Could this be the worst customer service ever???

Question

Hi - not used the forum before, but have had the most unbelievable time trying to deal with BT.  The simplest way to illustrate how abysmally terrible they have been is to paste below the letter of complaint (and the follow up 2 weeks later) that I have sent to BT.  It is long, but shocking reading, and compelling if you have ever had experience of what BT ironically calls "Curstomer Service".  No response yet, apart from a lame reply a few weeks later saying that they agree that the service was terrible, but that they probably won't do anything about it.  As soon as the 8 weeks are up, I'm going to escalate this to http://www.ombudsman-services.org/
Am I missing something here?  Am I expecting too much of BT?  Am I making a fuss over nothing?  Or does this resonante with anyone who has had dealings with them?
ORIGINAL LETTER (5th NOVEMBER):
Dear British Telecom
I am afraid that I need to make a formal complaint about my treatment at the hands of BT over the past 6 weeks.
I received a MAC code from BT at the start of September which I tried to use to switch to another supplier.  The supplier told me that when I had signed up to BT Infinity with you last year, this had made the line incompatible for the ADSL service that I was now requesting and the line needed to be downgraded.  I originally called BT on 13th September to request that this be done, and spoke to a woman called Jackie.  She agreed that it was remiss of BT not to have explained the implications of the switch to BT Infinity when I was offered the deal, and so agreed to arrange a manual downgrade of the line to avoid triggering a contract renewal.  She told me that the work would be complete by 23rd September and that I would receive confirmation from BT that the work was to take place within 2 business days.  No confirmation came through.  I called again the following week and had 2 lengthy conversations, with one person telling me that no work was in progress, and another telling me that yes it was in progress.  However, on 24th, the work had still not been done.
I called again on the morning of 24th for a very lengthy conversation (well over an hour), when after a lot of resistance, the person eventually explained that they didn’t know why the work had not been carried out, but it would definitely be carried out the next day.  I asked her to assure me that if this was not done, then I would not be liable for any charges as a result of BT’s repeated failure to perform this work.  She agreed to this.
I went on holiday the following day, and by the time I returned on 10th October, my other supplier, had still not managed to use the MAC code to switch to them, and it had now expired.  It had been repeatedly rejected because there was an open order on the line.
I called again on 10th, and was told that they didn’t know why the work had not been completed, but it would be done by 14th.  I was told I would have one month of broadband payments refunded, and that I would not need to make any further payments to BT, as it was BT’s fault that the work had not been done and I was still with you.  I requested confirmation of this twice, to be sure that I had not misunderstood, and it was given twice in very clear terms.
Of course, the 14th came, and the supplier I wanted to switch to was still being told that there was an open order on my account.  I called again on 14th, and this time was told that the work actually took place on 26th September, but that there was still an open order on my account.  None of the many people I was passed to over the next couple of weeks was able to tell me what the order was for – one person said it was just an administrative item that needed to be closed.  I spoke to many people who claimed that it was closed.  Eventually someone agreed to do a little research and found some background processes running, which were eventually closed after several more difficult calls.
These calls were without exception long and difficult.  I was often promised calls back with explanations, but not one ever came.  I was often told that I needed to be put through to another department and that the person I was speaking to had spoken with them and they would be able to help me quickly and easily and were awaiting that I be transferred, but I was put through to a long phone queue and then spoke to someone who didn’t know anything about my case and was not able to help anyway.  I had to repeatedly explain the situation from scratch to somebody new, despite being assured that this would not be necessary.  In short, I spend very many hours that I really could not afford on the phone to BT to sort this out. 
This was dereliction of customer service and a breach of your duty of care on a significant scale (in addition to the failure to supply the service downgrade promised, and then the failure to communicate that it had been supplied until I called many times more).  The calls caused me significant frustration and distress, and affected my mood for a long time after.  The hours I had to spend on the phone in a vain attempt to make myself understood by your people caused me to miss deadlines at work, to appear sloppy, and to present myself in a less professional way than usual due to the vexation caused by all of this.  I could never have imagined that getting a simple request fulfilled could require such a significant expenditure of time, effort and internal strength.
