Full Fibre Install Cost

[mrdaveyy]

I will do. Also we were told by BT multiple times that the underground ducting work would be free but I am guessing this was a miscommunication between them and openreach.

[licquorice]

Personally, I would accept the offer from Openreach if BT are willing to pay the £3500.

It will be a 'one stop shop' rather than having to liaise timings between contractors and removes any problems of possible incorrect work.

I doubt you would save much by getting an external contractor in any case.

[mrdaveyy]

@licquorice yeah that makes sense! Thanks for the advice!

[rbz5416]

Just out of curiosity, does your father understand there will be a large plastic CSP box screwed to the house?

[mrdaveyy]

Yes I think he was told...🤣

[mrdaveyy]

@rbz5416 I just noticed you asked me why I thought 40 days was excessive. Can I ask how can it take 40 full work days to lay a duct of 95m? I thought it'd be a couple of days or a week max. Am I missing something?

[Abacus]

The £1000 seems a cynical way to ensure that the job exceeds the limit for BT to pay the whole thing. Basically seems a con!

[mrdaveyy]

@Abacus I would say you could be right, I had that thought a few times.

So this saga is still going on with BT, so the £800 we were told we had to pay? Turns out it was actually £1600 because the VAT was not added. We tried to reach a compromise solution that ended up on being a similar price. I took my complaint to the Communications Ombudsman and it was then concluded by BT and the Ombudman that I would have to pay the full £5k with now no contribution from BT that I was told originally?? (I have found this is incorrect since).

In a last attempt I emailed the CEO of Openreach who got his team to look at my order, his team resurveyed and came up with a price that was around £3000 for the same job that was originally around £5000. Now that it's below £3000 BT have now said they will pay for it all and it is scheduled for install by the end of this month. So we went from it being suggested it was free at first then told we would have to pay £800, then £1,600, then £4,100, then £5,300, and now it's back to free again after writing to the CEO of Openreach. This has been going on for around 7 and a half months now and I am now glad I was persistant and didn't take the advice of some of those on this forum to go ahead and pay for this who thought they knew better and they have been shown to be incorrect. 

I am in shock that this has happened this way and in my experience it seems a lot of staff at both BT and Openreach (and Communications Ombudsman) are unable to deal with these orders with extra construction works effectively for what ever reason.

[iniltous]

The chances are you are getting an install for ‘free’ not because of the legal validity of your case but it’s cheaper and easier in the long run to concede to your request, the fact is there is no universal obligation to provide FTTP , if your current broadband is above 10Mb , this includes mobile if your landline service is below this , taking cases like yours to the ombudsman/ regulators costs BT irrespective of the outcome, chances are they decided that rather than have legal costs of defending their original decision ( unlike a normal legal case , where you would pay the legal costs if you lost ) it’s simply cheaper to ‘give’ you this , even though you are not entitled to it

[mrdaveyy]

@iniltous I have been told there is a seperate fttp USO and the copper USO is different. I understand what you are saying but you are in fact, speculating and don't know the detail of this case or exactly why Openreach and BT have acted this way. I do not know either.

You could be right but in any case you can see the process has been rather unfair and completely ridiculous, it is a poor customer journey with very little clarity. I've spoken to my MP and Council and they agree this has been very obscure. The Ombudsman also conceded that if we were given all the correct information immediately we would have been able to make a decision quickly without BT randomly changing the price over 5 times.

Also, it has to be noted that the legal status of any USO will probably change in the next few years as 10mbps will be seen as a poor connection speed soon, if not already. So therefore, I am glad that I have been persistent and it has been confirmed BT and Openreach have not conducted themselves properly throughout.