In this thread I would like to shed some light on the UK dropshipping scene. As a seller who has been using dropshipping for over 3 years, I have in my time uncovered a series of situations which I would like to make everyone aware of. What follows is a list of dropshipping sites you need to be very careful with, and the reasons why:

AVOID

dropshipland.com aka ukdropshipgroup.com aka dpbuk.co.uk aka dvddropship.com

THE VERY BAD

1. Be careful, they look like dropship sites but they are NOT dropshippers, they act like intermediaries for free dropshippers AND they markup their prices! Also all these sites are run by the same person, they are the same thing. The owner lures unsuspecting victims by claiming to charge between �14.97 and �79.99. What he doesn't say right away (unless you have read his lengthy terms) is that immediately after paying �14.97/�79.99 you will have to fork out another �80.00. What was the �14.97+ for? To hook me to spend �80? Underhand tactics, but that's not all. He will set it up as a recurring contract, and will rebill you automatically the following year, without even asking for your permission. How? By storing your credit card or PayPal details and billing you without your consent. If you thought you could cancel, think again. There is a charge for that too, and cancellations must reach him by post... and even then cancellations are ignored... Talk about a scam that makes it impossible to get out before it's too late.

I bet you wished this was the end of it. Well it's not. This is just the beginning. Did I already explain that dropshipland/dpbuk is NOT a dropshipper? Yayyy!!! Yup, not one, nada, zilch. It's another of those dreaded middlemen, and of the worst kind. What they do is they gather products from 4 dropship sites, merge them together into one feed, mark up the prices and then sell you the feed. That is all they do, they sell the feed file with marked up prices and they also do a very bad job at keeping it up to date. Uploading a dropship feed from a free dropshipper should be FREE and it's dead simple.

If you have reached this far you have probably already been duped by dpbuk / dropshipland. Unfortunately you are now tied to a minimum contract for one year, for what you have now figured out is a completely worthless business. You have seen for yourself that the websites are so ugly and broken that even a neanderthal would go elsewhere to buy.

2. He is not a dropshipper, he takes commissions for everyone he persuades to pay, and his products are so overpriced that other RETAILERS are CHEAPER! It's impossible to sell anything, unless you are willing to threaten a relative to buy from your site. He has suckered so many gullible people that now there are sites trying to sell their tat almost at cost, to try to recoup the money they have lost signing up. Most fail. What those people didn't realise is that the same products are available much cheaper on sites like eBay and Amazon, and therefore they have no chance of making sales. The best testimonial I could find refers to one sale (�3 profit) after weeks of submitting hundreds of listings on eBay, which is much worse than minimum wage!

3. As mentioned earlier, beware he will rebill you automatically after 12 months, and to avoid being rebilled you will have to pay a �29.95 + VAT fee. A 360 degrees scam.

DPBuk.co.uk scam complaints:
- Don't believe their testimonials, see what he did on his dvddropship site: How NOT to Post Testimonials: DVDDropShip Example
- DPBUK.co.uk Review - Is it just me or is it actually a scam?
- DPBUK.co.uk review - anyone tried dpbuk? Is it a scam?

THE BAD

1. Over the past couple of years Dpbuk has gradually faded out, as news got out about their scam practices. At that point, the owner came up with a "superb" plan: "I have done it once! I can scam again!". And so he did, by setting up a network of duplicate scam websites, all the same middleman of course, to replicate the "success" dpbuk had brought to their pockets. Here are the sites that make up this scam network:

dropshipland.com: another duplicate from the same network, tries to flog exactly the same service and exactly the same products, and again rips people off with hidden hosting fees; pay �79.99 for membership, then pay �96 hosting or you lose the �79.99 payment. Some people know how this scam is run, and yet they fall for it like muppets. What's worse is that dropshipland is not even a dropshipper, it's an intermediary that inflates prices, charges a fee to dropship, and takes a cut at every chance.

The Internet is filled with complaints from sellers who fell for their marketing and lost money. The websites are prehistoric. You can go to 1&1, Shopify.com, GoDaddy.com or Bigcommerce.com to get professionally designed websites with cheaper hosting. My verdict: avoid dropshipland with a passion, unless money is no object to you or you really hate yourself. Yet another big dropshipping scam, part of the same scam network.

