BT Infinity - poor customer service - can I cancel?

Hi guys,

Hope this is the right place for this sort of thread. I've had a terrible customer service experience so far and I feel like I've been lied to by at least one of their teams. I've posted below what I've posted on the BT Infinity forum. I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice on whether I can cancel without incurring their ridiculous fees? I feel like the customer-provider trust has broken down and I'd prefer to try with someone else, even if it means a slower broadband experience (reducing from 40Mb to 8Mb)...

Thanks.

Backstory on BT Infinity forum:

---

When I first ordered BT Infinity I was looking forward to getting it installed and enjoying great speed and a hopefully improved customer service. I was initially impressed with the installation of the line and was quite happy with the speed. I thought "wow, BT really has changed". Until last Sunday.

Sunday night the broadband kept dropping and reconnecting. I thought it may have been a temporary issue. On Monday the line was permanently dead. I called BT Infinity customer services on Monday night and was put through to their faults team. We went through the usual line checks and and router tests before being informed that there was a fault at the exchange. I was told that we'd have to bring an engineer in. BT only offers two weekday time slots which cover 9.00am until 6.00pm. This isn't at all helpful, because my working hours are 9.00am until 6.00pm, not including commute. I wasn't about to take a day off work to wait for an engineer and neither could my flatmates who work similar hours. So our best bet was to book for Saturday 23rd April. I chose a morning slot so we could have the afternoon free.

I was hoping the issue would resolve itself before an engineer came round, having been assured that it was a fault at the centre. We were given a form to fill in by @BTCare on Twitter, which we did. I received a call from a customer services team member based in Northern Ireland (I guess) who apologised for the problems with the connection and who confirmed that an engineer was booked out to come on Saturday.

Well, the line didn't resolve itself, and Saturday came about. I woke up at 7.00am in case the engineer was early and waited. And waited. And waited until 12.45pm when I called up BT Infinity customer services. I was put through to the faults team. A team member confirmed that my appointment was slotted in and apologised profusely for the late engineer, saying he was sure they'd arrive within an hour.



At 2.30pm I got fed up waiting around for the engineer and rang BT Infinity customer services again and was again put through to the faults team. This time a team member named Tariq said that there was no record of an engineer appointment but he could book one this coming week for me. Flabbergasted I asked to speak to a manager. He said the manager would tell me exactly what he did. I persisted. He said the manager would call back in 10-15 minutes.

20 minutes later I received a call from the manager. Who said that I was misinformed by the original team member last week and that while a request had been made for an engineer to come out, it hadn't been made properly, so an engineer wasn't actually requested. What? So, and he put this in polite terms, I'd have to wait for another engineer comes out. They don't work on holidays, so Sunday, Monday and Friday were out meaning I'd have to wait another week for someone to come check the line. And I'd have to trust that this time incompetence wouldn't get in the way of an engineer arriving.

No thanks, my time's worth more than this and the trust relationship has already broken down. I never had this problem with O2 or PlusNet (before the BT acquisition). I didn't even have this sort of problem with TalkTalk! Why should I trust you to provide a decent level of service anymore?

So I asked to be put through to your retentions - read 'cancellations' - team. I spoke to a very uninterested lady who gave her name as 'Francesca' - I'll leave it to you to decide whether that's her real name - who sounded like she was doing me a favour by speaking with me. I explained everything that happened and she said "Well sorry, sir, this is probably best sorted out with customer services". I explained again that I wasn't satisfied with the customer service response and she asked me what I wanted - I said that I'd like to feel like BT wanted to retain me as a customer, or I'd like to cancel my phone and broadband and transfer to Sky. She then said that BT Infinity doesn't offer any discounts because "it's a new service". So I asked to cancel. And she took me through the steps and then said we'd need to 'give an opportunity' for an engineer to come round to look at the line or face a cancellation charge of £211.35.

Having already given an engineer an opportunity to come round I disputed the cancellation charge. And she effectively repeated herself.

So I'm left with accepting terrible customer service with pretty much no level of desire to compensate me for all the wasted time BT has foisted on me (beyond the few pounds worth of broadband loss over the last week) or cancelling the line in the hope of receiving better customer service elsewhere but at the cost of £211.35.

I'm now looking very carefully at your terms and conditions and the SGSA in the hope that I can get out of what has turned out to be a burdensome contract.

---