Spent time working at KInloss back in the mid-80s and at lunch time woukld drive to Findhorn ... There were salmon nets on the estuary - all gone now. Still get back to see friends in Cullen and Buckie.

In reply to a post by MHC:

Spent time working at KInloss back in the mid-80s and at lunch time woukld drive to Findhorn ... There were salmon nets on the estuary - all gone now. Still get back to see friends in Cullen and Buckie.

I've not been up that way for a few years now sadly. The people I knew up there have moved elsewhere in the UK.

In reply to a post by MHC:

Still get back to see friends in Cullen

Home to the original Cullen Skink!! Superb!!

A couple of week ago I got up as far as Stonehaven (for their Burns Night as they are the "Fatherland" Club) & I made sure that I had Cullen Skink on one night!!

I hada friend who came from Findochty - try pronouncing that correctly, which is next to Buckie and he worked on trawlers asa deck hand/cook. He made wonderful Skink with a "secret ingredient" - Carnation evaporated milk. And when made with fresh fish his was wonderful.

First time I ever had Cullen Skink was many years ago, when I was staying in the Tufted Duck Hotel, St Combs (just below Fraserburgh).

tbh, I'm not a normally Fish-Eater normally (perhaps the bog-std Fish & Chips, but never much else) & someone tried to persuade me to try the "Skink". I trust you will agree, the name "Skink" doesn't necessarily sound appertising but, eventually, I was persuaded to try it.

After that, I was "hooked" (pun intended)!

I would very rarely try it South of the Border, but it is a pre-requisite if I get to that part of Scotland!!!

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

I am wont to say typical bl$%dy southerner who thinks the world ends at the Watford gap.

This made me chuckle. Thank you

I originally got an estimate from FluidOne a couple of years ago before the pricing structure for FTTPoD changed and was told that I was in band A and construction costs would be around £1100 if I remember correctly. I had a desktop quote from Cerberus around a year ago that came out at £39,000!

Is it more likely that one of them messed up or that Cerberus are just pricing themselves out of the work as they don�t want to do it? I would have thought that the desktop quotes use accurate info from OR so I�m not sure how there is such a large difference. I�m going to request another desktop survey from Cerberus anyway to see if it�s changed but I was curious as to what the experience here thought.

As you say, the pricing structure changed. It was purely based on difference whereas now it is based on the actual works required. However, if you paid for a full survey then you might find the price could come down - it's a gamble of £250 to find out.

I had a desktop quote from Cerberus in March 2018 and I was also in the £39K gang. 6 months after that quote native WBC FTTP was installed by Openreach.

Cerberus aren't pricing themselves out of anything. The quotes come from OpenReach.
The build fee goes to OpenReach.

Wether your desktop quote is £4k or £40k it would make no sense for Cerberus to try manipulate that price as every penny of it ends up in OpenReach pockets.

Is it more likely that one of them messed up or that Cerberus are just pricing themselves out of the work as they don�t want to do it?

Cerberus don't do the work though...
They make no money from rejecting orders. That's not how to run a business.

The reason your price went from £1100 to £39000 is that OpenReach had a crazy pricing structure before based solely on distance.
They had the sense to amend that.

Your line could be DIG (direct in ground) with no ducting what so ever.
Under the old pricing it was fixed pricing no matter the layout of the local network.

Now OpenReach actually take in to account what works are involved and that it costs about £112 per meter to dig up a carriageway.
A couple hundred metres of that and your quote is sky high.

The desktop quotes are based on (often poor, incomplete or outdated) OpenReach records.
Only way to know for sure is to pay the survey fee.

Very few quotes now come in under £8k.
There was a few after the pricing changed but they all seem to have over £5k in Labour costs and a few £k in stores/civil stores now.

To add, in many cases the £39k was basically "we don't have a clue what work is involved so will throw you our maximum quote".

They stopped all the £39k quotes and now return with a message saying unable to quote, survey required.

Edited by j0hn83 (Thu 13-Feb-20 13:43:53)