Doba Review - Is Doba worth joining?

11 min. read

Doba is a sourcing directory and online store integration, specializing in dropshipping. But if you’ve come here, we imagine your main question is, does it live up to the hype? We decided to find out and keep you from risking the time and money involved in discovering for yourself. Most importantly, we looked at what customers are saying about Doba. Here's what we found…

What is Doba?

Doba acts as a middleman, connecting dropshipping suppliers with aspiring retailers (that’s you). It also provides you with the technology to list and sell items on a range of eCommerce platforms.

When you want to sell goods online, but you don’t want a household - or a warehouse - full of packages that need to be shipped out, dropshipping may be a great solution for you. However, with dropshipping, a major difficulty is trying to find trustworthy dropshippers with profitable goods to sell.

This is where sites like Doba come in. Doba claims to have an impressive selection of products to choose from, all of which you can import into your online store. Of course, there are many other features to consider to understand whether Doba is right for you.

In this review, you’ll find:

A brief walkthrough of how to use Doba
The pros and cons of Doba
A collection of customer reviews and opinions about Doba, gathered from online communities and forums
An outline of whom Doba is best suited to
Advice for what to do if you don’t decide to go with Doba

How does it work?

Find products, build inventories, and add product information to your selling platform.

On Doba, you’ll most likely start by finding products and suppliers. You’ll then be able to build your own inventory lists, export product data, keep track of the orders you’ve received and add more products to sell when you’re ready.

1. Finding products and suppliers

There are 3 different ways to browse potential products and suppliers on the new Doba site:

On the dashboard of the ’search products’ tab, hot products and top selections are displayed to give you some inspiration. There’s also the option to view new arrivals, or products which offer free shipping, among other categories.
You can view a list of suppliers in the ‘find suppliers’ tab and order the supplier list based on available item count, fulfillment rate, average order processing time and more. You can click into each supplier to learn more about them.
And, probably the most useful option, you can view Doba’s product catalog in the ‘search products’ tab and by selecting which category of products you are interested in.

The left-hand sidebar allows you to type in the search term directly, or filter products by category, supplier, supplier location, shipping times, price range and/or minimum order quantity.

You can then prioritize what comes first in the results from the dropdown box next to “sort by.” This gives you a lot of options to further customize your search and find what you’re looking for with ease.

2. Keeping an inventory

Something else Doba allows you to do is build your own inventory list of products that are of interest to you. Think of your inventory list as similar to a ‘wishlist.’ It’s easy to add products to the list by selecting the ‘add to inventory’ button under relevant products.

This provides a useful way to store, revisit and manage products you might be interested in dropshipping.

I’ve created an example inventory list for you to see, with a small selection of [phone products]:

You can then upload the inventories to your online store later on.

3. Exporting product data

Doba allows you to export product information from your inventory list into a zip file so you can access it offline, or add it to a spreadsheet. It’s easy to do this by selecting each product you want to download individually. Otherwise, you can check ‘select all’ and then download a zip file containing information about all the products in your inventory list. The download button is easy to locate to the far right of each product on your list, or when you multi-select products you can find the ‘download all’ button at the top of the list.

If you export the data to a spreadsheet, you can compare information in the columns easily, which may be useful if you are deciding which product to go with out of a range of similar ones provided by different suppliers.

There are also a lot of third-party formats you can export your product data to, so that you can easily upload product information to sites such as Amazon or Shopify to expand your business opportunities.

4. Keeping track of orders

There’s also an area for keeping track of the details of your orders, including the order status, dates, suppliers, buyers, locations and amounts.

Pros and cons

Doba is easy to use, and has useful features, but it’s not the lowest-cost option and there are other tools that offer more features for a better price. Further, there are a number of unhappy reviews found online.

We’ve broken down the main pros and cons here:

Pros

1. The platform is easy to navigate

Doba has worked to make it’s new platform user-friendly. There are a variety of methods for discovering products and filtering search results. It doesn’t matter whether you’re looking for general suppliers or specific products, you can filter the searches to suit your requirements.

2. It’s easy to customize your own inventories for quick reference

When you go away and come back, you haven’t lost your organized lists of products. They’re easy to review at a glance, or export for further use.

3. With the option to export product data into various file formats, it’s easy to upload product information quickly onto marketplaces such as Amazon, or your own online store.

Taking product details and manually adding them to your listings can be time-consuming. That’s why this integration is so useful, bridging the gap and making the product listing process faster for you.

With all this being said, these features and more are typically found in the offerings of other dropshipping platforms, usually at lower membership fees.

Cons

1. Membership isn’t cheap

At the time of this review, a Doba membership will cost you $24.99 per month with limited features, or $49.99 per month with full access, so it’s certainly one of the more expensive options out there. Another option is to select quarterly or annual plans, but these involve decent upfront investments.

Additionally, most products on Doba have an additional ‘dropshipping fee’ and shipping fees.

