I rushed to apply for a Tallinja card soon after the first announcement in May but I am still without one, puzzled not only by the mystery of how asimple and much touted online service can fail to deliver but also by the remarkably persistent inability of the administration team to sort the problem out.

Over a period of five months, I have repeatedly tried to find out what is going on,but to no avail. I have used all possible means to communicate with the inappropriately-named customer care service by e-mail and by phone.

The politely-scripted response is always the same: we’ll send an e-mail about your case to the administrator. Thanks, say I, but that’s what you said last time. Could you possibly put me in touch with the administrator directly? I’m sorry, sir, but that’s against company policy.

After this scenario had replayed four times, I called Transport Malta, who, in their unflaggingly predictable way, do not accept any responsibility for the behaviour of an outside company despite their role in the competition that led to its selection.

On October 1, cash payments to drivers will no longer be accepted, so I wonder how I, and others in a similar predicament, will be able to make the correct fare.

Maybe the matter will be noticed by someone, moresenior than the docile call centre staff, who is shamed into taking the not-very-demanding action needed to solve the problem. Maybe, through these columns, a welcome explanation and an apology will also appear.

But, then, experience so far suggests that perhaps nothing at all will happen.

I wait in anticipation to be proved wrong.