Doba Review - Is Doba worth joining?

I made the same mistake of signing up with Doba. I still have until August to attempt to get my money back. I am trying to make it work though. I research through their items and try to come up with a few items to list. Their prices are high and if you do find one that you think you might be able to sell, watch out for the shipping costs. An example is a baby stroller that was priced at $69.95 but had a shipping cost of $150. I have been with them five months now and have actually sold a couple things, I made a whopping $35 all together. I'm anxious to see what kind of excuse I get when I try to cancel my membership. If you don't make at least what you spent they say they will refund your membership costs. I will be shocked if they give me my money back $420.00. My advise is stay clear and don't waste your money on Doba.

Don't get scammed by Doba. They don't deliver half of your items, and you will not be able to get a refund. It is a scam.

A very old school marketing/sales company. You get into a free trial, they say just for administrative purposes they need your credit-card. Then you don 't paid to the term of use or to their emails and you end up paying as you should ( nobody said) have cancelled it.
Watch out for this company: there request by Chick ( $7 per hour) You should have read the terms, it is your own fault, you should have read. Hope this kind of sales tricks will be soon over. Stay away from it.

Hi All
From day one, I've been searching to find dropshippers. I have an all ready and idle website but NO STOCK!! Now you may wonder why, well its because I can't find drop shipping service through our wholesale suppliers out here in Canada. I've done hours upon hours of research to find wholesale suppliers who will dropship. I found one, and as you should all know, when you setup up with a wholesale supplier (in Canada) you need to setup an account (free of charge) and you need a business name and business number. If they don't ask for this, your not really getting a wholesale supplier. Anyways, this wholesale supplier did ask for this information. But guess what!! there prices were so high, that when I compared their prices at Wholesale to prices out there in various selling site, there was a difference of 1 or 2 dollars. Then I realized that there is wholesale suppliers out there that have setup shopping carts of their own. So I cancelled my account..and just praying that the credit information I sent and credit card info won't be stolen or used. What did I learn from this -- before every filling out an application, you should ask for a list price of their products before filling an account, but if you must fill out an account, do not provide any credit card info until you see the price list.
It also help to search them on 411 directory to see where they are, call them and ask questions without revealing yourself. Anyways, I'm still stockless and still haven't found any dropshippers.
One thing I would do though, if I found a good drop shipper in Canada with General merchandise, I wouldn't have a problem sharing with others. :)

I learned about Doba at an eBay live conference a few years ago and could not believe their high prices. It is a total waste of time. Their wholesale prices are so high that there is no room for any profit. As mentioned in other posts, you are better off finding the suppliers on your own. I don't know how they remain in business,

Doba is a very unreliable drop shipper.
After trying to use them for over 2 yrs, I decided I had enough of their randomly filling orders.
I had a customer that really wanted a particular bedding set. I had just listed the set and there were 15 in stock.
I placed the order and a few days later I was notifed it had sold out. Ok, I had been selling on the internet for years using nothing but drop shipped items to stock our online store.
After several emails to Doba I found out that they were going to be restocked.
My customer decided they would wait an undetermined amount of time to get this bedding set.
3-4 months later after checking back with Doba daily,
I found they had gotten in 5 sets.
I had just been to the website a little earlier, and these were not showing up as being in stock.
I know they had to have been just listed.
I placed the order and notified the customer that they had been restocked and one was to be shipped out to them.. I did keep checking back thinking that maybe I needed to order one more set for my personal stock in case they sold out again. Stock count was showing as 4 left as it should have been since I had already ordered one set ..
5-6 days later Doba notified me that they could not fill the order since they were sold out again..
Ok now I knew something weird was going on..
*My order was placed about they time they showed them being restocked on the website.
*I was checking back several times daily and saw where my order was the only one that had been placed.
*It took doba almost a week to notified me they were sold out again?

I had noticed that many time Overstock would come up with some items after Doba showed they were sold out, so I started checking with OS daily.
5-6 days later, OS had restocked them.. "They had gotten in 5 sets"..
Mad, hostile, upset, and plain down right disgusted over this and and the fact that I had been notified of over 20 products, in about a 2 months time, that had been sold out I decided to contact Doba..
What it boiled down to is we pay their high fees, and never know if we are going to get the products we order or not.
As far as what happened to the 5 sets I saw in stock they day they posted them, apparently OS wanted a wholesale bulk order, so they cancelled my order in preference to selling 5 sets to OS.
Mind you my order was placed days before OS placed theirs.
Doba claimed to be a dropship company, but they did not care about the little sellers on the market when they can sell a larger quanity to a larger company..
I dropped DOBA that day and placed the order with OS just to get the item for my customer.
If you don't care about paying their high fees, only getting a few of the orders you place with them, and the fact that if they will sell a larger bulk order, and cancel any orders from the smaller companies, or being treated like a nobody, then my all means spend your money to join.
Personally I will never order from Doba again.

