BT and the absolute worst service I have ever rece...

Question

I apologise in advance because this is going to be a long and angry post as I am absolutely fuming with BT at the moment and really regretting bothering with them. I'll start at the beginning. 
I have had BT line rental for years and years and never really had any problems. However in March, I was moving house and I checked the new place and it did not have a BT connection, so I was going to have to pay £130 to have the line connected again. This was just not a viable option financially, so I called to cancel with BT and decided I would just go elsewhere. 
However, when I called the advisor (who checked and said yes I would need an engineer to come out and connect my line) offered a deal. If I stayed with BT and took out their home broadband, not only would they scrap the fee and connect me for free, I'd also get 6 months free broadband. This sounded like a good deal so I decided to go for it. This was 26th of March. After signing me up for the deal, they advised an engineer would not be able to come out until the 18th of April (yesterday), I wasn't particularly thrilled, over three weeks to have this sorted seemed excessive, but I had agreed to the deal, so what could I do. I was patient and waited for the 18th to arrive. 
On Monday the 15th, I recieved an email to say my engineer was booked and coming between 8-1 on the 18th and to make sure I was ready. I booked a holiday day off from work for the 18th. The 18th came and at 3am in the morning, I received an email from BT saying my phone line was ready to go and my broadband would follow soon. At 6am, I got the email saying my broadband was ready. I figured this just meant that once the engineer came to do the connection, then it would be ready to go. So I waited. And waited...and waited.
1pm came, the end of the time slot, I did notice that the original email said wait at least half an hour after the end of your slot before phoning. So I waited until about 13.45 before ringing. It's worth noting that before I did this, I decided to check my phone line. The old BT socket is in the living room, so I plugged my phone in - nothing. I had also received the BT HUB that day in the post, I plugged that in as well, power and wireless buttons were fine but the broadband button did not come on which showed the line was not working.
I called up and spoke to a man and explained to him that I had been waiting on an engineer but he hadn't turned up. He did a check and said everything had been completed and asked if I had recieved any correspondence about it. I explained the emails I had got but said I checked and my line was not working. He couldn't answer why, so COLD TRANSFERRED me through to someone else. A woman this time, I again explained my predicament and she again said no everything is complete, you didn't need an engineer there must be a fault and put me through to someone else, this time based in India. 
As lovely, and polite as this gentlemen was, he spoke so quickly and so much that I barely understood what was going on and couldn't get a word in edgeways. He did ask if there was a second socket, I explained that there was a virgin socket in the other room but he said that wouldn't work. He asked if there could be a fault with my phone, I said no, it was obviously the line as the broadband wasn't working either. He had done a line test on my number and said it was fine so he couldn't see any problems, so he'd have to book an engineer to come out and the only available date was the 23rd of May. Nealry a month after I had originally phoned, a further 5 days of waiting and another holiday day off work I would have to waste for an engineer who may or may not turn up. I ended the call at this point. The man had been very nice and really apologetic and he'd booked the engineer to come again, what else could he do.
After a while of stewing in my own rage, I decided that I wanted more answers. Why had the first engineer not turned up? If I didn't need an engineer, why was one booked in for me and why did I have to wait 3 weeks for a connection and why on earth did nobody think to mention that the engineer wasn't needed!?!? I was emailed two days before the visit confirming it, but then magically on the day my line works all on its own?! EXCEPT IT WASN'T WORKING. I was frustrated and confused and extremely angry.
I called back and this time asked for a ring back instead of queueing as this was a waste of my money. I got a callback fairly quickly, another gentlemen from India. I tried to explain everything that had happened and he did not seem to grasp this at all. I asked why the engineer didn't turn up, he said if he had I would have been charged £130 for the visit. I explained that as part of the deal of me taking BT broadband and the whole reason for me doing so, was the fee was going to be scrapped. He then backtracked and said that the engineer didn't need to come to my house as the previous tenant had a BT line so it just needed switched over. Again, I corrected him saying they had Virgin and the BT line was disconnected. He then said yes, it was the virgin line that had been taken over. I explained that the last gentleman had told me this would not work, he assured me that it would BUT not until midnight. My line was fine and ready to go but it wouldn't work until after midnight. 
I gave up on this call as well. It was NO help. I decided I would try the virgin socket but I had the same results, no dial tone and no broadband light on the hub.
Later on my partner came home and decided he would call as well, I'm sure he thought I was just getting angry and he would be able to remain calm and sort things out. My partner is better at remaining calm than me, but I knew he wouldn't get any further. Sure enough, within about 20 minutes, he was as angry as I was. The man he had got through to (Indian call centre again) was completely missing the point he was trying to make. He said the first engineer hadn't turned up because he'd been booked for thr Tuesday instead, we explained this was only made today in lieu of the first engineer not turning up and he was going to inspect for a potential fault (I should add at this point if they find no fault with the connection then WE get charged £99!!!!!!) but the man didn't understand, offered no explanation and just made up excuse after excuse. My partner asked to speak to a manager but conveniently, one was not available. 
Speaking with the guys at the Indian call centres is EXTREMELY frustrating. They are all very polite and apologetic and I know it's not their fault that this is happening but they do not seem to understand what our problem is and there is obviously no communication between departments at BT. 
I decided to call once more, I wanted to speak to someone in the UK department, as they were the ones who had placed my order and said I needed an engineer. This time, I wanted to complain and all I wanted to know was why the engineer had not been needed and if he hadn't been needed why was my line not working. Also, why no one bothered to mention this before I wasted a day of holidays. 
So I called again, I got through to a UK call centre and explained my problem, IN FULL, to the advisor. He said he didn't know, couldn't help and would have to transfer me to orders, which may or may not be in India. I asked the man not to cold transfer me as I was sick of explaining myself, he said he couldn't do this as management would only let them stay on transfer for 20 seconds. I have worked in a call centre, I know that you get statted on holds and transfers but I also know customer satisfaction is the top priority, maybe not to BT though because sure enough, he cold tranferred me. To India.
This guy, was even more unhelpful. He said the engineer hasn't come to my property because he could have connected my line from the outside adn that everything was fine and he PROMISED me my internet and line would work by midnight. I said that I had emails saying my line was ready to go, I asked why the email didn't say it was set up and would be ready by midnight and he said 'BECAUSE IF WE EMAILED YOU TOMORROW AND SAID THE LINE WAS READY YOU WOULD ASK WHY WE DIDN'T EMAIL YOU YESTERDAY' I don't even know what that means!!!!!!!!!!! 
I had had enough, I was exhausted and sick to death of explaining myself. I decided to wait until midnight which came and went with no line and no internet. I went to bed, woke up this morning, no line, no internet. Which I 100% knew would be the case. 
My questions for the mods are as follows:
1. Why was I told I would need an engineer if this isn't the case?
2. Why was I not informed the engineer would not be coming?
3. How has my line been connected without an engineer?
4. Why is my line and internet still not working if everything is supposedly ready to go?
5. Why should I have to book another holiday for an engineer that may or may not turn up and may or may not find a fault for which I could be charged?
6. What is the cancellation fee if I do chose to cancel? (which I seriously want to)
6. WHY IS YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCH AN ABSOLUTE JOKE?
I have never in my life had such trouble with such a simple thing, or received such poor service from any other company. I severely regret taking on BT broadband and I wish I had just cancelled. 
I do hope someone gets back to me TODAY with answers because I do not want to phone up again. If I do, I will be asking to speak to a manager but I have no hope that they will be any less incompetent than the rest of your staff.
Eva.

