It is almost with nostalgia when one remembers the past local postal service, with parcels delivered directly to your house or to your local post office.
Nowadays, the poor postman is so lumbered with advertising junk material that he could call anytime between 10 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. The postman is constantly changing and the smile has been replaced by a frown (of probable pain) as he dumps his overflowing postbag on your doorstep, while he rummages for your post.
What about delivery of parcels? One receives a note, it may be blue, yellow, green, small or large, white advising that after 24 hours, one may call at the Head Office at Marsa, or is it Qormi? There one may join a queue with a single Maltapost employee performing a juggling act of seeing to customers, selling stamps, paying bills or berating customers for not having phoned beforehand for a parcel while they (the clients) look on stupidly trying to comprehend the illogical. Namely that a parcel goes to and fro to more destinations here than it did before it arrived in Malta! Probably in fewer days, too.
Case number 1: An item posted before Christmas from the US had not arrived by end February. After a cross exchange with seller in the US I was told from abroad that my parcel had been in Malta since December 30! Of course I had never received an advice from Maltapost.
To add insult to injury one is treated as a moron when one has to go through local Customs (at Maltapost head office) who seem to imply that one is importing illegal goods as items are not from the EU. Expect a one to two hours wait to pay customs fees.
Case number 2: An item posted in the UK during November 2008 arrived on April 23 at my door. As the UK postage stamp was correct I am to presume that somehow the parcel got lost in transit in Malta. No explanation given.
Case number 3: An item for which insurance had been paid in November at the local Maltapost branch arrived damaged in the UK. Item returned, and shown to Maltapost head office in a "broken" state, where you are told that an insurance claim may be lodged. You refund the buyer in the UK, and six months later are still waiting for the claim to be settled. Finally you are told to get a "valuation" on the item. Excuse me, why wasn't that requested before the item was originally posted?
Of course to be safe, register your post! Then expect non-arrival of your goods to increase by five per cent.
Try explaining to your irate customers why it is not possible to track a Maltese parcel online, unlike other European countries. Or why after registering a complaint about non receipt of a registered parcel, to Maltapost Customer Care, you are told after a month of waiting that they have not received a reply from abroad. They wash their hands.
Finally you get so fed up that you repay your customers abroad for their "registered" purchases rather than go through a pantomime of excuses, and hope that in the unlikely event that your parcel arrives it will be returned.
In the name of progress and profits the service is becoming a disgrace to our country.
I almost forgot - as a fallout from the colonial days we are still provided with a half-day postal service, unlike our European counterparts.