I've been getting the run around with dates from Bigpipe and wondered if this was a normal by-product of them being the middle man when a customer requests a fibre install, and common across ISPs. Install is a standalone old state house which we own, with very easy access to street frontage so I wasn't expecting any issues.
I put request in at the start of the month and was given a scope date of following Tuesday 6th March and install booked 9th March, requested change of scope date on the Monday to attend birth of my child, got email on the 7th saying scope date was moved to 6th of March and install to 13th of March.
Replied querying "new" scope date in the past, got given scope date of 9th (which happened to be neighbours install date) and install date of 14th, bigpipe said this was chorus' mistake.
Chatted to the techs next door on the 9th who said I wasn't on their sheet but they'd follow up and get me added to their jobs for the day if possible since they were already on site. Emailed bigpipe on the 9th too just to check we were still on.
Chorus guys left without updating me so I emailed bigpipe again on the 12th to query no-show and they hadn't yet responded to email from the 9th. Bigpipe replied on the 13th ignoring my query of the no-show and giving a new scope date of the 14th even saying "there will be no change to the date of your installation appointment" so of course I thought great they'll scope and, if all good, install the same day. I thanked the bigpipe guy for this confirmation and they quickly replied saying nope install date is 19th if March, I said that's not the same date (14th) and was told it was chorus' mistake again.
Scope happened on the 14th, yay! Chorus guy said expect install in about 2 weeks and that pole work might be done without me noticing, it's a dangerous pole to climb so they'll request a cherry picker. Fair enough I guess the neighbours was easier and at least that's progress.
Bigpipe must've got the report back from chorus because they emailed me again on the 15th and said install is expected for 19th June. More than 3 months after I initially was led to expect. I of course queried the discrepancy between what chorus said (2 weeks) and bigpipe (3 months)and was told 6 weeks an optimistic estimate.
As a result of the poor communication I requested my VDSL plan be charged at the cheaper fibre price I reasonably expected to be paying by now and was offered a one-off 25% reduction instead. No work completed on the roadside pole, so the two weeks wasn't right, I'm really hoping the 3 months was wrong too.