They turned me over to the “operations manager” and in the numerous communications back/forth he said and I quote, “If location is such a big issue now, then I would assume that you would have asked someone to clearify this issue before joining and if you did I assure that none of my staff members would have mislead you to believe that there are showrooms in San Antonio.” No, we didn’t ask that question because there was nothing in the presentation to prompt it. The speaker repeated over and over and over again all you had to do was go shopping and submit the info.

When he responded to the BBB, he claimed that all I had to do was tell him that I couldn’t shop in Austin and they would have made alternate arrangements. Wow, that was the first I heard that statement even though I had told him several times I couldn’t shop in Austin and I even told him WHY…and all this was done in writing so I can prove it. Yes, I have submitted all this to the BBB and AG’s office.

I even tried to put it into a perspective that the AG’s office would find interesting and tempting. ADI operates 208 days a year (Wednesday thru Saturday). If they only lure ONE new prospective member in per day of operation at $1999 per membership, that means $415,792 initial membership fees in one year. I know that this company is located in several states based on what I have seen on the Internet. So, assuming 24 states each have just one ADI outlet that operates 208 days a year, the figure is now over $11 million.

Time will tell if my plea to the AG’s office landed on listening ears. Meanwhile, I’m not sure what we need to do. These people lie and trying to be prepared for their lies can be very stressful. What I want is for a regulatory body to make ADI fully disclose their services prior to the member joining. Granted, that would shut them down, but the public has the right to full disclosure. And I think they should be required to allow 30 days for cancelation. Shoot, we went to the presentation on Saturday afternoon. They closed at 5:00 that day and didn’t reopen until the following Wednesday which was beyond the 3 day cancelation period. Had we tried to cancel during that 3 days, no one was available to notify of that cancelation. They would have denied our refund anyway and as it was I caught on to their scam within days.

Thanks for your words of encouragement. I hope someone reads this before they make the mistake we made…and some of those that have responded with comments that ADI has saved them money should look into whether or not the savings were real or contrived.

I’m sorry you didn’t find my site sooner. I wish I had a magic solution that would get your money back.

Given how much you’re out, you may want to consider suing in small claims court. It may be worth trying it.

Best,

Ryan

We did not fall for the stupid key in the ignition lure. We genuinely wanted to get the discounts for home improvement and building materials. There was one response (from Amy?) and she claims she saved some $12,000 on her cabinets and flooring. Well, if that is the case, you can’t prove it by me. I wanted to know what kind of prices we would be looking at when we build next year so I requested pricing on some Armstrong flooring. I did this via their Internet online form. A few days later I got an email response telling me that remodeling items are handled DIFFERENTLY. I had to make an appointment with ONE supplier in Austin. Problem is we live in San Antonio. The travel time is about 90 minutes and if the pricing was as Amy claims it to be, well worth the travel expense…but I have a vision problem that prevents me from driving the 90 minutes and getting someone to drive me is out of the question when everyone else works.

And another thing I discovered that I didn’t see on your blog is that members are LIMITED to the vendors/suppliers listed on their webpage. The webpage has 45 different categories and sub-categories with a little over 600 different companies listed but a vast majority of those companies were unfamiliar to me.

I discovered this when I simply went “shopping”, identified items of interest and requested pricing information only to be told the items were not available thru American Direct!

By November 13 I had requested and then demanded our money back because we had been misled. ADI has refused. I filed a complaint with the Austin Better Business Bureau and the Texas Attorney General’s Office. ADI has responded to my complaint by calling me unreasonable. They have lied several times in their written communications and I have had the pleasure of pointing out the discrepancies, but so far we have gotten nowhere.

I wish I had seen your site before. But let me say this, I found another site today where someone else signed up for the ADI membership with the Austin outlet. Like us, that person was interested in the home improvement and building materials. After he got home, he checked out the pricing (he must have attended the presentation during the week) and determined that the pricing was not as good as he could get by wheeling and dealing with Lowe’s and/or Home Depot. So, he immediately canceled his membership and ADI got ugly with him, claiming he had not canceled within the 3 days. Fortunately for him, he had paid the $1999 on his credit card because he disputed the charge and the credit card company fought the battle for him. His membership was ultimately canceled. So, even if we had canceled within the 3 days chances are we would not have gotten our money back.

We are stuck and unless Amy is correct (and I doubt that she is), we will not be able to recoup our initial membership fee without spending more money than we would have to locally! I can’t see flushing good money after bad just to try and make it look like we have saved.

I have to wonder if the retail prices provided to Amy were inflated. The pots and pans through this B&F System that allegedly retails for $1295 (the set they show in the presentation) can be purchased at several sources online for about $250 but the way ADI tells it, you save more than $1000 on just that one item.

I requested pricing on an island range hood (Boen) that retails for $2834. ADI proudly provided me with a cost of $2163. They calculated the savings based on the retail price of $2834 PLUS Texas sales tax (8.25%) minus the $2163 PLUS Texas sales tax and came up with a savings of $726.36. Thing is, it took me literally MOMENTS to find a site on the Internet where I could purchase the same identical island hood for $1549. Why would I buy it from ADI for $600 more than I would have to pay for it elsewhere just to save what they claim to be $726.36.

And this business of having a guarantee that Amy mentioned? You must spend $5000 thru American Direct in 5 years and then you will be refunded the difference between your initial membership fee and the amount you actually saved. But the amount you save based on their calculations will NEVER result in a refund. Its like the pots and pans…according to them you saved over $1000 even though actual savings based on what you would have had to pay elsewhere is the difference between $181 and $250 (less than $100).

I am so frustrated I could scream. I just don’t see where we will ever be able to recoup the initial membership fee in real savings even though we plan to build TWO homes!

Unfortunate situation. I can’t say I’m surprised by American Direct - they are all about the money.

I hope it works out for you.

Thanks for posting!