I have received numerous requests for my feedback on Hop Shop Go and the services that they provide, and I thought it might be a good idea to lump it all into the one post instead of replying to everyone in seperate places. So in a nutshell, Hop Shop Go is a parcel purchasing and forwarding service for those like me who live in the middle of nowhere (aka Australia) at least according to some US based websites that will not ship to us. You have the option of purchasing the product yourself and having it shipped to a US address supplied by Hop Shop Go, who will then forward the package on to you on arrival for a fee OR if the site you’re purchasing from does not accept international credit cards (and most don’t) you can opt to have Hop Shop Go order the packages for you (charged to your pay pal account) and then sent to their US address and again forwarded to you on arrival for a fee.
I have placed 10 orders using Hop Shop Go so far (wow, that is eye opening) and have had no complaints so far. (I did have an issue with an order that I placed but I can’t blame it on HSG because it was my own fault for forgetting to put the discount code in with my order.) I find once my order has been sent through, it takes a day or so for it to be placed. It’s then anywhere between a week and a month before the products arrive at the HSG US address (depending on where you’ve bought it from, and which shipping option you’ve opted for – I always opt for cheapest shipping because I’ve never been in any huge rush to receive the things I’ve ordered). Once the package arrives at the US address and shipping is paid for, it takes around a week for the parcel to reach me here in Australia. Note: you will need to sign for the parcel when it arrives. I believe HSG use DHL (or they have done so for all of my packages) who will leave an unsuccessful delivery attempt card if you’re not home to sign for your package. There is the option to go online and ask to have the package re-delivered to a new address, or to the same address where you can leave the signed card as permission for them to safe drop the package. The card also has the option for you to sign for all future packages, which I have done repeatedly but for some reason they keep leaving the card and not the package, which is annoying.
Price wise, I find that the websites that I am buying from either have such a cheap price point that the shipping makes the order worthwhile, or that I am buying from places that stock products that are impossible to find here (namely Anthropologie, GAP and Banana Republic) so I don’t mind paying just a little bit more for shipping. Generally, the price of shipping for me has ranged between $20-$40. I believe that there is a minimum of shipping based on the minimum charge weight of 2kg. So for example I purchased 3 items from MAC, and then in a future order only ordered 1 item, and shipping was the same. So it would be of benefit to buy up to at least the minimum package weight to make shipping worthwhile. Note: You will need to calculate your own rough idea of shipping fees, as the cost of shipping is not presented to you until the parcel arrives at the US address. It was a sort of guessing game for me at the start, but now I know that most packages I order will range between $20-$40 as I mentioned earlier. You will also be charged the cost of shipping from the site your initial order was placed to the US based address at the time of paying for shipping to Australia.
Help/Service wise, when I had a problem with my order (forgetting to put the discount code in) I emailed for advice (response took around 5 hours to come through) and also went online to the on-site chat function. The chat was online within business hours within my own timezone, which I found very useful. Also, despite the person I spoke to not being very helpful (she was adamant that nothing could be done to alter my order – yet miraculously it was altered anyway, I’m not really sure how that happened), I found the chat function to be very handy. I hate using US based services that require you to CALL them within US business hours to ask for help. I mean, seriously.
Things to note:
> They will not ship nail polish or perfume (which sucks because I wanted ALL of the OPI for Sephora polishes on the Sephora site).
> If you order something that they are unable to purchase, they will drop it off of your order without notifying you IF you have opted to have your existing order placed if an item is unavailable. If you’ve opted to have your entire order cancelled in the event that a product is not available, I’m not sure if notification is sent through as I’ve personally never had this occur.
> They will not order an item if there is a discrepancy between the price you have quoted, and what shows up for them when they go to order it for you.
> If the majority of your order cannot be placed, they will email you to confirm that you still want to go ahead with the rest of the order.
So that was my long winded rant regarding Hop Shop Go and their services. I will continue to use HSG as a parcel purchasing and forwarding service, because it offers me everything that I want for in that regard, and I am happy to wait for packages that may take a month or so total turnaround to arrive. I thought it might be a good idea to include the thoughts of other people who have used this service before, and I will add more in future if anyone else wants to contribute.
Jennise from Pink Ribbons: “If you compare the service between Parceliton and HSG, I would say Parceliton is the winner. Why? Because of their promptness in placing your order and turnaround time. Most of my purchases with Parceliton arrive to me in Australia within 2 weeks. HSG is a great comparable service, albeit orders take a lot longer to arrive at your US address. The website is easy to use and all my orders have been placed in a reasonable timeframe ie. overnight or the next day. You sort of don’t hear anything until your order arrives at your US address which normally takes 2 weeks (this could be due to the busy holiday season in the US) and it kind of makes you wonder ‘hey, what’s happened to my order’? So would I use HSG or Parceliton for future services? I would use HSG because it’s a cheaper service and I am a fairly patient person. ”
