Central Reservations fiasco

<p>We have just returned from a trip to the wonderful Kruger Park. The service in general in the park itself was good. Cannot be said for the Central Reservations and Wild Card systems though. Booking on line simply didn't work so I phoned. 6 day trips requires 6 separate pre-bookings, surely you can book all 6 days of the same trip on one reference but NO! I tried to pay by cheque card as I have done for 5 or more years, even have sucessfully used the online system sucessfully for years. Now SANParks have "upgraded" the system apparently, it now only accepts a credit cards. Cheque card is a mastercard but won't work any more. If you don't have a credit card you are forced to eft. All 6 had to be paid individually due to limitations on the Standard Bank internet banking system. All 6 proofs of payment had to be sent individually, took 6 days due to having to process one by one, as one payment per day to a beneficiary is allowed on Standard Bank internet system. It took 12-14 days to finally get all the confirmations due to the poor systems at SANParks. Tried to renew my wild card, even bigger joke! Online doesn't work again so phoned again. Same problem with credit card only! Told to pay at a gate WITH my cheque card so I drive 450km to Malelane gate. Huge queue and only 1 member of staff. Queued for close to 40 minutes until I got to the front. Very helpful and pleasant lady tried to help. 20 minutes later with 3 separate card machines not working I eventually paid cash. If this is how much trouble a local has to go through I shudder to think how much nonsense a tourist from outside of South Africa's borders must go through! The "upgrade" has taken SANParks systems back to the dark ages, not improved their systems. The staff I spoke to all tried to help but weren't interested in passing on my complaint. </p>