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Suggestion: £60 call out insurance

w23
Pro
Posts: 6,347
Thanks: 96
Fixes: 4
Registered: ‎08-01-2008

Re: Suggestion: £60 call out insurance

Quote from: Jameseh
Is the problem is ...

@Jameseh Typo? Is/If  Smiley
Call me 'w23'
At any given moment in the universe many things happen. Coincidence is a matter of how close these events are in space, time and relationship.
Opinions expressed in forum posts are those of the poster, others may have different views.
msssltd
Grafter
Posts: 77
Registered: ‎28-06-2007

Re: Suggestion: £60 call out insurance

Quote from: _Adam_Walker_
We don't actually want anyone to have to pay the £60 charge and will help where we can to rule out the chances of that being levied, I can appreciate that some people to view the potential charge negatively or perhaps as a threat though.

The £60 fee is roughly equivalent to 6 to 12 months of BB service and there is no guarantee that paying it is going to improve the service.  I would say those are very good reasons for perfectly well adjusted customers to view the charge negatively.
Very simply.  Customers want a 'whole service.'  The industry (including OFCOM) would rather make excuses than try to provide the level of service that customers need, want and (reasonably) expect. 
From the end customers point of view the £60 charge is entirely 'opaque.'    If there is a problem with the upstream equipment there is no way for the customer to establish it, without potentially being charged for the call out.  If they do get charged, the customer can not get an independent second opinion. 
BB customers are expected to 'carry the risk' to an unusual degree.  In almost all other markets suppliers are forced to accept these types of risk, whether by competition or by consumer protection legislation.  It even has  a name, 'The cost of doing business.'
My personal view is that if the industry were forced to absorb the call out fee, they might become a little more prepared to work together and a little more creative when it comes to providing a decent level of service to end customers.
It is quite ludicrous that currently;
+ Engineers may have to book themselves to return to premises wearing a different hat.
+ There is no simple (accurate) way to establish whether maintenance is being carried out in the exchange at or near the time a fault it reported.
+ Customers are demanded to swap apparently good routers before any fault is investigated.  Do PN or BT swap their own routers without establishing that is where the fault lies?  No they absolutely do not.
And so on.

rslsys
Grafter
Posts: 215
Registered: ‎16-08-2007

Re: Suggestion: £60 call out insurance

I think paying £60 is OK if it is proved to be my fault.
On the other hand I should be payed £60 if it is not my fault but BT's.
That would make 'em take more care of the infrastructure and notify users of any pending changes or maintainance!
Cheers
Keith
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Suggestion: £60 call out insurance

Whilst I understand the sentiment Keith, that would be one way of pushing up your broadband subscription up pretty considerably!
msssltd
Grafter
Posts: 77
Registered: ‎28-06-2007

Re: Suggestion: £60 call out insurance

Quote from: rslsys
I think paying £60 is OK if it is proved to be my fault.
£60 is quite a lot of money for the sole privilege of being told, 'no fault found in our equipment.'  If the £60 were going towards resolving the fault it would be far less objectionable.  In many circumstances a local computer engineer could actually fix the fault in the customer's equipment for no more than £60.
Quote
On the other hand I should be payed £60 if it is not my fault but BT's.
I like tit but I don't suppose BT will be rushing to accept such levels of responsibility.
The original idea was for individual customers to pay an insurance premium.  Which is fine but it creates another revenue stream to be exploited.  The idea that ISPs pay X, add a margin and sell for Y is quaint but bares no resemblance to reality. 
Were BT or the ISPs forced to absorb the call out charge, every subscriber ends up paying the insurance premium and the charge becomes, per capita, completely insignificant.  If such a charge is not so negligible as to disappear within the murk of marketing, it creates pressure to raise network reliability overall. 
Sadly OFCOM are content to aide and abet in playing divide and conquer with end users, who, individually, have no leverage on network suppliers.