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This winter I was very lucky to experience how easy it is for some people in Malta to ruin an evening out with your family and transform it into a nightmare.
Last December we needed to do some shopping in Valletta. I made a mistake and parked my car in a space reserved for a handicapped person. The markings on the tarmac were hardly visible and the yellowish light from the street bulbs did not help much as it was already dark. However it was my mistake so I had to pay the consequences. On coming back to the car I found out that it was being towed away. After apologising to the person whom I had disturbed by parking in his slot, I went to pick up my car from the car park. My first in a long list of nice surprises was that my car had been taken to a car park in Sliema (when it could easily have been taken to a car park in Valletta!).
I paid a Lm45 fine and went to pick up my car and hopefully return home. As soon as the truck driver released my car from his truck, I started up my car and there the problems began. The red bulb monitoring the alternator lit up immediately and the power steering was not functioning at all. I informed the driver that I had left the car in perfect condition in Valletta and on opening my car’s bonnet we found out that the fan belt had slipped off the pulleys. This fan belt goes round five pulleys and has grooves in it so as not to slip off easily. We realised immediately that it was going to be impossible to put it back in place.
Another driver who seemed to be responsible for all the truck drivers on duty that night told me to report the damage to the car park attendant. The latter told me that they had no responsibility at all and that I should go to the police station to file a report. They did not even want to take me there and expected us to walk all the way to the police station. After some arguing they finally agreed to drive us there.
The police sergeant told me that I had to file the report at the Valletta police station since my car had been towed from there! After making it clear that we were in no mood for jokes at half past nine at night they agreed half-heartedly to write a report. The person responsible for the towing service kept reiterating that what happened was not their fault giving as proof the fact that they had never had such an accident before. Big consolation for me! Nobody wanted to take responsibility for the damage. When I asked who was going to pay for the damage, the police sergeant told me to sue the towing company. I reminded him that filing a case in court nowadays was very expensive and took quite a long time and that in my opinion the case was very straightforward since I had left my car in excellent condition in Valletta. All I wanted was to have my car back in the same condition as I had left it.
When I asked how we were going to go to work the next day I was told to hire a care and ask the towing company to pay the bill. Very funny indeed! When I asked them how we were going to return home that evening they told me to call a taxi (something that I was obliged to do and pay for out of my own pocket!). They were also so nice as to inform me that if I was going to leave my car at the car park for the weekend until my mechanic could repair it I would have to pay another Lm3 for every day that I left it there. Very ingenious and accommodating indeed.
Frustrated and exhausted we locked the car, picked up our bags, took a taxi and went home. I had to borrow my father’s car for the next five days to be able to go to work. When the mechanic finally repaired my car the expenses amounted to Lm85. It was not only a question of a fan belt that slipped off the pulleys. When I took the receipts and the parts which we had to replace to the towing company they kept insisting that it was not their fault, that I was a really unlucky person and the damage just chose to materialise at the moment when my car was towed by them!
Although I continued to argue in a very polite way it was to no avail. They refused to accept any responsibility at all, not even one per cent. When I went to consult a lawyer I was told to forget about suing them in court because they would be able to contradict very easily any arguments put forward by me since I could not produce any tangible evidence to prove my case. Moreover, apart from the expenses involved in going to court, even if by any miracle I won the case, I still had to pay the first Lm25 of the expenses incurred to repair my car! So much for justice!
So finally I had to give up and just retain the car parts which we had to change as souvenirs of the fantastic night out. Thanks are due to this wonderful country where consumer rights are literally non-existent except on paper and where money is vacuumed out of your pockets while you are expected to complement these guys for the efficient service they offer.
Saviour Minuti
Mosta
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