Late Post

To be fair the 'Daily Mail' has not got around to this yet, but they will!  They always do!

The only hoax so far is the one on the mobile from crooks pretending to be 'Evri,' click this link they ask for info re parcel.  Sadly if I use 'Evri' they always deal through the email, and that can be difficult also.  However, I finished wrapping the boxes today.  Almost no Brown Tape left in this house, and booked 'ParcelForce' to collect three of them tomorrow.  These might be delivered by Monday, or even Saturday!   

One advantage of the web is not having to carry such things down to the Post Office these days!   'White Van Man' has his uses, he can carry the box and deliver on time, usually.  I only need to carry small packets and buy stamps from the PO, while Royal Mail line their profits through my book of stamps and hinder the actual postman from delivering what I send.   

I began this post yesterday but failed to finish as I got bored reading it.    

The 'ParcelForce' man arrived before 10 am today, cheerfully removing my three boxes, and leaving me with the rest of the day to catch up on the things missing this week.

I failed to do them.

Instead, I took my '£4 off if you spend £30' con voucher round to Tesco and filled up on things required, and one or two that were not.  These vouchers have helped the Christmas shop, and the one for next week,  sadly only £3 off, will enable me to buy the much used things I will need so as to avoid desperate struggles through the last minute Christmas shop crowd.

The mass of household chores that await have been curtailed because I do nothing at the weekends, so maybe next week instead will be busy cleaning, maybe.   

The news on Twitter, but not in the press, has been filled with the 'Tetchy' PM going off in a huff because the press were asking questions he could not answer, and not for the first time, concerning his Rwanda Obsession.  Today it leaks out that the latest £100 million paid to the nation that has so far seen only Home Secretaries and no 'Boat People,' was signed off by Suella.  Who to believe?

None of them!

This shambles might be heading for closure, but what will result? 

If I were he I would call a vote on this Bill, or is there one tonight?  Anyway, if the ERG and the neo Nazis do not support the PM I would take the whip from them and call an election for the soonest possible moment, probably the last week in January.  Conservative members who have lost the vote cannot stand as prospective Conservative candidates.  This means all the far right would have to stand as independents and would not beat the new Tory candidate, who would lose anyway.  He will lose an election but if he won he would be rid of many the nation does not require in the House.

However, owing to a glitch in the system I remain, as yet, unemployed as PM.

Why are there five syllables in the word monosyllabic?

M&S & EVRI

I began this post days ago.  Life however, as you know can be tiring, and sloth can creep in unexpectedly in this abode.  So, having nothing to say, nothing appears to have happened anywhere, bar the M&S/EVRI incident, there was little purpose in scrawling anything.

Ah yes, M&S/EVRI.  

You see, for reasons of cost, M&S now make use of the couriers with the worst success rate, and lowest reliability in the world!  I comprehend the need to cut costs, and M&S like all others have problems, but so many companies now use EVRI in spite of the missed deliveries, lost goods and total failure of the company to do what it is paid for.  Why?  The loss in missing goods, customer satisfaction and return shoppers must out way any benefits?  

So, anyway I ordered, via a voucher, a belt.  A belt to replace the 'Cowboy' thick brown belt that has held me together for around 45 years.  This has been on my mind for a while, so I took advantage of the voucher, ordered some T-shirts, and then later, as they arrived quickly, I ordered an appropriate, I thought, belt.

M&S told me they had my order.

M&S told me the order was on its way.

M&S told me the courier had the order.

M&S told me it was being delivered today. 

Here I made my first mistake, I believed them.

The EVRI tracking system told me they had the goods, and the goods were 'out for delivery,' expected around 15:30- 16:30.

I waited in.

15:30 came and went.  16:30 came and went.  

I checked the tracker once more.

"Sorry, we cannot deliver today, we will deliver tomorrow." 

Lies!  All lies!

Tomorrow came.

Same messages.

'Out for delivery at such and such a time.

Now, I believe the main sorting office for EVRI is in Harlow, miles away.  This means this driver, who leaves about 10:30 in the morning, arrives here in time for the rush hour.  If he knows the area he avoids small packet drops as he sees no sense in slowly driving through two miles of traffic for one small packet.  So that is why the first delivery failed.

Delivery time came and went.

Check the tracker. 

"Sorry, we cannot deliver today, we will deliver tomorrow." 

More lies, more lies!

Being a long weekend it was never going to come.

I contacted, eventually, after much struggle to find a contact, and left a short sharp message.

A young lady, she says, left an apologetic note and refunded carrier costs, how nice, if I use them again.

Silence.

Nothing happened for days, I lost interest, relying on things to work themselves out.

I relied to young lady again.

Message came back informing me that this is not a sight answered by M&S!

I struggled to find a contact, none came to sight.

So, it was onto Twitter, Musk or no Musk, where I dropped a note publicly there.

An answer came an hour later.

Details exchanged, goods re-ordered, and on Saturday night (6:19pm) they were delivered to my door.

One small packet, that could have gone through the letterbox, was delivered by a young lady pushing it through the letterbox as I tumbled down the stairs.

At last!  Success!

Of course the belt is not as thick, wide, as the old one.  It is black, not brown, I hit the wrong button, but it does fit, and has space for expansion at that!

What a palaver over a small item.  I have the belt, and a few pence on the voucher still, M&S are still far too expensive, but I have the £3:50 refund voucher also.  The belt does not suit my hippy imagination, but it works.

And, today, as I began my repast the bell rung.

A foreign man delivering to the flat around the back, but not unusually with this building, cannot find it.

His English poor, so is mine, I point in direction, he succeeds in finding correct address.  I return to my dinner.

Will EVRI ever give me rest?