How bad can a company be?

Question

I called BT around mid May. I informed them i was going to move to a new flat in NW2 in June. I told them the flat is being completely renovated and that i wanted to get a phone line. The BT employee on the phone did some checks and confirmed to me there was no active line (which i already knew: i said the flat was being completely renovated). He said i needed to book for a BT engineer to come, that there would be a cost and that i would need to take another 12 months contract. He also said he would cover for the engineer cost if i tenew my broadband with BT for another 12 months. I was reluctant to take another 12 months contract with BT for phone line and broadband because the fiber optic broadband i have been having with BT for the past 15 months was awful (regularly dropped, very slow speed at random times, more than once a week every week for 15 months). But in the end i accepted the offer, agreed to renew Line and brodaband with BT for another 12 months and booked for the BT engineer to come on 12th june. And that's when the nightmare started.
On 11th june, BT called. They lefta voicemail i could hardly understand then sent a weird sms: "Hello, SHREYA here. I have tried to speak with you today however, couldn't make a contact over the phone. please text back (at your normal rate) and we'll get back to you within 2 hours. We check messages from 8am ? 8.30pm Mon-Fri or 9am-6pm Sat." I had no clue who SHREYA was, considering they didn't even specify which company they work for. But after googling the number on the sms, i found out it was from BT. So i called BT and spoke to an employee who started to confuse me about "system issues". I was wondering "what do system issues have to do with me?"... The BT employee told me her manager would call me back. When the manager called me, he was even more confusing. At the end i asked him only 1 question "is the BT engineer coming on 12 june to set up the Bt line?". He replied "yes, between 07:00 and 13:00".
On 12 june, because i hadn't received any sms from Bt confirming the time window when the engineer is coming, i called Bt at 10:00. The Bt employee then told me "oh, it's cancelled". I then became very unhappy. I asked "why?". The Bt employee put me on hold and after 5 mun, hung up on me. I called Bt again, spoke to another few people from Bt but nobody was able to tell me why the appointment i booked 3 weeks earlier was cancelled. I was furious: i accepted to take another 12 months contract with Bt for line and broadband and this is how they deal with it.... I logged a complaint on the Bt website. I was told that a case manager would be appointed to help me and i spoke to that case manager today but so far i have had zero meaningful updates as to when the line will be set up. All she told me today is that a new order needs to be logged because there was an internal problem with the one logged 4 weeks ago. She even saud it will be logged tomorrow. I asked "why ligging it tomorrow? Why not today considering i have already been waiting for 4 weeks?" I got no replies to that question...
4 weeks wasted already, not sure how many more to come, and no commitments as to when i can expect the service. As if moving hoone was not streeful enough, i have to deal with a company like Bt. I have to chase them every single day to get an update, this is so stressful. What a poor level of service.
How bad can a company be?

Answer 1

I have 2 lines into my house. One with BT and one with Virgin Media. I placed an order with Bt to take over the Virgin Media line. So BT cancelled my existing BT line which was working perfectly and transferred the Virgin Media line onto the BT line they just cancelled. Then no broadband and no phone. I was told there was a fault on the line! There wasn't before they cancelled the line. I was told it had been fixed, I was told it hadn't been, I was told I would have phone and broadband in 24 hrs. I didn't. I was then told there was still a fault on the line despite an engineer stating unequivocally that there was no fault. I explained to BT that my son has severe learning disabilities and epilepsy and that he stops breathing when he has a seizure and we have to be able to call medics. BT told me to use my mobile phone and that he would not be regarded as a priority case!.
After another 2 hours on the phone to them today I am told that they have to put in new cables (what was wrong with the existing ones?) and that I might have phone line and broadband by June 26 - 10 days after they were just sopposed to take over a working phone line.
One would have thought that a telephone company would be able to take over a phone line - just a stretch too far for BT administration.
The Openreach engineers were very helpful and took extra time to speak to BT when at my house but to no avail.