Malta Public Transport has confirmed that it charges €6 for posting a 'personalised' tallinja bus card to an address in another EU member state.
The postal charges to send a card to another member state costs some 0.59c but the bus operator is charging €6 which, according to sources who spoke to this newsroom, is discriminatory to say the least.
But the crux of the matter is that no reference is made on MPT's website under 'Tallinja Card Costs' terms and conditions on the specific €6 charge either.
What the website does state is that registration for a new tallinja card from 1 January 2016 will be subject to a €5 administrative charge. Customers can register for their tallinja card for free and at no charge this year. However, postal charges might be made.
It does not specify what the word 'personalised' means.
When contacted by The Malta Independent on Sunday to confirm whether MPT was in actual fact charging €6, an MPT representative said: "There is a postal charge of €6 which applies for countries other than Malta."
Worthy of note is that readers of the howtomalta.com website - which carried a story on the tallinja card for tourists - sent a number of messages, including one that referred to the €6 postal charge.
The tallinja top-up card terms and conditions stipulated on MPT’s website
Operator had started off on the wrong foot
The new bus operator did not have a good start when it introduced the tallinja cards after a number of incidents were reported on the day of the launch - 1 July - along with the fact that people queued for hours on end in the blazing sun to top-up their cards.
An alleged racial incident was also reported when a black student was insulted and slapped in the face only to be detained by police after he tried to organise a queue at the top-up card kiosk in Valletta.
Besides, many tallinja card applicants also complained that they hadn't received their top-up cards by the time the system was introduced despite the fact that many had applied for their card in April, with many other applicants saying that their top-up cards did not even their photo on it. MPT had pinned the blame on the poor quality of photos provided by applicants as the reason for the missing photos.
MPT had also said that it had put measures in place to prevent bus ticket cheats from taking advantage of the company's decision to offer ticket refunds to those who had not yet received their new tallinja discount cards in the post.
MPT said it was aware that there may be cases where card applicants abused the refund system made available by MPT by claiming multiple ticket refunds for tickets they did not purchase or use themselves when quizzed by this newsroom on this grey area.
Put simply, people could just pick up used tickets from the floor and claim that they had paid for them.
MPT announces 31 July deadline for those eligible to bus ticket refunds
Earlier this week, MPT announced that those who are eligible for a refund because they received their tallinja card late, have until 31 July to claim their refund.