INVESTORS in World Wise Partners yesterday rued the long hours they spent at its Ruthven Road headquarters in Kingston, waiting to collect cheques they requested from as early as last month.

The long wait – seven hours in one instance – raised questions among the investors about the club’s viability, especially given that World Wise has applied to be registered with the Financial Services Commission (FSC).

The Observer was not allowed to enter the premises after the gates were closed at 3:30 pm, but when we spoke with chairman Noel Strachan, by telephone, he said the long wait and the crowd which resulted, was because of efforts by the employees to ensure that the cheque distribution process was thorough and also because of a lack of adequate space.

“People just had to wait while the cheques were processed and it takes time to do it properly. Some people just didn’t want to wait, but we have to process them and make sure they are for the right amounts,” he said.

One woman, who asked that the newspaper withhold her name, told the Observer that her fiancé had been in line at World Wise since nine o’ clock yesterday, waiting on a cheque they requested at the beginning of January. Up 4:30 pm however, they had not yet received it.

“I requested this cheque from January so I don’t understand why I have to be waiting here now for them to prepare it,” the woman said.

“.They say they doing some system upgrades and some people’s accounts haven’t been credited as yet but that is all I know,” she said.

She reported that this was the second time in her six-month relationship with World Wise that she was requesting a cheque. The first one, she said, was delivered in a week.

Another woman, who spoke with the Observer through the tightly woven green mesh that covers the grille work all along the fence, said she was there on behalf of her sister and that she signed the register at World Wise at 11 o’ clock. At 4:00 pm she was still there.

“We don’t know any more than you do on the outside. We deh here from morning and we still asking what is happening.

“[My sister] send in her application from the 12th of January and all now she can’t get the cheque. They not giving us any information, they just telling us to wait, the cheque a process…It just taking longer than expected,” she added.

She said that people had got through ahead of her but that it was “not a lot”.

A couple who arrived close to 5:00 pm to collect a cheque were denied entry to the premises despite having signed the register earlier in the day.

In the meantime, Strachan said the company was in the process of upgrading its system to improve its efficiency.

“We are putting in place some software that will shoot out the cheques faster, and we are implementing it on a phased basis. By the end of February we should be shooting things out faster and by March, we should be sailing,” he said.