Question about our new home...

[bjornolf]

To all you fine folks out there whose opinions I respect greatly-

My wife and I are in the process of building a new home, and we're looking into ways to buy the big stuff/finishing touches for it (appliances, cabinetry, light fixtures, etc.). We keep hearing things about this directbuy place, but most of it's paid advertising by them. Are any of you guys/gals members? The closest centers are too far away to go if it's a waste of time, but close enough if it's really worth it. Do they really have tons of high-quality, name-brand stuff at serious discounts beyond even what the sale prices are? If directbuy's not all it's cracked up to be or anybody has horror stories about them, does anybody have a better idea of a way to get this stuff at prices that won't break me? I've heard their ads, but I want the real scoop.

Thanks a bunch in advance,
Joe

[Highlander]

Not a member, but we bought our appliances through our contractor. She could get a better deal than the GE employee discount, and it was less hassle for us. My wife went to ConsumerReports.org to get model recommendations; our last dishwashwer sounded like a jet engine, and we didn't want a repeat performance.

One other suggestion - we didn't have our appliances moved in until a week or so before we closed. Until you get locks on the doors and an alarm system installed, you're running a serious risk of someone staking out the house and lifting it one evening. We even heard one story about someone who had the kitchen cabinets lifted from a construction house.

[Exiled_Devil]

A quick look on Google gives this page as the second listing - after Direct buy's own page

http://www.infomercialscams.com/scams/direct_buy_scams

It seems like they are high-pressure, and once they have the residual income from people, they don't serve them well. It also looks like they do not allow thorough comparison before signing up, and have a limited supply.

It seems to me that it wouldn't be a good option. My wife and I are in the design phase right now of our home, and this doesn't seem tempting at all.

edit: after reading some examples further, they look like Costco with poor products and a timeshare sales mentality. I highly doubt you could earn back the $6k you spend to join, and the post-purchase support seems to be their biggest weakness. For our house, warranties and support are high on our list of purchase criteria.

My opinion just shifted to "Run away...far far away"

Exiled

[allenmurray]

Spend a little extra money, if not on your appliances then on the other items. Buy your light fixtures from a localy owned lighting store. Buy your cabinets from a local cabinet maker. Later, when you need service you will be glad that you did. Right now you can go to loweshomedepotbigboxhell and get good prices and lousy customer service. Soon those places will destroy all of the local businesses. Then we'll have really cheap prices and no customer service at all.

Finally, if you buy ceiling fans only buy Hunter. I bought a Hunter fan for my bedroom about five years ago. Abouyt a month ago it started making noise on high speed - a slight grinding noise. I called their customer service department and described the problem. The rep said, "it sounds like a bearing - that can't be repaired". He asked for the model number of my fan. I gave it to him and he looked it up. He told me that the model I owned had been discontinued and therefore he couldn't send me a replacement. Instead he told me to go to the web site and find any fan I liked. I found one and he said, "Okay, we'll ship it out in the morniing." I said, "That's it"? He said yes. I told him this was outstanding customer service. His response was to say, "sir, we build our fans to last. If there is a probelm we take care of it. That how we do business." Needless to say, they made me a customer for life. I could have bought a cheap fan from loweshomedepotcostcobigboxhell and saved a few bucks at the time of purchase. I'm glad I didn't.

[Indoor66]

Spend a little extra money, if not on your appliances then on the other items. Buy your light fixtures from a localy owned lighting store. Buy your cabinets from a local cabinet maker. Later, when you need service you will be glad that you did. Right now you can go to loweshomedepotbigboxhell and get good prices and lousy customer service. Soon those places will destroy all of the local businesses. Then we'll have really cheap prices and no customer service at all.