Answer 1

 My questions for the mods are as follows:
1. Why was I told I would need an engineer if this isn't the case?
2. Why was I not informed the engineer would not be coming?
3. How has my line been connected without an engineer?
4. Why is my line and internet still not working if everything is supposedly ready to go?
5. Why should I have to book another holiday for an engineer that may or may not turn up and may or may not find a fault for which I could be charged?
6. What is the cancellation fee if I do chose to cancel? (which I seriously want to)
You did ask for just a mod to respond, but I will have a go. Should state no expert at all, up front.
1, 2 & 3. If they can't find an active connection to your house they assign an engineer to provide the line. As I understand it they route your number to the local exchange and the engineer then connects it to your house. The disconnect may be in the exchange or somewhere in between, so there is no need to go to the property in some cases.
Having had the same problem twice, I am interested in the exact process. I suspect that they test the line and it goes to a master socket (does the test check the location somehow as well?), and it assumed to be all okay, so they job is closed and you are notified.
4. Your line is going somewhere and they can test it, possibly even rings if you try it, but it isn't going to you.
5. Your best move is to get a fault engineer out (yeah pushing the word fault a bit), they should turn up at you, pop a signal on your house connection, track it back and connect you up. The charge is to scare off those that have some dodgy extensions etc. I have wasted a week of holidays waiting for engineers, but they have a monopoly on the infrastructure, except in your case sounds like you have a choice to go with Virgin.
6. http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProd​ucts/dynamicmodules/pagecontentfooter/pageContentF​...
Did you keep a number from your old house?