Survive the holiday frenzy with Citibank and Quick Delivery

MANILA, Philippines - Christmas! No other time of the year generates such thrills and excitement. Parties, shopping for presents, reunions with family and friends, receiving presents, bright lights and shiny decorations, your favorite high-calorie treats, carols, goodwill to everyone, a twelve-day celebration stretched out over six weeks.

Christmas! No other time of the year elicits such full-metal dread and anxiety. Heavy traffic, crowds elbowing you at the shopping malls, heavy traffic, no work getting done at the office, heavy traffic, wracking your brains for the appropriate gift for the colleague you’re not exactly crazy about, heavy traffic, ten ancient aunts asking you when you’re getting married, heavy traffic, hangovers and weight gain, heavy traffic, the expense, heavy traffic.

There is no known long-term solution to mall crowds, missed deadlines, office politics, meddling relatives, or the physiological and financial consequences of the holidays, but there is a way to get around the heavy traffic.

This holiday season, spare yourself the aggravation of inching through traffic, fighting your way into the mall, then queueing up for a table at your favorite restaurant. You will need your cellphone, your Citibank credit card, and the numbers 2121212.

Citibank’s Citi Mobile service in partnership with Quick Delivery allows you to order food from 175 of your favorite restaurants and charge it to your Citibank credit card via text message.

You can order cakes from Banapple, waffles from Flapjacks, pasta from Italianni’s, burritos from Ristra’s, prawns for Fish & Co, barbecue from Mongolian Quick-Stop, and all your other favorites by calling 2121212. You can have your favorite restaurant dishes brought to you at home or at the office, and you don’t even have to pay cash. Charge the meal to your Citibank card using a simple text message.

And since it’s not necessary to pay in cash, you can order hot meals from Manila’s leading restaurants and have them sent to your family at home, your colleagues at their offices, and your friends wherever they happen to be. No one has to starve in traffic on the way to the restaurant again.

This is how it works. The Citi Mobile service requires enrollment. To enroll, simply text CITIMOBILE On to 2201 if you are a Globe/Sun subscriber, or 350 for Smart. You will receive a reply with instructions on hoe to begin using Citi Mobile. You will also be issued a PIN via text to make sure your transactions are secure.

You can order from Quick Delivery in three ways — by calling 2121212 and speaking to an operator, by texting <ORDER> to 2910 or 0918-2121212. Or by visiting www.quickdelivery.ph and clicking the “Order now” button to have an operator call you.

 To pay for your order using Citi Mobile, you simply need to inform the operator that you will order through Citi Mobile. You will receive a text message with the amount to be charged to your Citibank credit card. When you reply to confirm payment the order will be sent. 

At your service: Quick Delivery will bring your orders to your office for a minimum order of P500.

The menus of all the Quick Delivery partners are available in the Quick booklet and on the website www.quick delivery.ph. Or you could ask the operator to read you the bestsellers of a particular restaurant.

We hear horror stories about credit card theft and fraud. Is this system safe? Put it this way: With Citi Mobile you never have to give your credit card number to anyone, and you never have to hand over your card to be swiped. The entire transaction is done via text message.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas unless you get a bonus, and Citi Mobile gives you special treats every time you order meals through Quick Delivery. A minimum order of P1,500 from Brothers Burger gives you a free serving of green delight salad with garden dressing. A minum order of P1,000 from 101 Hawker Foodhouse gets you a 5 percent discount; an order of P2,000 from California Pizza Kitchen gets you a free Dish of the Month. For a minimum delivery order of P1,000 at Buffalo Wings and Things, you will receive an extra treat: a free half-pound of Champion Buffalo Wings.

Buy P500 worth of items from Mrs. Fields through Citi Mobile and Quick Deliver, and a dozen free cookies will arrive free with your order. If that is not a great deal, we don’t know what is.

Say it’s Thursday, 11:45 am, and you and your team are at the office working on a rush project. A lot of excellent ideas are being tossed around; it would be a shame if you were to stop brainstorming and go out to lunch. You could use some culinary inspiration: the crispy pork binagoongan at Cafe Via Mare, empanadas at Empanada Mas, kebabs from Kazam Kebab House, or chimichangas from TGI Friday’s. If you go out, factoring in the traffic, the search for parking space, the wait for tables and so on, you will lose at least two hours. But you can’t skip lunch, how can you work efficiently on an empty stomach?

Not a problem. Call 2121212 and order all the dishes you crave via Citi Mobile. Quick Delivery will bring your orders to your office for a minimum order of P500, or a small surcharge of P65 above the standard delivery rate. Delivery prices are the same as dine-in prices—instead of the 10 percent service charge at the restaurant, you pay a 10 percent delivery fee. If you’re within the delivery area, your order will arrive within one hour; outside the delivery area there’s a slightly longer wait.

If you and your officemates combine your orders, you can avail of some irresistible freebies from Citi Mobile. There’s a free order of Pancit Luglog for a minimum single receipt of P2,500 at Cafe Via Mare, two free empanadas for every order of one dozen empanadas at Empanada Mas, a free Shawarma rice meal for a P1,000 delivery purchase at Kazam

Kebab House, and free chicken fingers with every P2,000 purchase at TGI Friday’s.

Thanks to the uninterrupted brainstorming on your rush project, and the added inspiration of a hearty lunch, by 6 pm you are waiting for the art department to bring the mock-up to your office. You get a text message from your brother—he and his classmates are at home, finishing an assignment before the Christmas break, and he’s wondering if you could stop at a restaurant on your way home.

You don’t have to drop by a restaurant for take-out, and he doesn’t have to wait till you get home. Call 2121212 and order dinner for your brother and his classmates using Citi Mobile. Just tell Quick Delivery where to send the order — no need to rush home, or for your brother to have cash on hand. With Citi Mobile you can enjoy hot meals from over of 175 food outlets through Quick Delivery. No traffic. No hassle. Just stress free meals enjoyed in the comfort of your home or office this holiday season.