Honestly I am someone in desperate need of this dropship business but have been very careful not to continue with Doba. Although I have not really started official registration with them, the review i have read so far suggests that I cannot trust them as a beginner. What do I do because I don't presently have any source of income and would be happy if I can be directed.

I learned a long time ago...If a company wants to charge you to dropship, they're just a middle man or a scammer. Do the research yourself and find the actual suppliers. There are quite a few awesome dropship suppliers out there. I have one here in New Zealand that's free and extremely easy. Sorry, keeping that one to myself..lol.

I also dropship on eBay using another site that I've built a relationship with. Never use a middle man as the margins are too low. Never pay someone to do what you can do yourself...Finding suppliers.

If your searching the net for suppliers and come across a site with seemingly good products at good prices but there's no mention of dropshipping on their site, email them and ask them if they will dropship for you. If they don't know what it is, tell them. 9 out of 10 companies will be happy to allow someone else to sell more of their products. When I dropship, I try and stay outside of the dropshipping network. That way I can be sure that some of my products and prices are unique...Only some though.

Dropshipping is not EASY MONEY...There's no such thing. It takes time, research and good business skills. Sure, you can list something, sell something, and then ship that something...Profit made...but what happens when there's a problem? How would you deal with it? You need a business plan before you start to cover all the possible issues that will arise. It's important to get the customer but it's even more important to keep the customer.

www.smokevoid.com

I have entered Dobba free trial and If you think you can make money with them you are wasting your time.
I spend almost 5 days learning and doing a lot research on how to sell Doba products from Ebay I can tell you I have not find anything worth selling that I could make any profit at all.
When you consider that you have to pay Ebay fees/dropshipping fees which by the way most Doba products do charge plus Paypal fees and Dobba prices are already high enough must say you will make no profit or sell at all since same products are already for sale on Ebay 10 times cheaper.
So if you want wast your time and pay the membership fees to find out the same thing 3 months latter is up to you. I don't have time or money to waste.
PS: the free membership only allow you to try 10 products but they won't tell you this Item.
I was very disappointed with Dobba and so far I have try 4 others with no success.

Hi SaleHoo Team,

I would just love to add a suggestion if I may, can we please get more drop shippers that will offer us authentic designer handbags, and designer shoes. I mean the Dolce & Gabbana , and although Queen B of Beverly Hills is excellent, we need a greater selection so that we can have more choices. I do not have to mention as you already know these are the items that are going to sell.
Please give the everyday reseller more options in these areas, we would really appreciate it.

Thank you,

KC

Doba? Don't even try. I did. They're asking just for inventory database update $500.- For website owners Doba is not solution. You can copy pictures after you put them to inventory. (12 items max and you have to update database- $500.- RIP OFF) They just want your money. All good comments and articles about DOBA written by some paid people for them. Price are not true wholesale and monthly fee with drop ship fee making your profit so small against competitor. Anyway they call me about 2 weeks trial 2 times a day for one week but she can't answer my marketing and pricing question. It's difficult find true wholesale with drop ship even on Salehoo many are just middleman but they exist and you have take time to find them.

You actually look pretty cool. Unfortunately I had a less than cool experience on the phone today with doba.com representatives. I am a paying customer for over a year and have decided to part way with doba.com because of disappointing service. Today, was no exception. My renewal date was January 22, 2011, but unfortunately I called in a little late to cancel my service (February 2nd, 2011). It was a mistake, I realized that, and because of my late call I was charged $59 on my credit card for the monthly service. So I decided to call doba.com and see if they would be nice enough to credit me back the $59 as a courtesy. I have not made any purchases on my account in a while and I think I have logged into my account maybe once or twice since the January 22nd date. I thought I had a legit case and I felt like it would be an easy adjustment. Wow, was I wrong. I talked to two customer service agents that were rude and inexperienced to the point where I gave up on the conversation and I must say that it got heated at times. I don't remember the last time a customer service agent flat out denied my request to speak to a supervisor and raised their voice at me. I was told things like "well, we make exceptions, but in this case we have done all we can and we can't make the exception". Really? I was a paying customer for over a year, paid about $708 in membership fees, and as a courtesy on my way out you can't make an exception. Let's be fair about this. I could understand if I had crazy amounts of activity on my account since the renewal date, but there is no activity on my account except for two logins. No orders placed, no exports done, very little activity. The fact of the matter is that there was an opportunity to do the right thing and provide great service to a paying customer and doba.com blew it. Instead they would rather hide behind their "strict" refund policy in a cowardly attempt to screw me out of more money. If you use doba.com I suggest you get out while you can, if you are considering it I suggest you leave. It's overpriced, the proces are not competitive, and customer service is about as friendly as a sandpaper sanitary napkin. I really thought that doba would be able to handle my request, but I was mistaken. This month I paid $59 for 11 days of service. Totally unacceptable service in my opinion.

