DirectBuy in Pooler closes its doors, some members concerned

Blake Lankford and Lisa Capachione are wondering if being in the "club" is worth it after all. "I just want my money back," Lankford tells me.

She's talking about DirectBuy. Lankford and Capachione just found out the local business in Pooler closed its doors April 8. There's a sign on the door that tells members that there is an 800 number they can call, that they can still shop online and that another local warehouse space has been located.

A statement from DirectBuy is at the bottom of this article. Members who have questions about an existing order can call 800-827-6400 ext. 602 or email savannahorders@directbuy.com. For questions unrelated to a purchase or existing order, members may call 800-827-6400 ext. 197 or email memberrelations@directbuy.com.

Still, the two women who paid about $9,000 for memberships between the two of them are concerned. "I probably would not have joined at all if there hadn't been a local store," Lankford tells me.

Lankford says she and her husband joined about six months ago for a little less than four thousand dollars. Lankford says for her, the savings on any items she might have wanted to purchase really weren't as great as promised. "Not even close," she tells me. "And on top of that they charge you an 8 percent handling fee on most products. Then there's tax on top of that and shipping. Even to ship to the warehouse, you're charged a shipping fee."

Capachione says she and her husband recouped some of their membership fee in savings but says as a professional woman and a busy mother of four, she found the process of ordering the items very time consuming. "The entire place is just a lot of different shelves with huge manufacturer's catalogs," she says. "For example, if you want to buy draperies or flooring, you have to shift through tons of material. Some manufacturers put the DirectBuy price in there but some manufacturers don't, they have the regular retail price. And then you have to multiply it out with a membership factor number. It takes a lot of time and it's very confusing."

Capachione says she found out from a neighbor that the local club location closed last week. "The thing I think upsets and infuriates me is the way that this all transpired. There's a right way and a wrong way to do business," she says.

Lankford says as soon as she heard the local club had closed, she called DirectBuy corporate headquarters asking for a refund. I would just like to be done with Direct Buy but they have said that is not an option," she says.

Ross Howard from the Better Business Bureau says he realizes there's probably a lot of frustration. "Imagine spending thousands on a membership and then finding out the local store has closed," he says. However, he also says DirectBuy corporate does appear to be trying to accommodate local customers. "So they've offered as much as they can possibly offer, telephone numbers, a website, and other information. And while they say they're not going to refund any money, they are going to make it possible for people to make purchases."

Howard says DirectBuy also has several store locations in Atlanta. There's a store in Jacksonville, Florida and one in Columbia, South Carolina.

Still Lankford and Capachione are concerned about how all this has been handled and if new members may be left out in the cold. "Recently, they were still pitching DirectBuy to other unsuspecting people even though I have a feeling a month ago they knew they were going to be closing their doors," says Lankford.

Howard says the BBB has one complaint on file against the local DirectBuy club. "It was filed in the last month over the membership fee," he tells me. Howard does say there may a "question if those in the store knew they were closing and continued to sell memberships."

Howard says if anyone signed up for the club within the past two weeks or before April first "and they would like to share that experience, we'd be curious to know about it," he tells me

Sara Butler, spokeswoman, DirectBuy, Inc. emailed me the following information:

DirectBuy's corporate headquarters stepped in immediately to provide continued services to area members, by way of personalized assistance from our Home Shopping team, a Freight Consolidator located just 1.5 miles from the former Pooler DirectBuy location, and as we DirectBuy's members-only website.

DirectBuy's Home Shopping service enables Savannah members to shop and purchase from the comfort of their homes, using email (homeshopping@directbuy.com), phone (800-647-6733), and fax (219-755-6276 attn: Home Shopping) to correspond with helpful, knowledgeable representatives at DirectBuy's corporate headquarters.

Home Shopping representatives can answer any questions members have, research products, and when available from the manufacturer, provide mailed samples of fabrics and finishes to the member's home. The Home Shopping team is available Monday thru Friday from 10 am to 10 pm EST, and from 10 am to 6 pm EST on Saturday and Sunday. Whenever possible, any orders placed with Home Shopping are shipped directly to the member's home via UPS.

Non-UPS orders will ship to Spirit Delivery Service, located at 27 Artley Road #5 in Savannah. Members can then pick up their merchandise at Spirit Delivery Service, or, make arrangements for home delivery.

In addition to Home Shopping assistance, members have access to DirectBuy's members-only website, members.directbuy.com, where they can browse more than a million products from the comfort of their homes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Members also receive Direction catalog, a quarterly publication featuring new product introductions and special limited time offers directly from the manufacturer on an array of popular home improvement, entertainment and outdoor products, as well as furnishings and accessories. Additionally, depending on their tier of membership, members receive one or two Club Exclusive emails weekly, which feature special, limited time product offers from our top manufacturers - all of which are orderable online. Finally, Savannah members are welcome to shop at any of our more than 150 club locations across North America.

"We appreciate our members continued support, patience, and understanding during this time, and look forward to assisting them with all of their home purchasing needs for many years to come," said Butler.