Passing the parcel (2)

In his reply to my letter of March 13, Tony Barbaro Sant presumes that I had previously reported cases of wrong delivery of mail. This was a crafty approach because if I were to admit to not having complained then the fault (in Maltapost's book) would be mine. Could this be another attempt at passing the parcel?

When receiving items of mail belonging to other persons, I usually write the message "Delivered to the wrong address" on the front of the envelopes and re-post them. This should have served the purpose of reporting wrong delivery had it not been for Maltapost's zeal to "clear" their "floor" so quickly. However, I do thank Mr Barbaro Sant for providing his telephone number, which I could have found very easily, as he, I am sure, could have found mine.

On the subject of delayed or lost overseas mail, I would like to report that yet another letter posted to me by first class mail in London on February 25 has so far failed to reach its destination. Judging by Mr Barbaro Sant's reply on this particular subject, and an almost identical blurb appearing in The Times of March 25, Maltapost seems to have adopted the stance that such occurrences are not the company's fault because they operate a "clear floor" policy. It is irrelevant who Maltapost blames for any of its shortcomings. This company is responsible for the way it has served (or not served) its reluctant and captive customer base. The paying public is being short-changed by Maltapost and there is no plausible reason why such a disservice has been condoned for so long.

Incidentally, Mr Barbaro Sant failed to explain why in some instances people have complained that letters delivered late were not date stamped by Maltapost. Perhaps this could be blamed on whichever company supplied invisible ink for their date stamping machines.

I would like to conclude by proposing a solution for the problem of delayed or lost overseas mail. Maltapost should actively consider investing in a number of homing pigeons to transport its overseas mail. This would improve the reliability of the service and the chance of delivery within reasonable times, even within the hunting season. The only snag would occur on arrival, when letters would not be the only things dropped by the pigeons. It might then take slightly longer for Maltapost to clear their floors.