The site does not have a clear refund or money back policy if you are unhappy with the performance of the platform.

2. Lengthy returns process

There are unclear returns processes outlined on Doba’s site and many suppliers who do accept returns appear to charge a restocking fee that can be up to 20% of the price.

3. The general online opinion of Doba isn’t favorable

In order to gather the most accurate data about Doba, we went straight to the source to discover what customers are saying about it.

We found that feedback was generally negative.

So what exactly are these customers saying? The findings are covered for you in the next section.

What are people saying about Doba?

We had a look at some of the major review sites to see what customers think about Doba. The company has a 2.8 rating on Trustpilot and on the Better Business Bureau they have a 1.18 rating.

After reviewing the customer opinions found on various forums and online communities, we’ve extracted what we believe to be the general opinions held about Doba.

General opinion #1: Doba prices are too high, which makes it difficult to compete with prices on eBay or Amazon, or to make a profit.

A customer in their Trustpilot review said “Doba is a site with tons of suppliers, so it's the suppliers that are setting the prices for products. The suppliers’ prices are not much better than eBay or Amazon.”

Bernard says in his SiteJabber review, “You will never get out without regretting your money and time. All their items are on sale on eBay or Amazon. You will never sell even 1 item because you can't list it at a competitive price.

“90% of the "wholesale" prices on Doba are exactly the same or higher than the retailing prices on Amazon. The remaining 10% of the products are just slightly lower than the going prices on Amazon. If you consider Amazon's fees including the dropshipping fee on Doba, you'll notice you're losing a lot of money, fast,” Michael said in his Trustpilot review. “Find a real dropship wholesaler with real wholesaling prices.”

Brad said, “Their Wholesale prices are too high, not competitive,” in his SiteJabber review. “Don’t use Doba! SaleHoo might be better.”

Another example is a comment on the Warrior Forum: “I tried Doba last year and there was no margin for profit there.”

Finally, people on Doba's Facebook page have left similar comments:

General opinion #2: Customer service is lacking.

There were a variety of complaints about Doba’s customer service found on various forums.

Here’s an example, once again on Facebook, where Chantale is complaining on Doba’s company page that she’s had trouble:

People complain on Facebook; it’s unavoidable. Any business will face this occasionally. The concerning thing is that the comment has not been responded to by a Doba representative. That, paired with all the other comments we identified, pieces together a bigger picture.

Update: Further examples of this have since appeared in the comments below this post. For example, this comment from Sharon, “...their customer service is horrible. I was supposed to receive an orientation phone call as part of my account subscription and never did. Then they charged me for a full subscription 1 day before my supposedly 'free' trial was supposed to end. When I contacted them about the early charge, they refused to reverse it and the rep gave me a FAKE email address to get in touch with the management team.”

Alex, in his Trustpilot review said, “I’m extremely displeased with the assistance I couldn't receive from doba.com ! I have been trying to reach them for a week.”

Another disgruntled customer, Bertrand, said, “There is no customer service. Nobody returns your emails or calls,” in his SiteJabber review.

Jannette echoed this in her SiteJabber review, saying, “Have sent emails and live chat messages 15 times, no answer to either one. There is no support or contact phone number listed.”

This is quite disappointing to see, because customer service can be so vital to running a smooth online store and knowing that support is never far away if you run into any issues. You may like to check out what SaleHoo customers have been saying about them.

General opinion #3: Many have claimed that they’ve been charged during the free trial period, and that it’s extremely difficult to cancel.

Firstly, we have the “do not sign up for their free trial, they will charge your card without telling you before the trial is over” complaint from Jason, on his Trustpilot review.

This was supported by many other customers who have written below about being charged before the trial period was over.

In his SiteJabber review, Betrand said, “I signed up for the free trial for the $29 plan. The next day I could not log in. I tried to change my password over 10 times and did not get the email to reset the password. I emailed them over four times but no response from them. The following month, I get a bill from my credit card company for $69.99 which I did not sign up for.”

Tarziz said, “After the trial you cannot log back in your account to cancel the trials and stop them to reach your credit card” in his Trustpilot review.

Because Doba doesn’t offer any sort of money back guarantee, it may be difficult to recover billing charges that occur.

General opinion #4: People have commented on problems with listed inventory inaccuracy and order fulfillment

A customer on Trustpilot mentioned that, “A supplier updated their stock of a product at midnight to QTY of 112. I had placed orders for dropship of 60. By the morning at exactly 6am the product was gone with no avail QTY. I took a screenshot of this. So the supplier QTY is not truly real-time.”

“I paid for their service by the month, placed 15 orders after selling the products on eBay. These orders were never shipped and resulted in negative feedback from buyers due to their scam site,” Jannette said in her review. “I have lost 3785.26 out of my pocket for orders placed through DOBA that were never shipped.”

