In an industry that’s plagued by mislaid anchors and illegally aired channels, Melita strive on the promise of cheap prices and excellent customer service. It turns out a lot of customers are not very happy with their customer service (recent Facebook activity confirms this) and the cheap prices tend not to last long due to free upgrades that end up costing you money.
Products:
Melita offer Internet connectivity, Cable TV and Mobile Phone services. Everything is packaged in Medium, Large and Extra Large, with those looking for petite portions finding themselves out of luck. Malta also has one of the highest rates of obesity in Europe.
Service:
Notwithstanding the shady upgrades and somewhat dodgy marketing tactics, Melita have always answered our phone calls even though this might take longer what is usually considered acceptable. Whether you request Maltese or English at the voice prompt, agents always answer in Maltese. Also, Melita’s submarine cables have not been trampled upon by berthing ships so far (cough, Go) which is always a plus.
Pricing:
There is an ongoing debate whether the local bus service can charge EU citizens more than their Maltese counterparts; the general idea being this is discriminatory. Melita seem to have taken this on cue by overcharging EU nationals including asking for cash guarantees (to abate flight risk?). Other than that, when compared to other local service providers on pricing and quantity Melita are clear winners.
Melita is one of the worst services I had the “pleasure” of dealing with. I moved to Malta in 2016 and they were recommended as the only “valid” choice of internet on the island. It took them 4 bloody weeks to install a tapbox (their given time was 5 working days extended to 2 weeks then to a month). All said and done, the tapbox was installed and internet set. They promise 50 mbs speed for an outrageous 35 eurs per month, customer service is shit especially on top-shops. They have employees selling MOBILE SERVICES without know how to insert a sim card in a smartphone. No this is not a joke, it was on 27th March 2017 in the top-shop in St Venera next to LIDL. The internet speed is beyond trash. I rarely have over 40 mbps regardless that i pay for 50, and over 5 disconnects and outages in less than 1 year. Every time i try to contact them they blame the router which for the love of god is working perfectly ( yes, i did work with internet services before and i know a tap-box takes 15-20 minutes to install and when a freakin router works or not ). All they can do is “offer a new router” and falsely “apologize” for any issue without doing anything to improve their services. They even had the guts to ask for 200 euros as a deposit. Worst service in Europe!
Melita is crap. I am sorry that I made contract with Melita, no coverage. Ready to go to court, don’t ever go to Melita the worst of the worst.
I am just back from abroad and I am so disappointed for the Melita travel I subscribed before leaving Malta! It is such a nonsense service; I could NEVER connect my mobile to any point whilst in UK! I feel frustrated as I have another year contract with this company!
Customer service is terrible. You call to ask for bank details to process payment. They apparently do not have the details hence they leave you on the phone for over 17 minutes. In the interim I call using another phone to inform them of the issue. I also make the customer agent listen to their own music because I was placed on hold and left as such. Miracle of miracles I am put on hold again and left there for over 7 minutes. Photos of both calls and time lapse available. Does Melita know it is regulated by the MCA? Is there where Melita wants me to send the complaint? Considering that Melita’s agents do not want to pay attention, the assumption is as such.
Just arrived home from a 2hr queue at the Melita shop in Paola, ended up paying 360euro because apparently a bill of 60uro was not paid in 2013! Please do not use Melita, they offer a horrible service.
I have also today received a bill with a sudden new charge on. Just because I didn’t pay my bill on time they disconnected my service. I paid up what I was due. Suddenly my bill had a 20 euro disconnection charge! What gives them the freedom to add charges as they please?!
