I have a PPL, not a CPL. Here are my opinions -
There are a few good small schools at BK. Pacific Flight Services (Crane Air), and Clamback & Hennessy spring to mind - they regularly get good feedback on this forum. They both have a decent fleet of aircraft and decent rates. I did my training at Crane Air.
I think you will find that most will agree with you - my brief experience with Basair 10 years back left me unimpressed, it's much the same situation with most of the big pilot-factories - unless you are cashed up and enrolled in a course (and even then...), they don't want to know you .
Allow about $5000 for GFPT:
Allow about 20 hours at 200 an hour (probably out of date...), plus an extra 1000 for the various test fees, documents, odds and ends.
You don't need to buy a headset straight away. As they say, time is money - invest the spare cash and buy a nice one later when you go commercial - you can usually borrow them for free from the school.
Don't get too carried away with all the gear, you wont need much gear until after the GFPT anyway (e.g. fuel testers are rather expensive for what they are, mine broke after a couple of years of intermittent use. I never bothered buying a new one since most school aircraft have one in the glove compartment... ). Until then a BAK text and logbook should suffice.
I have used a couple of Trevor Thom's books (BAK, Nav/Met) and one of Bob Tait's books (PPL Theory).
Bob Tait's book seemed a bit better.
There are a lot good (free) educational websites too.
Try to go once a week, or once a fortnight minimum. That way you will make progress.
Above all: enjoy it.