Market A Surcharge

Hi All

My FTTPoD service recently went live. So far so good on that front.

Now that the service has been marked complete by Cerberus, I have received my first months invoices. I say invoices because I have one invoice for the service and yet another (hefty) invoice for the Market A surcharge!

Now I did originally query this with Cerberus (Bob Hendy) back in August last year after paying for the site survey but before placing my full order. At the time (July 2018) Ofcom in accordance with many 100's if not 1000's of exchanges around the country, regraded my GEA Headend exchange and also my little local 'copper' exchange both to Market B as part of their broadband market review. I was basically told as soon as we know more we will let you know. I never heard another peep.

As both my serving exchanges were regraded as Market B by Ofcom almost 12 months ago, well before my service went live and actually technically before I placed the official order for the service on 24 September, my question is how reasonable is it that I'm getting charged this surcharge now, given that I'm actually in Market B not Market A?

I guess BT Openreach must still be charging Cerberus this too and they are just passing the buck, so to speak.

I have challenged the invoice with Cerberus accounts and they have placed it in dispute whilst they investigate.

Has anyone else recently been caught out by this?.

Good News: Cerberus to their credit (literally) have today rescinded the initial invoice for the Market A surcharge, and confirmed all future invoices will be at the Market B rate.

The result I was hoping and expecting. So hats off to them.

Post deleted by CarlTSpeak

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

I guess BT Openreach must still be charging Cerberus this too and they are just passing the buck, so to speak.

Hi Sir,

Just to let you know BT Wholesale charge this, not Openreach. Glad you got the right result.

In reply to a post by CarlTSpeak:

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

I guess BT Openreach must still be charging Cerberus this too and they are just passing the buck, so to speak.

Hi Sir,

Just to let you know BT Wholesale charge this, not Openreach. Glad you got the right result.

Yeah I should have said BT Wholesale. A thousand humble apologies

This was how Bob Hendy from Cerberus explained it:

�BT Group contracts all refer to the old market definitions, not the new ones. Every ISP has been on their case to update their definitions but they have only partially done this (for FTTC/P services).�

The long and the short of it is that we are in a Market B area and after my appeal will be billed as such.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

In reply to a post by CarlTSpeak:

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

I guess BT Openreach must still be charging Cerberus this too and they are just passing the buck, so to speak.

Hi Sir,

Just to let you know BT Wholesale charge this, not Openreach. Glad you got the right result.

Yeah I should have said BT Wholesale. A thousand humble apologies

This was how Bob Hendy from Cerberus explained it:

�BT Group contracts all refer to the old market definitions, not the new ones. Every ISP has been on their case to update their definitions but they have only partially done this (for FTTC/P services).�

The long and the short of it is that we are in a Market B area and after my appeal will be billed as such.

That is really poor. No excuse for using the old market.

In reply to a post by Garlic:

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

In reply to a post by CarlTSpeak:

... nested quotes trimmed ...

Hi Sir,

Just to let you know BT Wholesale charge this, not Openreach. Glad you got the right result.

Yeah I should have said BT Wholesale. A thousand humble apologies

This was how Bob Hendy from Cerberus explained it:

�BT Group contracts all refer to the old market definitions, not the new ones. Every ISP has been on their case to update their definitions but they have only partially done this (for FTTC/P services).�

The long and the short of it is that we are in a Market B area and after my appeal will be billed as such.

That is really poor. No excuse for using the old market.

Well we are talking BT Group here....we need to reset our collective expectations

If I can bring myself to it (again), I will dig up what the fine print of my Cerberus agreement actually states, with respect to Market A surcharge and any alterations of the definition of such.

It was quite fair as I recall. There really was no way they could argue it. Not that they did and they �came to the party� pretty smartish after I challenged the invoice. So good to see from that respect.

Just serves as a salient reminder to anyone else caught out by the Market A surcharge to make sure you are not inadvertently being overcharged.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

In reply to a post by Garlic:

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

... nested quotes trimmed ...

Yeah I should have said BT Wholesale. A thousand humble apologies

This was how Bob Hendy from Cerberus explained it:

�BT Group contracts all refer to the old market definitions, not the new ones. Every ISP has been on their case to update their definitions but they have only partially done this (for FTTC/P services).�

The long and the short of it is that we are in a Market B area and after my appeal will be billed as such.

That is really poor. No excuse for using the old market.

Well we are talking BT Group here....we need to reset our collective expectations

I guess - but it does seem baffling. Why don't the contracts simply mandate that the market definitions simply track ofcoms changes. It can't be rocket science for ORs database to implement the changes.

I know in the past people have had their first month(s) in one market and the rest in another as the change implementation date has straddled this period.