We were due to catch a bmi flight from Paris to London in January. We paid a small fare, which made our holiday quite cheap, so we were quite happy about flying bmi. We got to the airport, nearly early four hours before take off, and were alllowed to check in about three hours before hand. Just moments after out bags went down the conveybelt and we had our boarding passes a bmi rep told us that the flight was cancelled!!!! When we asked 'why' we were told it wasnt their problem but the PLANES fault. the PLANE wasn't working so it wouldn't be able to get there. We have the obvious following problems with this:

a) At no point did bmi admit any responsiblity
b) At no point did bmi apologise to us
c)bmi did not advise us of how to get a refund as we had to make alternative travel plans - we had to ask
d) To get a refund you have to WRITE TO THEM AND PROVE THE FLIGHT WAS CANCELLED
e)There was a bmi flight due to fly the same route that had not yet left when we checked in, and did not leave for another hour, but they did not offer us this flight and said we couldn't make it because our baggage wouldnt get on to the plane
f)We waited at the check in for a period of up to three hours and saw no other passensgers turned away therefore we can only imagine that because there was only a handful of people on this flight, us and a few others who were turned away with us, they had actually just cancelled the flight and hoped that everyone would be ok to catch the next one, which we weren't because we had to make a connection.
g) Was the lack of passengers the real reason for them not taking off?

Has anyone has a similar experience?