I haven't tried or used bitpay so I can't say if it is safe to buy Bitcoin from them, but all i know is their domain name is not bitpay.net, this is their official website https://bitpay.com/ so im pretty sure that you are using a phishing site or scam site. Be careful about this kind of scams because they are using those well known cryptocurrency services and then create a fake website with similar domain and the same user interface to stole peoples login information and scam them so you should always double check the domain name you will enter. Why not just use coinbase?
On the bold part, I think you should because it seems that you read his statement wrong, or you just assume that it was bitpay. He really mean bitbay.net and the site is really existing. @richcoincloud11, I don't have a personal experience in using the site. Before, there have been several numbers of accusations that the site is a scam (well, all exchanges seem to have), BUT Bitbay denied that (ofcourse) and claimed that they are a "credible cryptocurrency exchange and trading platform" in their post here.
Though they operate since 2014, it seems that they aren't that well known. If you really plan to buy BTC with "a lot of money", I think it would be better to diversify in different exchanges or just don't do the transaction all at once.
They have an Announcement Thread in the Forum : https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/btc-ltc-eth-lsk-xrp-dash-exchange-bitbaynet-usdplneur-1024193 and an active account : Bitbay