Holihop - Fraud and Cheating backed by Cleartrip?

Holihop.com was introduced by Clreatrip as India's first travel products portal and I first got to know them through advertisements of Cleartrip when they promoted Holihop by giving a FREE Rs 250/- voucher to all Cleartrip customers.

I was skeptical of the site because somehow the site did not inspire any confidence but some of my freinds actually shopped, the shopping experience was terrible, most of the products were very cheap quality products like T-shirts, Caps and Bags... they were showing it at discounted but even after heavy discounting the price was high, my friend bought printed Tees and the printing was also not proper, he received the T-shirts after 40 days and probably spent 100 rupees on phone call.

The helpline number was just an eyewash, hardly anyone picks up and if your lucky then you will find a human voice on the other side but no t humane at all... that guy invariably will not be able to help you and he will just lie blatantly like your goods have been shipped and some problems with courier company or the stock is not available in India, all cock and bull stories.

They had very limited products like few T-shirts, caps, some cheap quality bags, outlook travellers and some SD cards, people who ordered for T-shirts and Bags got them somehow after weeks after a lot of persuasion but the people who ordered for outlook travel guides and memory cards were complete cheated, the goods never reached them and all the time Holihop was telling that the order is placed and there is no stock with the company which is a BIG lie, if you just stroll lazily in Delhi like CP or Green Park, you will see few hundred copied of these Outlook travel guides are gathering dust, you visit any shopping site, you will see tonnes of memory cards but the Holihop kept on saying that the customers have to wait and they are not getting the products!

Now my question is, then why Holihop had those product on their website and why they kept it till the day they closed?

I feel Holihop is a completely phoney organization, there is no Holihop, it is nothing but a bait planned by Cleartrip, they just distributed the vouchers as a bait and then just made the money ftom the bumper sale and so one fine day the website was taken off the air, by that time Holihop has already collected some 10 - 20 Lacs from the market with the active patronage of Cleartrip.

Just think, a leading travel portal like Cleartrip.. why would they tie-up with an unknown company? That's why I am 99% sure that Holihop is nothing but a Cleartrip owned site which was introduced to cheap gullible customers.

This is also not enough, Holihop went into a very aggressive newsletter marketing, again that is not possible without the active patronage of Cleartrip and their superior technology, they sent weekly newsletter to all Cleartrip user base for up selling and cross selling and they introduced a loyalty programme called HOPS in the process.

Again, this is another first from Holihop (or Cleartrip) again they announced a dream loyalty program which offered upto 20 Hops (1 HOP = 1 INR) per 100 rupees spent, they also annouced HOPs for joining them and referring friends and being an ex Cleartrip customer I was also getting the fusillade of Holihop newsletter.

I was sucked into the cheating racket, I joined them and it was a wow, I just got 50 HOPS for creating an account and when I talked to the CEO of Holihop, he sounded so assuring that I almost got convinced that the problems were just temporary teething problems and all measures have bene taken to make Holihop the shopping portal of India.

He assured me that they have the right tie-ups and coming up with mega sale and I can make unlimited referrals and just earn HOPS which can be even exchanged for money! It was really tempting and so I started to refer friends who in turn referred others, lot of them even purchased and I was getting HOPS in my account... also I could see that they were adding some new products and I was almost getting impressed with the quick turn around... BUT then came the real shocker, when I requested for the redemption for my HOPS no action was taken from HOLIHOP side... then as usual my calls were no answered and then somehow one day I again managed to speak to the MD, he said that he is coming up with some exciting products and that's why he did not make eh redemption just wanting me to get the maximum benefit but if I am interested I can redeem right away, I told him that I don't want cash but I wanted to purchase a Atego sports bag and I have the enough HOPS, so let him just allow to purchase the bag, he said OK, I will generate a coupon and u use that for purchase because the "online redemption facility" was still not in place... I said fine and he assured me to send the coupon the next day.

After that 2 weeks passed by and then I casually wanted to go to Holihop... you know what???? The sit does not exist any more... I could not believe it, I thought some temporary problems but after that I have tried numerous times from various PCs and it now it seems that the shop is closed for good!

Holihop is one of the BIGGEST online fraud of recent history, they went into a HIGH-VOLTAGE launch with the aid of Cleartrip, they also got covered by NDTV and so naturally with these mega alliances they could have at least collected 10-20 Lacs from the market in just 1-2 months and after that just went off the air!

I am sure Cleartrip has a lot to answer!!! I would call for a total boycott of Cleartrip, they should come open and issue a white paper on Holihop deal, I am 99% sure, Holihop is a Cleartrip ploy to fool consumers.