From Mr A. Brincat

Not so long ago, or perhaps it was a little bit longer than that, Maltapost had increased the local postage by one cent. I suppose it did this because it was aware of its fast, efficient and professional service. It is so efficient why not up it by two cents then. It did this last Christmas in case you forgot.

For various reasons, many people stock up quite heavily on postage stamps so they were stuck with the seven-cent stamps when the increase was announced. Come Christmas they needed the additional one-cent stamps, which unfortunately were nowhere to be found. We were told at Maltapost branches that repeated orders for one-cent stamps were never honoured by Maltapost and we were asked to phone in ourselves to exert some pressure, sort of.

Feeling rather frustrated a few days before Christmas, I phoned Maltapost to give them a piece of my mind and the polite secretary offered to send me any one-cent stamps I needed to my residence! It was too late as I had already bought the two-cent ones.

Now the problem is that the excuse/reason Maltapost gave us was that they unexpectedly ran short of one-cent stamps. But if they didn’t have stamps how were they going to supply me personally with the stamps I needed and probably all those who would have called them like I did? Even at the branches they never told us they were out of stock but that they weren’t supplied.

On Saturday 10 March I once more went to the BPO to buy one-cent stamps. But believe it or not, the staff behind the counter told me that they have been without these stamps since before Christmas. When I told them that the secretary had promised to deliver the stamps to my home they couldn’t stop laughing and said that they would phone and ask her to send some for themselves. I don’t assume I am special and I suppose they will be given the same service I was offered. In fact, I called several other times at the BPO and, as it seems that these stamps will not be available, I wrote to the polite secretary again and told her that I would now like to avail myself of the service she had offered me before Christmas. but to my surprise, polite as she is, she didn’t even bother to acknowledge my correspondence this time.

As a matter of interest, when does one think Maltapost will have these stamps printed? Any chance of getting them by Christmas 2007 one wonders! surprise surprise; or does it suit Maltapost better using the two cent stamps when one cannot buy the one-cent ones – indirect taxation I call it!

I am sure I will give the Maltapost PRO a hard time when s/he tries to convince me otherwise, and many others for that matter, but sensible people are apt to believe what the facts show and not what some others try to conjure up. I think this was uncalled for and if Maltapost is professional it shouldn’t have done this, especially when one considers the service it offers; I don’t have to elaborate; it’s enough to take a look at the correspondence published in the press alone. Facts speak for themselves.

Alfred Brincat

BIRKIRKARA