Oooh, this is were I step in I guess.
I am hoping to make a blog posting about this at some stage, but in a nut shell, yes, PlusNet have the wrath of the dreaded SFI charge.
Just work on the assumption that I have not read the AAISP post. I have read some, so I will try and pick on them, but will admit some may read odd if it contradicts other elements of the article.
Yes, like AAISP and all other IP & DataStream providers, we receive the dreaded SFI charge.
One of my current jobs at PlusNet is to review the charges and to dispute them were possible (hell, I am replying after happening to refresh the forums during a break from disputes). This will involve looking at the whole report from start to end on our own systems and that of BTs own systems.
I then make a decision on if BT charged us correctly, looking for the most obvious stuff such as them sending out an engineer when one was cancelled or never even requested.
Next I will look for information to suggest why they are charging us may be invalid. Was the correct charge code applied such as engineer says internal cabling, when the customer does not have any.
Next, did we do the right thing?
Did we send out an engineer to fault that was obviously within the end users control, or were the fault type should never ever receive an engineer.
Were possbible, we will dispute them.
Booking engineers has had some big focus over the past few months here at PlusNet, and the work I am doing is central to that. I am picking up the issueswe make and ensure we change the way we work to help prevent this.
Unfortunatly the reason for this is two fold and as always, that comes with the rough and smooth.
The smooth being that we want to minimise the risk of charges being applied. You can remove the risk at all, but can reduce it.
The rough unfortunatly is that one day, the risk of the customer being charged as a result may increase.
This is not something I would like to see happen, but the more I do faults, the more I find I am having to explain to customers in detail the risks of us proceeding.
Our fault levels are under industry average, in that we will often resolve it without ever having to approach BT. So we try to get things fixed without an engineer being required, but there will always be occasions when engineers will be needed
