Impressive service, better than Flipkart. Review on Hoopos

Well I take this opportunity to bring my opinion about two online shopping portals which I used recently, after very cautious move, courtesy my bad past experience with Rediff.com . I am an avid reader, so I could not resist using Flipkart.com and I am also a father of a kid, who has become huge fan of Chota Bheem.so much so that even her father has become a Chota Bheem fan, so I needed some portal which could cater the needs of kids like demands for "Chota Bheem" stuffs and I came across Hoopos.com.

It was a pleasant surprise that my transactions with these two portal have been satisfactory, with more points to Hoopos.com compared to Flipkart.

I stay in a place which is at foothill of Himalayas, but has got some very intense research activity centers like my Institute. However we miss lots of facilities here, which any city based guys enjoy. We don't have much shopping options here, we don't have cinema halls to watch movies, no good hospitals and doctors, and we don't have much access to go to some book store and get books. In such circumstances such web shopping portals work like a boon, if it works really well. I had to depend upon someone traveling to Delhi to get my books quickly. However I tried Flipkart for some highly technical books which even in Delhi you get after lots of searching and hopping or may not even get it there. I got all of them from Flipkart. The dealing and management style of Flipkart looks to be networked between various book stores of it, stationed strategically in the map of India. If you don't get any book at Delhi, they have it in their database to know from where they could make it available to you, i.e. from Chennai or Bombay. They quickly add it in your records too and provide tracking ID for your order with courier details.

However at two points, Flipkart performance drops down drastically: 1) Poor customer care guys, who really don't know what is happening and they just keep on writing you apologies or some recorded official language 2) No grip on the mode of delivery. This happened with three of my orders, where they sent books through Overnight Express couriers, whose headquarter at Chandigarh had no clue about the delivery of the books, and I had to use my personal contacts and calls to locate the books, send my own staff to collect them.

Amid this all, when I contacted their customer care, someone told me that the books were already delivered! I told them then that I had not received any. The next day they told me that they were dispatching the new books again from their warehouse, next day someone from their customer care told me that I would receive the books only when the old books return back to the warehouse. Again next day someone told me that the books had already been sent to me, Amid this all, I located the old sent books myself, still these guys were not informed. The last time they told me that I could cancel the order and paid amount could be sent to my wallet, form which I could buy any other thing! I told them that I had already received the books and they could take back my wallets money. Amazingly, one of their customer care staff over the phone told me that she was knowing that I had collected the books. I asked her then why did you send money in my wallet as well as restarted new dispatch as per information given to me by your customer care. She had no reply. I learned that if they continue with such poorly coordinated customer care which has no knowledge of happenings and grip-less delivery system on which they don't have any control, they would sink Flipkart, by turning off the customers as well as paying money to the customer for buying things from them instead of charging them, as they did with my wallet.

Anyway, my next transactions with them was better, They sent the book through Speed Post, which I got within 5 days, reaffirming my believe that India Post is still a better reliable service than many hyped courier services.

Moving ahead, one fine day I noticed Hoopos add somewhere on the web, showing Chota Bheem mugs for kids, and I instantly decided to look further. Right from beginning Hoopos scored better than Flipkart. Unlike Flipkart, Hoopos gives option of payment on delivery at all places within India. So this time instead of paying online I opted to pay on delivery and made the order. Within minutes I got confirmation call from their customer care as well as order details in my email and mobile. Within 5 days, First Flight courier delivered the mug to me and collected the payment. However later I discovered a crack in mug and immediately talked to Hoopos customer care. The guy gave a pleasant assurance that I would be getting a new mug instantly. I also feel that the mug with crack was due to irresponsible handling by the courier guys, still the Hoopos guys showed good professionalism and assured that I get the new mug. Within 5 days I received intact and well packed new mug, without any need to pay. I am pretty impressed with the customer care and trust Hopoos shows in its customer and will definitely buy things further from them, given that they carry on the same professional customer supporting attitude.

Verdict: Given this all and trust on customer based billing and service of Hoopos, I would recommend it to you guys to buy gifts for kids from them. For Flipkart, you could be better if you improve your customer care and use better way of reliable delivery, as well as like Hoopos, trust your customer and provide payment on delivery mode for all locations in India. Finally, both the sites do provide lots of options and sections. Flipkart could be used to purchase several other things like mobiles, DVDs etc(though I have tried only Books) while Hoopos provides wide ranges of Kids and Children items, from toys/games to dresses and diapers. End of the day what matters the most are service, pricing, material. And Hoopos scores very well in all these three departments. The Chota Bheem Mug sent to me is really nice and unique one with high quality rubber embossed Chota Bheem.

Thanks for the good service Hoopos. Keep it up.