a new scam – American Direct, Inc.
We are slowly realizing all of the perks that come with living in a working-class neighborhood. While I don’t think the whole Universal Promotions/Travel Universal thing was tied to our zip code (I think I did actually fill something out online), we were contacted a few months back about a new promotion a company was having. The company is called American Direct, Inc. and they told me they were just opening their store in Fairfield and were having a promotion that included a drawing for a new truck or $10,000 cash. I thought that was kind of interesting, but wary of scams after our earlier experience, I didn’t really pay them much attention. They said they were going to ship me a key to try out in the truck and I’ll I’d have to do is show up at one of their appointments to test my key to see if I had won. I said I’d call them to set one up and promptly forgot about it. When the key came I threw it away.
Well, this past Monday I got a call back from the people at American Direct. This time the person’s name was LeAnn (probably not her real name). She said they were “sweetening” the deal to encourage the remaining few people who had keys to come by: they’d give me a $500 shopping spree just for showing up. I asked if they had an appointment in the evening so it wouldn’t really disrupt our work and stuff and they said yes, so I set up an appointment Thursday night at 6:30. They wouldn’t tell me anything about their company and when I asked if they had a website they said it wasn’t accessible unless you had the password. All of these things were making me wary, but I figured I could avoid giving them anything but my time and was determined to simply walk out if there was a problem.
So, along came Thursday night and Debi and I made our way to 325 Commercial Drive in Fairfield, OH. The building is located in a business park. It was a single-storied, stripmall style building where you’d expect to find a scam. As we walked in, our fears were confirmed. The place had clearly been in business for quite a while, which means I had already uncovered their first lie – this was not a grand opening and was not some special promotion. This is how they lure in the unsuspecting and prey on them. We arrived a little late and they were already taking all of the unwitting participants into the back room to try their key in the truck. Since I had to get another copy of my key (I threw the original away), I had to register and stayed behind for a few minutes. While one of the receptionists logged me in, I pulled out my phone and tried to secretively snap a few photos. When we got our phones I didn’t think I’d ever use the photo feature, but I occasionally find it very useful. I snapped these two photos before I went back to the “special rooms”:
The first one is just a sample of the wall decorations. They had these all over the walls in the front room. Seriously, there must have been 200 of them or so. Poor Roy Sipe… He actually looks happy. I think the U.S. flag in the background is a good touch; I’m sure it has great appeal for the demographic they target.
This second one was the real kicker. In case you can’t read it very well it says, “Due to the confidential nature of our business ALL RECORDING OR PHOTOGRAPHIC DEVICES ARE PROHIBITED in this building.” Any honest company would not have this type of sign posted, unless they are literally trying to protect trade secrets (e.g., the Toyota plant my father-in-law visited in Japan didn’t allow photography of the factory floor). Clearly American Direct, Incorporated has something to hide – their dishonest business practices.
Once I had finished “registering,” I walked back to where all the other victims of the scam were and caught up to Debi, who whispered under her breath, “Look at the demographics here.” I hadn’t had time to do that until now and when I did, it was telling. There were a total of 18 “marks” or victims, and of those, all but two were working class – Debi and I. There were a lot of old, deteriorating t-shirts; lots of hairsprayed and oily, stringy hair; stained jeans; and a lot of poorly behaved children. Don’t get me wrong, they are all nice people; we talked to a bunch of them and they were very kind. But you could tell they weren’t coming down from West Chester or stopping by from Wyoming or Hyde Park. These are the type of people who live in our condominium complex – blue collar, working class. I don’t claim to be wealthy – au contrair, I’m a poor graduate student and probably make a lot less than a lot of the people who were there. But there was a clear educational difference, which I’ll touch on a bit more later.
Anyway, we all tried our key in the truck to no avail. No one won the truck or cash. We were then herded like mindless, unwitting sheep into the “sales pitch” room. Our salesperson, an African American, former military guy I’ll call “Asswipe” (’cause I forgot his name) was telling jokes and working his angles the whole time. Once we were all settled, he started in on his pitch. I have to admit the person who called me didn’t say how long this would take, but I was hoping it wouldn’t be very long as I had other things I wanted to do that night. Well, I’m beginning to realize that length of time is an important factor in these scams. Rather than jump right into how much money they want to take from you, they start by “building relationships of trust” (an old phrase from when I sold Mormonism door-to-door in Costa Rica). Asswipe pretended to teach us all about how we were mistreated by retailers like Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart (again, think demographics here). He talked about how much they mark-up the merchandise they sell to us. I particularly enjoyed his discussion of Sam Walton’s personal wealth and his claim that it came directly from his marking up of products, which was one of the first places where I shook my head in disagreement (exploitation, exploitation, exploitation…).
The really scary thing about the presentation was that Asswipe was so ebullient and charismatic that 16 and a 1/2 of the people in the room were really getting into his presentation (Debi did half the time). When he would ask, “Who cares about their money?” Everyone would answer in unison, “We do!” And when he’d ask, “How many people agree with that,” Everyone would raise their hands. For some reason I just couldn’t get into his pitch.
I was, however, quite impressed by the use of manipulative techniques. He spent the first hour or so pretending to educate the people. What better way to build confidence in his marks than to actually make them feel like they are more educated now than when they walked in? Quite a brilliant tactic, actually. I also liked how he directly referred to other, classic scams (e.g., timeshares, Amway, etc) as scams. He mad fun of those other scams and spoke directly to the fears of the marks he had in front of him. He said stuff like, “How many of you, on the way here, were thinking, ‘It doesn’t matter what they say, I’m not buying anything’?” Again, 16 hands went up. He then tried to alleviate their concerns by saying, “This is not a scam.”
