Usacomplaints.com » Shops, Products, Services » Complaint / Review: Doba - Wholesale Marketer - Secure Offer - Dropship-review.com - Jeremy Hanks - Doba - Wholesale Marketer Secure Offer - Dropship-review.com - Jeremy Hanks ripoff Misleading sales tactics Totally bogus wholesale pricing False advertising. #191595

Complaint / Review
Doba - Wholesale Marketer - Secure Offer - Dropship-review.com - Jeremy Hanks
Doba - Wholesale Marketer Secure Offer - Dropship-review.com - Jeremy Hanks ripoff Misleading sales tactics Totally bogus wholesale pricing False advertising

I signed up for a 7-day free trial to Doba on 21 September. On 22 September before I'd had a chance to investigate their pricing, a salesperson from Doba called to offer me a deal if I prepaid for a 1-year membership. I discussed with him my general goals: to start selling things on eBay and if that went well to eventually run my own web store.

The salesperson said lots of their subscribers sell on eBay. He explained Doba features and touted the great profit margins on their products. As we were talking, I glanced at a few items on Doba's website and saw that their listed wholesale prices were significantly lower than their listed MSRP's.

I asked the salesperson if Doba had an API that I could use to plug my web store into their database. He put me on hold to check, then came back and said, "yes, " and told me to submit a Partner Request through their website.

All of this sounded like what I was looking for: decent wholesale pricing and a platform that I could plug my web store into. So they charged my credit card and I thought I could get started.

I submitted a Partner Request and got no response. After a few days I called customer support and was told that Doba members cannot access the API. Only companies providing web store hosting services for Doba can do that. I was upset that the sales rep had given me bad information. That promised ability was a large factor in my decision to go with Doba.

But I didn't let that phase me. I started researching to find what products I could effectively sell, and found that their MSRP prices are totally bogus. They are well above anything I could find at any store — online or offline. Then I discovered that their wholesale prices are bogus too. The profit margin is non-existent. I mainly compared with eBay, but I also searched extensively on a variety of price comparison websites and web stores. I spent almost a month researching different Doba products and trying to find something I can actually make money with.

By and large, I found that what Doba calls "wholesale" is nothing more than semi-competitive retail. And sometimes it isn't even competitive at all. One of the most outrageous examples is a 30GB video iPod that Doba has listed at wholesale for $465 and MSRP for $746. Most every retailer I found sells the same iPod for less than $300. And Apple's own web store has it listed at $250.

Another problem I noticed is that most of their "good stuff", i.E. Popular items that a lot of people would like to purchase are always out of stock.

On 23 October I contacted Doba's "live support" online to discuss my concerns with their pricing. I asked the rep to explain why Doba's wholesale pricing was so high. He could not explain it, but repeatedly stated that the prices are indeed wholesale. I gave him examples of how their wholesale prices are similar to and sometimes higher than regular retail prices. His defense was that those other companies probably buy in bulk, so they get better pricing. But drop shippers buy in bulk too, and Doba claims to leverage the cumulative buying power of its subscribers to get the best wholesale pricing from those drop shippers. "False advertising" comes to mind.

I asked for a refund and he told me that my membership fee was non-refundable. (I was not informed of this when I signed up.) I pointed out that I have not made use of the service at all because of the misrepresentation of their pricing. He still refused to refund my money.

After that, I did some research and found some blogs where people were making similar complaints about Doba's pricing. It would appear that I'm far from the first to complain, and they still have not changed their business practices.

Doba wasted no time in hooking me with their misleading sales tactics, calling me the day after I signed up for a 7-day trial. The salesperson lead me to believe that Doba offered wholesale pricing. They simply don't. He also led me to believe I could plug my web store directly in using Doba's API. I can't.

If you're looking for a good drop ship sourcing company, DON'T go to Doba. You're better off dealing directly with real drop shippers and paying them the initial start-up costs. Doba is the epitome of "too good to be true." They have a good business model and a nice platform. At first glance it looks legit, but their drop ship sourcing service is a total scam.

They don't cater to their customers. They rip off their customers to cater to their own pocket books.



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