Direct Buy Of Mississauga

Have been a member for easily 16 years. Used it to purchase all appliances, sofas, etc. when purchasing my first single home and then family home but a lot has changed since then. Internet searching on price comparisons is easier. Boxing Day (now Black Friday) sales are better than DB pricing and even Costco pricing and return policy is extremely competitive. If you are about to do major work on your home or buying a new home and in need of major purchases (not just appliances but everything), this may be the right move for you. If you have the money to buy HIGH end stuff, you will see a significant savings (i.e. $3-400 off on spending $1500-$2k on a fixture) but most folks don't spend that level for a single fixture so your savings might be less than 10% on $400-$500. That's where the 7% handling fee kills the deal. They charge tax on top of that which I believe is wrong. Otherwise, if I had to do it again, I would not. Purchasing in many cases without the benefit of touching and feeling the material/quality is also difficult. Need to spend lots of time trying to find same products in showroom (which is hit and miss). The owner of the Mississauga location is terrible. They tried contacting all our wedding guests (aggressively) that purchased our wedding gifts through DB to get them to sign memberships. Told me (when I complained) that they didn't need my money as the franchise owner paid more in telephone bills each month than my membership was worth (this after I probably spent $15k over a 3 year period). Transferred to the Brampton location where the owners were very nice - unfortunately they closed. Customer Service folks are nice but they spend all their resources on signing new members and little on CS to maintain them and place orders. With the handling fee, picking it up and waiting weeks if not months (that was pre-Covid) to receive it makes this a hard sell. Don't get me started on the pressure techniques when I joined. Membership expiring and don't see the value in maintaining it.

Love DB. Bought most of our major house renovation material through DB. We've bought most of our furniture and lots of artwork through them.

I would do it again. We are happy customers.

Direct Buy has messed with me for the last time. Their service is disgraceful in Mississauga. The deals are not real and you cannot count on them to deliver anything in a reasonable timeframe. After 6 years I'm out and never coming back.

Do not join!!!! Waste of time and money.

We love our DB membership but the staff & services at the Mississauga location need a COMPLETE overhaul. Gordon is the only representative worth his weight in gold! Everyone else gives the impression that you're a bother when you need assistance or ask ask question & they lack knowledge of the products & manufacturers.
The merchants they recommend for delivery, installation services etc. need to be held accountable by DB to uphold the level of quality that should be expected of them. Again, the membership is worthwhile but the Mississauga owner really needs to improve the customer service as a whole.

The title pretty much sums in up. A DirectBuy membership in my opinion is beneficial only to a handy first time home buyer, a home owner moving into a bigger home, or a contractor/decorator. I won't get into many details, but here are some key points. For us, joining Direct Buy was by far one of the best choices we made, though that is only for a few reasons. For starters, the negatives.

First - I was not impressed by the sneaky tactics to get you to join - and by sneaky I do mean absolutely ridiculous. You had to sit through an information session, in which the (admittedly friendly) presenter provided examples of savings, which seemed "too good to be true". Once we sat through the information session, we had a moment (if I recall correctly, it felt like less than half an hour), to sift through some product binders and look at prices. Once we had sifted through, we were told that we needed to sign onto the membership before they closed that night or else we would lose our opportunity to join. As I said - absolutely ridiculous, and just because of that we almost walked out. I still cringe when I think about the tactic.

But as ridiculous as it seemed, we took a chance since we were after all, moving from a 800 sq ft condo to a 3300 sq ft house.

That being said, we have saved a fortune, making up for the membership cost in our first two purchases. Granted - they were large purchased - blinds (hunter Douglas) for the entire house ($4000 savings compared to the SALE price of 3 other "retail" stores, and our dining room table ($1200 savings over the sale price of a few retail stores - even $1000 savings over amazon sale price!)

