If time is of the essence, don't use Citi-Sprint

"Citi - Stroll" would be a more appropriate name.

Before I start this essay describing my atrocious experience with this company I think its important to state that I have never ever felt the need to write a negative review about any company before, so this is a first. If time is of the essence this is not your company. Don't use them at all. If you are thinking about using them, I urge to read the previous sentence again and repeat it until you decide not to use them.

When requesting my police clearance at my local police station in Cape Town I was handed a flyer for the company in question, with the staff recommending their services as they are a courier company that "specialises" in handling the collection and delivery of police clearances.

So the company was able to collect the documents without major hassle (hence the generous one star rating) using the sms service and I had a day off work to interact with the driver tasked with collecting the document.

The major issues occurred with the delivery of the police clearance once it was ready at the police department in Pretoria to my residence:

1) So again I followed the prompts provided by the company and sms'ed the required details. I did not receive any notification or automated response indicating it was successfully received. I gave it a few hours but it had not worked. I had to phone into the call center for them to realise there was an issue with the sms service. An entire day was lost and it would have been longer had I not been so proactive. One day lost so far.

2) The company states that it would take 2-4 working days to gather the police clearance in which they would call to arrange the delivery of the document. It took 5 days before I was contacted, so now we are sitting on 6 days.

3) Due to the delay in delivery I contacted the call-center and scheduled the drop-off at an alternative address and provided a contact number, so that a friend can receive the document on my behalf as I would be working in the day and would have no access to my cellphone number if they called. I stressed this many times to the operator repeating the phrase "Please do not call me, I will be at work" at least three or four times. This is where the wheels came off. My friend received a call from the driver and they arranged that the package would be delivered that day at 10am. My friend left her office to collect the delivery, but nobody arrived, she waited hours. She tried to call the company but because she did not know my ID number they would not assist her. I had received missed calls (much after 10am) on my cellphone number which I only saw after work. I immediately called the driver who rudely put the phone down on me twice and did not give me the chance to straighten out the situation. We are now on 7 days.

4) I saw on the companies web-page that the call-center was open until 6:30, so at 6pm I called only to be greeted by a telephonic recording indicating that they were closed for the day... thirty minutes early.... why not make your closing time 6pm then Citi-Sprint? On the recording however was the number to call the after hours manager. So guess what I did. I called the manager explained my situation and how I need to set a time for collection for tomorrow. I told her what time to call me, and what time I will be busy from. She promised she would organise someone to call me first thing tomorrow morning. Guess what? Correct, they didn't call fist thing that morning and the collection was not organised for that day. We are now on 8 days.

5) The following day was a public holiday, we are now on 9 days.

6) Another wasted day as the company could not contact me during working hours, with "classy" voicemails left from the driver such as "Awe guy, call me back". We are now on 10 days.

7) I phoned through again, explained my situation, this time gave the address of my father (as I could not ask my friend to take off work for a second time), his cellphone number, his telephone number. Eventually it was delivered successfully on the 11th day.

It took the police the required 21 days but took you, the courier company 11 days, while in the process stuffing around clients who put their lives on hold so they can accommodate you.

Regards Gerard