Rhino Power restaurant discount cards

Last week, as I was going to Valletta from the car park, I was approached by a charming young lady who was selling restaurant discount cards. I must say she was very polite and had excellent persuasion skills. Indeed I was almost about to buy one when, suddenly, the penny dropped.

I realised she was working for Reuben Vella of Rhino Power Ltd. whereupon the old adage "once bitten twice shy" struck me like a bolt of lightning.

The point is that, last year, on June 30, July 14 and 28, I wrote about a complaint from Antoine Camilleri. In December 2000, one of Rhino Power's representatives called at his home soliciting the sale of a discount card applicable to restaurant meals at O' Connors Irish pub and restaurant in St Julian's. The card cost Lm5 and was valid till November 30, 2001. Mr Camilleri bought one.

However, when he called the restaurant to make a reservation, he was informed that the restaurant was 'temporarily' closed. A couple of months later he tried again and was informed that the restaurant was still 'temporarily' closed. Towards the end of November he phoned again and this time he was told that the restaurant was 'closed'.

Basically, he did not enjoy a single benefit or discount. Therefore Mr Camilleri, quite rightly I must add, requested a full refund from Rhino Power Ltd, albeit to no avail. His argument was that if Rhino Power had been acting in good faith when the restaurant closed down, they should have contacted him to offer a replacement or a refund. Moreover, to add insult to injury, in February 2002, Mr Camilleri was offered a similar card, which was also being promoted by Rhino Power. At that point he wrote to me.

In a nutshell, Mr Camilleri had paid Lm5 in December 2000 and, although the card proved to be worthless, he did not get his refund until 2002 (possibly June) after having gone through a great deal of hassle. In the end as Mr Camilleri concluded in his letter to us (featured on July 14 2002):

I have no doubt that your intervention was instrumental in changing the stand that the price of the card was not refundable.

Thank you for your intervention. (Antoine Camilleri)

At that point I wrote that, to be fair, the case regarding the specific transaction wherein Rhino Power Ltd charged Mr Camilleri Lm5 for a worthless card has been rectified in that Mr Camilleri was given a full refund.

However I also wrote that the issue as to why Rhino Power sold a discount card applicable to a "closed" restaurant still required an explanation. Therefore we asked for a clear explanation, possibly an apology, to no avail.

On July 28, 2002, I wrote that we were still waiting for an explanation from Mr Vella of Rhino Power Ltd. I added that the reason why I referred to this case again was because, as far as this column is concerned, it was and currently still is pending. We need an explanation as to why Mr Camilleri was sold a discount card applicable to a "closed" restaurant.

Since Rhino Power Ltd are still selling restaurant discount cards it would be appreciated if Mr Vella could assure us that he has rectified the way his company operates so that this will not happen again. Indeed, as I explained above, I almost bought a card last week and the only reason I decided not to was because I cannot trust Rhino Power Ltd. In this spirit we look forward to hearing from Mr Vella with an explanation and an assurance that he has applied the appropriate mechanism in the way he operates so that he can guarantee that they do not sell discount cards applicable to closed restaurants.