So, what is the scam they are trying to pull off at American Direct, Incorporated? They claim they can save you money by helping you buy the merchandise you would by at a retailer direct from the factory, saving the retailer’s markup. One example Asswipe used was Blue Blocker sunglasses (which I had never heard of). He claimed the cost to make them was $0.95. He then said the cheapest you could buy them retail was $9.95 from Sam’s Club and that most places sold them for anywhere from $14.95-$49.95. He used several additional examples, including some cheap ass knives and grandfather clocks, showing the markups on them. In short, he claimed you could save money by affiliating with American Direct, Inc. and buying stuff direct from the factory.
Of course that seems like a good idea. The problem, however, is that nothing is ever that easy. It’s not like the people at American Direct, Inc. are just going to sell you a $5.00 guide to buying factory direct or anything; they have a different goal. I think the goal of American Direct, Inc. is best seen in something Asswipe kept saying. He was really fond of asking, “What are retailers in business to do?” Everyone in the room was smart enough to realize the answer was, “Make money!” But the question Asswipe never asked was, “And what is American Direct, Inc. in business to do?” The response, of course, is, “To make money!”
So, how does American Direct, Inc. profit from “helping” people buying factory direct? There are three clear ways they do. First, they charge a 10% handling charge on everything you purchase from the factory through them. That’s in addition to the shipping you pay for. So, even though they claim to be getting rid of the middleman, in reality they become the middleman. Second, they charge a one-time lifetime membership fee of… get this: $1,999.00. Yep, that’s right, that’s almost $2,000.00. On top of that, and yes this makes no sense, you have to pay an annual renewal fee of $199.00. So, the one-time, lifetime membership fee isn’t the only fee – you have to pay $200 per year to stay a member.
Let me recap:
- 10% markup on everything you buy (in addition to shipping)
- $2,000.00 up front to join
- $200 per year to stay a member
And they claim you’ll save money by joining. Well, let’s think about that… While we were sitting in the “sales” room I saw at least three other sales people walking around, sitting on their thumbs, studying the marks, etc. There were also two secretaries/receptionists up front. That makes for at least 6 employees, if you include asswipe, all who take home paychecks. Hmmm… So, what they really mean with the phrase “saving you money” is “making them money.”
I particularly loved it when he said that they are not in direct competition with retailers. He even said that they don’t want to take all of the retailers’ customers away, which didn’t make any sense to me. If they really had a good deal for people and wanted to help them, they’d want everyone to convert. Truth be told, if too many people find out about this scam, they’d be run out of town. So, they don’t want too many people to know about it. In saying this, Asswipe actually claimed that everyone in Cincinnati was given a chance to participate in the program, but that they only contacted 10% of the population at a given time and that they dialed numbers randomly. Yeah, right. Remember my description of the demographics of the people there?
Oh, and about those demographics… At one point, in talking about the wealth of the Walton family, Asswipe said they were worth about $27 billion. He then asked if anyone knew how much a billion is. Two of the fathers in the room said, and I’m not making this up, “One hundred million?” I’m not sure if I was more shocked or appalled. Asswipe was kind enough to correct them, but I thought that was particularly telling. Asswipe really wanted these people to feel special, thus the, “We only invite 10% of the people around here to participate.” American Direct, Inc. is likely targeting people in lower-income and working class neighborhoods. They probably think they are less likely to see through the program and recognize the scam that it is. And because Debi and I are poor and bought our condo as poor graduate students we fall in the right zip code!
It was pretty clear from the get go that I was going to be the group’s only skeptic. I didn’t buy into the charisma and didn’t answer his questions. I didn’t raise my hand. In fact, I spent most of the time writing notes and doing ethnographic field work. But there were a few points when I had to pipe up and question his bullshit. For instance, he kept insisting that we are “forced” to buy retail. Everyone else agreed and I said, “No.” He said, “What do you mean no. You have to.” I said, “You can make it yourself.” To which he responded, “Yeah, good luck with that.”
Later when he insisted that retailers are a monopoly I had to pipe up again. I said, “No, retailers are not a monopoly and they can’t be due to anti-trust laws in the U.S. What’s more, because they are not a monopoly and compete for our money, that actually drives prices down.” He said, “Look, I took an economics class in college. I know how this stuff works…” I cocked an eyebrow at him as he continued, angrily, “I don’t care if you agree with me or not. The point is, I’m here to help you save money.” He got really angry and intentionally tried to avoid talking to me the rest of the time. His anger boiled over when he asked the people in the room if they thought $199 was too much to spend per year to buy factory direct. Everyone else said no, but I said yes. His response, “You think that’s too much to spend to buy factory direct?” I nodded my head. Then he said, “Then leave. You can leave right now.” I said, “I want to see how much the one time membership fee is.” He responded, “Why? It doesn’t matter to you. You don’t want to pay the $199 so why do you care?” I said, “I just want to see. So, do go on.” I think he was pretty upset, but I really didn’t care.
It was at about this point that the sales pitch ended. They then took us out of the “sales” room, divided us up into individual couples, and brought in “the closers.” I loved they way the closers worked. Rather than ask if we wanted to buy a membership or not – they went straight to, “So, how many memberships do you want, 2 or 4?” What a manipulative scheme. The whole thing is designed to manipulate, pressure, and deceive. It was absolutely appalling! We said we weren’t interested and the guy tried for a while to convince us we should be, but he didn’t get anywhere.
