“I have just been on here and I'm shocked at all the other people with the same eperience... I stupidly signed up for a 7 year contract
and 2 years have never used a single facility they offer. Its too generic and not a 1 stop solution for us at all ....I called to try and cancel this down bearing in mind I have absorbed no costs at all and they are forcing me to honor the full contract despite me not using it all....I pay in excess of £250 per month this is day light robbery. Please be very very careful if you sign up they make it very enticing to sign up for the longer term when its impossible to get out of ....”
“Rip off
Never been told of a 7 year contract
Told I could cancel at any time
Now they are making me pay 75% worth of the contract value
Bad service and greedy for money
DONT SIGN THE CONTRACT”
“Sincerely - avoid this company
This is not a bad meal in a restaurant - you are signing up to work with this company for many years.
This company has no concern about you or about the contract they have agreed, they want you in, they want your money, the rest doesn't matter!!
absolutely shocking - We have a written contract in place specifying a maximum annual increase of 3%, later in the first year they then emailed a junior in the company (who had no authority with contracts ) stating there was an increase of 7%, on receipt of the invoice we pointed out our contract was maximum 3% and the reply was you received and email and as you have used the system since our email so you have accepted the increase!
Absolutely out of order - out of contract and they're not interested
Pay a bit more get a proper company”
“At last, I have been able to move forward with closing our limited company.pool
Citation, and their associated company, QMS International, both went down the legal route to obtain payments remaining under their long contracts, despite our ceasing to trade. This has delayed our closure by several months and caused considerable, additional expense.
QMS International dropped its legal action, but DWF Law didn't have the courtesy to let us know. I then offered Citation just under half of what it was seeking, to avoid our appearance in the Small Claims Court, (we were defending the case), and the offer was accepted. I don't view we owed them anything, but I didn't want things dragging on until 25/11/2021, with the risk that we could lose the case and incur yet more expense.
As for our experience of Citation and of its Atlas platform:
We didn't use the Atlas platform much, after giving it an initial try. We are/were a small company and work/ed in a very specialist area. The risk assessments were not sufficiently detailed and far too simplistic. In my opinion, the pictures made the risk assessments appear very amateurish and childish.
We did use some of the relevant training courses, (Asbestos Awareness and a handful of other basic H & S courses), but the specialist courses we continued to have to source elsewhere.
I had to chase up H & S policies at renewal dates, as these were not up-dated automatically on the system by Citation. Inconvenient, when the companies we worked for were asking for them.
Our initial appointed Citation H & S consultant did not remain with us: they changed quite regularly, so there was no opportunity to forge a professional relationship with anyone.
We also had the Employment Law package. The employees' handbook was OK and up-dated when due. Other than that, we had no need to avail ourselves of their services.
Being a small company, we didn't need to use the platform for booking in employees' holidays, or for other HR matters. We conversed regularly and it would have been weird to suddenly start sending automated emails, instead of speaking.
As for their contracts: I was told one thing by the sales person, (you can walk away at any time), but the reality is that you are unlikely to receive any concessions for having to cease trading, for whatever reason. Even Covid-19, which I believe is a 'Force Majeure'.
With hindsight, I do not consider Citation to be a good choice for small, or specialist companies and, given their over-long contracts and readinesss to resort to legal action, I cannot recommend them to anyone.
A reply to Mel Johnston:
We are not in an 'unfortunate position'. Citation forced us into one, by insisting we carry on paying for a service we no longer required.
I am sure lots of Citation customers have encountered financial difficulties due to the pandemic. How many times have you instigated legal proceedings via DWF Law and the Small Claims Court?
I have read your Trustpilot negative reviews and see you even pursued a charity via the legal route.
Citation is not a company that I would ever recommend.”
“DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY
I HAVE NEVER KNOWN A COMPANY WHO TREATS CUSTOMERS THE WAY THIS COMPANY DO. THEY ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING FOR US AND WE ARE PAYING OVER £200 PM. ABSOLUTE CON. THE COMPLAINTS DEPARTMENT ARE ABSOLUTLEY NO BETTER. THEY WANT YOUR MONEY AND NOTHING MORE! I CANNOT EXPRESS HOW MUCH STRESS THEY HAVE CAUSED. PLEASE DON'T USE THIS COMPANY YOU WILL BE STUCK IN A CONTRACT THAT YOU REALLY CANNOT GET OUT OF!”
“Complete waste of money.
Signing up to citation was a huge and very expensive mistake.
They provide almost nothing for hundreds of pounds a month. They also got us with their rolling contracts which we couldn’t get out of. Don’t even own the business anymore meaning they are providing literally nothing... And apparently we owe them several more thousands of pounds!”
“Do not use this company! Have been sucked into auto-renewal for 3 years for services I no longer want. If I ran my business like this I'd have no customers left. Extremely disappointed.”
“This company are not to be trusted, they have scammed us into the 5 or 10 year contract be careful and read the contract properly every detail of it, if you want to cancel the agreement you can't or you will have to pay they £3000 to do so absolute scammers now I am stuck paying the £100 every month and not using their services at all as I do not require them.
They are also part of Qms international who have done the same tactics you get me to sign up. now they all want thousands to just cancel this contract
I dont use this services I am a micro company. Either from Qms International or Citation.”
“Terrible company, avoid at all costs. I was lead to believe a rep would be visiting my salon to walk round and point out all I needed to do health and safety wise and to assist in risk assessments. I have yet to meet anyone, their "site meetings" are all done via Microsoft teams. This was 100% not what I wad told in my initial phone call. I'm.gettign know where with trying to cancel. I'm being told they have done nothing wrong and I am now stuck in a very expensive 7 year contract and still have no idea what I'm doing health and safety wise as they aren't interested in you at all once you have signed the contract”
Hi Debbie,
Thank you for taking the time to reach out to us here on Reviews.io. I was very sorry to read that you feel this way. I have passed your information onto the relevant team, so we can look into this further.
All the best,
Jessica Frostick
Client Experience Team
“I am an employee at citation, I would just like to say I have never been in a company that treats it's staff with absolute disregard for human empathy. If you are thinking of being employed by this company, do not go near them at all.”
“Unscrupulous and unprofessional, only bothered about payment and not service or value for money. We joined when we were missold - we were told we could opt out at any time, this was untrue and then when we tried to give notice at the end of our SIX year contract we were told we had been auto renewed for ANOTHER SIX years. Now we cannot afford the monthly fee of £277 for absolutely no service they insist we stay til May 2026, when we will have oaid roughly £40000 to them. DO NOT SIGN A CONTRACT”
“Shocking excuse of a company. Just been told I have automatically ‘agreed’ to a new SEVEN year contract.
Avoid these guys like the plague!!
Not really helpful in any staff issues as they only really want to cover their own backsides.
I will be seeking legal advice to have the contract terminated through the initial sale.
If I have any joy I will most certainly post it on here.
No empathy at all for what small businesses have been through the last two years, we can’t afford another seven year contract at £250 a month. Over £15,000 for the next seven years. I don’t think so.
Pete, Macclesfield”
“As a previous reviewer mentioned I also have had to give 1 star as there is no option for 0.
Dreadful company with no empathy, understanding of our charity nor willing to offer any solution to our financial difficulty due to Covid.
Our renewal date is not for a week or so and as a non profit charity we simply cannot afford this service any longer, nor have any need for it. Trapped in another 5 year contract which will cost us a considerable amount of money for nothing as unfortunately the 6 month notice Citation require to cancel was missed, we had no notice of renewal and there has been no understanding from them as to our explanation why. We have virtually begged that they release us from this contract before it starts again but they are not interested in whether we require the services or that they are financially affordable to us. Citation are only interested in their financial gain and not the wellbeing of their so called 'valued client'. Further insulted by them pointing out that due to Covid they are more needed than ever - even though we have consulted with another agency for the past year who give a better service for free and helped with all our Covid related issues.