Dropshipland scam complaints:
- Dropshipland.com Review - Waste of Money - Dropship Forum - Dropshippers Reviews
- Dropshipland.com Feedback and Opinions - Dropship Forum - Dropshippers Reviews
- DropshipLand Scam Exposed

ukdropshipgroup.com This is an exact duplicate of dpbuk and dropshipland, nothing more, same scam, same packages, same techniques used to persuade the unprepared. And yet another hole in your pocket. Pay �14.97 and then bham!, you are forced to pay for hosting at extortionate rates. Prices of products are so high that victims have been forced to sell at a loss after marketing costs and selling fees.

Ukdropshipgroup scam compliants:
- UKDropshipGroup.com Review - Drop Ship Rip Off - Page 1 - Dropship Forum - Dropshippers Reviews

dvddropship.com: at first sight it claims to sell new DVD titles, however after you have paid it reveals VERY OLD titles. Zero potential. One hundred percent scam ... the titles are so old and so niche that anyone embarking in this crazy proposition has lost significant amounts of money in listing fees without any return. Demand for the titles is obviously very poor, hence why profits are nonexistent.

DVDDropship scam complaints:
- DVDDropship.com review � scam dropshipper - Dropship Forum - Dropshippers Reviews
- How NOT to Post Testimonials: DVDDropShip Example


Sites like these survive because they have built a network of fake blogs, fake review sites, and fake forums around their rip offs, which use fake users that chat between each other to create a false sense of activity. He is experienced at stealing money, and he will use any means to get it, including creating confusion, diverting complaints, making up facts that never occurred, begging for your understanding, sending fake price lists, publishing fake testimonials, and on and on and on and on. Here are just a few examples I could identify:

Fake review websites and blogs, some advertised using Google Adwords. One claims to feature the top 3 dropshipping sites in the UK. It's owned by him, and advertised by him to fool us. He sometimes switches the ad to point to his fake forum; the principle is the same, fool as many people as he can.

a UK dropshipping forum: don't expect real opinions. You will be lured by things such as free lists, or claims that you need to put in the hard work. The free lists are literally worthless, they flog useless contacts that everyone knows and that are too pricey. Re the hard work, what he really means is you doing the hard work for them; their scam is so worthless that even if you worked 10 times as hard you still would not make any money. That's what he means by hard work...

a UK dropship blog: his blog epitomises the idea of fraud, with fake reviews about competitors and anyone that has exposed his operations.

VERDICT: This is literally a mob like individual that has setup forums, review sites and websites to persuade us that he is selling an opportunity. The only opportunity is his, your business will remain in his hands, he is known to withhold domain names to force victims to continue paying, you get tied to a yearly contract, products don't sell because they are overpriced and overlisted, and he is infamous for suspending accounts and closing sites down without warning.

If they have scammed you, don't be afraid to report him. It's not easy to admit defeat, but you can help others avoid the same mistake.

For those who have been on the receiving end of Steven Gibson and were interested in the face behind his fraudulent sites, here he is, dining with our hard earned money:






AVOID

theselect.co.uk

THE BAD

1. Overpriced dropshipping package starting at �100 per year.

2. If you are ever that crazy to sign up, you will be tied to a 12 months contract (�39 * 12). The contract is rock solid, once you have signed it, that's it, the law is on their side and you will have to continue paying up.

3. Prices are not competitive, often higher than Play or Amazon.

4. They show a lot of items in stock, however the truth is that they will only supply the stock if enough members order it. The alternative is for you to buy the stock upfront, which is not dropshipping really, is it? It must be said that they will stock it and ship it for you, but it's still overpriced, and it's not dropshipping that way, it's wholesale!

THE GOOD

1. Not much, they have a professionally looking site and offer marketing support. But you will struggle to make any money even if you hire Saatchi & Saatchi to promote your store.

VERDICT: One to avoid.


There are other dropshippers I would have liked to warn you about and add to this list, whom however don't adopt aggressive and deceitful marketing campaigns like the above sites to try to hook unaware start ups. I will get back to this thread once I have more time.


THE ALTERNATIVE

If all these dropshipping sites that are widely advertised online are borderline scams, what can you do to make dropshipping work for you?

Well the answer is not simple, but it's better than throwing your money down the drain.

1. Don't be lazy. Lazy = no money for you. Before you pay any money for a dropshipping account, learn about marketing and web design.

