A pretty terrible cockup. Just one thing though. SIM provides are well-known, (by yourself as well I assume), to be dodgy. And you have a non-sequitur:-

What a good job I didn't attempt to migrate my BE broadband (on the existing phone line) over to Infinity, as I'd be left without internet

It's the SIM provide went wrong. A simple migration to Infinity would almost certainly been smoothly accomplished.

I was only going for a SIM provide because BT were offering a free line install and it seemed easier than requesting a MAC from BE and getting BT to take back a Sky voice line (which, no doubt, BT would have messed up somehow).
It looks like I will be forced to do a migration (knowing that the part of the SIM provide which went wrong was the Infinity bit - BT forgetting to place an order), and take another day off work in the hope BT will turn up this time.

Oh God; even a migration to looks like it's got the capacity to be a massive screw-up.

Sorry, following a check on your details we're unable to complete your order online. Please call us on 0800 731 0286 so that we can get your superfast broadband package set up as soon as possible.

Not confident speaking to anyone will help - that surely means a manual order, knowing the person at the BT call centre won't be listening to a word I say (I could end up with their useless ADSL product) .
Can this company do anything right?

Bad to worse .

I didn't realise the Be line was with Sky.

This is why I wanted the SIM provide (assuming BT are actually capable of it - but if they sell such a service they should be able to to it) as it means I can keep my Sky voice line (with BE broadband) while BT struggle to do something which shouldn't be difficult for one of the World's largest telecos (surely at least one of BT's 100,000+ employees must know how to do a SIM provide).

The plan was to simply cancel Sky line rental and BE broadband after BT had managed to get a new telephone line working with Infinity (something it seems they struggle with).

The worst thing is BT have been regularly writing (trying to get me to come back) and now I want to they don't seem capable of connecting me without a huge drama.

Edited by adebov (Fri 19-Aug-11 00:51:25)

When we ordered it was at their behest - they called us to offer it as we were in one of the areas upgraded early on in the roll out.

Was installed on the day as ordered.

To be honest BT have never messed up an order on us from the ISDN days right through to now.

The thread on the BT forum I created very much agrees. We're getting exactly what we pay for - an excellent service.

You may be getting an excellent service.
I'd like to have been getting an excellent service but BT neglected to be able to offer one (failing miserably to be able to actually provide new line and broadband at the same time), and I'd be darned if I was going to be stuck with a voice only line for 18 months on the off-chance BT would later be able to provide Infinity (coincidentally placing a manual order for Infinity just after the 3 free months offer expired).

The only reason for going down the SIM provide route is I thought (for a company which employs over 100,000 people) it would be simpler than trying to get them to tack back ownership of the line (from Sky) and migrate a BE ADSL2+ LLU product over to Infinity.
How wrong I was

I'm now back at being forced to give up my BE connection (which I'll never get back because BT's own database is lying about my line length) and hoping they don't screw-up a migration to Infinity.

Step one is transfer the voice line back to BT - another long wait (18 days to be precise).
Step two (assuming BT don't mess up the voice line transfer) will be a migration to Infinity (another 2-3 week wait).
If I'm lucky, I might actually get Infinity by October

Like I said; you get what you pay for. I'm not talking about the actual Infinity product (you BT fans have convinced me it's up to scratch), I'm talking about the BT back-room staff not always being up to the job.

In reply to a post by adebov:

The worst thing is BT have been regularly writing (trying to get me to come back) and now I want to they don't seem capable of connecting me without a huge drama.

Methinks you are the cause of the "huge drama". Transfer of my Sky line to BT when I moved to O2 - flawless. Then swap from O2 LLU to BT Infinity - flawless. By son's SIM provide of a line and BT Infinity - flawless.

In reply to a post by Squirrel:

In reply to a post by adebov:

The worst thing is BT have been regularly writing (trying to get me to come back) and now I want to they don't seem capable of connecting me without a huge drama.

Methinks you are the cause of the "huge drama". Transfer of my Sky line to BT when I moved to O2 - flawless. Then swap from O2 LLU to BT Infinity - flawless. By son's SIM provide of a line and BT Infinity - flawless.

Please could you explain how Ade could possibly have caused the internal ordering systems and procedures of BT to screw up a SIM provide involving no migration?