Doga said in their SiteJabber review, “I tried ordering this item for days, everytime it said "transaction failed" and cancelled but proceeded to withdraw funds from my bank account anyway! When I asked to get my 400.80$ back because my item was never shipped, they never replied to anything!”

We also found a full length independent review from a customer who has been using Doba for a year to give you an insider view on their experience.

So who is Doba for?

Doba is probably best for you if you’re someone who is experienced at dropshipping but time-poor.

If you don’t have a lot of confidence or experience with dropshipping, launching straight into using a company with a high membership fee and prices that can’t compete in major marketplaces is quite a risk.

In saying that, Doba’s strengths are in its usability and the ease of exporting product information. If you’re confident that you could make enough from these products to make a decent profit, then Doba might be a viable option for you to consider.

You may even feel like you still need a bit more information about dropshipping in general to clarify your needs.

What do I do now?

You have a couple of good options from here: You can decide to tackle Doba and try your luck at making a profit with the site, or you can look for an alternative dropshipping tool.

If you decide to go ahead and try Doba, then you’ll need to be diligent about hunting for products with a profit margin that will be worth your time. This is something that needs to be done with any site, but as some products can be found cheaper on Amazon and eBay than they can on Doba, you’ll have to be extra careful with your filtering.

Although the price is steeper than other tools, given the information we have provided you with, you may judge it to be worth it.

What to do if you don’t choose Doba

If you decide that Doba doesn’t sound like it’s for you, you can start doing your research to compare other dropshipping tools online.

We would certainly recommend reading their reviews to see what their actual customers are saying, as they can often paint a better picture than anyone else could. You can read SaleHoo reviews or any other dropshipping suppliers' reviews online to see what people are saying and you’ll surely be able to determine the best option for you.

Look out for alternatives that have a lower membership fee, for example, but that don’t skimp on customer service or profit margins.

When you invest your time, money, and online reputation in dropshipping, you’re putting a lot of your credibility and reputation into the hands of the dropshipper suppliers. The main issues revolve around receiving orders when suppliers have run out of stock, or the smaller profit margins compared to buying in bulk upfront. You can read more about the pros and cons of dropshipping here to get a bigger picture.

An alternative, if you’re the kind of person who would like more control over the overall process and the opportunity to sell at higher profit margins, is to look into wholesale selling by finding suppliers through a directory tool such as SaleHoo Directory. If you’re thinking about Doba vs SaleHoo, you can find a comprehensive breakdown here.

Questions

If you have any questions about Doba, SaleHoo or dropshipping in general, we welcome you to reach out to our expert eCommerce team at any time, 24/7.

About the author

Simon Slade

CEO of SaleHoo Group Limited

Simon Slade is CEO and co-founder of SaleHoo, a platform for eCommerce entrepreneurs that offers 8,000+ dropship and wholesale suppliers, 1.6 million high-quality, branded products at low prices, an industry-leading market research tool and 24-hour support.

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245 Comments

shelby 24th of October

Good review; I too find Doba to provide an excellent service. I wanted to point out one significant thing however. While this may be clear to the auther, Grace, it won't be to those new to the industry. Doba is not a directory. That is actually one of the biggest things that sets them apart from their competitors. Doba is an agregator and that is why I love them. They don't just point me to suppliers, then provide me with access directly to the products, eliminating all of the leg work, hassle, and overhead. With just a few clicks I can push products straight to eBay. That's quit different then a "directory!" Thanks for the review!

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SliKKer 24th of May

I used this guy on www.pixelboardlive.com he is actually showing ebay sellers how to use doba. He has some good points to make.

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3rd of July

I agree that Doba is very well laid out from the time you sign up for the free trial to digging in finding the products you want to sell online. I also think that the profit margins in some of the products are lower than they advertise since if many people are selling the same item on eBay for instance, then you will have a lower sell price to compete with others. One thing that I have found is that sometimes items will go out of stock if you have them listed on eBay and then try to purchase after the auction is over. I'm not sure how often this happens, but I would assume that Doba deals with many different suppliers so each one can vary in the stock levels depending on the items you are selling. Overall I think Doba is an excellent program for the complete newbie looking to start selling products online because of their training and support provided. It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish when selling products online since there are many avenues you can sell such as eBay, your own website, froogle, amazon, etc. They offer a free trial, so it's no risk on your part to get started with them.

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Kevin 6th of August

Warning to all... Don't sign up for Doba- it is a complete ripoff. Their supposedly "wholesale prices" are higher than ebay prices... Doba could put a lot more products in their directory, then buy them off ebay and sell them to the idiots that sign up for the program and make money. It is truly ridiculous. Don't waste your time.

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kolton 7th of August

i think that doba.com is one of the best drop shipers i have used. i have made my all my money back in about 3-5 weeks. thanks

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Molly Fowler 8th of August

I've attempted to reach Doba numerous by e-mail, unsuccessfully, to find out the cost after the free trial if I decide to continue the program. Do you happen to know the cost to sign up with Doba?

