Disappointing and poor customer service

We arrived at PE airport an hour before our BA flight to JHB was due to board. 10 minutes AFTER the boarding time an airport official started wandering around the departure hall asking around whether we were going to Cape Town or JHB. We were told the JHB flight has been delayed (whereas the later CT flight was boarding), and we needed to go back to the ticket office. The situation then descended into a case study of how not to handle a situation - conflicting and confusing information was being provided by BA ground staff to individual passengers, two ticket agents were trying to cope with a queue of some 70 passengers. No public announcements were made. I phoned the BA customer care line and was told they couldn't assist as I was at the airport. We tried to make contact with the supervisor at the airport as directed, but no-one responded to the doorbell or knocking at the BA administration office. As our meeting in JHB was scheduled for 13h30, we abandoned the trip, obviously at some considerable cost to our institution. I have subsequently attempted to make telephonic contact with the airport office, but calls are being rejected. Very poor show, BA. Cancellations and delays are understandable, but the abysmal handling of the issue is very disappointing.