FTTPoD desktop quotes and final prices

As the other FTTPoD threads are now quite long, and as suggested by candlerb, here's a thread for posting the results of a full survey as compared to the original desktop quote for FTTPoD.

To kick the thread off, I applied in March for a quote via Cerberus. I live in a rural location, around 200m from the nearest cabinet but just under a mile from the exchange. As far as I can tell, most of the route from the exchange to the cabinet is underground, with overhead lines and poles from the cabinet to the surrounding houses (including mine).

I don't know where the aggregation node is.

I was quoted £13,600+VAT by the desktop survey. I've been waiting since for an engineer appointment to be made, but out of the blue I had an email earlier today saying:

"Your estimated build charge was in excess of £13,600.00 + VAT. The confirmed build charge is £3,342.67 + VAT."

That isn't a typo - it's around £10,000 less than the quote! I've asked for confirmation that it's the correct amount. After all, I haven't seen an engineer - they could have come when I was at work, though, and as the connection comes in from a pole, runs down my wall and into the dining room it perhaps doesn't need anyone to see inside the house.

I'll update the post if the final amount changes but for now I'm hopeful that I've scored a bargain!

The quote won’t be for the final drop and lead in, its for all the rest of the malarkey.

But well done, go bag a bargain.

I wonder if that original high quote was trying to sort the ‘wheat from the chaff’, get rid of the metaphorical tyre kickers and time wasters ?

In reply to a post by Retron:

"Your estimated build charge was in excess of £13,600.00 + VAT. The confirmed build charge is £3,342.67 + VAT."

If its a "confirmed" build charge that suggests Openreach have done some sort of survey. Though its a bit surprising the Surveyor didn't call you in advance to have a quick peek inside your home, that certainly happened in the case of mine (and others) FoD installs.

Anyhow, congratulations on getting a bargain and good luck with the install

Edited by baby_frogmella (Wed 04-Jul-18 17:49:11)

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

its a bit surprising the Surveyor didn't call you in advance to have a quick peek inside your home

Agreed if for courtesy if nothing else but I guess the configuration within the house has little impact on the overall price so not a necessity.

If it can be purchased using a £3k gigabit connection voucher that will be pretty sweet!

Here's mine:

- Initial desktop survey quote: £13,700+VAT. 14 properties passed.
- Final post-survey quote: £6,600+VAT, on top of £250+VAT survey fee already paid. 3 properties passed.

The order has gone in and I am very happy

The survey team consisted of three vans with two people each, and they were pulling up duct covers down the street all day, from before 9.30am until after 4pm. Definitely would have cost Openreach more than £250.

I asked the lead surveyor where the fibre aggregation node was, and he indicated a road junction about 600m walking distance away. Under the old pricing scheme I was in Band G (1500-2000m radial); so either I'm benefitting from a recently-installed FAN, or the previous system had old data in it. In any case, the new system has definitely worked for me.

Thanks, so it looks like Openreach are using this FTTPoD quote generator after all!! lol

For those in the £39k club, will be fascinating to know what their confirmed build costs are....

Edited by baby_frogmella (Wed 04-Jul-18 22:19:10)

Very interesting. If I end up moving house soon then I might ask for both an estimated quote and then for an actual quote. If it turns out to be somewhere in the region of up to around 7000 pounds at most then I'll most likely go ahead.

I wish mine would turn up.

I was quoted a Band B £1,800 ex vat on the old system in January.

Was quoted £20,600 ex vat on the new in April.

Paid the £300 in April hoping and praying it would be less than this as I could never afford this and could not believe an £18,000 difference in the space of 2 months.

The full site survey was done on Friday 1st June where I was given the depressing news that no ducting exists whatsoever between my property and the aggregation node.

But still 5 weeks later no final figure from Cerebrus. I wish they'd just put me out of my misery.

In reply to a post by Anth:

5 weeks later no final figure from Cerebrus. I wish they'd just put me out of my misery.

Hopefully shouldn't be long. Mine was nearly 4 weeks from survey to quote. It was almost 12 weeks from order to survey!