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8th of August

You can see Doba's fees here: http://www.doba.com/site/fees.html

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Boo 21st of August

Doba is not a dropship program. They stock 0 inventory and ship 0 products.....so not exactly the very def of a dropship program ;-) As you can tell from the site they set up accounts with real programs, name the suppliers after rocks and stones, and have different markups and fees and shipping policies for each product source (which IMHO is very confusing especially if you first thought that THEY were your product source...ie shouldnt the fees and policies be the same if they were the dropshipper?). Look at the ipods...besides often being out of stock they are hundred or more then what the MAP (minimum allowed price) is or the price on the Apple site. Why is this? Because they have some set markup for each supplier program. On most products you wouldnt be able to tell what markup they have added, but then on these MAP items it becomes VERY clear. They have applied a markup across numerous products without even manually reviewing them to see if these markups made sense. You are better off going to the product sources, like Moteng or DBL rather then selling products for Doba (wholesalemarketer) since you are not getting products from doba. "They don’t just point me to suppliers, then provide me with access directly to the products, eliminating all of the leg work, hassle, and overhead. With just a few clicks I can push products straight to eBay. That’s quit different then a “directory!”" With the low margins already on eBay AND the fact that doba marksup the products and fees further reducing your products....what is the value of paying a monthly fee to get a format which allows you to post the data to eBay and pay another listing fee? If i pay a monthly fee and get a product like an ipod, the ipod is already a hundred or more then everyone else sells the product at. So, i have paid a monthly fee to get a product that i cannot sell into a format which allows me to easily list the product on eBay which will then charge me a fee to list a product that i have paid for despite not being able to sell it. pheeeew....doesnt work for me.

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HJL 14th of September

DoBa is a rip off operation. Once you have given them your credit card details it will be very difficult to stop them from charging you. I had to email 2-3 times and call 3 times to have it stopped. Stay away.

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Dave 17th of September

I have been selling on ebay for 6 years now and it has taken a long time to find wholesalers with good prices. They all claim to have the best prices. I signed up for doba and as soon as I saw their prices I quickly canceled my membership. I already have other wholesalers who I buy from with lower prices than Doba and I don't have to pay a monthly fee with my wholesalers so Why would I join Doba and pay $39.95 A MONTH just to be able to buy higher priced items. I am sure some of the items they sell are lower but when a company guarentees the lowest prices and then you find they are higher I am not impressed. I also sent a email to customer service for doba and asked them about what I had found out and they didnt even respond they just closed out my question.

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Chuck 26th of September

Doba's products are just a little less than a sale price at your local retailer. Also, they lied about their guarantee when they called you...I was scammed. Sorry Doba fans, but it is only a GREAT presentation AT BEST.

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Liz 30th of September

I signed up for DOBA's 7 day free trial twice (I've been in the planning stage of my business for quite some time). I never had a problem speaking to a live person from DOBA when I had questions about their products, etc. I tried selling 3 items on ebay as a test - a digital photo frame, a Kitchen Aid pot set, and a hand vac - all of the items were listed below MSRP, but I received zero bids on everything. I think if you were to come up with a good business plan and find a good niche in the market, you could be successful selling their products. DOBA does have a good reputation from the Better Business Bureau (you can look it up online). Someone asked how much it is per month - I believe it's 39.95/month.

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Jose 5th of October

Dave, could you please tell me the names of the dropshippers you are using/ Thanks.

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tripper 13th of October

yes, dave! i'd like to start up my movie site and have been researching wholesalers till i'm spinning! would love the help ! got laid off from a corporate job recently and am finally sick of that world! thanks bunches!

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oneal 18th of October

Can someone tell me how to buy from the suppler direct on doba. I think there prices are high do to the middle man

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essexkids 25th of October

any other drop ship companies out there for suggestion? thank you

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ACheapSuccess 28th of October

any dropshipper your gonna find online..are nothing but scams..you cant see the prices untill you sign up..and once you do ..you realize there people on the bay..selling it cheaper then your getting it ..so how can u make money ..theyre all rip offs..if you really wanna sell online..your gonna have to put some hard time and research into it..not just a couple clicks of a mouse is gonna sell products..first thing to do is to test the water..run around ur house..grab whatever your can sell..talk to friends and family see what they got..SELL THOSE ITEMS BEFORE YOU SPEND ANY MONEY ON PRODUCTS...

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CLAYTON 29th of October

DAVE OR OTHERS, COULD YOU PLEASE SEND ME THE NAMES OF ANY WHOLESALERS, DROPSHIPPERS, OR SUPPLIERS THAT YOU HAVE HAD SUCCESS WITH. THANKS

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Hallie 1st of November

If you want reputation and financial loss, headaches, and wasted time....use DOBA.

