IanD

And if your local chap is replaced with a more typically rubbish Evri one tomorrow, your experience will change... 😉 Same as whenever there are discussions about absolutely anything and the consensus is that "XXX is the best!" but somebody pipes up with "Well they were rubbish for me" -- or vice versa. An individual experience proves nothing about the overall standard of a company -- you might be exceptionally lucky or exceptionally unlucky, but that's of no help whatsoever to others trying to decide which company to use. Which is where large-scale surveys come in... 😉

Like in so many things, what matters when rating companies is what large numbers of people -- thousands of them! -- find, not what a few individuals (even me...) find... 😉 All the big surveys including the Ofcom one I referenced regularly put Evri at the bottom of the pack -- for the last three years in a row in this case, so it's not a fluke. Maplin were certainly the biggest public-facing electronics component supplier with a huge range and an excellent catalogue, though for particular areas you could often find a specialist (without shops!) who was better and/or cheaper. Even Tandy were useful for some things, though they were more consumer/gimmick biased, but of course they've also gone...

Except for the ones who aren't. There are plenty of white British criminals and drug dealers too, dontcha know? 😉

There's no way the Multiplus should be shutting down at such a high voltage, IIRC minimum Vin is set to something like 185V by default. Is there any other way you can check this setting? Weak AC is intended to deal with poor quality generators (not low input voltage shoreline) and has other negative effects -- you could try it but I doubt that it would help.

Sounds like a good idea to me... 🙂 (but I'm sure there will be doomsayers who disagree, don't want an app, think CRT will screw it up, it's all pointless anyway...)

If you don't have a DMM that can measure things like mains voltage it's worth getting one, they're pretty cheap (less than a tenner on Amazon) -- even a more highly rated one with better resolution and 10A current range and HV detection is less than twenty quid... 😉 https://www.amazon.co.uk/AstroAI-Multimeter-Auto-Ranging-Resistance-Non-Contact/dp/B08DHHJPS1 Also depending on what model it is and how it's programmed, you may be able to lower the minimum acceptable mains input voltage on the Multiplus to try and stop it cutting out when the shoreline voltage drops -- or enable "Weak AC input", see below (though this is mainly intended for generators with poor quality output, not low mains voltage). Exactly what model is it?

The same way all those dodgy new barbers do? 😉

It was last time I visited before Xmas...

Well, one particular sector of it... 😉 And in the UK (and Italy and Spain...) the criminal economy is included in GDP calculations, so you're right. I wonder if this inclusion is linked to the number of criminal convictions of MPs? 😉

Anecdotes are not evidence -- Evri were the worst for the third year in a row according to a recent Ofcom survey... 😉 https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/deliveries-and-charges/best-and-worst-parcel-firms-for-customer-satisfaction-revealed-2025

That barbers may be genuine, but it's also exactly the kind of business that has been found to be a front for money-laundering, members of gangs and drug dealers are often 20-somethings. There's no easy way to tell for sure, but one clue is if there are few customers but the shop is still there a year later not having gone bust... 😉 i imagine if you're genuinely a young person trying to make a success of your own business it must be very frustrating to have accusations like this bandied around -- but unfortunately there have been many cases where such businesses did turn out to be fronts for criminals, so you get tarred with the same brush... 😞 The problem is that you're one of a small and shrinking minority, and there aren't enough yous to keep the businesses you like open... 😞

Shops (like barbers...) which are new and flashily fitted out but hardly ever seem to have any customers in them might be a clue -- especially when there are several close together, you have to ask where all the people needing a haircut have suddenly come from when there only used to be one "traditional" barber/hairdresser in the neighbourhood...

The obvious solution is -- don't buy poorly described items online, buy from reputable suppliers who provide good information... 😉 Of course if you have to return stuff it can sometimes be a PITA, though often there's no return postage to pay -- so buy from suppliers who offer this, and look carefully at the charges. And then there's the Evri problem... 😞 But the fact remains that -- especially if you choose carefully -- buying online offers a massive choice and is quick and easy and convenient and cheap, all of which more than make up for the occasional hassles for most people. Fewer and fewer people prefer buying locally any more, which is why shops (like Midland Chandlers) are closing.

The key with all those things still on the High Street -- and also barbers and nail bars, if they're not fronts for money laundering -- it that they're things that you can't do online (food, drink, personal services). Anyone else trying to sell stuff there that you can buy online -- usually more cheaply, and with more choice, and have in your hands next day without having to go and drive to the shop and park (or go on the bus/train if you're lucky enough to have public transport) -- is fighting a losing battle, and there's really not a lot they can do to resist the unstoppable online flood of cheap goods. They can try and make their shop more attractive for browsers and provide the best service in the world, but they're really just putting off the inevitable because most people nowadays would still rather buy online... 😞