There is always something bad and good about ANY entity in the business of making money. Why? Because we're all imperfect. What we must do is choose our business associations by whether or not they appear to be able to meet our business needs. We continue the association because they score high enough to warrant continuation. Work to improve the service they provide by submitting feedback and making positive suggestions. Personally, I'd rather be part of the solution rather than start over with a new partner. I want my customers feedback so I can improve my service to them, assuring repeat business, which is the basis for growth.

Hi there

Last year has been for a few of us quite hard. Crisis, a lot of human beings without work. But now there's time to find well prepared companies who offer.
.
That's why we need them is growth in this year.

Happy new year

Hi Dave,

Can you please send me some of the wholesalers that you are buying the products from. I am a DOBA trail buyer but it seems DOBA is not a reliable seller. We should be very carefully. I am scared now.

I work for an internet retailer that uses doba to add to their available products. I am in charge of all sales that use doba. I have been working with this company for about a year now. In a period of one year, I have processed over 300 orders. This is my experience with them, you can decide for yourself if your $50 is worth it for you and your company.

Pricing:

Even though there are a lot of products (over 2 million claimed) at great prices, most of them have a drop ship and shipping fee. Here is are 2 real examples:

Lets Tackle the ABCs is a toy for kids.
Doba wholesale price: $35.01
Shipping: $9.58
Drop ship fee: $0
Total Price: $44.59

Amazon price shipped: $40.77

Garmin 205w Navigation
Doba Price: $120.23
Shipping: $8.16
Drop ship fee: $0
Total: $128.39

Amazon price shipped: $91.98

These are just two random items that I pulled out from their front page which are featured items.

I have also searched almost every working day to find cheaper items. And there are some that are cheaper than amazon and some aren't available. However most of them that are cheaper, are only cheaper by minuscule amounts.

Here is one we have sold on our site:
Timex Ironman T5J721
Doba price: $27.09
Shipping: $0
Drop ship fee: $0
Total: $27.09

Amazon: $29.99
Your profit: $2.90
Only if you can sell it for $29.99. Most retailers try to beat that price which lowers the profits a bit. Please don't forget that you have to pay your credit card processor, which can be from 50¢ up to even $1.75 depending on who you use.

You have to sell 20 or 30 of them to make up the monthly fee.

Shipping Time:

Most items ship out between 2-5 days, in which your customer will receive the product at the door in 5-15 days depending on where they live. I have had tow different orders take up 2 weeks to ship out!

Im also going to add magazine subscriptions take up three months!

Shipping Accuracy:

Of the 300+ orders I've processed, more than 30 of them have had problems, in which I had to contact doba for help with the issue. The issues can include delayed shipment, wrong items, broken items, etc...

Here is an example of the process of the order:

1. Customer orders from site ice cream maker, profit for us was approx $2 and we sold 3 that week.
2. The customer received item in seven business days (a week and a half)
3. Customer contacts us saying item was broken
4. We attempt to request a new item sent to customer via website. Website says "this supplier does not accept returns or refunds"
5. We contact doba immediately for them to ship out new order using their chat system. The operator tells us that she placed an rma request for us, they will contact us back in 1-3 business days to give us rma instructions.
6. We relay info to customer.
7. After a week, no contact from doba, which means no contact from us to the customer. Customer complains to us.
8. We contact doba again. Same operator says she will look into the issue.
9. We contact customer and tell him we will send out another one.
10. We had to order another item from doba to make sure he gets it.
11. He gets its a week and a half later. It is now 2 and half weeks and no rma instructions.
12. I contact doba again via chat and request my money back for the broken one.
13. Doba does not contact me for 3 months!
14. Doba credits me the refund.

This is only one example of 30 that have had these problems, I accurately document each one of them. There are many more that I haven't gotten my money back and doba thinks I've forgotten about them. There are none, in which has gone smoothly.

Return Policy:

Not all of their suppliers take returns. The ones that do, charge a restocking fee that can take be up to 20%. I have had 1 successful return. But the steps to returning are long.

