Why did I ever bother coming back to BT ??? Thinki...

Question

I decided to come back to BT from TalkTalk after experiencing poor service, no service, no support and overbilling from them. After much research and advice from relatives decided to return to BT as they at least appeared to be making an effort to improve since we were last with them......What a mistake I appear to have made! I will try to explain this giving the best timeline possible.
Sunday 4th September - Order placed, line rental saver paid upfront, Estimated Activation date of 20th September given....so far so good, the timescale seems reasonable. I am self employed so I made sure that I was free for the 20th and no jobs accepted from clients. I was also told that I would be advised of any change to scheduled appointment.
I should explain at this stage that the other occupant of the premises is my 85 year old mother who is hard of hearing and requires my being there for any type of engineer visit............and I cannot afford to lose money by not working !!
Thursday 15th September - received an email advising that the modem had been despatched in readiness for the 20th September. Logged on to bt.com/trackmyorder to get the reference number for tracking purposes. On double checking the order I noticed that the Engineers visit/activation date had now changed to 23rd September without warning, no email, text or call to me as was promised by sales when ordered and paid for. A call to customer services from my mobile kept me in a queue to India for 45 minutes before being answered....explained the situation and advised them that the 23rd was no good to me as I was away on business....we'll check they said and will call you back but the 23rd now seems to be the fixed date for the Engineer visit. Guess what ? yes of course there was no call back.
Friday 16th September - No call back or email from the customer services call centre in India all day. As I was told that the new date was 23rd September, I accepted a job from a client for the 20th September whilst desperately trying to change my business appointments on the 23rd in order to free myself up for the new date which I managed to do. Phoned customer services....India again, another 30 minutes in a queue on a mobile, to express my dissatisfaction and seek reassurance that the 23rd was now the fixed date. Was assured it was and that they would email confirmation to me.  
Saturday 17th September - woke up to a text on my mobile from BT confirming the engineers visit for.....wait for it....... the 20th September !!!!! Phone calls to India again expressing my total annoyance and dissatisfaction at what had been done...was advised if the 23rd was not convenient they could cancel and rearrange for the next available appointment which would be the 12th October !!!! I advised the person I was dealing with that I was not prepared to wait that long for connection especially as I had paid up front for line rental and pointed out that as the customer the engineers visit should surely be agreeable and convenient to both parties.....a concept they seemed not grasp......they then asked what would be convenient to me, so I suggested the 22nd as I have the whole day free as I am working from home on that day......was told that was impossible could I give them a date in October.
I then advised them that I was not be prepared to wait until October and if they could not offer me a date next week other than the 20th or 23rd I would be cancelling the order totally............then came the most ridiculous and totally unexpected  statement from the CS operator....."would you like me to cancel the order for you now sir " on that note I asked to be transferred to a sales operator in the UK...............
This they duly did and was transferred to Chris who assured me he was in Lancaster (or Leicester ??).....after explaining the whole story and timeline to him he assured me he would speak to the engineers and see if the date of 22nd September could be arranged and he would email me confirmation of our conversation. I again reiterated that an October date would not be acceptable and if a mutual date could not be agreed then I would be cancelling the order.
Guess what............................yes of course....no email !!! 
Despite all the assurances that BT give on customer service and actual product I ask myself these questions..............Are BT still as bad as they were 10 years ago? Is offering to cancel the order for me true customer service ???
I await the outcome of this with bated breath, but in the meantime will investigate the alternatives to BT and TalkTalk............ 
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Answer 1

Hi SJB,
I checked our queue but I can't see an email from you, did you send him a PM?
He's not available today so if you sent a PM please resend your details via our "Contact us" form, which is found under the "About me" in our profile page, top-left of the page.
Thanks,
Stephanie
Stephanie
BTCare Community Manager
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