My complaint is not that there was an initial error with the work, but that this error was not explained, investigated or put right despite extremely lengthy efforts by myself to communicate with BT what needed to be done.  I was treated with disrespect many times, as people told me they were putting me through to specific people they had spoken to, but then just put me through to a long phone queue; people promised me confirmation texts/emails and update calls which never came; different people gave completely conflicting stories about what was going on with my account; people repeatedly assured me that everything was fine and the other supplier would now be able to place the order, and the other supplier was not able to place the order.  These were not one-off events – each of these situations happened several times.  I can only describe your customer service as consistently abysmal.
Finally, last week, the supplier I want to switch to was able to place the order and arrange for the takeover of my line and broadband which will take place next week.
Sadly, though, that is not the end of my problems with BT.  In the early hours of this morning, I received 3 emails asking me to view and pay my new bill.  This came to over £140 (up to now I have been paying £17 per month), and included an incomprehensible set of charges for “Line Rental”, “Broadband and Calls” (which included BT Infinity Option 2, which I do not have),  as well as separate listings for “BT Broadband Option 3”, which I also do not have.  There are no words to describe the shock and disbelief I felt upon opening this.
Throughout the whole process, I have been very clear and explained multiple times that my purpose has been to be able to switch to another supplier, and that despite being offered new contracts and new deals many times, this was not what I wanted.  I only wanted to be able to switch as soon as possible, and so wanted no renewal of any contract.  I was assured several times that this is what would be achieved.  The comments on my latest bill refer to a “contract start date”, and so if there is any new contract in place, this has not only been done without my consent, but in contravention of my repeatedly expressed wishes.  Whether the explanation for this is gross incompetence or corruption, it is not acceptable, and must be cancelled immediately.
I called again today, but again found myself talking to apologetic people who couldn’t help who passed me on to long phone queues which led to more apologetic people who couldn’t help.
Given that this has been going on for so long and given that the many promises made to me by BT have been repeatedly broken and given that I had been clearly and explicitly assured that I would not have to make any further payments to BT, as my switch was in progress and only BT was obstructing it from taking place; I am no longer prepared to subject myself to this treatment.  Rather than paying you this money and giving you more of my time, I would expect significant compensation from you for the many many hours I have put in to trying to address the consequences of BT’s failures and for the resultant stress, that has affected other areas of my life and which continues to do so.
Please respond to this letter within 14 days, confirming that you will be cancelling the latest bill and any contract that you may have put in place, and advising me what level of financial compensation you feel would adequately compensate me for what I have been put through by BT.  Naturally, you will not be proposing any credit to my account, as I will hopefully no longer be a BT customer in a few days’ time, and the balance on the account should actually be zero. 
I look forward to your prompt response.
Yours sincerely
FOLLOW UP LETTER (20th NOVEMBER):
Dear British Telecom
I submitted the letter below via the complaints section of your website on 5th November, asking for a response within 14 days.  The automated response said that you would normally respond to complaints within 48 hours, but at very busy periods this may take up to 96 hours.  However, 2 weeks has now passed and I have received no response from BT.
I tried calling BT again on 12th November, after receiving a new bill demand.  On the automated system, I asked to speak about my bill.  The automated voice said “about your bill.  Is that right?”, I said yes, but it put me through to the BT Options team, who were not able to help and eventually transferred me to the billing team.  I spoke to one lady and to her manager, and was told that she would investigate the huge and confusing charges on my bill, and the promise that had been made to me that I would not incur ANY further charges, and that she would get back to me on my mobile number within 48 hours, and that if she could not reach me, she would call back until she did.  I asked whether this meant that my bill would be on hold until she spoke to me again, and she clearly confirmed this.  Of course, no call ever came, so my bill is actually still on hold now, according to she clearly told me.