He then said he was sorry we weren’t interested, but that they were going to give us our $500 gift certificate and a travel voucher just for coming. Woohoo! When I got home I checked out the gift certificate and voucher in detail. The gift certificate claims to give you $500 worth of cash on this website: www.KEShoppingSpree.com. Since I didn’t use my code, you can use it to get into the site: KE0293712. KEShoppingSpree.com is another scam site. Yep, they rewarded our attendance at a scam presentation with an invitation to another scam. You can, in fact, buy shit on the website, but they charge you exorbitant shipping and handling fees (e.g., $15.00 to ship you an XBox game). I looked through the site and compared some of the prices to actual retail prices. They have the XBox game “The Hobbit” listed at $49.95 plus $14.95 shipping and handling. You can buy it at Wal-Mart right now for $19.95 and can probably get it used on Half.com for about $8.00. All of the kitsch on the site is set up this way. The price they give is way, way over retail. Then the shipping and handling charge is about what you’d pay retail. In short, the $500 gift certificate is worth a whopping total of $0.00, and is more likely to cost you money than save you money! My favorite part about this is that on the back of the voucher it has directions that tell you to enter the URL directly into your browser and not to use Google to search for it. Guess why? ‘Cause now that I’ve posted that it’s a scam, Google will return my URL too ;).
As for the travel voucher… Remember how they talked about timeshares being a scam? Yeah, well, it’s a travel voucher that goes through a timeshare sales company. You may get 2 nights free in a hotel, but you have to go through a timeshare pitch. What absolute and total assholes! American Direct, Inc. is a scam. And when we didn’t buy their scam, they tried to reward us with two more scams. All told, we threw away 2 hours of our life to American Direct, Incorporated. Assholes!
A couple of things I didn’t mention earlier but are worth touching on:
- Asswipe claimed he wasn’t a salesman but was a “consumer consultant.” Consumer consultant my ass!
- Asswipe intentionally exaggerated the differences between factory direct and retail by not including shipping and handling costs, which you’ll pay no matter what; he just reported the manufacturing cost.
- When Asswipe mentioned the 10% markup fee, he glossed over it as though it wasn’t really anything.
- Most factories don’t sell directly to consumers because it is too costly for them to manage the shipping, ordering etc. They use distributors. What do you think American Direct, Inc. is? You still don’t buy factory direct, you buy through American Direct, who is just a distributor/retailer.
- At one point Asswipe said, “There is no catch.” That was before he talked about the one time fee… ;)
- Asswipe mentioned a lot of well-known manufacturer’s names to make people feel like they would be buying namebrand merchandise. I’d bet my left kidney most of the shit they let you buy through them is kitsch and knockoffs.
- In a sheet they had us fill out, one of the things listed that you could buy factory direct was, and I’m not making this up, “psychic readings.” Debi and I laughed about that one for about 5 minutes straight. We almost put it down just to see how much money Asswipe thought we could save on it.
- If everyone who attended that night had paid the fee, that would have been about $20,000 (couples only pay one fee, not two). That’s probably about half the amount they pay one of the sales reps per year…
There’s another important thing to keep in mind here about why this program is a scam. I’m guessing most of the people who pay the fees never buy anything through American Direct, Inc. They get lulled in by the slick sales pitch and the deception, but then realize it was a mistake and go back to shopping like everyone else does – retail or wholesale. Keep in mind that Bill Gates doesn’t shop through American Direct, Inc. He shops retail, just like everyone else.
Anyway, I’ve come to love our zip code. It really brings in the scams. This is my new favorite, replacing the bi-annual Jesus Prayer Rug from St. Matthews’ Churches. Why? Well, it’s clearly marketed towards working class people and it really will bend you over and fuck you long and hard.
A couple lessons learned about scams:
- If they claim it is not a scam, it is. Any company that has to try to distance themselves from a scam is a scam.
- If they are trying to sell you something and won’t let you take pictures of them trying to sell it to you, it’s a scam.
- If the person trying to sell you the scam says they are not a salesperson, they are and it’s a scam.
- If they mention other scams or make fun them, it’s a scam.
Update 6/5/2006:
I just realized I should mention this company can also be checked out via the Better Business Bureau of Cincinnati. You can see a report on them here. I’m guessing the low number of complaints is the result of the small number of people who fall for the scam and not that the company is a nice one. Just my two bits, though… Also, if they contact you and you’re on the “Do Not Call” registry for telemarketers, you can actually lodge a complaint against the company with the BBB.
Update 6/20/2006:
John Matarese from Channel 9 interviewed me about my experience. You can see the clip below:
Update 7/13/2006:
Amazingly, I just got another call from American Direct, Inc. inviting me to come visit their recently opened store. The call came at 7:25 pm, on 7/13/2006. The number they called from was 1-270-762-9905. The woman on the phone said (and I’m paraphrasing), “Hi. We’ve just recently opened a store in your area and would like to invite you to come visit it. We’ll send you an invitation with a key in it. If you’re key turns on the truck when you get here, you can drive the truck home or win $10,000 cash. Have you ever heard of American Direct, Inc. before?” I, of course, said, “Yes, I’ve been to one of your presentations.” To which she quickly replied, “Oh, okay, I hope you enjoyed your presentation.”
Hmmm… Recently opened store my ass! And do you really think they call people randomly? I’ve received two calls in the course of just a few months. They are clearly targeting people living in working class neighborhoods. Bastards!
That was awesome! I’ve sat through one of those before. They are amazing. We used to go for the “gift” but decided it was too much of a waste of time once the gifts started to become another scam. Good on ya’ for sticking it to them. That is classic. I love how he got so pissed! Fight the Power!!!
Thank you I am so glad I did some research I got that call the other day and my meeting was to be on friday. I am glad that you took the time to humor them and helping the nieve see the scam thanks again for saving my time and energy
Hi Tracy,
Glad to help!
Ryan
Thanks. It looks, smells,and is a scam.