Since then we have made a few other smaller purchases such as lighting etc, (savings still close to an additional $2000). We would have saved thousands more if we planned to buy our appliances through DirectBuy as well, but opted for higher end brands that were not available.

Long story short - customer service is pretty decent, not the best, but by far not the worst. You do need to be handy and careful that what you order is what you want - I found the best is to find a product in a store you like, and see if DirectBuy carries it, rather than buying just through a photo (I suspect this is where MANY of the negatives review begin). And yes items take some time to come in, so patience is needed as well.

But, If you find a product that works, and you would say "i'll take it" in any retail store - chances are you are better off at Direct Buy.

We don't regret being pressured into the membership, and would recommend the membership only to those in our similar position.

We visited the showroom after seeing the booth at the Toronto Fall Home Show. At the Home Show we paid $20 for two pillows and needed to pick them up at the showroom (it's the way for them to get you in and to sell you the membership). When we got there, you are greeted by a sales person. Who is of course friendly and tries to get to know you. Then you are taken into a room with other people where they have a presentation on what they do, how much membership is, how much you save, etc etc. After the 45 minute presentation, you are again meeting with a sales rep and this is where they push for you to sign up. During the presentation they will tell you it's ok if you don't want to get a membership, but of course it's never the case. They were really pushy and won't let you "think about it". Membership is about $6,000 and they couldn't really answer too many questions on how we can save with our upcoming projects. Therefore, without knowing how much we can save, we didn't want to pay the $6k as there is a risk we will not be able to recoup the money. In the end, after another hour of them trying to push us we walked away. It was getting annoying as they really try to keep you there until you tell them why you don't want the membership. Even though we were brutally honest about the hesitation on why we want to walk away, they will keep telling you "A kitchen reno will make up the cost" but we didn't even say we wanted a kitchen reno. In the end, it was frustrating and we made a mistake in paying the $20 for two pillows at the Home Show.

I can understand why some people are upset with their Direct Buy membership. Maybe you thought you would save a lot of money, but you didn't need quite what you had thought. Direct Buy was very open with me when I was looking into a membership, telling me that the membership is good if you are doing extensive renovations to your home. I saved more than half the price on travertine tile for my bathroom. You can save $200 on one piece of luggage. Our whole bedroom set was $1800 (Kingsized bed, two side tables) which was solid maple, not the composite furniture with the wood veneer on top. Sure you can find cheaper deals at another warehouse, but you will not get the quality. You have to do your homework before you order to make sure that everything is exactly what you want because you cannot return it, this is true. Any damaged furniture is fixed. Yes, sometimes things take more than six to eight weeks to come in, but it's worth it for the savings. I don't use the Mississauga warehouse, I use the Hamilton warehouse, and I have only good things to say about the service I have received there. Some things are a better value elsewhere like electronics, but you have to do your homework.

Direct Buy has been the tool that has helped my husband and I save so much money on our renovations. Everything we have purchased so far, has put anywhere from 30%-50% back in our pocked (when compared to retail). Is direct buy for everyone? I don't think so... but if you want to be a part of an exclusive club where you are purchasing anything you need for your home- at almost half off, then you should be a member.
My husband and are very satisfied Members and will be for years to come! Thank you Direct Buy of Mississauga!

We've been members of Direct Buy for over 10 years and have found that some items are not less expensive once you add their handling fee and taxes but overall we have saved over one third of the cost of furnishings in the retail stores.

Paid almost $6,000 to join DirectBuy, and never recovered my money. Terrible experience, wait time to get the products is suppose to be 4 to 6 weeks, but most of the time it's actually much longer. If the product you order doesn't fit or not what you expected, that's too bad, you're stuck with it! If the product is broken or damaged be prepared for a long process with letter, pictures, etc.... to return it. And the worst of all is going in the showroom to try to find something in one of those complicated books, next to impossible to do. I was a member for 5 years and still had not mastered it. All this to say that I did not renew my membership this year, and just want to warn anyone out there thinking about joining.