At BuildDirect, we are often confused with a company called DirectBuy. They spend a ton of money on advertising so I can understand customer confusion.
I am frustrated though, because our models, other than promising the best prices, could not be more different.
One of the fundemental differences is that:
Membership is FREE at BuildDirect. You actually do not even need to be a member to buy.
Searching Google for reviews of DirectBuy points to countless customers talking about the company in a very negative light. Many of the reviews talk of being pressured to pay membership fees of $5,000.00 to get pricing that they could have achieved just about anywhere. I imagine that much of this $5,000.00 goes into advertising to drive new members. Would the model collapse if there weren’t enough new $5,000.00 members?
Some people reviewing the company go as far as saying that the business is an outright scam as seen from these reviews. I will hold my judgment on that.
Other than the membership fees, I can say that from looking at the reviews and how they practice business, there is a more fundamental difference in the way we operate.
That fundamental difference is: Transparency!
At BuildDirect, we feel it is an advantage to be transparent.
Our unedited product reviews are a good example. By sharing openly, even when there is a problem, we learn and improve faster. That way, our customers help us and we have the benefit of increasing trust at the same time.
The thing that we are really trying to achieve by committing to transparency is that there are no “secrets” . We win when we provide the best value in the eyes of the customer.
We endevour to be the best in the world at 1) price, 2) dependable products, and 3) service and shy away from tricks or gimmicks to fool our customers.
Compare transparency with this DirectBuy advertising practice on Google:
The red arrow points to what I would expect would be a neutral review site. I will not say that DirectBuy owns this site because I cannot prove it but I will say this:
It is highly suspicious that any neutral review site would have ALL amazing reviews.
I am not alone in my suspicion.
Many businesses in the past have been successful by hiding facts from customers or being less than transparent. We see it often in the building industry when some competitors “leave out” important details.
My belief is that in this age new age of customer engagement, the great businesses of the future will be more open. Time will tell if I am right. If it is better to be more transparent or not, but the side benefit of building a company this way is that it sure lets me sleep well at night.
I would love your thoughts, comments!
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I have to agree. I’m always suspect of companies that go out of the way to make sure that all publicity is good. In this day as people are more internet savy I think they are starting to understand the difference between real and fake, it also only takes one time of being taken for a ride before you smarten up as a consumer.
Large upfront costs are not desireable either. I personally have known people that have done well with it and maybe they have saved money with compared to retailers and even ‘big box’ stores but the ‘Buy In’ smelled suspicously like those pyramid schemes of the past where it’s more than a company it a culture that you are buying into.
No attacks to DirectBuy directly but my personal experience with them wasn’t so great. I had an appointment with them once and I had to change it due to a family emergency. The rep was not only rude and hounded me on the phone but threatened that I wouldn’t be invited back if I didn’t come to this appointment. While I’m pretty sure this isn’t the attitude of the company as a whole it does speak badly of their practises.
Dave
David you stated, “I personally have known people that have done well with it”
You know someone that saved money with DirectBuy versus retailers, recognizing your very same friends are just as internet savvy as anyone else, and yet you still didn’t visit to compare prices yourself? Bring your BuildDirect prices, or any retailer, and compare them to true “buy direct” prices at DirectBuy and you will quickly find why your friends were smart enough to invest in a membership. Ask yourself, if BuildDirect doesn’t charge a membership, where do they make money? On the products of course. DirectBuy makes no money on merchandise and charges a membership instead. Hiding facts? Does BuildDirect clearly disclose how much money they make on every item you buy from them? Of course not, and they never will. When you visit DirectBuy we clearly state how much money we will make from you and show you how much the merchandise actually costs. In fact the $5,000 membership mentioned above is an upper level membership and you may find there is a membership that fits you better. Only one way to see how much BuildDirect will make if you buy from them, because they will never tell you, is bring their prices to us. If you save money after figuring in the cost of membership, join, if not, don’t. This blog is the perfect indication of the threat DirectBuy presents to BuildDirect and every other retailer. They are going so far as to blog about us to gain search ranking and bash us. You will never see us blog about them. I am here as a concerned employee and member that has seen thousands save money they work hard for. The sites they mention above are online internet marketers that promote DirectBuy for their own gain. Want an independent scoop? Visit ripoffreport.com to see what their investigation revealed about DirectBuy. Then visit and make up your own mind about us after you have all the facts.
Chris
I find a certain irony to your post thinking that I posted this article to “take advantage” of search ranking, because the ONLY reason I posted this was to avoid confusion with the Directbuy brand. The “truth about Directbuy” advertisement that is in the post above is shown when someone types in BuildDirect into a Google search so it seems that Directbuy is intent on creating confusion.
And for your reference….We have sold to Directbuy on a number of occasions. We assume Directbuy marks up our prices to their members and seeing that those members could purchase directly from us with no membership fees, we are not worried about the Directbuy “threat”.
Good morning, Chris (Direct Buy Employee) David & Jeff (Build Direct Employee). Getting touchy this subject about margin, transparentcy and marketing. We are all in business to make money – both of your companies are awesome Direct Buy is all over the TV, no idea how many advertising dollars or whether the P&L makes the campaigns profitable or not – but it is a good concept and drawing customers. Build Direct your company has a Google PR of 5/10 – this is incredible and when you call Build Direct’s 800 number the people are beyond professional – it is almost to the point of frustrating to your cometitors how the phone is seemingly answered before it even rings.
Both of your Business models are different, which one is it the best? Don’t know, time will tell and there may even be some newbie out their with a model that takes us all to the cleaners.
What is eveident is you are both market leaders of your business models, other smaller sites and companies watch and learn.
My point is I would not bother with the arguing back and forth via a blog – David your comments were a little aggressive, I do not know all the facts about DirectBuy so cannot comment on their membership program – but Chris suggests their are different levels that $5,000 – then Chris as an employee and advocate of DirectBuy, we will take your word for it and David owes you an apology. If you are a ‘timeshare’ high pressure membership sales program then it is the free market and you can market/sell products as you wish, but you must feel some twinge of what is ethical and unethical.
Finally the market we are in is some $40bn+ – both of your companies sales combined are unlikely to be more than $200m. Carry on your own battles do the best you can in 2010 – I’d say may the best man win, but due to the small percentage of marketshare their will be no winners here, just be transparent, provide customers with great products and make the internet and ecommerce world proud!
P.S. I bet Direct Buy get’s confused with Build Direct and vice versa
To Jeff’s point above regarding the review site, do a search on Google to see all of the pages on the consumerreviews.org site (type site:http://consumerreviews.org/ into a Google search box). The only reviews on the entire site are for direct buy. Clearly this is a thinly disguised attempt to dupe potential customers into thinking the positive reviews are legit and unbiased.