Great blog Ryan, I just got home from one of their little meetings. Google can find anything right? 5 pages into the search of “American Direct” I stumble across your blog as the very first reference! Hehe. Page 9 of google found me their website at http://americandirectmembers.com/ with an address on outerbelt street in columbus ohio where my meeting was held. Probably not the same place you went to? It’s not a secure website, and any submit attempt results in the same error page.
As for the keys, they were all cut exactly the same from a pretty flimsy looking piece of metal. Plus they weren’t even close to what a Ford Ranger key looks like (since I do have one), hence nobody from my group won the truck. I’m pretty sure that a couple of the audience members had to be plants… nobody could be THAT gullible and eager to pipe in on EVERY topic in a room full of strangers. And they were directed toward separate back rooms from everyone else, while I was left at the front table by myself. Apparently they could tell I wasn’t buying, even with their tag-team attempt by two different agents.
One girl was trying to impress their point, so she took off her watch and asked me if I would want to pay retail for it. I said “No, but I bet you’re going to tell me how much it would cost, and then how much you paid.” Which she promptly did. So I responded “But shouldn’t your boyfriend have bought that for you?” To which she replied, “Let me show you to the door so you can get your free gift and leave.” Hehe.
It’s true that the “free gifts” are not even worth claiming. The only thing I really wasted was time, but I would feel badly for anyone who shells out the members fee. You know it’s fake when there isn’t even any fine print to read through before signing up. “Just tell us how you would like to pay, and you don’t even have to pay the full amount. We’ll take whatever you’ve got!”
Thanks for the link, Jim. Interestingly, it looks like each individual scam group has their own website. Yours specifically mentions the one in Columbus. The one I tried was originally posted on the flyer I received with my “truck key”. I also tried a member number and had no luck.
I wonder if there were some plants in the room, but the sad thing is that there probably were not any.
Thanks for the comment!
Thank you for the info. I was going tomarrow but there will be an empty seat thank you we seniors with fixed income don’t need scams like this
Happy to help!
man you get MUCH props for this!!!…these SAME people called me today with the SAME garbage b/c i threw away the SAME key!!!..now i have the “APPOINTMENT” tomorrow….i got a special code for them…uaintgettinmymoney….
Thanks for the effort in your page. These … people, to use the term loosely … called today and being of the suspicious nature I am, I immediately went to get information, particularly when the guy on the phone wouldn’t answer my questions.
I wonder, can I bust them since I am on the National Do Not Call Registry and they called me anyways?
Hmmmm.
Hi Mike,
Probably not, since they wouldn’t consider themselves telemarketers. But it may be worth a try.
Ryan
Thanks for the heads-up. They’ll be having one more empty seat today ;)
BTW, I did this search on Google:
+”american direct” +fairfield
And the link to this blog was on the first page, 7′th from the top.
Keep stickin’ it to The Man!
Well, I filed complaints for the calls from them with the National Do Not Call Registry so those will be there for any law enforcement investigations that come up.
The numbers they used are:
270-767-0342
270-767-0341
270-762-9917
270-762-9904
Good deal. Maybe others should do the same. If enough people lodge complaints against them, maybe people will catch on.
Ryan:
Want to be on TV? I’d love to interview someone who actually sat through one of their sales presentations. dont have to use your last name, if youre concerned. John Matarese WCPO jmatarese@wcpo.com 513-852-4086
Hi John,
I’d be happy to sit through an interview. Anything to spread the word about American Direct, Inc.
My schedule is actually pretty open right now; I’m a graduate student at the University of Cincinnati in the Department of Sociology. If you want to arrange an interview, you can email me or give me a call: YYYYYYYYYY.
Best,
Ryan
I also went to American Direct and honestly you shouln’t listen to other people’s opinion on things until you go and see for yourself. I read this column and became interested in just knowing for myself if this was a scam because I also got this key promotion thing in the mail. I called and set my appointment. (Very nice people by the way) I went to American Direct, listen to their presentation and am now a member. I save lots of money on things I buy. Point is… Don’t believe everything you hear! Just because one… um… We’ll call him “asswipe”, isn’t satified with the company doesn’t make it a scam or a bad place of business. I mean hell Walmart pisses me off once a week, but it doesn’t mean that we should try to shut down the business or write a column about it!! Come on now!!!!! Let’s all just cash in our chips and go to Costa Rica with the guy who doesn’t need to save money!!! Whoo Hoooo!!!!
Hi Tracy,
I hope you really enjoy your membership. Have you actually calculated how much money you’ve saved? If so, I’d love to see some solid numbers. Really! Given my calculations, saving money with American Direct would be difficult to do.
Either way, I welcome all sorts of feedback on this page. I won’t delete your comment – I think people should know about everyone’s experiences with the company.
Ryan
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for not deleting my comments! True we all do have different experiences with companies.
You wanted some solid numbers… here they are… I have been wanting to remodel my kitchen for a while now. I finally was able to do so. I saved a little over $12,000 on my flooring and cabinetry alone. I can’t wait to start getting my appliances.
Sorry you had a bad experience but, not everyone will. I say, Thank goodness for ADI!!!
Hi Tracy,
I have to admit I’m stunned by those numbers. For the life of me I can’t figure out how you would have managed to save $12,000 on what I would think is a $12,000 job (or less). Is there anyway you can actually list the prices on the flooring and cabinetry? I don’t own a big kitchen, so I don’t really know how much it would cost to redo a big one. But when we got an estimate on ours, including flooring, it was only around $6000.00 for the whole job – and that was with very nice ceramic tile flooring and high quality cabinets. So, you must have a monstrous kitchen to save more than I would have spent on my entire kitchen.
Try listing things like this:
Flooring – type (e.g., ceramic tile, wood, etc.) – price you paid
Cabinetry – type (e.g., wood, laminated, etc.) – price you paid
Any additional costs (installation, etc.)
square footage of your kitchen
any other specialty items – new fridge, sink, microwave, range, etc.
