"It seems to me that the OP is being somewhat less than forthright."
Indeed :
"Remember we were in central Switzerland with UK phones....constant tunnels, overpasses, mountains....reception even to phone was patchy and 3G ($$$) slow, intermittent or simply non-existent."
If the first hold up occurred near Lucerne, where are these constant tunnels, overpasses and mountains on the way to Zurich by motorway ? The alps are being left behind on that route.
I generally find that my UK 3G phone gets much better reception travelling around Switzerland than in the UK, and that includes a constant signal going through motorway tunnels.
And I would imagine that with a non-flexible ticket, BA's response assuming contact was achieved would be pretty much "OK, thanks for letting us know", just as it would be from any other airline.
I'm not BA's biggest fan at all when it comes to their CS attitudes, but I don't think its fair to lay blame on them because your phone doesn't work particularly well.