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Zach 5th of November

I sincerely advise anyone who is considering using this service to think twice. The majority of prices are either retail, above retail or within one or two percentage points of retail. They are about as far from a true wholesale price as it gets and they get away with this by dramatically increasing the MSRP of products. If you do intend on using Doba make sure you research the true retail price of a product before purchasing because the prices quoted on Doba are completely fraudulent. To top this off, support is laughable at best.

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Lisa 6th of November

I came accross Doba, and did some research to find this forum. I appreciate all the feeback on here, which points to mostley negative, which I will be cancelling my free trial soon. I do see comments ie. from Dave " I already have other wholesalers who I buy from with lower prices than Doba and I don’t have to pay a monthly fee with my wholesalers so Why would I join Doba and pay $39.95 A MONTH just to be able to buy higher priced items" I see that people have asked who these wholesalers are, but there is no feeback from anyone suggesting better. Its hard for people like me to get legit answers, I know it takes a bit of reasearch and time...when I research reputible wholesellers, or droppshipping, all I get is Scams and more ..ie Doba. It would be appreciated if you could give your feedback on the actual names of the companies who you actaully make a good profit from, and are better. You have taken the time to comment how Doba is no good, please set us on the right path as to what company names are good. Thanks

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Helping You Decide | Doba Reviews 6th of November

[...] you’re still deciding whether or not to use Doba as your dropshipper, here’s an article that examines if Doba is worth joining. It points out all the good (and bad) that they find about [...]

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Jimson 8th of November

I made about $1000 profit with doba, after all selling fees. I can tell you it is NOT worth the effort there are easier ways to make money online which I and others who are doing so will keep to ourselves, the internet is a small world, if something works, people aren't going to brag about it, unless they are trying to make money off you, luckily I bought the yearly membership for $199, and I'm paid through July but I will not be renewing that is for sure.

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JT 10th of November

I am just getting into this and appreciate the opinions posted here. For those of you who are looking to "DAVE" to share his wholesalers with you I think yo need to put yourself in his shoes. Once you have worked hard to get your suppliers who are making you money, how eager will you be to share that information with the world? I think not. If this business was easy, everyone in the world would be doing it. There are alot of as it is. Remember, nothing worthwhile in life is easy. It takes hard work and if you are looking for a fast easy buck I would say keep playing the lottery.

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EL 25th of November

"I see that people have asked who these wholesalers are, but there is no feeback from anyone suggesting better. " There was Moteng (camping and outdoor) and DBL (electronics) listed up above as options. It can be harder to identify all of their suppliers...but the more time you spend with different suppliers the more you can see which of the doba suppliers are which and then you can go to the supplier to work directly and cheaper then through doba. I found one of the programs above to use and about 6 others that i like to work with from Inventory Source ( http://inventorysource.com/ ) I used the free account their to research the programs i thought would work best for me.

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Mike 30th of November

Don't bother with Doba. They are nothing more than a reseller who has accounts with real distributors and wholesalers. Doba sells memberships which allow you to buy at deeply reduced retail prices (Kind of like an online Sam's Club except they don't stock anything). They aren't really selling to you at wholesale, because it is illegal to sell at wholesale (tax exempt) without you filing a tax exampt certificate. My experience with Doba has been horrible. I did my homeowrk and found items on Doba's catalog that were in stock with decent quantities and listed them on Ebay. (exactly what they tell you to do). When I got orders and placed them with Doba, my orders would sit as "Shipment Pending" For three days then my order would be cancelled due to the item being discontinued from the suplier. There was invantory when I ordered, there was invantory when the order was processed, but when it was time to ship, it simply disappeared. You will only have dissapointed customers if you use Doba's dropshipping service. They will gladly take your membership fees, but THEY DO NOT DELIVER PRODUCTS. If you are looking for REAL distributors and wholesalers, all you have to do is check on any manufacturers website and they will list their distributors (or give them a call and they will gladly tell you).

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John 11th of December

WOW! See ya Doba, you guys better get your act together. Thanks everybody for your posts! I have found 80% and more bad comments about Doba during my research! Sorry, not interested!

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Don't like DOBA 14th of December

I signed up for a trial, took a look at the products, and didn't like any of them. I sent an email asking to discontinue the free trial. I got an email back saying, "Thanks for using the trial, can you do a survey..." I thought it was good to go. I check my credit card statement the week after, and low and behold, I get the $50 charge from DOBA. I understand it is my fault for not looking closely enough to realize that you have to call the guys to discontinue. However it's very scummy practice. A lot of other sites have simple cancellation policies, but not DOBA. I called, talked to live chat, sent an email to the head of customer service, and they wouldn't budge on giving me my money back which I thought I fairly deserved. Simply put, I was very very annoyed. $50 is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but to lose $50 bucks on something you didn't even want is annoying. The tougher they make it to cancel, the better for them obviously. However, it makes people like me take time to complain on sites like this. So I hope you think twice about DOBA. There are others who don't have the monthly fee, but just an upfront one time fee. Check those out first over DOBA.