Finally, if you buy ceiling fans only buy Hunter. I bought a Hunter fan for my bedroom about five years ago. Abouyt a month ago it started making noise on high speed - a slight grinding noise. I called their customer service department and described the problem. The rep said, "it sounds like a bearing - that can't be repaired". He asked for the model number of my fan. I gave it to him and he looked it up. He told me that the model I owned had been discontinued and therefore he couldn't send me a replacement. Instead he told me to go to the web site and find any fan I liked. I found one and he said, "Okay, we'll ship it out in the morniing." I said, "That's it"? He said yes. I told him this was outstanding customer service. His response was to say, "sir, we build our fans to last. If there is a probelm we take care of it. That how we do business." Needless to say, they made me a customer for life. I could have bought a cheap fan from loweshomedepotcostcobigboxhell and saved a few bucks at the time of purchase. I'm glad I didn't.

Great advice. In appliances, buy below the top model. The next one down has all the power and essential features without the very-seldom-used bells and whistles.

[bjornolf]

Spend a little extra money, if not on your appliances then on the other items. Buy your light fixtures from a localy owned lighting store. Buy your cabinets from a local cabinet maker. Later, when you need service you will be glad that you did. Right now you can go to loweshomedepotbigboxhell and get good prices and lousy customer service. Soon those places will destroy all of the local businesses. Then we'll have really cheap prices and no customer service at all.

Finally, if you buy ceiling fans only buy Hunter. I bought a Hunter fan for my bedroom about five years ago. Abouyt a month ago it started making noise on high speed - a slight grinding noise. I called their customer service department and described the problem. The rep said, "it sounds like a bearing - that can't be repaired". He asked for the model number of my fan. I gave it to him and he looked it up. He told me that the model I owned had been discontinued and therefore he couldn't send me a replacement. Instead he told me to go to the web site and find any fan I liked. I found one and he said, "Okay, we'll ship it out in the morniing." I said, "That's it"? He said yes. I told him this was outstanding customer service. His response was to say, "sir, we build our fans to last. If there is a probelm we take care of it. That how we do business." Needless to say, they made me a customer for life. I could have bought a cheap fan from loweshomedepotcostcobigboxhell and saved a few bucks at the time of purchase. I'm glad I didn't.

1. you can get hunter fans at the bigboxhell. I've bought them there. I do love hunter fans, though. I was living in my first apartment when the rental company installed one in my bedroom as a "thank you" for renewing after my first year (I had three choices, that was the one I went with). It has survived ten years and three moves and still runs like a champ! And I got it for FREE!

2. Unfortunately, we're moving to the lower Shenandoah Valley, where most of the mom and pop places have already gone under to the "evil empire of WM" as my wife calls it.

3. Just to be devil's advocate, if the mom and pop places are going to go out of business, how am I going to get my great customer service?

-Joe

[allenmurray]

1. you can get hunter fans at the bigboxhell. I've bought them there. I do love hunter fans, though. I was living in my first apartment when the rental company installed one in my bedroom as a "thank you" for renewing after my first year (I had three choices, that was the one I went with). It has survived ten years and three moves and still runs like a champ! And I got it for FREE!

2. Unfortunately, we're moving to the lower Shenandoah Valley, where most of the mom and pop places have already gone under to the "evil empire of WM" as my wife calls it.

3. Just to be devil's advocate, if the mom and pop places are going to go out of business, how am I going to get my great customer service?

-Joe

The comment on Hunter was separate from the comment on big box stores. I actually bought mine at Lowe's (the local lighting place carries an incredibly limited selection of fans). As for the last comment - you might be right - that is why we have to patronize them while we still have a chance!

Good luck with the move.

[bjornolf]

I could have bought a cheap fan from loweshomedepotcostcobigboxhell and saved a few bucks at the time of purchase. I'm glad I didn't.

I obviously didn't read that right, cause it seemed your final fan comment was tied into the bigboxhell comment. Anyway, you can see how I could misinterpret that, eh? Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[bjornolf]

You know, the one thing that disappoints me about Hunter fans is that they don't seem to have a lot of choices for kids' rooms. I have these cute little fans (not Hunter) in my kids' rooms that have six small blades (18" I think) in the color wheel pattern (one red blade, one orange blade, one yellow blade...you get the picture). They have a light and work okay, they just aren't as well built as Hunter fans (I got them for like $20 each at WM). The only kids' fan Hunter seemed to have at their website was an airplane one that I didn't think was all that special. Of course, when my kids get older, they'll probably want a different fan in their room anyway, so I'll probably need to replace them in a few years.

