Trying to get broadband connected...

Question

Hello,
I'm writing this in the hope that someone can help me. I placed an order for a combined TV, phone and broadband on 14th May and was given a connection date of 31st May between 8am and 1pm. I took the day off work and at 10 am 2 BT openreach vans parked outside my house. I went down to ask if either of them were there to connect me and they said neither of them was. A courier arrived at this point with all the equipment and I was advised to call and check on the engineer status. I called at 1pm to say nobody had arrived and they apologised, offered a £10 compensation and said that the IT system was down for the engineers so they couldn't access the log but guaranteed that an engineer would attend later that day before 5pm.
I called back at 5 as nobody had arrived and was told that the engineer had reported it as being unable to gain access due to customer not being present. I was absolutely livid at hearing this and demanded that an engineer attend that evening only to be told that they'd finished work for the weekend and Tue 4th June would be the earliest. I asked to submit a formal complaint and the manager that I spoke to in the technical department said that he would note my dissatisfaction and email my partner, whose name the account is in, with confirmation of what they were doing to resolve the issue as well as details of his name, department and position along with the same info on the other operators that I had spoken to. No such email was received but we did get a text to say that we would be connected on Thursday 6th June!
My partner called on Monday to ask why she'd not received the email and to check exactly when we were getting connected as we would again have to take time off work. She was told that the text was wrong and that it would indeed be Tue 4th June. She managed to arrange to work from home that day at the last minute and an engineer duly attended but only activated the phone line and, when asked about the internet, said it was "nothing to do with him".
I called BT that afternoon to clarify what was happening with the broadband and was told to not worry, that the service would go live within 12 hours of the engineer visit. I waited the 12 hours and called to check, only to be told that the service had been cancelled by someone in an administrative error and that it would be 2-3 weeks before we could expect connection. I was once again very angry at this news and asked to once again submit a formal complaint. I was told the complaints team was closed and would have to call back the following day.
On Wed 5th June, I called and asked for an explanation as to why the order had been cancelled. I received no explanation and asked to speak to the manager. They said that the manager was on another call and would call me back ASAP. I waited 45 mins and called back, they reiterated that a manager would be calling me ASAP. I waited another 45 mins and still no call. I called back again and spoke with a guy called Stephen in technical, who gave me his personal assurance that the service would be connected within 48 hours of the call. He said he was taking personal responsibility for the case and that I had no further need to contact them. I took him at his word and kept a check on the homehub router for changes.
On the Thursday 6th June, the 'broadband' light went from flashing orange to constant red which, according to the set-up guide, meant that the broadband was active but the username was incorrect. I called to check this with technical and was told that this was incorrect and that red just meant that the broadband line was inactive. He checked further and said the order was still showing as cancelled which again caused me to get a little angry over the repeated misinformation and having to make so many calls regarding the situation. I again asked to make a complaint and again was told the department was closed.
I called again on Friday 7th June, after 12 which meant the 48 hours had elapsed and therefore the operator, Stephen, had not held to his promise to personally oversee the case. I asked to be put through to cancellations, explained the situation for about the 15th time and asked for all the monies that we had paid BT so far to be refunded, along with the £45 that we had spent on BT public WiFi since the 14th May and also compensation to cover my loss of earnings in taking the day off on Friday 31st unnecessarily as well as the bills that we had run up on our mobiles contacting them regarding the situation. They apologised again and put me through to someone in the technical Dept that guaranteed me that they would speak with openreach and get someone out that day. They also took my mobile number and said they would call me back at 4pm with an update. 4pm came and went with no call back so I called once more and requested a refund and compensation. They said that the technical team were definitely acting on the situation and if I held on a little longer, they would make sure the lady I had spoken to would call me. Needless to say, I got no call.
I called again on Saturday 8th June and spoke with someone called Darren in customer retention who said he was sorry that I'd been treated so poorly and gave me a number to call direct on Monday morning to speak with someone regarding the matter. He said that they needed one more chance to put it right.
