Finding the cheapest price tech item can take you in many interesting directions.
If you’re reading a Toby Deals AU review the chances are you did a Google search for a phone, vacuum or tech product and TobyDeals AU showed up in the Google Ads as one of the cheapest places to buy that item.
And its not just by $10 or some small margin like that. If you take the Samsung Galaxy S20 cheapest prices in the Google Ads TobyDeals AU has the phone at $911 and Catch has the phone at $1,149.
That’s a $238 saving for the phone
If you use the Shopback app you can get an additional 1.5% saving on your purchase.
TobyDeals AU Review
After buying two different products from separate names on different credit cards the experience we had on TobyDeals AU was very different on each purchase.
One of the item came in a respectable time.
The other we waited a month with no response from support and ended up getting our money refunded on PayPal which was in our account the next day.
In the article you will find an in-depth review of our experience with Toby Deals AU.
If TobyDeals AU is so much cheaper than everyone else why have I never heard of them before?
After doing some research on the company and finding a flood of bad reviews we made two separate purchases from different names and credit cards to test them out and report back on the experience.
The potential savings was worth experimenting with Toby Deals despite the poor reviews.
If they didn’t have PayPal as a payment option we wouldn’t have even tested them out but having PayPal as a payment option gave some reassurance that if something went wrong we would be able to get our money back and we did have to dispute one transaction with TobyDeals AU.
What you need to know about TobyDeals AU
It came as a surprise on further research that TobyDeals AU is not an Australia company.
TobyDeals AU is based in Hong Kong and they ship all their products to Australia and New Zealand from their Hong Kong warehouse.
Toby Deals Australia Delivery Time
This was the biggest issue I had with TobyDeals AU I ordered my product on August 2 2020 and by August 25 I had had not received any communication from the company at all. I sent a message to their support on August 9 and August 18 and never received a response from either.
On their website it states that ‘All orders will ship within 24-72 working hours. (Saturday and Sunday excluded)’ which is has been proven many times to be completely untrue.
If they set realistic expectations for their delivery time I would have been a lot more accepting of the delay.
When you order from AliExpress the expectation is you are going to wait a month or more for that product to arrive.
Toby Deals set an expectation of quick delivery and they didn’t live up to that promise.
This contributes to a lot of the negative reviews as this expectation is not met and people are aware of all the negative reviews so if they haven’t heard anything in over a week they start getting concerned their item delivery is going to be delayed for a lengthy period of time
Reading many other reviews this was the main issue of frustration, their item not leaving the Hong Kong warehouse even after a month.
It’s very clear they list items as available on their website that they don’t have in stock at their warehouse and try to source that item and send it to you. It’s very misleading
But what about when they do have the item in the warehouse
We did place two different orders with TobyDeals and the second item they clearly had in stock and it was a much smoother process.
- Ordered August 2 2020
- Packing Email Received August 4 2020
- Left The Warehouse Email August 6 2020
- Picked Up By Courier August 10 2020
- Arrived at Door August 19 2020
Which is a much more reasonable delivery time.
On their website it also states that once the item has been shipped allow another 3-8 working days for the delivery to reach metro areas.
You can also choose between Economy Express Shipping Time of 6-8 working days or Priority Express Time 3-5 Working Days.
Again these delivery times are completely reliant on them actually having stock in the warehouse a lot of reviews have paid for priority express time shipping and TobyDeals AU had not even dispatched the item from the warehouse even after a month.
Toby Deals Australia Shipping Cost
When shopping on Toby Deals keep in mind there is a 2% additional insured shipping fee and an additional $33.90 if the order needs to be shipping to a remote area.
Shipping is free for all orders over $50.
If the order is below $50 there is a flat rate shipping cost of $15
Priority Express Shipping is $25 on all orders, based on our own experience and the delivery time being heavily dependant on whether or not they even have the stock in the warehouse I would avoid the priority express shipping.
Toby Deals Couriers
Toby Deals uses DPEX and Toll as their courier service for deliveries in Australia.
Toby Deals Payment Method
Toby Deals AU uses PayPal to process their payments and the account it’s paid to is TobyDealsUK even though you are purchasing from the TobyDeals AU site.
Having the PayPal option provides the greatest level of security and in many cases you will need to get your money refunded through PayPal because they don’t actually have the stock in the warehouse when you ordered and the wait time could be over a month and even longer if they can’t source the item you purchased.
Toby Deals Refunds
The refund process was extremely straight forward and easy.
After ordering my product on August 2 and contacting support on August 9 and again on August 18 with no reply for either support tickets I submitted a dispute with PayPal on August 25 and the money was back in my account on August 26.
It is much harder to get any kind of refund if the item has left their warehouse even if it is there mistake or the wrong item was sent
Toby Deals Warranty
We haven’t had to use the warranty service on the item that we did receive from Toby Deals but keep in mind they do make you send back the item at your own expense for the warranty and they will also try to ‘repair’ your item.
Hearing from people who have tried to access the warranty, the warranty process is extremely painful and they make it as difficult as possible to access the warranty.
If the warranty is important to you in your purchase Toby Deals isn’t the best option.
Are the Toby Deals products genuine?
The item that did arrive from Toby Deals was an iphone and it seemed genuine.
Toby Deals use grey imports and send them to Australia
Others have reported that they have taken their items in to be repaired and the repairer said that their item wasn’t genuine. It may have to do with the product coming from a different region we can’t confirm 100% whether every single product that comes out of their warehouse is genuine.
Even though some of the products are genuine you need to be careful because some items can be region specific. Our delivery came with a European wall charger.
How Are Toby Deals So Much Cheaper?
They ship grey import products from Hong Kong and they don't send tax invoices which is a deal breaker for a lot of business customers wanting to offset the GST costs in their own tax.
They source the products from cheaper locations and then avoid paying GST which makes them a lot cheaper than many of the local retailers in Australia
Toby Deals Available Stock
Our experience with Toby Deals made it clear that they have items on their site listed as available and in stock that they didn’t have in stock at all. This is what delays the delivery process and the source of the majority of their negative reviews.
Toby Deals Support
The Toby Deals support was non-existent for us. It was a horrible experience. We contacted them twice and never got a reply which forced us to refund the item.
If you are looking for a company with good support then look elsewhere.
Toby Deals Reviews On Other Sites
There is a huge difference in ratings depending what review site you look on.
ProductReview.com.au – 4.1/5 (based on 1,953 reviews)
Reviews.io – 1.7/5 (based on 297 reviews)
Our review would be 2 stars which is closer to the experience of the reviews.io reviewers.
We did notice that Toby Deals team is active on productivereview.com.au and there are a lot of suspect reviews on that site.
Especially with reviews stating the product packaging was lovely or the product packaging was amazing.
From our own experience the packaging was in a plain white satchel and bubble wrap. That was it.
If you are looking to read other peoples experience of Toby Deals Whirlpool Forums have some more honest reviews on this forum thread
Our overall review of Toby Deals AU
This is based on one good experience and one horrible experience and all the factors listed above
Delivery 2 Stars
Support 0 Stars
Product 3 Stars
Price 5 Stars
OVERALL 2 STARS
Would we use Toby Deals again?
The pricing is significantly cheaper but we would only use Toby Deals again if we weren’t in a hurry for the product and the price saving was worth it.
The refund process was extremely quick which is one reason we would consider giving Toby Deals another chance.
If you don’t hear from them within the first week don’t waste your time just get a refund through PayPal and pay a little bit more at another supplier.
If they do have the stock you will get the item in a reasonable time.
If you do want to give Toby Deals a try get the Shopback App and activate it, it will save you another 1.5% on your purchase.