Was our membership in Direct Buy coerced and can we see a refund of the membership fee?
I am looking for a bit of legal advice concerning the possibility of legal action against Direct Buy. I don’t know if we have any legal recourse, but it’s worth a shot. Almost 3 years ago we accepted an invitation to a Direct Buy show room. After the sales pitch we were informed that we had that day to decide if we wanted to pay the $5000.00 membership fee. If we declined we would lose out on our only chance and never be invited again. The typical “high pressure” sell. Well, we caved and joined. The area in which we think we might have legal remedy is that we found out, not to long ago, that others have declined and then been invited back not 6 months later. Could this be considered coercion? And if so could we bring a claim for the refund of our membership fees?
Answer:
In my opinion many, many, many, many (a whole bunch) of people have been suckered, er, taken in by Direct Buy. The outfit has been in Denver since the 1980s at least and its simply an organization that sells membership and very little else. I had a client many years ago that ordered a product from their catalog, when it arrived is was a different item and they wanted 3 times the price listed. A lawsuit in county court later and the client got their money for the item back.
There is probably no good way to get your membership fee back. Unhappiness with the product after purchase is not a legal ground for recission, moreover, your 3 years of membership kinda messes up any claim for misrepresentation since you would presumably have known about any misrepresentation much earlier. You can complain to BBB and to the Colorado Attorney General's consumer complaint office. Complaints the AG's office work when many people complain about the same company -- after all the AG is elected and so the more complaints the more voters who apparently care. You may have to chalk this one up to "live and learn" and "try to make every mistake only once." In the future remember, a sales pitch is a sales pitch! The salesman gets paid when you hand over your card or check and quits caring at that point. In my opinion company's that sell discounted products sell discounted products, not memberships. In my opinion company's that advertise memberships and then add goofy statements like "today only, or you'll never have another chance" are selling memberships, not products. When you buy outside your home there is no recission period. The recission period applies only to sales in your home.