Then, in the early hours of 18th November, I received 2 emails: one telling me that another provider had requested to take over my broadband service and that service would stop from midday on that day (even though it had actually been transferred to another provider more than a week earlier), and another thanking me for taking out a new 12 month phone contract starting on 18th November.  Of course, I never discussed any new contract from BT, apart from stating very clearly on several occasions during my many calls with you that I specifically didn’t want to enter into any new contracts.
I called again on 18th to speak to the complaints department.  I spoke to Angela, who told me that the complaint that I had made on the phone on the 12th, and the complaint that I sent via your site 2 weeks ago, and which I copy below, had both been ‘escalated’ to a woman in India called Sharon, who was supposed to have called me back by 14th.  Angela said she would look into this, get hold of the complaint I had sent and read it carefully, and would look to cancel my bill and offer me compensation.  As has been a common occurrence in my dealings with BT, she apologised for the way things had been handled so far and assured me that she would now take ownership of my case and would definitely call me back at 2.30pm with an update, even if the situation was not fully resolved at that point.  She even re-confirmed my mobile number, but of course, no call ever came.
And, incredibly, this morning, I received another email from BT, telling me that as I hadn’t paid my bill yet, a late-payment charge had been added to it, and threatening me with a downgrade of my credit status.
Again, I feel compelled to emphasise the great frustration and stress that this situation is causing me.  This is utter neglect of your duty of customer care, and there is nobody in your confusing maze of customer support phone services who has been able to understand and address any of my issues I have had over this extremely difficult 2 months.  Several people have promised that they would take ownership of my case, and would stay in contact with me, but none of them ever has.  There seems to be no way to meaningfully communicate with anybody at your end, even while the bills, and charges, and threats and confusing emails are coming thick and fast.  This is now proving to be equally true of your complaints procedure –  my complaint has been completely ignored.
As I requested in my previous letter (below), please cancel my bill immediately and propose what level of financial compensation you feel would reasonably compensate me for the extreme frustration and stress that I have been subjected to in recent months, which has affected other areas of my life, including my work and family life, and the time and trouble I have taken to try to reach you to get this sorted out. 
I include a copy of my original letter below, and am sending this to you both by email and in the post.  I would like a positive response within 10 calendar days of the date of this letter, addressing all of the issues I am raising.  Beyond this 10 day period, I may take further action, which may include legal action and/or publicity about this case.
Yours sincerely

Answer 1

Update - in case anyone is still interested -  Here is my response to them:
30th December 2013 – Our Response
Thank you for your proposal, which we do not find acceptable.  
Not only does it ignore the promise that we were made by telephone in October that we would not receive any more bills from BT, as the fact that we were still with you had already been down to your negligence for some time, but it also ignores the abysmal service that you have given us and the resultant stress and personal inconvenience that you have directly caused.  An apology and a weak offer to refund the difference between what we pay now and what we paid you is very very far from even beginning to make up for this.  Your wilfully ignoring a promise that you had made in October and that we very clearly drew your attention to in our original letter is yet another example of this, as are your over-complicated "final" bills, which are not easy to make any sense of.
You say that you will feed back to the agents involved about the terrible service that they have given.  This will make no difference.  If only one or two agents had been involved in delivering a terrible customer experience, then maybe this may have helped, but the fact that your service has been so consistently and unswervingly catastrophic in every single interaction (and you will be aware that there are very many posts on forums all over the Internet singling out BT for similarly incalculably bad service) suggests that the problem is in your processes, your training and your staggering lack of customer service ethic.  If you truly wish to make changes, your actions will need to be far more fundamental than simply scape-goating a few individuals who are doing nothing different from anyone else you employ.  I do not hold any individual or individuals responsible for what BT has done, but BT as a whole.
I intend to refer this case to Ombudsman Services: Communications, but would welcome a response from you before 2nd January if you have anything further to add.
Best Wishes
Guy