Reminds me of one of my most annoying connection snafu's of the past few years.
I was flying BNE-SYD-WGA on QF, as usual (every second Friday evening). Because the SYD-WGA flight I connect to is the last flight of the day, I purposely allow extra time for the connection than I need to. i.e. I get the second last flight that can connect, rather than the one QF would normally book me on to connect. This normally has me sitting in the SYD T2 QP for a good hour and a half if everything is on time.
Sadly, on this particular day things weren't going well. My BNE-SYD flight boarded on time, but we had some technical difficulties, which means we sat on the plane at the gate for about half an hour, then got off the plane, then got back on, sat there for a while longer twiddling our thumbs, and finally pushed back.
We were horribly late, but it looked like maybe I might still just make my connection. During the flight I had several discussions with FA's and the CSM about it, and was assured that they would let QantasLink know what was happening. "I'd be right" was the general response.
Anyway, we finally landed at 18:20, about 10mins before the SYD-WGA flight was due to start boarding. I got off the plane as quickly as I could, and bolted over to T2. I used the sneaky ground floor security gate, and was making good time. I was going to make it. After a long week at work in brisbane, I was going to be home that night! I ran down to gate 58, and got there at 18:40. The flight was due to leave at 18:50. Sadly, there was no plane there. Not happy Jan.
It seems that someone, somewhere, had decided I wasn't going to make it, so closed the flight and unbelieveably actually left early! Yes, I had a checked bag, but I couldn't have cared less if it didn't get to WGA with me that night. I wanted to get to WGA that night.
So nobody really seemed to care that I then had to spend the night at the airport HI, and not get home until the next day. Nobody seemed to acknowledge that anyone had spoken to anyone about where I was during this process. As a WP, I was left less than impressed with the "customer care".
OP, I share your pain.