Dollar Shave Club Review 2024: Is Legit or Scam?

Dollar Shave Club is a renowned American company located in Venice, California that provides its customers with the ultimate convenience through monthly mail delivery of quality razors and other personal grooming products. Beyond razor blades, they also offer additional items to help enhance your home-grooming routine.

Dollar shave Club was started by Michael Dublin. The beta site was launched in 2011 and ran for a couple of months before the launch of dollar Shave Club as we know it today in March of 2012. Dublin says the goal is about solving a problem for guys, which is that: razors are really expensive and going to buy them mostly result in a frustrating experience. So the whole Dollar Shave Club experience was to make quality razors affordable and breezy to get.

Though staring with razors, the company has since expanded to include an extensive range of grooming products including shaves, hair products, skincare products, and more. Thus, its current mission is apt: “to make sure you always have everything you need to look, feel, and smell your best”.

Dollar Shave Club says its “goal is to make sure you always have everything you need to look, feel, and smell your best”. It is a US-based online store specializing in blades and other grooming products.

The big question is whether it is worthwhile to use Dollar Shave Club. With there being no shortage of places to buy blades and grooming products online, what advantage does Dollar Shave club have over the others? What is the quality of its blades? Is the store competitively priced? What about its service; does it offer the top service that we’ll expect of an ideal online store (such as easy ordering, fast delivery, buyer protection, effective customer support service, etc)? In the first place, is Dollar Shave Club a legit online store, or is it just another scam platform?

Yes, Dollar Shave Club is legit. It is not a scam because we found out lots of information about the site which seems to be good. Continue reading to find out why we said it is legitimate.

This Dollar Shave Club review will examine site in order to provide the information that will help you answer these questions and more.

Dollar Shave Club review at a glance

• Website: dollarshaveclub.com
• A US-based online store founded in 2012
• Specializes in personal grooming products (blades, shaves, skincare products, oral care products, etc)
• Uses a subscription model, where members subscribe to get periodic (usually monthly) supplies
• Offers relatively low prices
• Ships merchandise to US, Canada, UK, and Australia
• Free shipping is offered
• Has a 30 days money-back guarantee
• Customer support is available via Online Contact form

How it works

However, the operating model of Dollar Shave Club differs markedly from those of other online stores. This is because Dollar Shave Club is subscription-based. In its promise to simplify the buying experience, it comes out with a model that makes it possible for customers to always get their grooming supplies without doing anything.

You sign up, choose one of three razor cartridges, and Dollar Shave will send you a set of cartridges every month. If you do not do much of shaving, you can change your schedule (using the “not so hairy” option), and the company will send your set of cartridges every other month.

Is Dollar Shave Club legit?

With scammers everywhere, determining that am an online platform is legit before using it is a wise course if you do not want to be ripped off. Thus, the big question is whether Dollar Shave club is legit. The short and simple answer to that is: YES. The longer answer to that is: dollar Shave Club is a 100% legal company, it has industry-wide recognition, and it has a rich operating record of fulfilling orders with real and functional products.

Our first check of a legit online store is usually legality; this is because stores that are 100% legal are less likely to be scams. Thankfully, Dollar shave Club ticks this box. The website is operated by Dollar Shave Club Inc, which is a registered company in the US. Suffice it to say that scam stores do not bother with company registration certificates.

Another check of a legit online store is visibility and industry-wide recognition; this is because the scam stores largely operate in the shadows. Thankfully, Dollar Shave Club also ticks this box. Dollar shave Club pushed some really aggressive marketing with YouTube; and these viral videos gave the company an astronomical growth that in only a few years of operation, it already boasts of over 2 million subscribers.

In fact, Dollar Shave Club has been the focus of many case studies in how to use social media marketing to shoot up a business. Suffice it to say that a scam store will not shine the light on itself with such campaigns.

However, the ultimate check of a legit online store is fitness for purpose; this is because the scam stores are set up to rip people off, and so do not deliver, while it is a legit store that’ll fulfil an order with real and functional products. Thankfully, Dollar Shave Club ticks this box. In its 7 years of operation, the company has continually delivered; shipping real products to customers who place others, leaving many customers very satisfied.

