I cannot understand how, in this day and age of ‘fierce’ competition, the private sector continues to follow the trends, rather than be innovative by trying to provide something more than its competitors regarding customer care.
Wherever you call for assistance, you get the same hours of service and the same policy regarding installation and maintenance hours. I do not expect the government sector to lead the way, because I understand the tribulations one has to go through in the Civil Service to introduce a new culture and a new set of rules. But I do expect the private sector to come up with new announcements regarding the time when they can send their people to do the job at our house.
Take Melita or Go as an example. If you want them to install something or to come check a technical hitch, they all sing the same song, and tell you that they will be coming on that day and at any time during the day – no matter how hard you try to convince them that you will have to take that day off work, or that as self employed you will be losing money by laying stranded at home until their technicians come to do the work. Even if you offer to pay extra just as long as they give you a fixed time when they will come to do the work it does not pay because they simply refuse to budge.
This is something I cannot understand because, as competitors, they ought to understand that they must go that extra mile and try to hit those parts the others’ can’t reach. Do not give me the excuse that their workers do not want to work shift, because in this day and age, when jobs are scarce and manpower rampant, I am sure that the management will find ways and means to employ workers who are willing to work on shift basis.
I am sure that their public relations and commercial departments are aware that the working population is increasing and that they ought to do something to accommodate these customers. I am afraid that the system is still geared towards those who are lazy and on social assistance benefits, who have all the time in the world and notwithstanding that they are a burden to the taxpayers they end up being accommodated more than the taxpayers.
It is the same with shop owners. You all recall how in 2001 the General Retailers and Traders Union was against shop owners opening on Sundays and the government had to bow to the GRTU wishes. Now the government has limited this privilege to the Gozitan shop owners only although I do not see why this facility cannot be extended to Malta.
What is happening in Malta, lest you have not noticed, is that we are witnessing a profusion of confectionery shops (when in actual fact they are grocers) because the licence for confectionery shops allows them to stay open till late and even on Sundays. But it seems that this does not bother the GRTU, which is happy to deprive us of late and of Sunday shopping hours in order to allow its member to attend Sunday mass and spend time with their family.
There is now this anomaly in Malta regarding shopping hours: if you have a shop part of a shopping complex which is part of a hotel, you can open late and on Sunday; if you have a shop in a tourist area like Bugibba you can open late and on Sunday, if you can get a licence for a confectionery shop you can open late and on Sunday but if your shop was not blessed with any of these conditions, you cannot open late on Sunday although you pay the same amount for the trading license.
These restricted shopping hours is leading to a range of inconsistencies which is frustrating both consumers and retail businesses and reducing shopping convenience. I suggest that the government must once again take up the matter as it did in 2001 and remove this inconsistency by deregulating shop hours as it is not in the public interest to continue to allow restrictions to shop trading hours.
I was reading that in Tasmania, Australia, they went through this debate in 2002 and the lifting of the restrictions on retail shopping created new jobs, enhanced consumer welfare and created greater opportunities for the retail sector to benefit from tourism.
Of course removing restrictions does not mean that all shops will open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Rather, retailers can choose to open when they and their customers wish, without breaking the law.
I cannot understand how the GRTU can continue to take the same stand it took in 2001 and does not be the one to promote such a move. I was told that it took the stand recently against the setting up of Christmas market in Valletta for fear that this would prejudice the sales of its members; as a result, Malta had no Christmas market unlike the major cities in the European Union. I cannot understand how in this day of IT, it fails to understand that on average, one third of the population shop online and it is in the interests of its members to deregulate the shop hours to accommodated the consumers.
We work full days and I bless the fact that I live in St Paul’s Bay and have access to supermarkets, and bakeries which stay open till late and on Sundays; because otherwise I would not have the time to do the shopping. But shopping is not only groceries and bread, for the other things we are still not geared to change the prevailing culture. Instead of offering the same shopping hours as the others, the retailers and all those who provide a service must be more accommodating to the working population.
I am not only referring to retail shops but also to salons, insurance companies and all service providers. They must stop this mentality of hundred years ago that the public is available during the normal working hours because nowadays the majority of the public is at work during their hours of service. I challenge you to tell me if you do not have to take time off work to report an insurance claim. Now these insurance companies have insulted us further by closing down even on a ‘normal’ day of work because they have decided to do so collectively.
One example was last Monday when they left their clients who had an accident over the weekend stranded, as they had to wait till Tuesday to report the claim. I wonder what the consumer department has to say in this and how can it bless this decision and deny this service to the clients. The least that they could have done was leave somebody on call.
Sometimes I get the feeling that there is a cartel in the private sector: that is, an agreement between them to provide the same working hours and the same policy regarding service. I say this because I find it hard to understand how they have not realised that they have to change the way they operate!
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