The order that never arrives

Question

BT is good. At apologising - but nothing else. I have a saga that has been going on since 7 January. Let me explain...
I received an email from BT to move my broadmand to them, Infinity package with unlimited downlaods at up to 80Gb etc. and they would be kind enough to also give me £125 Sainsbury's vouchers in return. I have heard BT horror stories before, so was naturally wary. However a fiew reviews on the internet convinced me they had perhaps mended their ways and I should try. I saw the fibre exchange outside my house (about 30m away) so I knew I was in for good speeds. On 7 January 2015 I took the step and placed the order online, supplying the MAC on the same day from my current provider. I received an email confirming a switchover on 4 February.
Then it all began...
About 3 weeks later I got another email offering high speed broadband with £125 vouchers. This prompted me to check on the status of my order since I hadn't heard any more. The web site said I had no order. I called BT help line and I was told the order had stalled for some reason (no explanation offered) and they would have to start the process all over again, and it would take another month. Needless to say, I was less than impressed and ranted a bit about the extra delay as my daughter was planning a movie sleepover with friends, and the high speed broadmand timing was perfect on the original order.
After jumping through various hoops, I was informed they would send me a router and connect the phone on 4 February (I was already with BT!) and the broadband on 5 February. I accepted this. I was home on 5 February and saw the Openreach team working in the box. My phone line went down, and about 30 minutes later my existing broadband died. "Fine" I thought - they will now connect me to BT. I unplugged my router and plugged in my new HomeHub 5. I looked a little later and the team had leaft. I waited. And waited. And waited. By the evening I suspected something was wrong and called BT on my mobile. (I now had no phone or internet.) Now things get vague. I must have called a few times every day from Thursday, only to be told every time that a fault on the line had been logged, and they had a team assigned to diagnose the fault. I diagnosed it for them - the phone was working, they came, they broke it, they left. No luck - they said within 10 days it would be fixed!
(I must point out here that I was organising a charity event for the following week, and my wife was arranging job interviews, and in the middle of this we now had no phone and no internet. Absolute disaster.)
Don't get me wrong. BT was very apologetic, every time I called, a few times a day. But their apologies and promises to fix the fault didn't help. Finally on the Monday they send another Openreach chap out and he got the phone line working, but not the internet. He had no authorisation to look at the broadband. He was rather horrified at the story so far. I called BT again that evening (from the now working phone) to chase the broadband. I was informed someone would call the next day to confirm the line was working! No matter how many times I told him I was talking on the very phone they wanted to check, the stroy was still the same. He said they would check the line and connect the internet the next day once the line was proven.
The next evening no one had called re the internet (my daughter did take a call earlier in the day when the checked the line.) I called again and was informed (again) they had to check the line the next day and then they would connect the internet. All this between the BT apology line, of course. I was now losing the iwll to live. All I wanted was to get internet so I could continue with my emails. Somewhere between this call and the previous one I was informed that my broadmand had been ordered and I should return the router they sent me. They would restart a new order and would send me a new router. I gave up.
On the Wednesday I was at work and decided to try again with live chat to BT. After going through the whole story again, and getting more apologies, I was told I should talk to the Order Management Team. This finally appeared to be progress. I spoke to a very friendly guy who apologised profusely for the mess I was in. He also confirmed that there was a problem in the exchange outside my house when they came to connect the new system, and that the system then autmatically cancels the order! Go figure. They shouldn't have left my phone disconnected, however. He said he would personally fasttrack my order but I needed to supply a new MAC as mine had now expired. Thinking I was finally getting somewhere, I agreed.
Silly me - this is BT after all.
I tried to get a new MAC, but was informed I couldn't get one as there was already "a PSTN cease order in progress on the line." Calling BT again, I was informed it was because they were already taking action themselves, and that I should stand down - everything was in hand.
One additional "good" bit of information I did receive was that tests on the line showed I still had internet - my previous provider was still active and I should put back my old router! After work I did connect my router and it worked! So now I at least had a working phone and my original internet back. (Why wasn't I told this on the Monday when the first fixed the line?)
Stupidly trusting BT again, and as I was up to my neck in the charity event I was running, I put all this out of my mind until this morning- over a week after I was told all was in hand. I called BT to check on progress. Surprise surprise! There was NO ORDER. I was told I had to place another order. They were even surprised I had returned my previous router - after I was informed I had been asked to and they even sent a returns bag for it! This time I was promised by the chap I spoke to that he would personally handle the order and make sure it went through - after I had obtained another MAC from my current provider.
Of course I now have absolutely no faith in BT or their ability to offer me broadband. I will be signing up with their competition, and I will be taking my phone along elsewhere too. I just wish there was someone I could talk to that understood the issue through all this, rather than a call centre in India with many apologies and no progress.
It's the 21sy century. How hard is it to do this? They do it every day. You would think they would get it right by now.
Bye bye BT
Haydn

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