Thus, with Dollar Shave Club being a 100% legal company, having industry-wide recognition, and with a rich operating record of fulfilling orders with real and functional products, there is no doubt that it I a legit online store.

Is Dollar Shave Club safe?

The fear of the bad elements in cyberspace will also determine that an online store is safe before using it for any transaction. That is, it should protect the sensitive information (such as personal information and credit card details) that you share with it, preventing the leakage of this information into the wrong hands.

In this regards, Dollar Shave Club says that the privacy of its users is important to it, and that it uses reasonable measures to ensure the security of users’ data. While the details of thee measures are not given. The signs show that Dollar Shave Club is safe.

Products

When shopping, customers like to find related product in one place, as that make the process convenient. For example, it’ll be to get your razors from one place and to search another place for your aftershaves. Thus, the ideal online store should offer a wide product range.

Dollar Shave Club ticks the box in this regards. Starting as a razor store, its astronomical growth has seen other products added. Thus, it currently holds one of the largest collections of grooming products. Its products include: Blades, Shave, Deodorant and Wipes, Shower, Oral Care, Hair Style, Skin Care, Cologne, and DSC Goods. The “DSC goods” is a water resistant carrying case (tool kit) that comes with fingernail clippers, toenail clippers, precision tweezers, and universal scissors

However, blades remain its primary business, as its model seems to be centered on subscribing to receive blades and adding other products to your subscription box.

Special Features

Starter Set

Wondering if you can get free trials of products; well there’s no free lunch even in Freetown. However, Dollar Shave Club has something for you – the Starter Set. The Starter Set will contain the blade you are buying, its handle, and trial size versions of some grooming products. Thus, you get to try them out before paying full price for them.

There are three Starter Set options – Simple shave, Perfect Shave, and Ultimate Shave. The Simple Shave set consists of Razor Cartridges and the applicable razor handle; the Perfect Shave set consists of everything in the Perfect Shave Set and adds 1 oz Shave Butter; while the Ultimate Shave set consists of everything in the Perfect Shave set and adds 1 oz Prep Scrub, and 1 oz Post Shave Dew.

Restock Box

The whole model of Dollar Shave Club is about automating getting your grooming essentials. Thus, after using your Starter Set to check out the other products of Dollar Shave Club; the company will ensure that you do not run out of these essentials with the Restock Box. The box will contain blades and full-size versions of the grooming products that were included in the Starter Set.

The first Restock Box is scheduled to ship 2 weeks from the day you sign up to the Club. After that first shipment, the Restock Boxes will be sent based on the frequency selected when you signed up. Also, after the first Restock box, the content of the product of future boxes is up to you; you can add and remove products at any time.

Handle/ Blades compatibility

The Dollar shave Club blades will not fit other handles in the market. No surprise there; we’ll have been surprised to find their blades fitting other handles. Thus, to use blades from Dollar Shave Club, you’ll have to also use its handles.

However, the 4X and Executive (6X) handles are compatible with the blades of one another. Thus, if you were using “Executive” and want to downgrade to 4X (or the other way round); you’ll not need to buy new a handle.

Club Pro Help

What razor is best for me? If you’ve found yourself asking that question; no need to worry. If you don’t know what razor is the best for you; you can contact Dollar have Club, and a Club Pro (support agent) will help you find the perfect razor.

Also, if you do not know what products to get, Dollar Shave Club helps out. You simply tell the company “how you get ready”, and it will “customize a box of products” for you. Telling how you get ready is simply answering some questions like: what you shave (head, face, armpit, private bits, etc); whether there’re problems when you shave (razor burn, dryness, nicks/ cuts, etc); whether you have or are you worried about any of these issues on your face (fine lines/ wrinkles, sensitive skin, dry skin, etc); the hair on your head (straight, curly/ wavy, thick, etc), what soap you use to get clean (body soap, bar soap, both, other), what you brush your teeth with (toothpaste, gel, other).

Pricing and Related Policies

Pricing

According to its founder, one of the problems that Dollar Shave Club set out to solve is that razors are expensive in stores. With that, you’ll expect the prices in Dollar Shave Club to be significantly lower than you’ll find in the store. True to its promise, you’ll really find that items in Dollar Shave Club are relatively priced lower than in other places.