I’ll happily check with flooring and cabinetry experts to see how much something like this would cost retail.
And please understand, I’m not saying it isn’t true. I’m just shocked by the claim. If you could give me solid numbers, that would help me gauge whether this is really a good deal… I’m still very, very doubtful, but who knows, I could be wrong.
Ryan
Tracy,
You’re obviously fulll of crap and must have vested interest in American Direct. Either you work for them or have a family member that does. Saving $12,000 on a floor and cabinet alone is total BS. These people prey on the least common denominator. If a business has to use a high-pressure sales technique, they’re obviously making most of their money on sleight of hand and not the quality of the product. Oh, I’m sure you justify the way you do business some way in your head. Twist it however you want, but you are still a fraud. Sleep well!
Okay here we go… quickly and only because Ed said I was full of BS…
Flooring- was imported porcelein 18 inch Italian tile. Retail varied from 5 to 7 dollars per foot and that was on sale… Members only price is $2.50. :) Installation was $2.50 a foot so I pretty much got mine put in for free or saved $5,000 in just the tile(depending on how you want to look at it) No! my kitchen is not 2000 sqaure ft. But where I needed tile was.
Cabinetry- The tile and cabinets were put in my vacation home that has a summer kitchen w/bar down stairs and the main kitchen upstairs. Lowes sent a guy out who bid just the cabinets for $14,000. Main kitchen was Oak and the other kitchen/bar is Cherry. Members only price(my price) for cabinets was $4,200 and I saved enough to put granite everywhere including the bar intstead of a cheaper counter top. And still was $6,800 cheaper than Lowe’s cabinets only bid. In the TV report you posted even the reporter admitted that buying clubs can save you money. It’s kinda like joining the health club ryan, “if you want to lose it, you gotta use it”.
Hey good luck in your studies, best wishes… even to you Ed!!!
Tracy
Hi Tracy,
Thanks for the reply. You may be right – if you are completely refurbishing a home it may be worth it. For me, living in a condo on a graduate students’ income, definitely not worth it.
Ryan.
Yes it was a rather large project but there are other things i’ll do in the future and I appreciate the savings that will be there for me when i do decide to do them.
You know Ryan you won’t always be a grad student and I’m sure that you will remodle homes or buy other things in your future. I guess I just don’t understand why you would “deface” a company just because it wasn’t something you could use right at this moment.
Good luck with everything Ryan!!!
Hi Tracy,
I think you’re missing some of the more significant points of my post. I’m not “defacing” a company – I’m explaining why this company is not honest in its approach. It plays manipulative games and employs high-pressure sales techniques to get people to join. In addition, it takes your money, claiming it is saving you money. The people at American Direct make money some how: How do you think they make money? They make it from you. The point: American Direct is dishonest. The business model may work for some – if you are being completely honest in your numbers – but it won’t work for probably 75% of the people they try to sell it to. In fact, that is probably what they prefer – that you pay for it and never use it. That’s just money in their pocket. So, while I agree with John Matarese that it may save you money if you are doing a complete remodel of your house, if you don’t plan on spending tens of thousands of dollars in the immediate future, it definitely isn’t worth it. If explaining that for other people is “defacing” a company, then I’m glad to provide that service.
Ryan
all members receive a written gaurantee and you are only having to spend
5000.00 thru the company to receive your enrollment back. thats 40% return on my investment. Since i have definitely received my investment back the rest goes right back in my pocket just like they told us it would in the tour. Sorry that some people cant see the math.
“Good Luck”
I just got home from this meeting. I knew it was a scam going in, but I had a few hours to spare and I like to keep my skills sharp. This was a very interesting experience. Everything they did in Columbus was almost identical to what they did in your neck of the woods. Moreover it is totally derived out of the scam handbook. Right down to the demographics.
The crappy office is a dead give away, the sleazy look of the sales staff is too. I once worked for a scam outfit and the young girl who tried to close me had that hopeless look in her eyes I had when I was trying to sell junk jewelry 15 years ago. I caught them in a lie when they said they’d been in that location since 2001 because I know for a fact it was vacant last year. I INQUIRED ABOUT RENTING THE BUILDING!!!
The sure sign this is a scam is that they won’t let you leave to do any research. That was my schtick. I loved everything they offered but I never give anybody money without thinking about it. They said that they can’t operate that way because of certain regulations. HA!
My blogs aren’t really set up for this sort of writing, but for the sake of humanity I’ll make an exception. I’ll be posting my story on two blogs within the next week. Check out claw71.blogspot.com and stevevc.blogspot.com for two interesting takes on the subject. Give me a few days, however. My mind is flat after having the wrinkles pressed out of my brain for 2 hours.
As for Tracey, she’s likely an American Direct spin meister. And you’re correct if you think they had plants in the audience. That’s SOP for these scams. The people shopping in the back were probably plants too. Like I said: The fact that they won’t let you think about it proves it is a scam. Anybody honest will let you do the research and get back to them. For Crying out loud, these people even offer things like layaway and financing for big ticket items. Get out of here.
Thanks for this post. I was contacted by Today’s Bride (whatever that is) yesterday. The girl on the phone told me that I had won a $1000.00 shopping spree and a vacation to anywhere I wanted… if I went to listen to a presentation on pots and pans, or some type of cook ware.
