BT Activation Nightmare...

Question

First time poster to one of these forums as I have just about exhausted all other possibilties of getting my broadband turned on and have no hope that the issue is going to be solved.
So I signed up for BT broadband on the 2nd December and was set an activation date of the 10th and that this could be any time up until midnight on that day. My wireless hub arrived first thing that morning and I set it up and set about waiting. About 2.30pm the internet came on whilst I was upstairs on my computer and I proceeded to surf the web and test the speed. About 20-30 minutes later the internet suddenly cut off and I assumed that this was the 'speed testing' I had read about and BT were just testing the line to see what was the maximum it could take. Little did I know that I would still have no internet access almost three weeks later. 
I waited until the next morning to phone BT and was put through to a call centre (in India) where I was informed that there was a problem at the local exchange and I would be without internet until the 17th (my new activation date) when the problem would be solved. I tried to explain that I did have internet for a short period of time but the lady wasn't interested in this and seemed very confident that I would have to wait until the 17th for the issue to be rectified. I was obviously annoyed at this but since I was going on holiday for the rest of that week I wasn't too bothered and expected to come back home to an internet connection. 
When I arrived back on Wednesday 19th I was shocked to find that the internet was still not working despite this new activation date having passed. I called BT and was told that my internet would '100% be on the next day' and a poor 'you can't possibly understand what we're doing' type answer when I asked what the problem was. What really dissapointed me about this conversation was that there was no reference to the fact it was meant to be turned on on Monday and no mention of them giving me a call to give me a status update. This is when I started to get suspicious and what do you know Thursday comes and goes with no internet and no phone call/email from BT to tell me what went wrong.
I phoned again and was given a new date of the 23rd. Again no success. Phoned again and this time it's the 28th. I even drove past the exchange which is just down the road from us and saw a BT van parked up there and the gates open so I knew someone was working there- come the 28th, no internet. During this time I've been through the complaints department, evaluation team...you name it, and probably up to four hours on the phone. Still no resolution and no real explanation as to what is going on, what's the problem, if and when it can actually be fixed. I've had the phone put down on me several times whilst asking for employees names/reference number for conversations. The customer service here has been absolutely awful and I just do not know what to do anymore. I feel every time I get set a new date I'll just wait the whole day again only to find that there is still no internet. I've spoken to people who have told me they'd call me back/in the morning to let me know what's happening- evey time so far I've been let down. I've been given hotspot access but I'm not in a hotspot, I've been sent dongles that need me to pay to top them up! It's absolutely unbelievable and a complete and utter disgrace. The current update is that it's being looked at again on the 31st (New Years Eve)! I tried explaining to the guy on the phone that not much gets done in the UK on this date but there were having none of it. 
The worst thing is that it's costing me time in phoning them up and really having the drag the information out of them each time I do so. At this rate I'm going to be sitting here in February with no internet whilst still listening to the same excuses from them on the phone. What's more alarming is that the day before we moved in to this new house the previous owners still had an active BT broadband connection. Everyone else in our street is also with BT, it's just our house they can't seem to get working!

Answer 1

Hi
I am sorry to see you are having problems
I suggest you contact the forum mods they should be able to get this problem sorted for you this is a link to them http://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact_email/c/4951
They normally reply by email or phone directly to you within 3 working days due to the holiday period times may be extended  they will take personal ownership of your problem until resolved and will keep you informed of progress
They are a UK based BT specialist team who have a good record at getting problems solved
This is a customer to customer self help forum the only BT presence here are the forum moderators
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