Posted on 02/24/2008 9:47:30 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
I posted this warning thread for everyone.
God will sort us all out.
Oh, a non answer.
I joined their previous incarnation in 1985, to furnish my house, after a move from California to Colorado.
The price then was $1100 - $1200.
But!
The fine print said that if you don’t save that much over the term of the contract, you get your money back.
Surprise!
I shopped carefully and beat their prices on major purchases.
I also maintained careful records.
I actually got my money back.
My message is, if you shop carefully, you get a better selection, and save even more money, not to mention the membership headache.
Shopping carefully is much easier in this internet age!
I talked to an honest rep at a home and garden show, and she told me that unless you are doing $30,000 in improvements, the savings probably won’t offset the costs of joining.
My best guess is that Direct Buy believes that talk show listeners are a bunch of mind numbed robots who will do whatever their favorite host tells them to do.
“a bunch of mind numbed robots who will do whatever their favorite host tells them to do.”
______________________
So that explains why while choking on a claw from a Lobstergram, I fell out of my Select Comfort bed (I am a 4 by the way) and landed with a thump on my Bellawood floors from Lumber Liquidators. Fortunately, the resulting dent was covered by their 50 year warranty, the best in the business.
Coyote, do you think the anecdote about the Galapagos Islands would be good for a chuckle on TOS?
Cheers!
What is TOS?
Short, probably somewhat misremembered Cliff Notes version is that a particular FReeper who used to post a *LOT* of science threads had as his FReeper home page a bunch of posts and links favoring Darwinian evolution.
Many of the science threads became wide-ranging flamewars, mainly between Christian biblical literalists and Darwinists -- with a couple odd lots thrown in.
Somewhere in the midst of all this, the one FReeper's home page was taken down without consent or warning; it had a large number of links and posts in favor of Darwinism.
Some time later, another site appeared, Darwin Central, which was inhabited primarily (but NOT exclusively) by disgruntled pro-Darwinists from the flamewar crevo threads.
Fast forward to roughly July of 2006 or so. There was a particularly nasty thread, which I missed most of, being on a vacation trip to Alaska -- in which I am told one poster went really postal, and posted the real-life name and other information about another poster...
Apparently the whole thread got yanked; and as another result, over the next several months a large number of the pro-evo posters either got banned or submitted their opus.
Mixed feelings about it, I think it could have been handled somewhat better all around; although a fairly largish percentage of the main posters on DC are admitted atheists, and occasionally would post things here just to stir things up and laugh at the responses.
I have tried to maintain good diplomatic relations with some of them, although I did ask for a slapdown on one person posting "Hitler was a Christian" stuff. IIRC, my post read, ("do we have to put put with this crap on Christmas Eve?") with the result he was banned from FR. My stock over on the other site has subsequently plummeted.
To be fair, I lurked on DC after said banning, and the guy admitted over there that he was doing it for the sake of intellectually sharpening his claws, more or less, to see if people could back up their indignation with rhetorical / logical skills...
Long-winded answer to a short question.
Cheers!
Thanks. Think I’ll drop in for a stroll.
Yeah. Sounds like a typical time share. Although, some are more high-pressure than others.
Oh yeah ... they try to sell it as an investment. I don’t know how many of those young shmucks told me their goal was to be a millionaire by age xxx. And buying some shares at this particular property was a major part of their strategy.
I sell and install kitchen and bath cabinets and countertops to full-time real estate investors who also regularly buy everything Direct Buys can possibly offer - appliances, plumbing fixtures, etc. These guys spend a LOT of money on all that every year and none of it is spent with Direct Buys. These are bottom line-oriented guys who have all rejected the pitch. That should tell the average homeowner all they need to know about it.
“50 year warranty”? That’s nothin’ - I offer a lifetime warranty: if you complain, we kill you. Warranty’s expired.
I’ve heard that one several years ago....funny as he!!
It took years to bring "Smiling Bob" to heel, but this last weekend that company's brass got 20 years for fraud. It just takes time.
That is funny...I had a buddy who sold time shares...social buddies with him & his wife. He finally talked me into doing it - me & a girl friend did a long week-end in Cancun or Mazatlan...some place in Mesco (this was in the early ‘80’s). The sales dude tried the exact pitch on us. We were ready. We chose...Easter Island. He fumbled about and went through several listing books and couldn’t come close to finding anything. We just told him that was the deal-breaker...Sorry!
Of course we didn’t tell him that there are no accommodation’s on Easter Island and its about a 45 minute flight from the mainland to get there. We had been there the previous year...heh heh heh.
Well, Rudy was the "Direct Buy" of the GOP primary: fradulent claims of being such a great deal, but in the end not worth the price of admission.
great analogy!
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