'I read with interest, the article in your column of The Sunday Times of June 30 about the problem one of your readers is experiencing when purchasing from play.com.

'I have been doing regular business with this (very reliable) seller for almost seven years and, in that time, no less than 34 items went 'missing' and were never received, on various occasions, even on the second attempt.

However, the good thing about this seller is that if after a fixed period of time you don't receive your item they will promptly send you a replacement, free of charge of course, and with no questions asked.

'About two years ago it came to my knowledge that an employee of Maltapost was building a huge library of DVDs and CDs from other people's purchases (I understand well over 600 items were found in his possession).

'I don't know what course of action was taken against this person but what I know for sure is that, since then, not one item went missing and I do purchase quite a lot of stuff from play.com. I sincerely hope your reader not receiving his/her item is a one-off genuine mistake. He/she should not feel embarrassed to ask play.com to send a replacement, even if it is the second time. I've done it countless times. (Emanuel J. Felici)

For the benefit of readers who may not have read the article which was featured on June 30, here are some excerpts from the article in question:

I am writing with reference to an article which appeared in The Times on June 21 entitled 'Almost half of Maltese shop online'.

'I wonder how many of your readers shop from play.com. The choice of goods (e.g. DVDs) is wide and prices are good. Delivery of goods is usually within a week. The problem is that this is the second time in two months that a DVD was 'mislaid'. I would like to know if any of your readers have had the same experience. I have called Maltapost to report the loss but to no avail. I was told this was something that happened frequently.

'Play.com replaced the first loss but now I find it embarrassing to put in a second claim. The first loss I blamed on bad luck but now I wonder if it is a matter of carelessness.

'I would very much like some feedback from your readers." (Monica Vella)

I also feature some excerpts from the article referred to by Ms Vella:

'A new Eurobarometer survey shows that Maltese consumers are getting accustomed to buying services and products over the internet. Forty-four per cent of Maltese respondents said they used the internet to make a purchase in the past year. Although the average in the EU is higher, standing at 56 per cent, Malta is stronger when it comes to cross-border purchases.

'Twenty-three per cent of Maltese respondents said they bought a service or a product from another country outside Malta over the Internet in the past 12 months. This percentage is much higher than the average in the EU where consumers tend to be rather more cautious when making online purchases from outside their country. According to the survey, the average cross-border e-purchases in the EU 27 over the past 12 months stood at only seven per cent.

'The study was conducted in Malta by Misco on a random sample of 500 respondents. It shows that Maltese consumers tend to be more confident when using the net to make purchases from abroad.'