This has evolved into an interesting and constructive thread, I must say i've never been let down outright by Apex/JE (and i've ordered quite a lot of stuff from them) but TBH in my experience orders do take on average a day or two longer to arrive from them than from some other shops, even if you pay extra for 1st class post.
Back in the late '90s when Graham and Marc worked at Apex, every single time I ordered from them the bits turned up the next day and mistakes were literally unheard of (despite all the orders being placed over the phone in those days) so I would say there is room for improvement here but to be fair when two companies merge and you're trying to amalgamate two loads of stock and run an ebay shop etc. it can't be easy.
Also as others have said, live stock should mean live stock. With most other live stock retailers if you order something outside opening hours or on Sunday the stock level changes as soon as you complete the order so it's not possible for someone else to then order something which is effectively no longer in stock, this is how it should be.
On the plus side all staff members at both shops are extremely knowlegable and helpful. In particular Richard at Apex is a top bloke who always does what he says he'll do, several times he's gone away to find something out for me and called me back PDQ without me needing to ring back