[JBDuke]

...

2. Unfortunately, we're moving to the lower Shenandoah Valley, where most of the mom and pop places have already gone under to the "evil empire of WM" as my wife calls it.

-Joe

Where are you moving to? I grew up and went to HS in the lower SV. It's lovely and still feels like home.

[TillyGalore]

You know, the one thing that disappoints me about Hunter fans is that they don't seem to have a lot of choices for kids' rooms. I have these cute little fans (not Hunter) in my kids' rooms that have six small blades (18" I think) in the color wheel pattern (one red blade, one orange blade, one yellow blade...you get the picture). They have a light and work okay, they just aren't as well built as Hunter fans (I got them for like $20 each at WM). The only kids' fan Hunter seemed to have at their website was an airplane one that I didn't think was all that special. Of course, when my kids get older, they'll probably want a different fan in their room anyway, so I'll probably need to replace them in a few years.

What about buying say a white fan (mind you I have no idea what hunter has to offer) and paint the blades with paint you can find at arts and crafts stores (AC Moore or Micheals) whatever color you want. Just a thought.

[allenmurray]

You know, the one thing that disappoints me about Hunter fans is that they don't seem to have a lot of choices for kids' rooms. I have these cute little fans (not Hunter) in my kids' rooms that have six small blades (18" I think) in the color wheel pattern (one red blade, one orange blade, one yellow blade...you get the picture). They have a light and work okay, they just aren't as well built as Hunter fans (I got them for like $20 each at WM). The only kids' fan Hunter seemed to have at their website was an airplane one that I didn't think was all that special. Of course, when my kids get older, they'll probably want a different fan in their room anyway, so I'll probably need to replace them in a few years.

Not a huge variety, but some that are pretty cute.

http://www.hunterfan.com/pages/produ...d=69&pageID=1b

http://www.hunterfan.com/pages/produ...=587&pageID=1b

http://www.hunterfan.com/pages/produ...d=544&pageID=1

[AtlBluRew]

A few years ago, I visited a Directbuy showroom. I left unimpressed, but that may be in large part because of the high pressure tactics.

When I was renovating a kitchen and bathrooms, I put a lot of time and effort into it shopping for the appliances. In retrospect, I wish I'd put more time into shopping the cabinets as well. On appliances, after I decided what I wanted, I compiled a list of prices on each one from 5 or 6 different sources, including the big box stores and smaller appliance stores. What I found is that EVERYONE would come down in price to match someone else's lowest price. In the end, I bought the whole package from one of the smaller appliance stores. Others above hinted at bad service from the big boxes, but in my case the smaller store produced headaches, as they were late in delivering some pieces. As for continued service, I go to a different source for that anyway.

On cabinets, I ended up getting custom-made cabinets from a small cabinet maker who had done good work for a neighbor. They also did good work for me, and they even delivered early. The reason I wish I'd shopped even more is really a matter of knowing the design options. There are cabinet features and sizes that I really didn't think of and would have been exposed to if I'd shopped more. The small maker really wasn't a designer.

[captmojo]

Are you a perfectionist? I know homebuilders who can never seem to finish the job because of this affliction. In my opinion, you don't have to be when it comes to selections like lighting, paint, wallpaper, carpet installation, furniture and the like. But do not scrimp on plumbing and cabinets.

Plumbing repairs are far too costly and should be very infrequent. Not to mention the inconvenience of having to do without while repairs are going on.

Cabinets-more is better than less. The longer you live there, the more you need them, and the more of them you need. Everybody acquires clutter over time. If you lived in Biltmore house long enough, you'll eventually run out of space.

When installing cabinets you discover exactly how expert your homebuilders are. Is this wall plumb? Is this floor really level? I suggest custom cabinets built at the site. This is especially helpful if you are remodeling an older structure.

Good luck and best wishes. God bless your new home.