The woes of online shopping

Post COVID, I continued to order non-grocery items online from a convenience perspective. There are a handful of online suppliers and their delivery partners who provide a 1st class service, both in terms of quality products and on-time delivery. However, WumDrop in partnership with Makro and Game have proved to be 2nd rate at best. The goods from these online supplier are in most cases, as advertised and of acceptable quality. However, their reputation is surely at rock bottom due to a lack of a workable process between 'pick up at depot' and 'delivery of order', resulting in delivery misinformation being communicated to customers. The delivery dates stated rarely materialize, and I have waited up to 6 / 7 days to receive my orders. I never respond to invitations to reschedule deliveries. Why? Simply because WumDrop are so adept at rescheduling repeatedly on my behalf. On a recent occasion, a WumDrop driver phoned me stating he was outside my gate. Cutting a long story short, he insisted that it was me (not him) who was at the wrong address! This same driver in a phone conversation told me not to call him again! Customer Service call centre staff at Game and Makro are in messenger roles, escalating a customer's complaint received via email or phone call. Communication is one-way only, as feedback is never provided from the Escalations dept. Messengers in 1st line support copy and paste meaningless responses to customers, e.g. "we apologise for the inconvenience .... will get back to you as soon as we can". Requests for a person in a managerial position to contact me never materialize. I recall spending well over R100 on phone calls to the Game call centre with order inquiries, and subsequently sending an itemised bill to Game requesting a refund for the calls, which I deemed avoidable. No surprise .... to date, my email and follow ups have been completely ignored. I often ask myself "is online shopping worthwhile?" Yes, if process is hassle-free, and No, if one's mental health is at risk dealing with Customer Disservice offerings from WumDrop, Game, Makro.