In reply to a post by brookheather:

Just received my quote - half the original price - desktop quote was £7,100+vat - after survey quote is £3,780+vat which will be mostly covered by the £3K voucher and I can reclaim the vat as well so happy days!

Always nice to see people getting quotes so much cheaper than the original desktop quote.

However I cannot even seem to get a desktop quote :/ perhaps I need to give them several weeks / months before asking again....

In reply to a post by ppiixx:

Ouch

Estimated Build Cost: £11,000.00 ex VAT

Number of premises passed for FTTP: 15

Suburban main road with PCP within 100m. No idea where the fibre node is.

Think I will hold out for gfast or native fttp

Is that just the desktop survey? There's a very good chance that the confirmed build cost will be a whole lot lower.

In reply to a post by tommey74:

Always nice to see people getting quotes so much cheaper than the original desktop quote.

However I cannot even seem to get a desktop quote :/ perhaps I need to give them several weeks / months before asking again....

Did you get the same reason as me for no desktop survey quote?
"Estimated Build Cost: Onsite survey required to confirm charges"

In reply to a post by NornIron91:

In reply to a post by tommey74:

Always nice to see people getting quotes so much cheaper than the original desktop quote.

However I cannot even seem to get a desktop quote :/ perhaps I need to give them several weeks / months before asking again....

Did you get the same reason as me for no desktop survey quote?
"Estimated Build Cost: Onsite survey required to confirm charges"

I have requested a desktop quote and have not received a single reply, how long is it supposed to take?

It took 11 days for me through Cerberus

In reply to a post by NornIron91:

It took 11 days for me through Cerberus

Thank you for getting back to me, hopefully it won't be to much longer then.

I went with Cerberus for my FTTPoD and im finding it VERY frustrating, mainly due to their speed and communication skills. Bolded the prices for people who want a TLDR.

So got my desktop survey done, took me quite a few weeks of chasing to find out anything, But the final outcome was that the Desktop Quote was blank. I asked what this means and was told there might not be records of that area (street built 10 years ago?).

So i decided to bite the bullet and pay for a full survey and that took them about 2-3 months if i remember right to get it done, I'm absolutely convinced they sat on my order for at least 2 weeks, maybe more, before sending to OR, mainly due to hearing nothing for several weeks and getting little to no replies until i copied in everyone i could to escalate.

When things finally did move, i got called by the actual engineer doing the survey, he was really good! but he asked, why was my job bundled with a separate job for surveying the rest of the street and the connected estate? I explained that i had ordered FTTPoD (and explained what that was as he hadn't heard of it) and he recommended i ask around. Sure enough the Neighbours had seen the OR van and the Engineer i had talked to, but none had ordered anything. I asked Cerberus about this and asked if there is a chance the whole street is being done (and thus why was i paying extra?) but that was dismissed as nothing.

Eventually got my quote back just at over £3000, so of course i ordered, and that's when the already terrible communication got worse. I got my voucher approved within a day and then complete silence for weeks despite promises of weekly updates on progress. So i chased and chased, and again i have a very strong suspicion the order was sat on for several weeks before being sent to OR several weeks after the initial "your order is now with OR" i got another "your order is now with OR".
Recently i finally got some responses saying estimates were being done (surely the point of the paid survey and pricing?) and then Cerberus told me the install could take between 3 and 9 months, not the "90 days" that was promised at the outset of this whole ordeal.

I need fast broadband, this is the only way im going to get it, but honestly if i had another choice and know what i do now i would pick some one else to buy from as ive spent more time chasing for updates than i believe they have on my complete order.

In reply to a post by clx:

and then Cerberus told me the install could take between 3 and 9 months, not the "90 days" that was promised at the outset of this whole ordeal.

I am sure that you were never promised 90 days.

Cerberus' website says:

"The estimated lead time to activation is a minimum of 90 working days from completion of planning work following the field survey." (my emphasis)

By the time your order has been recorded with OpenReach, and they have sent out the surveyor, and they have done the planning and given you your final quote, 2 or 3 months have probably already passed. Then another 90 working days is over 4 months, at that's the absolute best case; I have been waiting several months while they dig up neighbouring streets.

The "estimates" are for problems which OpenReach finds in their own upstream network (e.g. blocked ducts) - you are fortunate that you do not have to pay for these. However it adds to the delays while these issues are fixed.

If you have got the service for "just over £3,000" and are offsetting that with the voucher, you are getting FTTPoD for nearly free. Some people have had final (post-survey) quotes of over £20,000.

If OpenReach decided to survey the whole street, it may mean that the "fibre first" project has decided this is a good opportunity to get FTTP in for everyone else at the same time. You should be pleased by this: your cheap FTTPoD install might also have had a community benefit.

Finally: FTTPoD orders have now been suspended due to high demand. So you were fortunate to get your order in before this happened.

You picked the wrong product if you think this is taking too long.
Have a read of the first detailed FTTPod install, probably the only detailed 1 before this thread started.

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/4552969-my-fl...

That was 4 months from order to activation, when there was only really 1 ISP offering FTTPod nationwide (Spectrum in Wales and some resellers also) and OpenReach were processing single digit order volumes per month.

The order volumes for FTTPod increased considerably when the pricing/minimum term changed in March and ISP's like Cerberus (considerably cheaper than FluidOne (though in fairness they offer a managed service)) started getting mentioned.

Your lead times sound about right to me. It sounds like you are very much blaming* Cerberus for delays at the OpenReach end.
In my opinion such leads times are perfectly acceptable for such a bespoke service with order volume limits, designed to stop OpenReach's workload getting out of hand.

Expecting your order to be completed within 3 months is madness!

edit: * auto correct mistake

Edited by j0hn83 (Thu 25-Oct-18 11:31:22)

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

You picked the wrong product if you think this is taking too long.
...
That was 4 months from order to activation,

For what it's worth, the progress of my order so far was as follows:

* Late March - applied for desk quote
* One day later - received desk quote, asked for final quote
* Early July - received final quote, order placed
* Late August - overhead cabling completed, spools of fibre seen hanging from poles along my road
* Late October - 3x blocked ducts cleared via roadworks (rejected twice by the local authority, third time succeeded)

I've not had this week's update, but I reckon it won't be long before I need to book an appointment with an engineer to run cabling into the house.

I'm not worried by the wait (after all, it's worth waiting for) and throughout Cerberus have been helpful, chasing things on my behalf and giving regular updates. As the permits alone will have cost Openreach £2,250, I can't see they'll make much profit from this install - which cost £3,350ish (+VAT).

It's worth noting that a side effect of this is that the whole street will be enabled for standard FTTP once my install goes live - I suspect as part of the "fibre first" initiative.

EDIT: And this week's update from Cerberus advises only one of the three duct clearances was in fact successful - the council didn't reply to the other two requests. That'll be another £500 down the drain for Openreach and possibly another two months' delay (as the work needs to be done outside a school, the council refused the permits before as work can only take place during school holidays, apparently.)

Edited by deleted (Thu 25-Oct-18 16:42:00)