Direct Buy is a joke

About a year and a half ago my wife begged me to sign up for the Direct Buy membership in Sunnyvale, TX. I was familiar with the "scam", but she insisted it was the very franchise owners who made the experience good, or bad. So, we went to the "buy direct" seminar, and listened to the pitch. (The same one they have had I'm sure for over 20 years), and then we plopped down our $5,000. At the time, we were sitting among shelves upon shelves of binders that were apparently the only way to order merchandise. I asked specifically about their website (that I could only access with a membership), and was told it was launching "all new" for 2006. What a joke. This business without a doubt has to be web based with the thousands of products they offer, and their website is the absolute worst excuse for anything dot.com I have ever seen. It actually appears to be someone's trial site dating back to 1988 when computers were first introduced. We then went to plan (B) and proceded to search through endless stacks of binders looking for various merchandise. (they are scattered about the showroom) Ultimately, we found out that we needed alot of help sifting through the information, and to say the least, the order form was very complicated, and it took (2) hours to complete, with the help of one of their people. The TV we ordered we found out 4 months later was discontinued dating back (8) months. The bedroom furniture we ordered was also discontinued (6) months prior. The ship date on the living room furniture was backed up (3) times over a (7) month period, and I could go on and on with the additional (6) items we put on order, only one of which made it to our home within (8) months. I had to hassle with Direct Buy for (60) days to get a refund since it isn't their policy, but I told them that they had $11,000 of our money tied up in nothing to date, and I was pissed. It's been a true joke since the inception. The so-called savings never really comes to fruition due to the fact that they can't deliver. Remember, Direct Buy members are less than 1% of any wholesalers market, so they really don't give a rats butt about your order that may make them $25. In addition, the communication between Direct Buy and the wholesalers is pathetic. We have come to find that we would have to file a lawsuit to get our money back....so.....we were scammed in the end, and I haven't even said "I told you so" since my wife is already mad enough.