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Asher 19th of December

Here is some realstic advice. If you want to make money, save up 2000.00 find a good deal from a manufcturer on alibaba. buy something light (under 4 pounds and preferably 13 oz) per product and sell it on ebay. ship it usps first class ail. good luck

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Charles 5th of January

Hello Everyone, I am the Anakan Skywalker of the bunch and would like to known of any reputable dropshippers. I have been doing a lot of research and find that they all have received negative feedback. I would greatly appreciate if any of you would share the names of reputable dropshippers. thank you, charles

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Bryan Heath 13th of January

DOBA has a great site and a lot of products but thier markup is too HIGH! It is impossible to make any money with them!

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Eric Sterns 31st of January

I singed up for the 7 day trial and someone from Doba called me after an hour to welcome me to doba and explain the benefits of the programe. My credit card company called me and said there has been $300.00 withdrawal from my account. I called doba and asked them to explain to me why they charged my account. Doba told me I chosed to sign up for 2yrs contract instead of the free trial which I don't remember. All I wanted to do is sign up for the free trial and decide if am interested. After the first two calls, anytime I call doba, they put me on hold until I hanged up..(every time). I have asked my creadit card company to dispute the charges... in process... will give u an update.

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bryan 20th of February

Thanks all for the feedback, ive decided to learn from others mistakes this time. I almost joined, its like an addiction to make money online and i truly believe we are being taken advantage of by the nicely designed sites and the hope to finally make money online to replace the 9-5. I truly agree with the post about saving up about 2 grand to purchase bulk from sites like alibaba and selling on Ebay, or finding items around the house. Truly thats the only way i made real money. stuff i didnt think would sell. Even if you look on the sellers accounts that advertise your dropship items, often times those items are not what they are successful at selling themselves. And i didnt expect dave to list his successful dropshippers because thats the problem now, if everyone had it, it would mess up his profit margin. So you just have to find your own source of a good product and milk it till its gone. In the past ive had success with ebooks and digital downloads, at least theres not shipping charges or running out of stock issues. Good luck to all and Please remember to do alot of research before you join anything. Im sure you all work hard for your money so just be extra careful. Check out my BANS site, you can make money with this if you find your niche. www. thenewbabyplace.com

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Dropshipdesign 29th of February

Wow, I couldn't believe how many comments there were here. Anyway, I like the concept of dropshipping and think that it provides an opportunity for anyone to access name-brand products and make a few buck selling them. People just need to make sure they do their homework and realize that this is work.

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Pat 4th of March

WOW! The comment by Boo from Aug 21 2007 was dead on. I signed up for the 14 day trial and got access to DOBA's supplier list. They ARE bogus!! Named after rocks and the element chart and trees! Check it out http://www.doba.com/members/catalog/supplier/ If you cannot get in, here are some "supposed" suppliers: Agate Alabaster Amber Amethyst Borax Carbon Diamond Elm Fir Indigo Lavender Orange Pecan etc. WTF? Total scam Also, look at this listing: Bunn-O-Matic coffee filters 10.25 wholesale 17.95 MSRP 8.05 shipping cost 2.50 drop shipping fee I think you LOSE money on that one!!!

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Sam 20th of March

Hi guys, let me tell you the other side of story. we are one of the original suppliers for doba. We have fill the orders doba send to us daily, before by email, now we got a website to log in. we receive orders from doba, we ship them out using our UPS or FEDEX accounts, then we may get paid or sometimes not. That's why sometimes we got orders from other direct sellers. we rather ship for them before they paid higher prices. doba is not a bad choice for starters, most factories won't talk to you or supply you until you order in bulk, which you have to come up all the money for inventory, warehouse, insurance and labor cost. That's why I think Doba is not a bad choice for starters, but if you want to do big, you need to talk to some one like us, you are ready to make big orders with us. We saw a company making $6 million sale a year from nothing. Bigger risk bigger returns always, I bet you all know. Good luck guys.

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TreoGuy750 23rd of March

WOW! THANK GOD I FOUND YOU GUYS! I was going to join DOBA ....BUT! Im not new to the scams of life. So i decided to do research and i found this site among other articles on DOBA. Ofcourse the articles i had read were praising doba but i cant trust them. But im figuring i can trust people like me who are just trying to get ahead and create something for themselves. Well this is just the start of a long journey for me and my future business. I will put the work into this like never before and hope that i can come across good people like you guys on here who are willing to teach folks like me from your mistakes. THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO POST EVERYONE. You saved me money.

