Like those of many other aggrieved Malta Public Transport customers, my son’s topped-up Tallinja card is defective and malfunctions on the buses. Repeated e-mail and telephone requests for a replacement card elicit a standard mantra which never varies: “You have to go to the Valletta booth.”

However, it transpires that the company’s terms and 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 then, what is the purpose of the mandatory trek to the capital to queue in the searing heat at a booth?

Of note are the comments that were made by Daniel Grech, commercial director of Malta Public Transport (July 22).

“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...”