Like those of many other aggrieved Malta Public Transport (MPT) customers, my son’s topped up Tallinja card is defective and malfunctions on the buses.

Repeated e-mail, online and telephone requests for a replacement card elicit a standard MPT mantra which never varies: “You have to go the Valletta booth”.

However, it transpires that MPT’s Terms and Conditions – https://www.tallinja.com/en/terms-conditions – stipulate that the “‘Cardholder may order a replacement card online, over the phone or at any one of Malta Public Transports’ Sales Booths…”

So what is the purpose of the mandatory trek to Valletta to queue in the searing heat at an MPT booth? 

Its customers would be better served were MPT to more precisely abide by its own Terms and Conditions in the first instance.   

Of note are the comments made by Daniel Grech, Commercial Director of MPT, reported in the Times of Malta on Wednesday, 22nd July: “The key to introducing complex technologies such as the Tallinja card is to make it as simple as possible for the customer. It is therefore very important to constantly listen to our customers and to immediately put into effect any feedback that they pass on to us…” 

Oisin Jones-Dillon