I called on Monday 10th June and spoke with a customer options Dept operator who said that the order was still showing as cancelled and that he would have to place a fresh order which would take 2-3 weeks. I had lost patience by this point and asked to be put through to cancellations, they listened to the story once more and put me through to another Dept where an operator reiterated that they could process the connection in 48 hours. I said that was no longer acceptable as I'd been assured twice the previous week of this and it hadn't transpired. He then said his manager might be able to get it done that day and put me through to him. His manager said that 2-3 working days was the quickest that it could be done. 
I asked to go back to cancellations, reiterated the refund and compensation I expected and was told that I would have to speak with billing about it. I got put through to billing and the guy I spoke to took all the security details but refused to go further unless I told him the payment method used by my partner, saying that the bank name and the fact that it was a debit card wasn't enough. I took his number and got my partner to call but it just rings out at the number he gave us. I called back again and spoke with cancellations. The girl I spoke to there said that she would personally try and sort it out for me. She went off the phone to speak with the various departments and came back saying that the order was still open and that the service should be getting connected in the next 48 hours. She said that she'd call me tomorrow to check if it was connected and gave me a number fro openreach saying that usually it would only be BT operators that could speak to them but this was a public number and that someone might help me out.
I called openreach and the operator said that she dealt with fallen cable poles and holes in the street and that she had no way of helping me and advised me to speak to BT - sigh!
Here's what I think is reasonable - that someone at BT could speak with someone at openreach and, given that the engineers are just as responsible for the delay as the BT operators, arrange to get me connected either today or tommorow. If this can't be done, I think that I should reasonable expect BT to:
refund all the monies paid to them for the package and the up-front line rental
refund the £45 that we've spent on the public BT wifi that should have been free as we had signed a contract with them back on the 14th May
pay for the costs of our calls to them through our mobile providers
compensate me for loss of earnings for the day that I took off to wait on an openreach engineer who fraudulently claimed that I wasn't home
I think that, given the level of stress that this has put both me and my partner under (we both need to work from home and this has proven very difficult for us as we live in a rural area and have to rely on the public wifi otherwise), coupled with the amount of time that I've spent trying to sort it our, that this is the least we should expect.
One of the biggest issues with cancelling the order for me is that there are simply no alternatives in the area. For our postcode of PH15 2AA, I've been told by Talk Talk, SKY and Virgin Media that they can't provide the service as BT charge them £17 a month to utilise the infrastructure therefore they don't offer their services in my area. This would seem then, that BT have a monopoly on the broadban for the area which I understood to be illegal under UK trading legislation.
Does anyone on this forum have any advice at all for me or know of where I can find out alternative ISP's? Uswitch and all the other checkers show that there are a number of ISP's in the area but when I contact them directly they all say the same thing...
Please help - I'm starting to go a little crazy with all this! (I know that some people are reporting that they have waited weeks for connection but I simply can't accept that...)

Answer 1

Well, now we're back to square one - we spent another hour on the phone to BT yesterday and the best they could do was to restart the whole order process from scratch as the orders team had no record of an order ever being placed. I spent yet another frustrating, fractured 20 minutes initially trying to get some sense out of the Indian call centre and the guy that I spoke to in cancellations himself admitted that it was a nightmare trying to get a straight answer out of them. This follows another person in cancellations admitting that they got just as frustrated with the other departments being poorly organised and hard to communicate with. I'd just like to underline the fact that I have no problem with BT outsourcing their call centres to other countries and no problem with people from those countries being tasked with the admin of the order process or customer service. I previously had experience of using the Dutch technical team that ran Be Unlimited's service and they were fantastic - great communicators, well-organised and able to rectify my problem within hours.
The fact is that everyone that I've spoken to in either the orders department or technical department rattles out the same spiel that they must be reading off some card in front of them like a robot. They don't actually listen to what I'm telling them and they obviously have no form of administrative infrastructure that allows them to work efficiently. I have to go through the same process every time, explaining the whole story from the beginning and being given the same empty platitudes and promises every time by yet another office drone. The inter-departmental communications are non-existent and BT's whole systematic processes are abysmal. The whole corporation needs re-organising from the ground up and surely can't continue to be a profitable business for much longer if the volume of customer complaints and despairing posts on this very forum are anything to go by.
