BT Vision - No Service since April 15th & No Help ...

Question

I am writing here in the hope that someone, anyone, will help us. 
In March 2013, we moved home.  Our BT Vision service was, for about three weeks, totally fine.  Then on the 15th of April, our box tried to update, and failed.  For the first time, we saw the error code ‘VDR 277’.
My husband, at that time, spent about 2.5 hours on the phone with BT Vision support attempting to correct the problem.  Nothing worked.  At the time, the person he was on the phone with told him there was ‘a problem with the system’, and that she would not be able to book an engineer visit for him – that someone would have to phone him back within 2 hours. 
The next day – not having heard from BT – I phoned to follow up.  After speaking to someone from the technical team, I was assured of two things: 1) I would not be charged for the BT Vision service I was not receiving from the 17th of April, and 2) an engineer appointment had been made for the 9th of May, between 8AM and 1PM. 
On the 9th of May, my husband waited patiently at home between 8AM and 1PM.  No one turned up.  There was no phone call, no email, no communication of any kind to let him know that the engineer was not coming to our house.
When I arrived home, I contacted BT (my husband works nights, and so was sleeping).  I was given no reason for not having an engineer visit, and although everyone was very apologetic, no one gave me any answers.  I was, however, assured that another engineer visit could be booked, and that they would definitely turn up this time.  When the time came for the person at the call centre to book the appointment, however, there was ‘a problem with the system’, and they couldn’t book it.  They had to phone us back.
The next morning, when my husband was trying to rest after his night shift, he fielded a phone call from BT – 3 times.  Once to try and fix the problem – when he told them that he was waiting for an engineer appointment they said they needed to phone back because there was a ‘problem with the system’.  The second time, they were able to book the appointment and the date and time – the 17th of May, between 8 and 1PM.  The third time, they said that he hadn’t confirmed the date and time, and they needed to doublecheck.
On the 12th of May, I received an email from BT that we were about to go over our broadband usage.  This was due to the fact that we didn’t have a television, and were streaming video onto our iPad.  As soon as I got the email, I phoned BT and was assured that any Broadband usage that I had gone over would be refunded – once the engineer arrived and sorted our BT vision.
The 17th of May came, and my husband dutifully waited, again, after a night shift, for the engineer from BT to arrive.  He waited until 2PM, and then went to bed.  Again, there was no phone call, no email, no text message.
When I got home at 6PM, I phoned to ask what had happened.  Again.  For a second time.  This time, we tried to get the box to work again.  I was on the phone with BT for 2.5 hours that night, and we did everything.  All the things you are supposed to do to try and fix a bad connection.  Again, we got the same error message, VDR 277.  It was during this conversation that I was first told that an engineer visit MAY cost us £100, if the visit is deemed to be our problem and not BT’s. I was very clear that this was unacceptable – we had been doing everything in good faith to try and repair our system and BT had failed in their promise of an engineer, not once but twice, and now I was hearing that it ‘may’ cost  £100 – however, the young man on the phone assured me that in this instance he would waive the fee if it occurred due to our ongoing trouble.  He tried to book a new engineer visit – and due to a ‘problem with the system’, had to have someone else phone us back within 24-48 hours.  He was very apologetic and assured me that the appointment would be as soon as possible – again because of our ongoing trouble.
On Sunday, 19th of May, when I finally received a phone call back, I was on the phone with BT for 3 hours. The engineer visit that they said was available – the first available visit, even for ‘ongoing trouble’ cases like ours, was the 29th of May.  Due to many circumstances – the fact that we could not be home on that day, that we had already rearranged our lives twice to wait for engineers that didn’t turn up, that the absolute very best that could be done was 10 more days in the future – I said ‘no’.  If there was no earlier option – no exceptional circumstance for a family that had been without service since the 15th of April – I wanted to cancel my BT Vision.
I knew I was under contract for BT Broadband and phone, but I didn’t want to cancel them.  I just wanted to stop having to phone BT every 10 days and have a conversation that lasted – at the minimum – a half an hour, and at most 2.5-3 hours.  I wanted to stop telling the same story – this story – to ever helpful and understanding staff that ultimately could not or would not help me.
The last person I spoke to at BT Cancellations made me this promise: an engineer visit would be made, one last time, and if that visit did not take place that I could cancel my BT Vision without all the associated early-cancellation fees, and that all my charges for BT broadband and BT vision would be refunded without hassle.
Wednesday, the 5th of June, my husband waited between the hours of 8 and 1PM.  He waited like he had two times before, and exactly the same thing happened. No one turned up, no one phoned to tell him, no text message or email was sent advising us of the delay. When he phoned to ask where the engineer was, they said that our case had been ‘resolved’ because there was missing information and so they closed the ‘fault’.  I have no idea how this logic works, but because I didn’t have the conversation, and so I can’t explain it any further than that. 
There are no words in English to express the frustration and despair that I feel having to deal with this again.  My family have been strung along for the best part of seven weeks – without television, which, while it is a first-world problem, is still a massive inconvenience – waiting for a service that we are still paying for, incurring fees that we should not be incurring, rearranging our schedules and our lives for engineers that are promised but never turn up. 
At the end of all of this, I want the service that BT has promised.  I have been a customer with BT since I first got a phone line, in 2008, I think, and I really didn’t want to go to Virgin or Sky.  This whole episode, however – this long, drawn out, time consuming and soul destroying episode – has made me want to mark down on my calendar when my BT contract is up, so that I know the exact day I can cancel without any extra fees, and I whistle as I walk to another provider that will, hopefully, listen when customers have problems that cannot be resolved, provide the service that they have been charging for, and actually do what they say they are going to do – without endless apologies devoid of actual explanation.
Can someone, anyone, PLEASE TAKE RESPONSIBILITY and DO something that will resolve this situation?  I actually don't know what posting on this forum will do to help, but I am really desperate at this point.  I also don't really want to spend any more time on the phone with BT; and am avoiding having yet another hour sucked out of my life on the phone. 

Answer 1

If you would like to contact one of the UK based BT Care Team who moderate this forum, they should be able to help you.
They can be contacted using this link BT Care Team
They normally respond by phone or e-mail, within three working days, however you should get an immediate confirmation, with a tracking number.
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.