My father passed away back in 1998, and we hadn't really had the need to change the name of the Enemalta account holder to anyone else, up until now. So I call up Enemalta, explain my situation, and they advise me about what I need to do, and where I need to go. I was pretty pleased with the phone call and thought that in spite of our daylight robbery water and electricity prices, the customer care representative seemed very friendly and helpful.

I can be so naïve sometimes!

So I collect the paperwork needed, and head to the Valletta office to get the name change sorted. I arrive there at around 8.30am, and there already is a 20 to 30 metre queue of disgruntled customers waiting in line for something or another. I ask the person at the door where I should wait or who I should talk to, and as he ignores everything I say, he points towards the end of the queue and keeps on having a conversation with one of his buddies.

I wait for one and a half hours, and the only thing keeping me there was the thought that I wouldn't need to do this again, and it will all be over soon. I get to the end of the line, and it's finally my turn to be served. I speak to the person behind the Perspex, and after I explain my situation again, she gives that typical look of someone who sits behind a Perspex window all day, and is sick of hearing everyone's story. She then proceeds to tell me that I need another couple of documents and this and that from here and there. At this point I tell her that their own customer care only told me to bring these documents and nothing else, but she decides to causally shrug and tell me she cannot do anything.

Great, so after all that time I get a lousy shrug, and a new list of things to acquire. A week later, with all the documentation in hand, I run off from work and head to Valletta, hoping that this will be the last time. I arrive there only to find an even longer queue than the previous time, and once again ask the person at the door if there is anyone that can help me. Once again, the completely nonchalant attendant pointed me towards the end of the queue, as he kept on talking to his buddies, who, it seems, like hang out in this office quite a lot!

I wasn't going to take it lying down this time, so I ask if there were days that were known to have less people queuing up, thinking that maybe the bills had just been sent out. This question only got a chuckle from the attendant as he said "heqq mhux meta jridu jigu n-nies!" , and this was followed by some other attendant who said, "filkas ejja is sibt filghodu, ma jkun hawn hadd, ghax inkunu maghluqin", which was found to be of amusement to his group of buddies at the door.

So at this point, I'm livid. The customer care gave me the wrong information over the phone, making me wait for an hour and a half for nothing the first time. The attendants at the door are about as helpful as a broken walking stick, and the sheer disrespect for the customer is ridiculous. On top of that the office only opens 4.5 hours a day in summer, with a handful of people behind the tills.

When is this going to change? When will we start being treated as actual consumers instead of numbers on a chart? I still haven't managed to do this simple change of name, as I have a job to keep and couldn't afford to spend another two hours in a queue. Why can't our government department simply work efficiently? Is it that hard to teach and motivate people in the work place, and if these people simply don't want to learn, and don't care about good customer care...why do they still have their jobs? If the taxpayer is paying for their wages, then we should be able to decide if they should keep their jobs.

Graham Fenech

Naxxar