When buying blades, Dollar Shave Club offers three different subscription plans – The Humble Twin, The 4X, and The Executive.

The Humble Twin is the cheapest option. In fact, the company’s name was inspired by the pricing of this blade option. For a long time, The Humble Twin was priced at $1.00; so the company advertised that you can get your blades for a dollar.

Hence the name – Dollar shave Club. However, because at the time, a $2.00 shipping fee applied, some persons were always quick to point out that the “one dollar” talk was in name only, and that the true cost of obtaining the blades was $3.00 ($1 item price + $2 shipping). However, because prices only go north, we knew that it was only a matter of time before Dollar Shave Club stopped being a “one dollar” shop (that is, pretending the $2.00 shipping fee wasn’t there).

Now to the present; The Humble Twin is still the cheapest option, but it now goes for $4.00 per month. As the name announces; the cartridge holds two blades. When you shave, as it slides down your “wherever”, if the first blade mercifully leaves any stubble, the second blade will be less merciful, resulting in a clean shave. For your first shipment, The Humble Twin plan gives you 5 of the two blade cartridges and one applicable razor handle; and in the subsequent months, you’ll get only the 5 stainless steel twin blade cartridges.

The 4X plan is the mid range plan, and it cost $7.00 per month. The cartridge holds four stainless steel blades; and each shipment consists of four cartridges. An applicable handle comes with the first shipment.

The premium plan of Dollar Shave Club is The Executive, which is priced at $10.00 per month. Like the 4X, the monthly shipment consists of 4 cartridges, with the first shipment including a sporty razor handle. However, each cartridge holds 6 blades. Almost everyone we know seems to think 6 blades are excessive, but it means a perfect shave. With 6 merciless blades hacking on that hair, each one working on what its merciless predecessor somehow missed, you’re guaranteed a clean shave.

With these prices for the blades of Dollar Shave Club ($4, $7, and $10), it still comes out as a being priced on the low side. This is because you can easily find blades costing around $30 or more in many other places.

It even gets better if you go for the Starter Set. Whatever set you subscribe to (Simple Shave, Perfect Shave, or Ultimate Shave), the price is only $5.00. The price of the Restock Boxes will depend on the items in the box. But there’s a discount that allows you to save more if you buy more.

Promotions

Everyone wants the best deal possible. Thus, customers generally are attracted to stores that run lots of promotions, because promotional offers allow customers get items for free or for less than the items’ full prices.

In this regards, Dollar Shave Club does not come out shining. Stores that are generous with the promotions will have a lot of the offers greeting you in the landing page of the website. However, the landing page of Dollarshavestore.com was bare of offers bar one – the Handsome Discount. This is a “buy more save more” promo that gives you a discount for including more items into your box.

Dollar Shave Club also offers a referral program where you can earn DSC credits which can be used for future purchases in the store.

Using Dollar Shave Club

One of the goals of Dollar Shave was to simplify the not-so-friendly experience of buying grooming products in-store. Thus, you’ll expect a breezy experience on the website of Dollar Shave Club. Interestingly, the experience is breezy. The company has managed to create a website that is not only simple and highly functional but also very engaging. You’ll find cheeky stuff all over the site that’ll draw some smiles.

The main thrust of Dollar Shave Club is to get you to become a member. Membership in dollar Shave Club is different from what obtains in most other places; because here, membership means you are subscribing to receive items from the company at regular intervals. To buy blades, membership is required. You’ll also need a membership for a subscription for a “box of products”. However, to buy other grooming product singly, membership is not required.

The whole process is relatively straight forward. To start you’ll need to nominate an email address and a password. You can also join using Facebook or Google. After logging in, you can proceed to select your products. To get blades, simply choose one of the three subscription plans in the page. You’ll get your supplies every month.

If you need a box of grooming products, you can simply proceed to select all you need. Alternatively, you may answer the quiz in the homepage of the site, and Dollar Shave Club will give you product recommendations. If you’ll want a try; click Starter Set, select the plan you need, and select your restock frequency. When you have your items, you can proceed to the checkout; add shipping information; select payment method and complete checkout.

