FTTP - Install shenanigans

[#1]

After the excited anticipation of the FTTP installation booked for today 01/04 the engineer duly turned up as arranged and... absolutely nothing has happened. I suppose it is April fools day today and it is a trial so I can take it good humour.
Essentially, BT will only do 2 phased installations for BT Infinity customers only, and not Plusnet customers. So the engineer booked to "blow the cable" from the manhole to the wall of the house 2 days prior never turned up and now I know why. The engineer had to phone BT to find that out. So Plusnet customers get a one pass installation for fibre to the wall and then installation of the ONT on the same day. Plusnet take note.
Next challenge, the manhole with the fibre accumulator is litterally outside my garden about 6 metres away in a straight line, but.... But!! The engineer had been told to run the cable from a manhole around corner and at the end of a cul de sac, about 100 metres away!?!?!?
Fortunately the planners have "become more relaxed"  about their rules with regards trials and he was able to pursuade the powers that be that it made more sense to "blow the fibre" from the point outside my garden.
So "I'll crack on" said the engineer! Yay!!! says I...
Not so fast says Sods Law... I'm determined to make an April fool of you so hold on there a minute!!
So there is blockage in the duct that carries my phone line from manhole to property and there will be no blowing today... untill.. The copper chaps come along dig up my garden and lay a new duct so that the blowing can commence once more. Timescales.. BT couldn't tell me, but the job is on the "docket" and it will be done some time soon.. which means... some time soon. 
So... this will require another appointment for nice BT engineer to finally come and install the ONT inside the house. Which means another day to take off work, which isn't so bad except I'm freelance and I don't get paid when I'm not at work. Still its Friday, and its nice to have a day off.. 
And... it;s April fools day so... a little madness today is to be expected. 
As you were. 

[#2]

Sorry but I can't follow what you are saying in your 1st paragraph.
When FTTP was started it was a one day installation but because installations were failing it was changed to a 2 day installation. Day one is to get the fibre to the house the second day to install inside the house. This should apply to all connections irrespective of the ISP.

[#3]

The BT engineer said... and I quote!  "Two day installations are currently being done for BT customers only." Plusnet customers will continue have a 1 day installation. This is why no one turned up to get the fibre to the house when Plusnet informed me that this would be done 2 days prior. I was wondering why no one had turned up.
This is what I was told by the engineer this morning, and he was told this when he had to call up his controller to find out why the fibre hadn't been terminated at the house. One rule for BT customers and one rule for others. I don't care how many days its takes, just as long as get it. Last night my speed was crawling at 0.33Mbps!
I'd agree with you there, 1 day installations are failing all right.

[#4]

Hmmm. I thought Openreach were supposed to deal with everyone on an equivalent basis. Their website says:

Quote

Q1 What does 'equivalence' mean? Two key priorities of Openreach are equivalence and improving service. On equivalence, we have said we will: Demonstrate our absolute commitment to conducting business with all Communications Providers equally, in accordance with our Undertakings to Ofcom and, indirectly, to the industry. Support the UK telecommunications industry in a fair, even-handed and transparent way. Protect and promote the interests of all Communications Providers. On a very practical level, this means Openreach treats all customers in an equivalent way by: Providing the same products and services, and relevant Commercial Information, to all Communications Providers - including to BT's other lines of business - on the same timescales, terms and conditions, including price, and by means of the same systems and processes; and Interacting with other Communications Providers using systems and processes in the same way as we do with BT's other lines of business, and with the same degree of reliability and performance.

That suggests BT (presumably BT Retail) must be paying something different to access this different service.

[#5]

Update.. BT subcontractors turned up today and unblocked the blockage. Took about 15 minutes, inlcuding time spent reading the paper  They didn't need to tear up the pavement or the garden to lay a new duct after all.
Just need to get a new appt to have BT engineer "blow" the fibre to the house and then install the ONT. Ahh progress, its a beautiful thing.

[#6]

If it's any consolation, my install went the same way for the most part.  Like you, I took it as it came: the duct had been in the ground for 25+ years and was routed for copper not cable so I wasn't surprised it took a bit of persuasion.  I did have contractors around to dig up part of my ground, but they turned up a week after the first attempt, did what they needed to do and this was checked the next day by another BT chappie.  The next visit turned out successful and I was connected.
I think BT are finding it more troublesome than originally planned from what I've read.  Interestingly, there's plenty of OpenReach vans around so help seems to be, literally, just 3 or 4 doors down.
In my opinion, BT are actually doing a good job here.

[#7]

I agree with you Coolj, the Openreach engineer who came along last Friday to do the installation was most apologetic when he couldn't complete the installation because of the blockage. And although he couldn't give me an exact date when the blockage would be cleared he did say it would be a matter of days as opposed to weeks and he was true to his word. Just 3 working days later the blockage is now cleared.
He also said that it was a learning curve for them as well because they're trying to find the best way most efficient way to do installations especially when it comes to rolling out fibre nationwide, the trials are helping enormously especially when it comes to problems like blocked ducts etc.
Now I've only gone and clicked the wrong button and just closed my installation question. I wanted to update the question with the new information. Never ever attempt surgery, mouse clicks or any other task requiring some form of manual dexterity when you're tired!!
Methinks the installation will now take a tad longer as I've had to raise a new question referring to the old one.
Fingers crossed.

[#8]

How wrong I was... Just about to head off to work when there's a knock on the door and its an Openreach engineer!! I wasn't expecting you! I say..  'Is now not a good time' says he?  Its always a good time, so after showing him where the ONT needed to go I hurried off to work, managed to arrange a short notice half day and the good fellow has been hard at work all morning.
However the cable was run from the manhole up the street as opposed to the manhole 20 feet from my front door, so what should have taken him a few minutes took much longer to blow the fibre.
So at the moment, the ONT is on the wall, the cable is in its tester prior to being connected to the ONT, lots of splicing still to be done in various places and the hard working engineer is on a well deserved break!
Progress... glorious progress 

[#9]

So.. the installation was completed and the connection went live.... and it works but not at FTTP speeds. Its now 3 days later and we're still motoring along at 1.49Mbs download. But hey.. I've waited this long.. so a few days extra won't hurt.. but you can imagine the anticlimax!!! 

[#10]

Hopefully someone at plusnet will give your IP profile a prod as there is no training period with FTTP it just runs at the speed it says on the tin (subject to exchange and network congestion)