Long wait for FTTC install?

My cabinet finally went live this morning, so I placed an order to upgrade my service.

I could pick an install date, the earliest being 31st December, so I went for it.

Just got an email from Zen saying my install date is 14th January 2015!

Given that I picked a date that was available, does this sound right?

Is nearly a month's wait usual/acceptable?

Given that it is Xmas and winter it isn't entirely surprising. BT engineers have time off too and winter is a time where they invariably have to do repairs due to unforeseen events.

It also depends on the area - some areas will be busier than others.

Not sure what basis Zen offered the date though as to be 2 weeks later than the provisional date (which presumably was provided via BT's booking system) does seem a little odd.

Mine got enabled on the 12th December, so I picked the earliest date of 22nd December and so far so good it looks to be on track!

Yep 14th seems about right, Had a customer who placed order on 14th Dec - Install 14th Jan. Openreach scale back their ability to do installs over Xmas generally

I totally get that OR guys take holiday too, and Xmas is a key period, but you'd think that if a date is offered, then a slot must be available. Or is that just too logical...?!

I don't know how Zen's systems work but I believe PlusNet's used to have some sort of cache of available dates that they used when offering. It only confirmed a date when the order got officially placed with BT which could be a while later - at which point the dates could have gone. But for 2 weeks to change that would suggest either the data was quite out of date or there was a massive influx of people signing up to BT based ISPs.

It seems to be a limitation in the BTW/BTO ordering system. Quite possibly because the back office system can't quite handle "real time".

When the date is offered, there is indeed capacity - but it is being offered to many people at the same time. When you go back to accept it, the right date is often no longer available.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

It seems to be a limitation in the BTW/BTO ordering system. Quite possibly because the back office system can't quite handle "real time".

When the date is offered, there is indeed capacity - but it is being offered to many people at the same time. When you go back to accept it, the right date is often no longer available.

You mean they gave away 14 days of appointments at 0730hrs on a Friday morning? Seems unlikely to me....

I'm wondering if Zen just offer a random date, a while in the future, then get BTOR to assign any date they please.

I'd say I expected more of them both, but then really, I didn't

System as I understood it was Openreach offer several options, but they are not reserved when offered. So when the ISP replies with a firm order the date may have vanished.

This is to stop an ISP grabbing all the slots and holding up other providers.

The first date might have been a random cancellation, leaving a single slot available, while most of the intervening slots are already taken up.

It is easy for dates to jump if that happens.