What is wrong at Maltapost? I asked them if it is possible to send €40 to a friend in Ghana. They said yes, through Western Union.

On April 26 l did so. But the friend messaged me from Ghana that "they" would not release the money when it was called for.

At Rabat branch office, from where l sent the money, they could not help, they said. I wrote to Maltapost, once, twice, three times.

Each time l got an electronic reply, saying they had "a high number of queries due to items awaiting border agency clearance" and asking me to "kindly be patient". But Maltapost never really made contact, except electronically, and only to complain they did not have enough staff to deal with customer complaints.

I am not a patient man, especially if l am ignored about a legitimate complaint.

At the time of writing l am still without a reply, and Western Union still has my money - l presume. Maltapost also charged me €6 for a minimal amount of paperwork and a few seconds of time to make the electronic transfer.

How much better it was when we had a government postal service. They had no computers then, everything was manual, but they were so much better at efficiency.

Roger Mifsud,

Rabat.