So I showed up, but I did not have my fiancee with. The creppy looking (and very pungent) indivdual named Dave took me aside and had me fill out a survey about merchandise. He then proceded to tell me that I could not attend the meeting because, “it wouldn’t be fair with out both of you here, you would miss out on the savings.” So he then gave me my $1000.00 voucher and my free hotel stay packet. I started to leave feeling like maybe it was legit. But as I walked out I also noticed the demographic. It made me feel a bit irritated that yes I am a poor graduate student and yes I am middle to low class. But it made me even more irritated to see all of the excited and young faces dressed in cut-offs and racing shirt entering the room. So I just got home and checked out the shopping spree scam site. Then I googled (thank goodness for google) and found your link. Thanks for shedding some light on the subject. I will also spread the word.
That’s typical of these big scale scams. They don’t want you to go home empty-handed and saying you have to talk it over with a spouse is too convenient an excuse. By trapping both of you with the free gift they believe they can get you.
Three rules:
If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
If they won’t let you think it over, it’s a scam.
When the presenter looks like a refugee from the 1970′s, run like hell.
it’s not a scam!
I have been there and it’s just $200 to sign up and you get stuff very cheap!!! what are u talking about??
Hi Justin,
I, too, have been there. It’s not $200 to sign up; it’s $2000.00! You may, in fact, get some things very cheap, but unless you are refurbishing an entire house, you are not very likely to get your money’s worth out of it. So, if it works for you (like Tracy said it did for her), great! But for most people it is a total scam! It has all of the trappings of a scam – secrecy, high pressure sales, etc. If it walks like a scam, talks like a scam, and smells like a scam, it’s a scam!
Thanks for the comment…
Best,
Ryan
Ryan…
YOU ROCK!!!
Interesting reading. Thanks for the heads-up!
Happy to help.
Ryan,
Thanks for recounting your adventure with these fine young entrepeneurs! They’ve set up a “store” in Austin, TX now and I’m so very much looking forward to their presentation.
Hi Ryan,
I love your blog!
My husband and I, both veteran business journalists, just got back from our American Direct “meeting” in Austin, TX. This is Sept. 2, 2006. I knew it was a scam when my husband told me about it, but we like to keep abreast of scams and such and were a bit curious about the truck deal, so we went. As soon as we drove up to the out of the way, faceless business park I had a feeling. We walked in and the cute, T-shirt clad college girls looked at our IDs. The other “guests”: A drunk, sunburned, drugged-out looking old party guy up front with his young green-haired, nose-ringed Japanese “boyfriend.” An elderly couple: woman with purse and ID ready in her hand, dragging her skeptic husband who kept reading his paperback novel. A couple of Hispanic and black men by themselves or together.
A young college-looking guy, “Kevin,” complete with pinstriped shirt, pants, spiky, gelled hair and lots of silver jewelry, opened the reception door and greeted us, taking us back into the presentation room. There was the gleaming truck, parked right on the carpet of this odd rented office space. Clusters of furniture, grandfather clocks and lamps, all with price tag looking papers attached, dotted the room. Then I saw it: the “meeting area” with tables and chairs clustered around a space that featured leather jackets, a plasma TV, knife sets, carpet swatches, etc.
I could go on and on but I’ll just say we were a bit entertained at least. The old drunk geezer in the audience was actually pretty darn smart. The highlight of the morning was when Kevin started his spiel about Wal-Mart and how they’re making money off us. When he mentioned Sam Walton, the old geezer piped in “He’s dead.”
That got some laughs, but Kevin recovered and acknowledged, “Yes, Sam Walton died in 1992, etc. but his family is worth $180 billion …. all liquid,” etc. then asked us how much $1 billion is, etc.
Anyhow, he went through some product stuff and everything Ryan mentioned above. After 45 min. he gave us the opportunity to leave, after trying out keys in the truck. Oddly the geezer, his boyfriend and several others left.
My husband asked me to stay. I said what the heck. We stayed another 10 minutes, until we were again given the chance to leave after trying our keys in the truck. I refused to stay any longer. My husband wanted to see what the final “cost” would be to join this scam. I can understand the curiosity but I was tired and hungry. I did notice throughout our spiel, several busty cute college looking girls walking back and forth through doors behind us and another young sales dude would walk in and out, sit on the couches behind us and watch Kevin’s presentation. For a time, I thought they might be filming pornos in the back, I was that paranoid.
The kicker was when my husband and I walked out, we were the only ones to do so by the second time. We entered the “exit” room, where yet another slacker guy in baggy pants sat on a big leather couch, oddly fiddling with a video camera and seemingly looking at its projection on a TV that was turned away from us. I was naiive enough to think he was just playing with his video camera. No, my husband said, he was filming us as we left, so that we couldn’t come back later and sue. That we left of our own accord, etc. and that we left with our “free gift.” Which ended up being, as the slacker took our ticket and looked up the number, a “vacation package.”
We came home and my husband Googled American Direct and we found your blog, Ryan. We were amazed.
Heck, I’m not livid. These American Direct people were all kids, probably making $6 or $10 an hour or maybe even low $20 Ks. Not more I would guess. And they were there on a Saturday morning, right before the big University of Texas kickoff game. I almost felt sorry for them. Sorry they don’t have better job prospects or a better way to make money than to take jobs with this lousy outfit. Heck when I was in my 20s I showed up once to a hotel, (stupidly) thinking I was applying for a marketing job and instead found a meeting room of desperate unattractive people clustered around a display table of shampoos, deoderants and breakfast cereals, a la Amway.
Even though we live in a borderline, starter neighborhood with working class folks, minorities and elderly people on fixed incomes, we make over $100,000 a year and don’t have kids, are college-educated and business reporters. We get scammed a lot here: girls knocking on doors with cleaning products and rug cleaners, asking to clean our rugs to try out their new products for sale. Well we had our carpets all ripped out 3 years ago and only have hardwoods, sorry.
We’ll likely write this up and pitch it to a consumer pub or something. Maybe we can make money off this experience, which would actually be the opposite of what American Direct wants us to do.