The irony is you are sold their services to help your business when in fact they are more than happy to see you struggle through difficult times and quite possibly even go under!
The monthly payments we make to them are having an impact on what resources we can give the children our charity serves, I have pointed this out to them and they are absolutely not interested in offering help nor solutions to our predicament.
This review may get a response from them, I daresay there will also be a few well timed positively glowing invited reviews after this one too….. So to pre-empt the response I may get our 'Client Relations Manager' is aware of our issues and has basically told us tough!
Please, please don't be caught out by this company, I implore you to look elsewhere for another company who can serve you better, provide good customer service and don't feel the need to trap you into long rolling contracts with no notice of renewal. If a company were as good as they make out there wouldn’t be any need to trap clients into staying with them the way they do.”
“We have been with Citation for 8 years and honestly I would give 0 stars if I could. I have never been more appalled at how a company has treated it's customers.
After having multiple bad experiences with Citation with multiple members of staff from my firm I made a complaint regarding the level of rudeness we are greeted with. I was then called back and told it was a "clash of personality" with myself and the lady I had spoken to even though we have not spoken to one single person from Citation that has been nice to us or helpful.
We then tried to cancel the contract as we were not getting anywhere with Citation which is when we was then informed that Citation had auto renewed our contract for another 6 years without our knowledge or any mention at all over the last 7 years that this was going to happen and if we wanted to cancel the contract we would have to pay 6 years upfront.
As we are a fruit and vegetable wholesale supplier to the hospitality industry you can imagine that COVID-19 and lockdown itself has devastated our company. We were not given a payment holiday or absolutely any support from Citation. We are just expected to keep on paying £500 a month. We made the decision to cancel the direct debit and pay bits where we can. Our account is completely up to date but they have suspended our account multiple times so we cannot even use the service. The day payment is due we have someone phone us sometimes 4 times a day demanding payment and making threats and it is bordering on harassment.
DO NOT sign a contract with Citation or even get involved with them. Disgusting firm.”
“Wasted money!!! DO NOT SIGN A CONTRACT WITH THIS COMPANY !!!
Wasted money !!!, I pay from the date of signing the contract. We have never completed the implementation of the system. I can't use it but I have to pay. I warn everyone, DO NOT SIGN A CONTRACT WITH THIS COMPANY !!! They only care to pay them nothing more.
(NIe podpisujcie kontraktu z ta firma)
Maciej Zabluda”
“As with other negative comments for Citation, we were mislead during sign up of the importance of having Citation's services to conduct health and safety in our business. They push you towards long term contracts with lower monthly costs, but once you're in, you will soon realise you can conduct everything they provide for a fraction of the cost.
Once you are in a contract there is no wiggle room, I called up to say we are not happy with the amount of service we get out of the contract, and that I would be happy to pay the cost of term that we have used and exit. I was told they "cannot do this", which essentially means they don't care they we don't get what we want from their service, they just want the money.
If you are a small business and are unsure about how to conduct health and safety in your business, I would highly recommend seeking advise on what needs to be carried out and organise the individual components yourself. You will save yourselves thousands and avoid using a company that does not care if their customers are getting a good service.”
“Not a company owner so can't say much re: contracts and payments but trying to get a hold of someone to fix a technical issue is a nightmare. Have had major issues with the calendar and holidays functions for 5 months now and after over 50 different emails (with screenshots, bug reports etc) to 5 different people, getting forwarded onto a different person every week (Who asks for the same information I have sent countless times) I have just given up.”
“Reading your reviews there is certainly a very familiar theme with this company.
Currently in discussions with them regarding misleading contract.
Appears that there business ethics are far from professional. Morale compass way off.
Be interesting to see what they come back with. Can I ask that as there are lots of poor reviews has anyone raised concerns with a formal body to investigate their poor practice.”
“A very professional exterior masking a very draconian contract - don't get caught, they are more interested in holding customers to their contract then they are in anything else. Cold and ruthless”
