Doba Review After A Full Year

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.