Karen
Hi Karen,
Thanks for the thoughts and comments. I didn’t realize this company was so widespread. That’s pretty disturbing. Well, at least you didn’t fall for it and saw through things. The more comments people post the more apparent it becomes that this is a scam. Thanks again!
Ryan
Dear Ryan, We attented a very similar meeting in Columbus last week. I smelled a scam before we went, but my husband wanted to see because they told him on the phone that he “had already won $5,000″ and it didn’t matter that he didn’t have the key (because I had tossed it already). I think we had the same guy you call “Asswipe”. I must say he is good! We heard about the sunglasses and the knives too. Do you really think some stuff is knockoffs? They had a grandfathers clock there that was supposed to be worth some thousands, but it looked to me as it the gold metal face was not attached straight. That couldn’t happen in an item of such high quality. What about the chart on the wall with the arrow going from factory straight to “you”? Like you I wanted to ask right then, “But what about American Direct?” Don’t they get something? But then I might have spoiled his flow :) . Thanks for your time in writing this up and good luck on your remaining 13 + minutes of fame! Joan
Hi Joan,
Thanks for the comment. Sounds very similar to my experience. I agree on the grandfather clock – the ones I saw looked super cheap. Glad to know you didn’t fall for it. Take care!
Best,
Ryan
Hi Ryan –
I wish I had read this before I went to the meeting and wasted my time. The person on the phone lied to me and told me that they were trying to close out the promotion and that I was one of about 10 people who had a real key (with a Ford insignia on it) and that only those 10 or so people could be the winner. Of course I doubted him but thought I’d go check it out. I found out in the waiting room that everyone had the “elusive” Ford insignia on their keys.
I too stayed for the whole thing because I wanted to know what the cost was (and because they were pretty intimidating when they offered the “chance to leave”) — then, when we were taken to talk to our sales person, I got the presenter (oh noooo). I told him I wasn’t interested and why and he was curteous and showed me the door (didn’t try to talk me into it).
I was the first person to leave. I had come straight from work and had on a suit jacket and was the only person in the room dressed professionally. I felt bad for the other people who mostly looked like they needed to hang onto their money (senior citizens, young people with small children, etc).
I’m not sure that they target certain demographic neighborhoods. My neighborhood is upper middle class. A friend at work who lives in a very nice neighborhood told me they called her too. I think that most people from these neighborhoods just don’t go.
Anyway – thanks for the service your blog is serving!
Anne
Hi Anne,
Sorry you didn’t find it sooner. But I’m glad you didn’t fall for it. Take care.
Ryan
Hey, let’s all realize there are scams. Scams usually don’t come with a gaurantee though do they. I joined American Direct About 3 months ago and have saved just over$1,875.00 on some Ashley furniture and some things from Bass Pro Shop Catalog, It is funny that the only people you have on your gay blog are folks that did not join and like you sound like unstable people to begin with, don’t you have anything better to do, if you are angry because you couldn’t afford it Ryan that shouldn’t give you the right to bash something you are incapable to understand. I just graduated from Indiana University and find this concept and the company very beneficial to me so far, like the salesman told me there will be things with little or no savings, as I have discovered but there are markups on merchandise and if you think there aren’t you sir are a moron. I appreciate your blog although I completely disagree because there are things to watch out for, American Direct however is not one of them, every other person I talk to while I am there have been more than happy with their decision. I imagine you will not post my reply because I’m not on your side and that is fine, I emplore you to get a job and stop causing harm to something you can;t afford to be a part of! Pat & Sandy McCarthy
Hey Pat,
First, I could afford to join American Direct. It wasn’t about not having the money. I didn’t join because I didn’t think I would gain any benefit from it. As John Matarese pointed out in his news story on American Direct, it is possible to save some money if you are planning on completely redoing your house or work on other major products and you don’t generally care about name brands. I live in a small, fully furnished, two-bedroom condo and don’t plan on having a monstrous home any time soon. Plus, I like buying quality merchandise. So, there is almost no way I would reap any benefit from such a plan. In fact, the sales person at American Direct said as much to me – when he was trying to show everyone how much they would save he looked at our list of planned purchases and said we shouldn’t do it – because we aren’t planning on purchasing anything big and expensive any time soon.
Second, I posted this entry on my blog because American Direct is misleading and disingenuine. They claim to be getting rid of the middle-man but become the middle-man. You aren’t calculating the cost of your membership into the merchandise you purchase. The amount you allegedly saved on the Ashley furniture doesn’t even cover the amount you paid to join the program. You haven’t covered the costs of the middle man yet. But you’ve already adopted the mindset that American Direct wants – you don’t take the middle-man costs into consideration. You still need to purchase through them to break even – assuming your savings calculations are accurate.
Finally, I don’t appreciate the insults. You sound like a homophobic bigot. I have a job. This blog isn’t my job – this is just for fun. And, as you can see, most of the people who read this post find it useful and informative. And, yes, I’m going to keep your comment up here because I believe all sides should be represented. Just try to keep the insults out of it. I’m not insulting you, why are you insulting me?
Best,
Ryan
Ryan,
I love you man sorry Mrs. Ryan.
Let me tell you my story
I recieved the phone call in the middle of the day mind you I’m home sick.
The lady gives her spill, I say really, she said let me send you a key.
I accept.
Key comes, gets tossed in with junk mail and forgotten until…………
They call me 3 weeks later to ask had I recieved it. I told them I forgot, but wait, prior to me taking that call, someone from Kentucky kept calling.
I answered one time it was a man he ask to speak to me.
I told him I wasn’t home could I take a message he hung up.
The phone calls continued until I picked up and the lady ask had I made my appointment.