To reiterate:
Order placed 14th May, connection date 31st May - engineer to attend between 8 am and 1 pm 
31st May, courier delivers hardware, engineers parked outside my house for 3 hours, neither of them assigned to the job, call BT after time window of visit expires and am assured an engineer will attend. Call back after 5 and told that the engineer claimed he couldn't gain entry and all engineers are finished for the day until Monday (despite an engineer attending my work which is located 5 doors down to fix our business broadband connection on a Saturday, less than 3 hours after I called). Make formal complaint and am assured engineer will attend on 4th June and internet will be connected same day
Engineer attends 4th June, claims broadband nothing to do with him, call BT and assured that service will activate later that day, service does not commence and am told the order appears to be cancelled when I call to check. Make formal complaint and am told someone will call me next day, so provide my number
5th June, no call so phone to check/complain - am told manager will call back ASAP. Wait 45 mins, no call. Call back, am reassured that someone will call. Wait 45 mins, no call. Call back again, speak to 'Steven' in orders who apologises and tells me he's going to personally oversee a fast-track of the order that will see it connected in 48 hours and that I have no further need to call them.
Call on 6th June after a change on the homehub router lights to check if this is the service being activated. Am told that the order is still showing as cancelled. Make another formal complaint and am assured that someone will call me back next day.
7th June, nobody calls and the 48-hour window expires. Call to check on status/complain and I'm told the order is still cancelled by orders dept. Ask to be put through to cancellations to get the service cancelled and get a refund, am told that order has not been cancelled. I'm put through to 'senior manager' in order department who guarantees connection that day and that she herself will call at 4pm to confirm. 4pm comes and goes - no call. Call BT to check/complain/cancel order - speak with cancellations who ask for more time and say they will make sure the woman from orders dept calls me. Wait for rest of night - no call.
8th June, phone and speak to Darren in cancellations, he asks that I give them one more chance to fix things and gives me the customer options direct number to call on Mon 10th June
Call BT on Mon 10th June, am told that the order has been cancelled and that they will have to place new order. Try to cancel and get refund, once again talked into giving them 48 hours to connect the service. Spend 4.5 hours on phone trying to get answer to why the service has been delayed/order cancelled. Start to receive random calls on landline, am told that this is the engineer at the junction box testing the line and that he's found a fault which is why the connection has been delayed. Told that service will definitely be activated within 48 hours. I'm also told that someone will call on 11th June with an update.
11th June - no call
Call BT on 12th June to check on connection, told again that order has been cancelled and really start to get angry now. Make another formal complaint and am told that specialist team has been assigned to investigate the case and they will call the next day to let me know what's happening.
13th June - no call. Call BT to check/complain/attempt to cancel and get stuck in the usual run-around with Indian call centre. Don't get anywhere but am one again assured that specialist team are on the case and they'll call me the next day but that they've finished for the day so I can't speak to them.
14th June - no call. Call BT to check/complain/attempt cancellation/make empty threats and am informed that they have no record of an order ever being placed. I freak out and get slightly abusive with operator. Get through to cancellations and speak with 'Steve'. He spends a long time talking to orders dept on my behalf and comes back to say that he will have to start order process from scratch all over again which will take 5 working days. Make another formal complaint. I ask him to check on previous complaint references, he does and says "yes, there's a note here for someone to call you.......today". I ask him what is the point of submitting formal complaints when they aren't even looked at and he tells me it's a 10-day process - I ask why the complaint that I registered on 31st May hasn't been dealt with as that's more than10 days and he has no answer.
Now if you can tell me that this is in any way a reasonable way to treat someone who is paying for you to provide a service then we live on different planets. There is no way that the customer care team can rectify this other than serious compensation which will have to be a **bleep** sight better than the 2 months free line rental that we've been offered so far. I have never had a worse experience as a customer anywhere, with any company. I've travelled in the 3rd world and even there, the utilities companies purvey a vastly superior service than this supposedly flagship company of British technology and communications. I asked an operator if he thought that it was ironic that a telecommunications company couldn't get it together to make a phone call to me after more than 10 promises to do so, unsurprisingly he didn't get it. BT stands for something but my brain lacks the energy to come up with an acronym that is suitably abusive.