2. Don't be lazy. Lazy = no money for you. There is no such thing as a dropshipping account (what? that's right!). The BEST dropshippers I use don't even know what dropshipping means. They call it order fulfilment, blind shipping, and I found them by picking up the phone and calling the individual manufacturers and wholesalers asking them if they would dropship for me. I can tell you, quite a few said no, but once I found the ones that are willing to dropship for me I can now make 100-200% margin from each sale. You can forget this sort of profit from sites claiming to be real dropshippers, and in most cases you will lose money with those sites.

The sooner you start using the phone (instead of believing that you will resolve any of your problems by paying a site claiming to be offering a dropshipping opportunity), the sooner you will realise that you can make dropshipping work for you. If anything sounds too easy, or too good, it is, that's the rule of nature. Don't be stupid and follow your gut feeling if you are smart.

Peace.

Some strong reviews there.

It is a well known fact that the above sites are not drop shippers. They are simply middlemen making money from hosting fees. They also own their own blogs where they have a tendency to accuse others for their failings; they adopt this tactic simply because that's the only way their model would hold, through lies and confusion. We cannot confirm how many people have lost money from their services. What is definitely true is that, because they publish all kind of false information on the web, you will be unable to figure out in what way their reviews are fake and you will not find any comment from the people who have had a bad experience with them. They are also publishing fake reviews about competitors, in the attempt to convince inexperienced resellers to pay a fee for their middlemen drop shipping sites.

If you want to make drop shipping work, you need to read the following two threads:

• Beware of the Middleman Drop Shipper Sales Pitch - Page 1 - Dropship Forum - Dropshippers Reviews
• Zero to Hero - How a home based start up generated over �3 millions in just one year
• eSources.co.uk gets attacked by UK dropshipping scams after exposing them

If you are looking for real dropshippers, you will find the web's best collections of verified dropshippers and wholesalers at the following links (including reviews on many of the dropshippers listed, to avoid any surprises):

Dropshippers and Dropshipping Wholesale Suppliers in UK - Wholesale Dropshipper & Dropshipping Directory

Dropshippers and Dropshipping International Wholesale Suppliers - Wholesale Dropshipper & Dropshipping Directory

WorldWideBrands Dropshippers Directory

Hienote Dropshippers Directory

Hi, with reference to the post made by dropship expert, as a newbie I found his comments quite enlightening. I have been looking at the whole dropship minefield for some time and have struggled to see how it is possible to make money from some of the schemes offered.

The issue of product saturation and website duplication seems immense and not something that is often talked about. I too have taken the view that a sound understanding of web design and indeed online marketing is the way forward on this issue for various reasons.

Acquiring knowledge in these areas will increase the level of control that website owners have over their own sites as it will reduce the dependency on anyone supplier and what they say they can do for you. Also, by learning how to generate traffic to your site, it can only be a good thing. So thank you dropship expert as you have helped me to see that I am not the only one thinking in the way that you described. It would be interesting to hear more from you.

dropshipexpert , thank you for adding all the above information i have been thinking of getting into something just to earn a few bob
but like many others have had doubts about the whole dropshipping game, i would also be very interested to learn more from your experience
and look forward to any advice you can offer

A very good thread from Dropshipexpert. Would welcome a chance to tap into your experience, as I am starting out and would like to avoid the pitfalls. Thank you in any case.

Haha ha ha ha Don't be fooled by dropshipland, ukdropshipgroup, dvddropship, and dpbuk, they are all the same thing duplicated across multiple domain names, they are all owned by the same company, and they are NOT dropshippers They charge �100+ for absolutely nothing, since you can obtain it completely free, and their products are too expensive, you will just lose money in membership fees, marketing and no sales.

You are much better off going directly to the wholesale dropshipper to obtain better prices.

This is what you can do:

1. The website these middlemen offer can be downloaded for free at OS Commerce.

2. You can have an OS Commerce website hosted and installed for free for as little as �2 per month from sites like SiteGround (you can search in Google for os commerce hosting or free os commerce hosting to find lots of similar providers).

3. Ask the real dropshippers to supply you with their product feeds in rss, and then use an OS Commerce add on like http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/500 to upload your dropshipper's products. You can use the same add on to upload products from different dropshippers and to update products from the same dropshipper, and it's all done for you automatically, free of charge.

Done. And for a fraction of the price.

Beware that these middlemen will claim to use dedicated servers, but in reality they have hundreds upon hundreds of sites all hosted on the same server, making websites slow.

