OPINION: The real issue while buying smartphones from Hotdeals Nepal

When I first heard about Hotdealsnepal, I was elated by the objectives that the company possessed which is to sell gadgets that officially never launches in Nepal. It was a great news for tech enthusiasts who were looking to buy smartphones of sheer quality at an affordable price.

I was looking for a mid-range smartphone for my mom and luckily there was hotdealsnepal.com selling Xiaomi redmi 2 which we all know is a fantastic value for money smartphone. I browsed through their website and tried to place an order. I was bemused by the order form since there were no payment portals like eSewa or SCT moco. So, I called them to know about the payment process.

After a numerous try, I was able to contact them via phone. They said there is a cash on delivery option for the payment and will take 1 week for the delivery. So, I was left with no option other than to wait for 1 week and on the 8th day I was eagerly waiting for their phone call. 10 days passed and still no feedback from them. I asked one of my friend who once ordered a One Plus One and he had the exact same scenario. Moreover, after you buy the handset from them, there will be no after sales service. If by any chance, if your smartphone gets damaged, you will have to pay a hefty amount to get it repaired.

We are also hearing complaints from the customers that the product they receive is not seal packed. There are numerous complaints from the customers, but the one that annoys me a lot is the time taken by the company to deliver the product once the order is placed. If you are looking to buy a smartphone, you cannot wait for 10-15 days. Even if you are patience enough to wait for that long, hotdealsnepal should provide constant updates during the interval to assure the customer that their product is arriving. Otherwise, the customer will end up buying a product from offline stores.

Having said that, I really hope Hotdeals Nepal will rectify these mistakes in the future if they dream of becoming Nepal’s biggest and possibly best online retail shop.