A couple of weeks ago, I flew LGW-DFW in 3A and I had quite a few problems with my seat, but nothing like your problems! First, when I tried to swivel the seat, it wouldn't move. With the help of two FA's, finally got it swiveled by using the manual overrides behind the little panel near the floor. It seems that the somehow the seat had been put back in the straight forward position while it was still slightly reclined and the footrest wasn't completely stowed.

Everything seemed fine for a while, until I tried to raise the back so I could sit up for the meal service. The seat back started raising, then about 2/3 up, it just stopped. Continued pressing of the button just caused the seat to make a little noise and gryate the back up and down slightly. Again using the manual overrides, and some elbow grease to pull the seat back up, I got it back to the upright position. Needless to say, I had to go through the same routine everytime I wanted to raise the seatback, and had to use the manual overrides to swivel it back forward for landing.

It was handy to learn about those override levers at least...