They are trying to sell the same exact package on all their sites (ukdropshipgroup.com, dropshipland.com, dpbuk.co.uk, dvddropship.com, football-dropshipping.com, gadget-dropshipping.com, computer-dropshipping.com, lingerie-dropshipping.com, there are loads!) but they try to make them look different, just to fool unaware people into buying seemingly different dropship programs. All owned by the same company, that also owns a forum posting fake positive reviews about their businesses, removing complaints from customers, and creating fake negative reviews about competitors. They are just middlemen between you and the real dropshipper, you need to avoid them at all cost.

One has to wonder why no forum has ever mentioned this mess ... Who knows how many souls have been dragged into their scheme. if you want to make real money dropshipping, you must go directly to the source.

hi,

Some good comments have been posted here.

I have been working in the internet industry for over 9 years - consultant to some of the top e-commerce sites that you might know of today (with revenues in millions) and recently started developing my own sites for dropshipping. I have the reverse issue now - I have some great sites (and I can even build more no problem) but it is hard to find reliable dropshippers.

I have been to most of these dropshippers that wanted to charge to dropship their products but I learned the hard way that they are a waste of money.

Also be warned, that most of these dropshippers that charge for a website - the websites are crap and limiting! You are better off using standard open source stuff like:

• Zencart, Xcart, OSCommerce etc (some hosting companies provide you with ecommerce accounts where you can install these in one click or they are preinstalled) if you just want an online store selling products.
  
• Joomla or Wordpress with their shopping cart plugins (Virtuemart, etc) if you want a site that has a lot of content too and then the shopping as well.
  
• For most part, you can get good templates from 1000s of sites like templatemonster, premiumwordpresstheme, etc that cost you between 30 - 150 USD.
  
• You can setup payment with Paypal, Google checkout, etc.

However, you may require some sort of technical know how to get this accomplished. I have been, and there are others as well, who offer to setup and maintain something like that for a small nominal fee (starting at $50 / month typically). If you search the net, you will find many such solution providers.

Hope this helps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by digitalskeleton

I have been to most of these dropshippers that wanted to charge to dropship their products but I learned the hard way that they are a waste of money.

Also be warned, that most of these dropshippers that charge for a website - the websites are crap and limiting! You are better off using standard open source stuff ...

However, you may require some sort of technical know how to get this accomplished.

There are hosted solutions that don't require any technical knowledge Some are even free. They have already been discussed.

The problem with the "dropshippers" mentioned by dropshipexpert is that they are not upfront, they make false claims of grandeur like "we are the best", "we are the oldest" and "we offer the best what not", whereas the facts differ greatly:

1. They all offer an OS Commerce website, which can be obtained for free.

2. They are all overpriced.

3. They say pay only �14.97, but immediately after payment they ask for �80 for hosting. Underhand.

4. They say get a free domain name, but you only get it if you splash out cash in advance for hosting for an entire year. This is designed to persuade you to pay a larger sum of money before you have realised what a big mistake you have made. They also charge �10 for a domain name, when in reality they cost just �3/�5 per year.

5. If you are so fortunate to get a free domain name from them, they will own it and, if you decide to cancel (because, let's face it, once you realise what you went through you will want to cancel straight away), they will withold the domain name. SEO is domain name specific, therefore you will lose all your SEO efforts the moment you explain to them that their solution is not working for you. You are in chains.

6. They are intermediaries of dropshippers who offer cheaper prices. So you end up paying for a website that is available for free, plus for products at inflated prices that you can obtain cheaper from top-level dropshippers. They are just mid-level dropshippers, something you should always avoid.

7. Nowadays dropship feeds work with all shopping carts. Shopping cart companies know very well how the market moves, and they all include full product feed handling features, which are all automated.

And have I mentioned hosted website solutions? For an even cheaper price, even free, and for less effort, you can get a far better service, with much more advanced features, much better designs, and a much more secure checkout process.

If you think these dropshippers have always been hiding the fact that they are all the same company and they all control the uk forums making false claims to persuade innocent bypassers, this fact alone should tell you what type of people you are dealing with.

As a newby this advice is greatly appreciated.

Dear All,

I am new to this forum, but have had previous experience with theselect.co.uk, as dropshipexpert says, there prices are very high and not competitive, also you would have to be a very good salesman to make the profits that they claim.

I always welcome all information that you care to send my way also.

Thanking you,

Kenneth