1. Request RMA
2. 1-3 business days for RMA number and instructions.
3. You have to send that to the customer.
4. The customer will have to send you a tracking number. If they dont you dont get your refund.
5. Once doba receives the item, they will process it and credit your money.

This sucessful process took a total of two weeks.

My company uses doba, im sure they're not making any money off of it. After paying the $50 monthly fee and an employee (me) to manage the account and put out the fires.

If you search doba in google, you will find many people who says that doba is the only good source for drop shipping. Doba gives them $20 for each person that signs up. You should ask them if they even use doba.

Please leave any comments.

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Rip off my card got charged after I canceled they refuse to credit me back. Cant make any money matter of fact its cheaper to buy it on ebay then sell it lol

worst website created! always breaks down, always glitching out, worthless. they cant keep up with there massive inventory. cant do work when the site is literally ALWAYS crashing. this is by far the worst site in terms of bugs and site issues. you would think a company this big could easily handle these issues, but im sure there too focused on getting more wholesalers and products which there site can not even handle. total piece of crap

Thank you for your review of Doba, especially since Salehoo is a competitor. We appreciate you sharing your opinion and doing the research needed to fairly evaluate the wholesale product aggregator and drop shipping web service. We especially liked how you identified that the real profit margin is probably more like 10 – 30 percent. We have seen fit to link to this article in our independent <a href="http://www.moneystance.com/doba-reviews">Doba Reviews</a> section. Anyhow, keep up the good work spreading truth.

THE FACTS: Doba is $60 a month. This cost does not pay for much. Let me explain why. Aside from the $720 a year, when you order a product you pay this too: Drop ship fee of about $3.50+, shipping (which is estimated) the cost of the product with Doba's markup adn don't forget, your costs for processing the transaction (credit card processing). You have zero contact with the supplier in case of any needed assistance during the process. Example: your customer places an order for a widget case. They call you the next day, (before it's processed with the supplier) and say they need to cancel because the dimensions of the case are too small for their widget. You contact doba, wait for 20 minutes on hold, (though you are first in line), finally get through, then they tell you everything is automated, they can send an email but can't guarantee the order will be cancelled. If you ask why they cannot call and place a stop on the order, they respond by repeating themselves in a condescending tone about 3 times during the conversation until you call them out on it. We have direct relationships with many suppliers who are with doba. They respond immediately when we need something. And the wholesale prices are usually half what Doba posts. This means DOBA MAKES THIS OFF OF YOU: ($60/month - $720/YR, + dropship fee + shipping + their markup on each product)
Update: They emailed a credit for our cancellation after we called them out on their "shadyness".

I just sent this post to a bunch of my friends as I agree with most of what you’re saying here and the way you’ve presented it is awesome.

Very informative post. Thanks for taking the time to share your view with us.

I AM WARNING YOU ALL NOT TO GIVE DOBA YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION! I feel very STUPID to fall for this SCAM! Doba is laughing all the way to the bank. They will keep charging your credit card even after you cancel. How could they get away with this? Doba will trick you into membership. They don't care about anything else but tricking you into the $59.99 a month membership fee or better yet get you for the yearly fee. Doba will harass you by phone everyday until you give in. Their products are very high priced and already at retail. Ebay has the same products for less money then Doba. How could that be? it's because these sellers on Ebay are going direct to the manufactures. You can contact the manufactures direct and get the same deal Doba gets and make 100% profit. Their game/SCAM is not the products but the membership fee. After they get you at least once for that $59.95, Doba doesn't care if you ever come back. Look at all the complaints on the internet. If you search Google you will find 1000's of complaints on the internet and to think about all the people that got ripped off that didn't write a complaint review. IT's RIDICULOUS how they can get away with this. How does the owner go to bed at night when doing so much harm to human beings. God knows and will judge them when the day comes. I was stupid to try the free trial and get scammed into it by their harassing phone calls. please don't fall for it. Please make my stupid mistake a lesson not to fall for it. As for the owner, manager and the two employees on Doba staff. HOW CAN YOU HURT PEOPLE LIKE THIS! SHAME ON YOU! I WILL BE NOTIFYING THE "SHAME ON YOU" TV NEWS ABOUT THIS SCAM. Hopefully this review will help others to make a smart choice and stay away from Doba. FAR AWAY! Don't even give Doba your telephone number for more information because they will hunt you down and brain wash you with CRAP! Don't believe what these people tell you. A COMPLETE SCAM! You will not make any money but lose money! Believe all the complaints you read.... it's all true. Don't believe the positive reviews because the Doba employees write those to throw you off. TERRIBLE!