plans to make major purchases on an on-going basis
- are not interested in high-end or late model products that have the highest markup in stores
The way you recoup your membership fee and even come out way ahead with big savings is on furniture, mattresses, window treatments, flooring, and high-end/late model appliances and electronics. These are products that have a high retail markup, are not discounted as often, and even when appear to be on sale still have a lot of retail margin.
You will never recoup your savings if you are looking at older models of electronics/appliances that are going to be heavily discounted at stores desperate to unload old inventory before tax time.
DirectBuy would probably lose it’s image as a scam if it more narrowly marketed to new homeowners, remodelers, and the affluent who like high-end/high-markup products. These are the ones that DirectBuy makes sense for and can create real savings for. Unfortnately, they market to *everyone* and 90% of people do not fall into one of those categories.
DoggyDog / April 16th, 2008, 8:14 pm / #
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