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Toto 25th of March

Hi everyone, I totally agree with Pat. DOBA is a total SCAM. Unfortunately, I didn't read reviews before subscribing with them. Here is my story with them: I subscribed for DOBA free trial. They advertise on their website that it is: 1) "100% risk free guarantee —if you aren't satisfied with your free trial, simply notify us within your trial period, and you won't pay a cent." 2)"Lowest Wholesale Price Guarantee " THAT IS JUST BS!!! After few days, I wasn't interested in their subscription because: 1) I found their products overpriced. If you can sell them and make profit, you can also try selling ice cubes to Eskimos. The products they sell are often cheaper or they are the same price on e-bay. If you're lucky, you can find some products on which you can try to make a 10% profit. 2) I saw many bad reviews concerning them on forums: people describe them as a scam and many people had problems with them. I cancelled my subscription many days before the end of the free trial. I never logged in my doba account since then. Today, I noticed that they CHARGED me $50 on my credit card and I am scared they charge me again. I tried to talk to them but of course they don't want to refund me. I tried talking to my credit card company to cancel the charges but it wasn't possible even if I had a copy of the support ticket I sent to cancel the subscription along with the confirmation that doba received it. Their SCAM is very well studied: 1) It starts with the 7 day free trial. 2) A pushy sales representative who talks really well tries to sell you their amazing scam product at a very discounted price. He/she talks for a long time about how great their product is, he makes you feel like you are doing the deal of the year. They know you won't use their product for a long time so they try to take as much as they can while you didn't get the chance to really check their products. They offer you more than 70% off if you buy for 1 year. 3) Then, they charge your credit card. People who don't check their bills often may get charged many times. Now, I reported them to BBB and I'll write about them in all the forums I find. I don't know what BBB would do but I'll let you guys know when I receive an answer. If you had a problem with doba, I think it is a really good idea to report them to BBB. If they receive many complaints concerning doba, they may do something. In sum, STAY AWAY from DOBA if you don't want to LOSE time and money.

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Andre Emm 23rd of April

The bottom line is this. Dobas' prices are not true wholesale prices. If you dont believe me...just test the waters. Take ANY doba product..find that same product on e-bay....and you will see that the doba price will be greatly higher than the majority of the other listings. You cant make a profit in a competitive environment such as e-bay. Doba, as well as most online dropshippers are middle-man suppliers...not true wholesalers. In order to receive TRUE WHOLESALE PRICES.....you MUST have a BUSINESS LICENSE. TRUE WHOLESALERS will not sell products to you unless you have a TAX ID NUMBER...via BUSINESS LICENSE. The people that have TRUE WHOLESALE CONNECTIONS dont usually give out their contact information...Why give out information to potential competition. Thats why they usually wont name their sources. I cant tell you the names of TRUE WHOLESALERS...do some thorough research....but, if they dont ask for your TAX ID NUMBER or BUSINESS ID NUMBER....they aren't TRUE WHOLESALERS...and are just middle-men...who have a direct connection to a TRUE WHOLESALER. I hope this info helped someone.

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Brandy 29th of April

I tried Doba but I really wasn't real satisfied with them. The market is just too oversaturated with their products (and yes we did our product market research!). You might try these people, I've had a lot of luck with them and they have great customer service, no minimums etc: http://www.dropship-business.com/index.html?aid=240080

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Sandy 15th of May

Oh my, I must be a fool. I should of researched more. I paid for a full year. Plus I been having problems with there stuff not pushing to ebay. Anyone know how to block them from send fee to to my paypal and block so dont go to my account? If I can do that , then maybe no fees will get deducted. Or they may clean me out. Cant have it. Thanks if anyone has another sudjestion on this.

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lvdme 13th of June

Go to your credit card co "dispute people" and ask them about helping you with a dispute on this co's charges. They are usually good about doing this. I have had good luck with this before. Paypal may tell you that they have to handle the dispute process, ask your credit card co about that. There is such a thing as fradulent advertising. Fight it!

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Chris aka Lefty 14th of June

Comment on Sams Post "Hi guys, let me tell you the other side of story. we are one of the original suppliers for doba. We have fill the orders doba send to us daily, before by email, now we got a website to log in. we receive orders from doba, we ship them out using our UPS or FEDEX accounts, then we may get paid or sometimes not. That’s why sometimes we got orders from other direct sellers. we rather ship for them before they paid higher prices. doba is not a bad choice for starters, most factories won’t talk to you or supply you until you order in bulk, which you have to come up all the money for inventory, warehouse, insurance and labor cost. That’s why I think Doba is not a bad choice for starters, but if you want to do big, you need to talk to some one like us, you are ready to make big orders with us. We saw a company making $6 million sale a year from nothing. Bigger risk bigger returns always, I bet you all know. Good luck guys." Sam even if your company is selling tons of products does not mean the end user is making money. Most likely some of Dobas clients are stuck with products they cannot sell. Also the if Doba orders tons of products they are not stuck with it. They can sell to liquidation houses and brick and mortal retailers. It's all in the networking and regardless they are cranking in monthly profits from their clients if they sell or not. Now for other reading all this. If you want some free advice and not get ripped off by all the sharks out there I will show you step by step. All you have to do is ask the questions. I can show you what to do and specifically not to do. All you have to do is create a icq account at icq.com (free. ICQ is an instant messenger program)join my ICQ group at http://groups.icq.com/groups/index.php?act=show_group&group_id=7649 (free) and post your questions or talk directly to me via icq and I will help to the best of my abilities. I know together we can build a great network of honest etailers with a stockpile of useful information and resources to share.

