Yup! The way it works is that you have to go to their showroom and sit through a presentation. They won't let you ask questions. You have to listen to the presentation and watch the canned video tape showing "happy customers who have saved THOUSANDS". This lasts at least 1 hour. Ours lasted 1.5 hours, and no one was allowed to ask anything. If you DID ask, they told you to "hold your questions to the end"... but at the end, there is "no time for questions. Just sign up and we will be HAPPY to answer everything then." !!! They will show you pictures from the paper where local businesses sell, for example, a sofa for $1200, and then they will show you that you can buy the EXACT SAME STUFF from them for $500. But don't be fooled -- they don't tell you that it might NOT be the same stuff, or that this is representative.
Anyways, after that, they let you look at their showroom and all of the catalogues that you have access to. All of their shopping is essentially catelogue shopping. You pick out what you want, pay for it, and it is delivered to the Indirect Answer warehouse. YOU have to pick it up from there. Before I went, I priced out all the things I wanted to buy, took the lists in, and checked their catelogues for the same brands. Most weren't carried by them, and those that were only offered a savings of, on average, 15% over the retail cost. When you factor in the cost of hiring a moving company to get this stuff to your home, you are saving only around 10% on average. And the cost to YOU will be absolutely NO customer support whatsoever. And for ME, if I buy a high-ticket item and it goes belly up, I am willing to pay the "premium" for customer support.
Another thing that they misrepresent is that they say that you pay "the manufacturer's price" with no mark-up. This isn't true, because how else does the company make money? Especially since they tell you that the markup on jewellry is 90% (true, but how much jewellry does one person buy, especially without looking at the real thing first????), but when you do the math, even on the jewellry and compare retail vs their cost, you only save 15% overall REGARDLESS of the item. So, where is the other 75%??? In the Indirect Answer owner's hands, not yours.
As for the fees to join you need to know that you are NOT allowed to return, so you HAVE to decide right then and there IF you are going to participate or not. You cannot go and comparison shop and think about it at home. You HAVE to sign up then and there. If you chose NOT to, then you can NEVER join Indirect Answer again. This is where the high pressure sales comes in. They will flash up numbers about how much you can spend on consumer goods, and tell you that for a mere FIVE THOUSAND --yes, $5000 up front investment (OR payments you can make over 3 years) , you TOO can have access to the magical catelogues. They will quickly skip past the part that you have to pay maintenance fees after your first or second year to make your membership "current". SO, it is the up front fee PLUS the annual fee that you have to pay.
They give no refunds, they won't let you quit, and they want you to sign a non-negotiable binding contract RIGHT AWAY. Or else this AMAZING opportunity will SLIP YOU BY.
LET IT GO.
Tell them not to call you anymore, and if you receive any more calls you will phone the police to report harrassment. Then call your local Better Business Bureau and lodge a complaint. If they STILL call, phone your local State's Attorney office (assuming you are american!) because in some jurisdictions, their tactics are illegal.
Hope this helps!
Maya