I bought an HTC620 from Paola outlet on Friday evening 22nd august 2015. As soon as I arrived home I noticed that I did not have reception. The day after, when I went to work, I encountered the same problem and contacted customer service. They asked to check some settings and after 2 or 3 calls during that day, they told me that mobile seems fine and suggested to go back to the Melita shop because they thought that i might have the sim card damaged. I went to Paola on Monday at about 2.30pm and changed the sim card but remained with the same problem. On Tuesday I went again and checked the settings again and told me that if i remain with same problem I have to Mosta repair centre. Since I work from 8am to 7pm every day this was costing me Eur20 an hour to go to the outlet each time and Mosta is very out of my was as I live in Marsascala. Since I remained with the problem of no reception at work and home, i had no option but go to Mosta last Friday at about 5pm. There i was told that the problem is with the phone because HTC have a small antenna so they suffer from bad reception and told me to go back to the outlet and ask them to swap the mobile to another brand. I went straight away to Paola where she told me that they cannot exchange the mobile but will open a report number 466138 and assured me that the problem wii be resolved. Upto today the problem is not resolved and from CSC I was informed that the report is closed. I was told that i need to go back to Paola as they cannot put through them by phone and do not have their contact number or email.
I am really disappointed with your after-sales service. Its no wonder that your customers are so frustrated and your employees at the front desk are so nervous and tired, since your customers are constrained to go physically to the outlets in order to complain since from CSC they have to speak to a different person each time without getting nowhere in the end. During my three visits at the outlet i could observe the clients being dealt before me all frustrated and shouting at your employees. No supervisor or manager ever appeared to try and speak to the customer in order to calm the situation and come up with a solution to the customer. The customers are faced with a wall and have option but to accept what the front desk officer tells them and leave more frustrated then ever. And happens when the client takes action himself by stop paying with the hope that someone will take notice in the end? The client will end up with a credit info or eventually a garnishee order? Is that the way to treat your customers? Can’ t you understand that we lead a busy life a no one has time to waste on useless calls to your customer device or going to your outlets in all this traffic and long waiting hours for nothing still?
I advise you never to subscribe to Melita. The network is very bad, customer service is very bad and you often will find yourself with a huge bill for uses that you do understand. Many of us have been interested in the price of Melita, but we soon disappointed. Now I am with another operator, much more honest.
I think Melita has the best service for internet at home, but for mobile is the worst ever! Your reception looks full and people try to call you and the answering machine keeps coming up, I lost lots of customers with the service! I know maybe they are the cheaper than others, but it doesn’t matter if people can’t get in touch with you!
I wanted to pay my bill trough the machine, to avoid the queue and my money got stuck in it. My request is being handled for a month now. The worst service ever, I will change provider as soon as I get my money back!
I have to say that Melita’s customer service is appalling to say the least! Their stinking attitude goes beyond anything I have ever experienced! Consider anyone else, but these guys. Big waste of money and you will wait weeks on end to get a technician to come out if anything is wrong.
I dont think the author of the article is having a go at Melita per se. Having friends from all over EU residing in Malta, I do not agree with this policy either. After all as a Maltese and EU National I enjoy freedom-of-movement as well meaning tomorrow morning I can be out on the next flight to wherever I please in the EU. Malta is a member state of the EU, the government is doing the best it can to attract foreign investment and we should welcome these people as our neighbours not hinder and make them feel unwelcome.
As far as I know – Most if not all service providers in this sector ask for Cash Guarantees. Worked for a competitor a few months ago. They ask for 2 years prepaid unless they have a resident’s passport (pretty rare) + automatic deduction from credit card and other stuff. This was done way before Arriva came in so I think that should stand corrected.
Also, CREDIT card invented for this purpose, your bank shows guarantees! (companies should not play role of banks)
I saw men walking to Vodafone store in Sliema hoping to buy an iPhone with 1 year plan and got turned down by store manager because he needed to present 3 months of his electricity/water bill from Malta LOL
The man had a GOLD credit card!
If this shop is Dicken’s, I had issues with them too. I had bought an HTC S730 which started giving me major issues after 6 months of use. Took it back and it took them 3 months to fix it, leaving me with no phone and internet bills to pay which I could not use. Shame!