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ron 15th of June

The best way to learn lessons is OPE (Other Peoples Experience). Thank you all for the postings warning us from Doba. Sorry you got taken, but thanks for the warnings to those of us who were looking into Doba.

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Shane 22nd of June

Just a little info for you inventorysource.com is a DOBA owned site simlpy selling hooking you up with there already agreed overpriced wholesalers.

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ROY, KAREN, & LORI 25th of June

I have been reading all the reviews, and am very THANKFUL for your comments. I am looking for additional product to sell as I work from home as a seller on E-bay, and also help my brother with his business; Fortune High Tech Marketing. Some of you might be interested in this one, as their is no inventory. Check out his website. Good Luck to all of you.

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ROY, KAREN, & LORI 25th of June

I have been reading all the reviews, and am very THANKFUL for your comments. I am looking for additional product to sell as I work from home as a seller on E-bay, and also help my brother with his business; Fortune High Tech Marketing. Some of you might be interested in this one, as their is no inventory. Check out his website at; www.fhtmus.com/royboy Good Luck to all of you.

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John 28th of June

Thank you all for your posts. I was very tempted to try Doba's free trial. I'm so glad I didn't! Those of you that have had a bad experience with them, take comfort in knowing that you have taken away at least one customer from them...

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Linda 16th of July

Doba looked too good to be true. Their website is very clean, and easy to use. From reading the comments now I know it is only a trap for the naive. Drop shipping always involves a "middleman" which reduces the actual sellers profits. Not only with product cost markup but other fees and charges. The comment on March 4, 2008 by Pat listing the names of the suppliers by names of trees, rocks, etc. has been around for greater than 7 years. As I can remember getting that same list in an ebook I bought from eBay. That was went I realized no one in their right mind will sell or give you a list of their suppliers. If they did they would put themselves out of business. A drop shipper is a service. There are good drop shippers. They should have the following charateristics: 1) No inventory to maintain. 2) Reduced prices to the seller (your commission). 3) No minimun purchases required. 4) No monthly service fees, or very minimal. 5) No drop shipping fees unless again very minimal. 6) Easy returns for defective, or incorrect products. 7) Low restocking fees for unwanted product returns. 8) Fast order processing and delivery with reasonable shipping costs. 9) Require you to follow the legal requirements for your state, or county, or city to be a reseller. 10) Allow multiple forms of payment from you. 11) Allow you to use product photos, descriptions or cutomizing of either within reasonable limits and have the terms clearly stated. 12) Again, all their terms should be cearly and easily understood, including how to cancel memberships, or your relationship with the drop shipper. Selling online can be a great money making venture. You have to do the research, as no one can tell you what will work out best for you. There are more resources than just doing searches online. Check out the library, lots of free information is available there. Talk to people who are already in business (retail, direct sales and others) ask why they decided to do what they are doing. Ask, how they made it happen. Gather information to make wise choices. Be reasonable with your expectations, write up a business plan after you have gathered enough information, include a well defined marketing plan. Otherwise an outline of goals and a To Do List. Have a guide and accomplish what needs to be done. If this is more than what you want to do then try out selling and see what happens and learn. Look around your own home. Do you have some items new or lightly used you could sell. (Please nothing ready for the dumpster) Take some nice photos showing the item in good light. Write up a description. Type up the description and your terms and make a template you can use again, by deleting the description and typing in a new description for each item. List your item(s) on eBay. Why eBay? It has worldwide exposure to market your item. You can set a price or list as an auction. Marketing your item takes alot of work and money to equal what eBay can do for you. It's easy to build a customer base, by providing quality products, fast shipping but most important excellent customer service. I started in 2000 as buying then went to selling, and have maintained a 100% positive feedback. In order to be a good seller a you need to build customer trust in you and your products. You can't expect people to buy more or more expensive products from you without first having an excelent reputation. There are sellers that have started out selling on eBay then incorparted their own websites after building a customer base. Customers will naturally follow if they will continue to receive the value they have come to know from their past purchases from you. Ebay is my first choice to check when ever I think of something I want to buy. Good Luck to all your business ventures.

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russ 18th of July

hey i just signed up for the 7 day free trial on doba, but after reading these comments I am going to read all of the ebay tutorials and educational info on doba i can and then I am going to cancel my debit card just to make sure they cant charge me after i cancel! I guess that is the only way to protect myself from their scam. good comments. thanks for the heads up!

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