Your trial size products will arrive in 3 – 5 days. The first Restock Box is scheduled to ship 2 weeks from the day you sign up to the Club; after that first shipment, the Restock Boxes will be sent based on the frequency selected when you signed up.

Managing your subscription is very important. You can cancel at any time. If you don’t need the next shipment, you can easily go to your account and change the ship date to when you’ll need it. Also, if you run out of something before your next Restock Box ships, you can have your stock shipped sooner. Alternatively, you can place an on-demand order by clicking “Get it sooner” when selecting product.

Shipping

Shipping is an important consideration in online purchases. You’ll want to know the shipping destinations that the store caters to, how long it takes to deliver, and how much it cost.

Shipping Destinations

Except an online store ships directly to your location, using it may be unnecessarily expensive as you’ll need a freight forwarder that’ll receive your order and re-direct it to your location. Thus, persons prefer stores that ship to worldwide locations so that their location is more likely to be covered.

In this regards, Dollar Shave Club currently ships to only the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia. This is definitely not the worldwide coverage that we’ll want. Thus, except you’re in those four territories, you’ll have to try other shopping destinations for your grooming products.

However, if you are a customer in the “lucky four”, you’ll find the shipping okay. Not only does Dollar Shave Club ship to P.O. Boxes, but they use relatively small packages, which most often than not, will fit into mailboxes.

Delivery Times

Except you don’t mind waiting and waiting to receive your orders, the delivery times of an online store will be an important consideration.

Delivery time usually consists of order processing time and shipping time. The former is the time that passes from when you place an order to when the item is dispatched for shipping, and the latter is the time that passes from when your item is dispatched for shipping to when it gets to your location.

In this regards, Dollar Shave club advertises that it takes 24 – 48 hours to process orders; and that shipping takes 3 – 5 business days. Thus, you can expect to receive delivery of your order in 4 – 7 business days.

Shipping cost

Shipping costs add to item purchase cost in calculating the total acquisition fee. Thus, shipping costs can easily make an item that is reasonably priced too expensive to acquire. Remember, earlier we mentioned that because of a $2.00 shipping fee, despite Dollar Shave Club at the time selling its cheapest blades pack for $1.00, some persons openly said the blades of Dollar Shave Club were not actually “a dollar” but $3.00.

That said; the ideal online store will have sipping costs that are as low as possible. The lowest possible shipping cost is $0.00, which is free shipping. Thankfully, Dollar Shave Club now offers free shipping on all its blades plans, whether it is The Humble Twin, The 4X, or The Executive.

Also, when buying a box of products, every box that contains blades ship free. Thus, the Starter Set and the Restock Box ships free. However, if “your box of products” does not contain blades, it can still ship for free if the box is worth $18 or more. But if it is under $18, a shipping cost of $4.00 applies.

That said; you’ll mostly be having free shipping when using Dollar Shave Club. But where free shipping does not apply, the shipping cost is relatively low.

Returns and Refunds

It is not news that many times, customers get their orders and are not totally satisfied with it. As a result, customers gravitate towards online stores that have some resolution for them if they happen not to be satisfied with what they buy from the store.

The resolution oft seen in online stores is accepting returns and giving a replacement or refunds. However, Dollar Shave Club does not accept returns; and this is understandable for health and hygiene reasons. However, the company offers a “Money Back Guarantee”.

It states that the company is so sure that you’ll love its awesome product that it’ll refund you in full if you don’t. All you have to do is get in touch with Dollar Shave Store within 30 days of your purchase.

Customer Support

The ideal legit online store will have an effective customer support service because there’ll always be persons with questions, and there’ll be others who’ll have problems with their orders.

Dollar Shave Club does well in this regards. In supports the usual self-help and direct contact resources. For self-help, there is a Help Center that holds FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). To aid navigation, the self-help articles are arranged by topics; these include General Questions, My Account, My Orders, Gifting, and more.

For direct contact with Dollar Shave Club, it supports an online contact form. This is accessible using the “Contact Us” from any page of its website.

Complaints

Is there that company with 100% customer satisfaction? Very unlikely! However, while there’ll always be complaints; you can use this to gauge how well the company operates because an ideal Company shouldn’t be overrun by complaints.

