Bureaucracy at Maltapost
I have become very frustrated by the bureaucracy I have encountered from Maltapost. For over a year I have been purchasing a health food supplement - Arthro-Total - from pharmacies in Mellieha. Stocks ran out in early June and I was told they would not...
I have become very frustrated by the bureaucracy I have encountered from Maltapost.
For over a year I have been purchasing a health food supplement - Arthro-Total - from pharmacies in Mellieha. Stocks ran out in early June and I was told they would not be in supply again until September. As I rely on these capsules to ease the stiffness and pain I suffer in an ankle joint following a broken bone in my youth, I attempted to order a supply over the internet from the UK on July 1, at a cost of £22.40 including postage. As I had not received this package by August 1 (allowing 28 days for delivery) yet payment had been made, I contacted the supplier who said it had been dispatched to Malta on July 5.
On August 9 I received a white form OSF/060 from Maltapost informing me that the package had to be collected from their parcels office in Marsa. As I live in Mellieha, a considerable distance away, I contacted the parcels office and was informed that the parcel could be delivered to my home for a fee of Lm2, to which I agreed. The delivery was not made on the specified day and I therefore telephoned the parcels office again, only to be told that I must send a letter to them authorising a Customs officer to open the parcel and check its contents. This was done but still no parcel arrived.
On Tuesday, August 24, I telephoned Maltapost again to enquire as to the whereabouts of the parcel only to be told that now I must see a doctor and obtain a prescription before the parcel would be released to me. This product is not a medicine and as a health food supplement is readily available to purchase without the necessity of a doctor's prescription - when in stock.
As the saga has now become so prolonged, I said I was not prepared to go to these lengths and have asked that the parcel be returned to the sender.
Why is it that though this product is sold in Malta Maltapost make me feel as though I am trying to import some suspicious substance? My parcel has been in their hands now for more than a month, which I find quite ludicrous!