BT Infinity Package installation a joke. 6 weeks ...

Question

Anyone reading this deciding if you should go with BT, SKY or Virgin, I strongly recommend after my experience NOT to choose BT.
So, I placed my order online, 6 weeks ago, like all good con men, the front end to extract the cash was very efficient.   Then the tale of woe starts.  I don't think I am alone with such issues on connection, in fact I'm actually amazed that any BT customer has managed to successfully get their broadband service up and running.  I feel really sorry for all the BT staff in India and Northern Ireland, on email, chat and by phone who have taken my call, all of whom have had virtually no tools or power to get my issues sorted out.
Over the past 15 years, I have moved house a few times, and have had both Virgin and Sky at these properties, the connections to these services have been seemless, one visit installations, a few days after ordering.  My new property is listed, hence Sky is out as I can't have a dish on the house, and cable is yet to reach this area.  So unfortunately, I have only been able to rely on BT, who have successfully sent me back in the 1990's with no broadband for the past 6 or 7 weeks.
The tale.
6 weeks ago, order placed online.
Initial disappointment that the engineer could only come out two weeks after the order to install.  OK, I'll be patient, only two weeks, and I have loads of boxes to unpack in the new house etc, so who needs broadband and TV?
The first technician (I'm not going to call them engineer, as they don't have recognised Engineering degree)  turns up (BT Open Reach).  The technician is incompetant, he thinks the broadband extender system that uses the mains network to transmit the broadband signal is no longer allowd to be used by his BT bosses.  Therefoere, he wants to run a cable across the house, however, he scopes out the installation, and as running a cable is more than a 10 minute dish bash bosh job, decides to leave without installing it, after giving my Wife, who had to take a day off work, a load of excuses.  He does, to his credit spot that the phone line that goes back to the telegraph pole outside our house is not connected at the top of the telegraph pole.  Unfortunately, he does not do what he said he would do and make a note in his system that the connection on the telegraph pole needs reconnecting.
So, 3 days later, BT in India call and arrange another appointment for another 2 weeks time, so 4 and a half weeks after order.  By this point, the house is unpacked, old DVDs all watched, and work  now suffering as no Broadband to catch up on stuff in the evenings.
I also manage to craftly get through to someone at BT in the UK, by pretending I'm placing a new order.  I check out the rubbish about the broadband extender, I speak to two different people who both say that new broadband extender was released in Feb, especially for infinity.  I pay £30, and one duly arrives in the post 2 days later.
4.5 weeks after order, the second technician arrives (Kelly Contracting Services).  Friday 1st August, another day taken off work, this time by me.  This guy knows his stuff, but unfortunately is handstrung by BT's archaic work card system.  As mentioned above, crucially the 1st Technician has 'forgot' to put the note on the file that the line needs connecting at the telegraph pole.  He does say that he used to work for Virgin, and it just used to be a quick call to his boss to ammend the job card, but he can't do that with BT as there systems don't allow for job card modification after issue.  I convince the guy to fit all he can, despite his instructions to be to do the full job or nothing.  So twenty mins later, I am all set up in the house, with a new plate on the phone point, the extender stuff, hub and TV box are sorted.  The middle bit to the telegraph pole is not done, however I am connected now at the exchange, as the guy went down there and sorted that.   I try bribing him with £20 to go up the pole, but as his company will never get the money off BT for the job, he can't do this.  I am now cursing myself I didn't make it £250, atleast now I'd have my service in.
I then.......call india, asking for a BT Open Reach Technician to come and do the last bit, just the connect on the telegraph pole!  I speak to two people.  Out of interest I ask them if they know what a telegraph pole is, they do not.  Oh dear.
Also on this Friday afternoon, I use the chat function on the BT website to talk to a BT employee in Northern Ireland, who says she'll do everything she can to get a technician round asap, she even calls me to explain.  All the time I realise she is hampered by the BT to BT Open Reach poor interface.
Then the next week, on the Thursday, 6 days later, I get a text AND an email to tell me a Technician can come today, 13th August.  7 Weeks after I first placed the order!  I go on chat to see if I can get a quicker appoinment, no joy, however the BT employee does tell me she sympathises with my problem as she too had a difficult installation.  Oh the irony.
So today, I work from home in the afternoon, boss not happy, but I need to get this sorted.  I wait the whole afternoon and no one shows up.  I call BT, in India, and after 30 minutes they tell me it was booked, but then a 'system error' meant that the appointment didn't get through to the technician. So I get a text and an email, re-arrange my life and take a day off work, but getting the message through to thier BT employee was just too much for the system.  Just out of interest, I ask him if he can tell me what a telegraph pole is, (this is a BT employee).  Nope.
The next appointment they can urgently get me, after this sorry tale, is Thursday 21st August, in 8 days time.  My wife is now going to take a morning off work.  A note has gone on the job card that the job must be done before midday, as my wife has an important meeting in the afternoon, the appointment slot is 0800-1300.  I can almost see into the future to anticipate what is going to happen next week.................
I feel really sorry for the BT employees, they must just be bombarded with compliant, after complaint and angry cutomers.  They just don't have the tools at their disposal to sort things out.   I wonder how many compliants BBC Watchdog gets over BT Infinity, it must be in the thousands a day?
So, 7 weeks after my order, I now have to wait another week before the next sorry attempt will be made.

Answer 1

So guess what.........The sorry story continues, after 4th Engineer visit a complete waste of time as no-one had told the Engineer he needed to go up the telegraph pole to connect us.
I am soo disappointed with BT Infinity’s professionalism, once again.
I highlighted in a voicemail, and by email, that the biggest risk was that the BT Openreach (Actually Kelly’s contractors) Engineer would arrive and not have it on the job card that the telegraph pole needed to be worked on.  Guess what, this is exactly what happened. 
This is despite:
On 1st August the Kelly’s Engineer added it to the Engineers notes that someone needed to go up the telegraph pole.
On 1st August, I spoke to the BT call centre in India, that someone needed to go up a telegraph pole.
On 1st August, I spoke to someone on BT chat, and then spoke to the same person to say all that was needed was someone to go up the telegraph pole.
On 2nd August, I spoke to someone in India when the BT Openreach appointment that was  missed on 13th August, saying someone needed to go up the telegraph pole.
When the appointment was missed on 13th August, I spoke to someone in India, saying I needed a new appointment and some to go up the pole to connect me.
On 13th August, I spoke to someone on chat, asking for someone to go up the telegraph pole to connect me.
On 14th August, I rang specially to check that the Engineer had on his notes that he needed to go up the telegraph pole.  I spoke to a very helpful woman in Sunderland, and waited on the phone half an hour until she had actually had the conversation with BT Open reach to confirm someone needed to go up the pole.
I then get escalated to yourself, and on 18th August, point out some needs to go up the pole and connect me.
So imagine my surprise, after telling BT on 8 (yes, eight) separate occasions that someone needed to go up the pole and connect me, that the Engineer turns up, and DOES NOT KNOW HE NEEDS TO GO UP THE POLE TO CONNECT ME!
With BT’s system (not BT Openreach) working as poorly as this, please give me one reason why I shouldn’t cancel BT Infinity, which as of today I am now paying for, invoice BT for mine and my wife’s time, and go with Sky?  I might as well go with Sky as I suspect I am now at the bottom of the queue and will have to wait another 2 weeks for another BT Openreach Engineer to come along, or miss the appointment, only to not have the correct job card to do the work.  Then I will wait another 2 weeks for the same thing to happen again.    I might as well go to Sky, wait the two weeks, and then get the job done properly.