I made the appointment for today at 12:30pm, she said someone would call me yesterday which was Friday and give me some kind of code.
She called, gave code and said I’ll see you there, I said Ok
This morning at 9:58am I recieved a phone call from that Kentucky number and the lady wanted know if I had recieved my code.
I was pissed and told her that this borders on the line of harassment not to mention you woke me up.
She apologized, I clocked and then she stated saying things like girl I’m so sorry. I said apology not accept and called her a B**** on the way to hanging up the phone.
Got up and did a google search and found your blog.
I actually wonder how they contacted me considering I am signed up on the do not call list. The call i got stated they were like a Walmart or something wasn’t listening to much.
Needless to say I will not be attending the meeting this afternoon.
My son is having a tailgate party right in my living room for the Ohio State vs Penn State. Watching the tv sitting on the Ashley furniture entertainment center purchased directly from Ashley furniture without the middleman. :)
GO BUCKS
Lucky you, Deborah B.! Now you can enjoy the tailgate party and not waste your money!
Best,
Ryan
I went to the meeting at fairfield this evening also. Fully expecting it to be something scammy, I left my money at home so that i wasn’t tempted no matter how good it sounded. I couldn’t stand the curiousity though and had to at least come and see if it was for real. I did feel a bit misled initially. I wasn’t informed that i would be required to sit through an hour long meeting. I just came from work and found myself to be the only one wearing a tie or anywhere near a tie. I am just turning 22 and due to the fact that i own my own business and will be buying a lot of supplies and a new house and many large items over the next year or two, I saw this as something that could really benefit me. However, unless a person that is already set and doesn’t make the large purchases of houses or remodeling and improvements, the only real money saver that made sense was their example of buying groceries. I would want to know if anyone who has joined is actively on a monthly basis using those coupons and buying groceries and if so, how much do you find yourself saving? I found everyone there to be pleasant and other than his power point slide getting screwed up, it wasn’t horrible. To address the fact that only older and lower income people were in the room with me… When a business uses cold calling techniques like American Direct is doing, even though they may be calling totally random #’s, it is common to see a much higher turnout of that segment of citizens because of the lack of other things to do and gulibility. (if that’s a word) The other thing that i didn’t like was the structure of their meeting. If they are going to let the audience talk, then they need to answer the questions. I didn’t like how they would pick and choose what they were going to answer and not. They did try to hide the fact that they are overcharging shipping, however, if you still save money even though paying a slightly higher shipping rate, isn’t it still saving you money in the end? Isn’t that the bottom line? Will this thing really save me any money? For me and those in my situation, as long as we actually take advantage of it, I believe that it would. However, I have a hard time believing that those that i shared the room with really even had a need for anything other than the groceries. They weren’t going to be buying leather jackets or plasma TV’s. not such a good deal for them in my eyes. Becuase I didn’t have the money on me, and they force you to make a decision then and now without leaving and being able to look it up and research it, my only option was to leave, but I do want to point out that other than offering the option to start payments to split up the initial cost, they really didn’t work with me at all to allow me to come back and join myself. I respected that because they have rules that they stick to and don’t bend them. It would have bothered me to see them go into the back and work up some special treatment for me just so that they don’t miss a possible member. When the rules can be bent, you have to wonder about their honesty, and i was very impressed with how bluntly they handled my situation to their credit. I do intend on joining and have incouraged my parents to take a look at it due to the fact that they are preparing to sell their house and move into another fixer-upper. But I will be watching these conversations closely to be sure that nobody gets hurt or in trouble. Thanks so much for this opportunity and for sharing your experiences.
Also, we are on the DNC list and want to know how that call was allowed. I was under the impression that only political parties, people who know you, and parties that you have been involved with in the past were able to contact you. That part about this whole thing seemed the shakiest to me.
That was a very fair post, Keith. Thank you for contributing to the dialogue.
Ryan
A website problem led me to need to repost a comment:
10/9/2006 10:39 AM
Author : Joe
Comment:
Hello Ryan,
Thank you for the informative blog! My mother-in-law bought a membership for my wife and I. After reading your blog, I wanted to send it back to her and not have anything to do with this company. I’ve been thinking about it though and since I haven’t invested anything in this, it might be interesting to try it out and see what happens. I could then let the readers of your blog know what I experienced during the buying process.
One reason for me wanting to give it a try is feeling bad she spent so much money on a membership for us. If the 1st membership cost $2,000 does anyone know what the 2nd one costs (she bought 2)?
After reading the Better Business Bureau entry for them, there is a mention of a lawsuit regarding cancellation fees. Do they still have a cancellation fee and does anyone know how much it is? I don’t want to start using this, find out it’s extremely frustrating to purchase through them (slow response, long waits to receive the products, etc.) and not even want deal with them to reach the $5,000 threshold for the “guarantee” and then on top of all this find out there is a huge cancellation fee.
-Joe
Ryan, could you please remove my email address from your reposting of my post? Thanks!
OK. I just started the process. I was about to purchase a credenza and hutch for my home office from Staples.com. The prices online with free shipping to the closest Staples is $1500 for the credenze and $1100 for the hutch. Right before clicking purchase, I remembered to try American Direct. I logged into thier website and under their furniture section they had a link to Kathy Ireland Home. The 2 pieces I want are part of that collection. I called the ADI phone number, pressed 3 to talk to customer service and was immediately connected to someone. She was very nice and took down the model #s, what store I had seen them at and what the retail prices were. She told me I would get a call with a quote in 3 to 5 business days. So now we wait…
The big downside I see at this stage is the wait time. Hopefully the price savings will make up for it.
Thanks for the info., Joe. I’ll be waiting to see how it turns out. This will give some good insight into what actually happens inside.
Ryan