6hourdefensivedriving.com stated by phone that the certificate will arrive by US postal mail between 7 to 10 business days after it was mailed. Many people wait to take their defensive driving course until close to their court due date so by giving a overly long estimate of how long the regular mail service will take, they are are attempting to get you to upgrade to one of their more expensive delivery options.
I took my defensive driving course over 2 weeks before my court due date, so I figured I could afford to wait up to 10 business days, but I doubted it could possibly take the full 10 days. The certificate never came even after 10 days! Customer service claims that they mailed it the day after I completed the course, and it is just being mailed from California to Texas, so there is no reason why it should really take more than 3 or 4 business days if mailed on the date they told me.
Here is what I believe their racket is: to purposefully delay mailing certificates so that at the last minute before your court due date you are desperate to get your certificate and have to call them up to pay for their rush service.
They told me the only thing they could do was to send it out again for free by regular mail and wait another 7 to 10 business days (which would make it too late for my court due date) or to pay $28 for their overnight service. I asked to speak to a manager and was again told there were no other options. Only when I threatened to write a negative online review and told them I thought they had a racket and pocketed the difference between the real cost of the delivery service and their rush fee did they back down.
The manager agreed to "share" 50% of the cost and to overnight it for $14. I am sure it does not cost them a penny more than $14 to send and that there was no cost "sharing". Still, they had me over a barrel because it would be much more expensive to turn my certificate into the court late.
I feel strongly that people are being taken advantage of by being forced to use their rush service which is advertised very prominently on their main page.
My advice: find a defensive driving course that has some kind of trustworthy reputation or certification or at least is a member of the Better Business Bureau.
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