Use ～始末だ in written or formal reports and narration to sum up a chain of mismanagement with an exasperating bad outcome — "and in the end it came to this". It carries the writer's criticism or resignation, so it never describes neutral or good results, and it typically follows a background clause explaining the mishandling (often with ～た末（に）, ～あげく, ～のに, 結局). Common in incident reports, complaint emails and post-mortems; in speech it sounds noticeably literary or indignant.