As if these torrid July days, with mercury soaring higher than in previous years, were not enough. The record temperatures have been characterised by people succumbing to road rage, people losing sleep, and conflict becoming more antagonistic. But there are also a great many cases in which the consumers are getting the short end of the stick.

Here are some episodes mired in reality:

Arriva, is still not delivering as people expect it to. We published a story yesterday about long queues of people waiting in vain at Mellieħa Bay. But there is more: Sometimes buses just don’t turn up and no explanations are forthcoming. A case in point was the 225 bus last Saturday evening when two buses simply went missing, with people kicking their heels for one-and-a-quarter hours on a bus stop.

Air Malta, for all its current problems is another. Apart from the question of prices ranging all over the place and generally higher than those of competitors, Air Malta has been known to bump people off planes; presumably when there is a big group that needs to be accommodated. A case in point was last Saturday’s flight from Vienna: One suspects that a group from Vienna wanted to come for Joseph Calleja’s concert, which made Air Malta try and offer some people with paid tickets an alternative flight through Heathrow arriving here in the early hours of the morning, after a day spent flying around Europe.

The telecom companies are another instance. They have people pouncing on those who enter Valletta. In addition, there have been instances where billing has gone wrong and people cannot fathom out what they owe, and what they might have been overcharged.

And just like everywhere else in the world, the banks have become quite adept at ensuring they get what they claim is due, but then they turn deaf ears when one asks for an extension, or a wider loan.

Last but not least, the shops and their assistants. It is bad enough that most shop assistants never seem to learn to smile and be nice to customers. Sometimes it gets worse: People waiting to be served have to wait until they finish their private chitchat or talking about personal matters on the phone. And when a customer asks a relevant question, that customer is faced with blank stares as if speaking in a different language.

One can go on and on. There should be, but most probably there isn’t, a way to measure the satisfaction of customers in different countries, but one suspects that the satisfaction levels of consumers in Malta must be among the lowest.

Having pondered on this issue for a long time, one is tempted to say that either the owners of the businesses do not know what their employees are doing to customers, or they might have given up exercising any type of control over their employees. One simply refuses to believe that the owners would purposely allow such behaviour.

Whatever the reasons, the end result is the same: Customers, when this is possible, vote with their pockets and choices. They simply look elsewhere. When this is not possible, customers sulk with the only means open to them: By spending the minimum possible. It is about time business stopped paying lip service to ‘The Customer is King’ slogan and start to implement it.