BT fault repair & customer service

Question

It is fairly self evident from some of the posts in this forum that BT have a problem with repairing faults and dealing with customers.
My mother's telephone stopped working in August.  She reported a fault.  She was told the fault was with her device.  She replaced the device.  The fault persisted.  She replaced the replacement device.  The fault persisted and then worsened so much so that as of today there is no dialing tone, outgoing calls cannot be made and incoming calls cannot be received.
She returned to BT to report the fault.  Customer services maintained that the fault was with her device.  This went on for a month.  Eventually  she insisted BT send an engineer.  She received 3 text messages telling her that BT would charge £129.99 to send an engineer if the fault was not with the external phone line coming into the house.  She agreed and an engineer from BT Open Reach arrived at the allotted time and diagnosed a fault wit the external line.  He advised that a member of the underground works team needed to come and perform some checks.  He would becoming out at an unspecified time on Monday 27th October.
On Sunday 26th the engineer arrived.  Fortunately my mother was in at the time.  Further checks were performed and it was confirmed the fault was with the line.  He advised a further team would be coming out to dig up the driveway and install a new line.  He could not say when and we need to contact Customer Service to find out when this would be.
My mother duly got in touch to be told that the fault was with the device and not the line.  After a brief exchange a supervisor came on to the line to advise that the works would begin on Tuesday 28th October.  My mother waited in all day.  No-one arrived.
I then became involved and spoke to customer services.  I was told a different untruth by call handlers until I spoke at length with the floor supervisor at the call centre.  We agreed that he or a minion would call me on the 29th October to set out the plan for the repair that was now 2 months overdue.  A minion called on the 29th October and promised faithfully that engineers would arrive on the 30th October to install ducting and then a second time would arrive shortly thereafter to install the new line.  My mother therefore cancelled her holiday plans so that she could be at the house when they arrived.
They have not arrived and will not be doing today.  Mother has been in touch with Customer services and the fault manager advised her that the engineers were there and were working on the fault.  My mother looked out of the window to see her driveway intact and no engineers present.  The fault manager then back tracked to say that the engineers were working on the fault at an undisclosed location and they did not need to be at the house.
I have been promised a call this evening when the work at my mother's house has been completed to schedule the final works.  Needless to say this will be an interesting conversation.
I am frankly staggered that a company who is not backward in coming forward when charging for services believes it is an acceptable practice to lie to its customers.  I have tried to avoid the word 'lie' throughout but there is no better word to describe BT's actions.  They have, via their customer service department, lied at each and every step of the process.
I had a look at the terms and conditions of service re line rental and BTs obligations and was startled to see that BT agree under the T&Cs to repair a fault with their line within 3 working days.  We are into the 3rd working month since this fault was reported.
Thanks for reading.  I will update anyone who is interested when  the fault is repaired - probably in 2017

Answer 1

BT do not provide or maintain the external network. This is done by Openreach who work for all service providers. BT do not get any special treatment.
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