That said; we checked the independent customers’ reviews platforms to see what real customers that have bought from Dollar Shave Club have to say about it. Unfortunately, Dollar Shave Club is not highly rated. For example, at the time of writing this review, in Trustpilot it had a rating of 1.9/ 5 (rated by 94 customers); and in Consumeraffairs, it had a rating of 2.1/ 5 (by 30 reviewers). Some of the themes in the complaints include: Not cancelling the Starter Set, and poor quality blade

Not Cancelling the Starter Set

With only $5 for the Starter Set consisting of 2 blade cartridges, a razor handle, and some other grooming products; it’s not surprising that many customers jump at it. Also, it’s not surprising that many of the subscribers of the Starter Set cancel their subscription so that the Restock Box will not be sent. However, the reviews suggest that many times, Dollar Shave Club will not affect this cancellation but simply go-ahead to ship the Restock Box and charge the customer.

For example

• Martha Formstone in Trustpilot says “signed up for a £5 one-off to receive the razor which I actually really like. A month later I receive another box with the full items even AFTER unsubscribing to avoid this issue! I was charged £30 for these products I didn’t want …”
• Lewis in Trustpilot says “Signed up for a sample for $5 and just got billed for $32 even though I have requested to be removed from their auto [billing] twice. Bad people!”

That said; if you opt for the Starter Set and you have to cancel, don’t be dismayed if you get at least a Restock Box before Dollar Shave Club effect your cancellation.

Poor Quality Blades

It must be said that you’ll find glowing reviews of the quality of grooming products of Dollar Shave Club. Almost everybody thinks they are great. However, the blades do not enjoy such general applause. While there are many customers that express satisfaction with the quality of the blade, there are many others who do not think they are great.

For example;

• Ian in Trustpilot says “Blades are not very sharp and seem cheap to me; have cancelled membership. Better products elsewhere”
• Kenny L Phair in Trustpilot says “Their blades are what Gillette was selling 15 years ago. Terrible and when I contacted customer service, no reply. Waste of money”
• MF in Trustpilot says “worst blade I have had in a long long while. I kept looking to see if there was a protective film or something I needed to remove to make them work. Far far better products available [elsewhere], don’t waste your money”

Conclusion

Dollar Shave Club came out promising to be a club where you can get your shaving razor for just a dollar. Its purpose was not only to provide high quality yet inexpensive razors but also to make the buying experience easy-breezy.

Dollar shave Club does finely on both counts. It uses a subscription-based model, where you only choose what you want, and the Company will ship these to you on regular intervals ensuring that you never run out of your grooming essentials. Its price points are also some of the lowest you’ll find around.

Dollar Shave Club holds quality products; its razors more than do the job, and comes with real comfortable rubberized handles. Its selection of grooming products covers hair styling products, wipes, deodorants, skincare products, and more.

The subscription-based model really automates the whole thing, and you’ll always get your grooming supplies without doing much, and you can manage your subscription by bringing forward or pushing back a ship date, or even cancelling ay anytime. Shipping is also free all the time, except your order does not have blades inclusive and is under $18. What is more, Dollar Shave Club comes with 30-days money-back guarantee, which gives you back your money if you do not like your product?

However, you’ll find that you can only use Dollar Shave Club if resident in the US, Canada, the UK, or Australia. Also, you won’t be finding many price slashing promotions, except you’ll be buying a collection of products.

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Pros

• Offers an extensive range of grooming products (razors, shaves, skincare products, oral care products, etc)
• The Executive and 4X handles are compatible with each other’s blade
• Supports in helping one choose the best razor and appropriate grooming products
• The subscription model enables automation of the process of shopping for blades and grooming products
• Its Starter Set offers the opportunity to test certain products before committing to them
• Has some of the lowest prices you’ll find
• Cancelling of membership can be done at anytime
• Offers a 30 days money-back guarantee
• Free shipping is offered and was not applicable the shipping cost is relatively low ($4)
• Referral bonuses are offered to allow the customer to earn DSC credits for referring others

Cons

• Serves only customers in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia
• Cannot buy razors with membership (monthly subscriptions)
• Not many price slashing promotions except a “buy more save more” offer that’ll require you to include many items in your box