So we're signed up with MyRepublic.

Monday 10th November I got a phone call from MyR to tell me that the UFB install was going to go ahead on 18th November, and they were going to send out the modem. This was before any inspections had been done or anything, but I thought okay, whatever. They know what they're doing.

Tuesday 11th comes, and someone from Chorus calls me to confirm the installation date on 18th, and that someone was going to come around the next day for an inspection and they'd call me 30m before they were due to arrive. I arranged to be at home all morning on the Wednesday, and then no one turned up. I asked Chorus on social media what the deal was, who promptly denied responsibility for the phone call I had with them on Tuesday and told me to call MyR.

So I did. Naturally, at this point I'm annoyed at having waited in all morning and for Chorus to pass the buck to someone else when I'd arranged it with them. MyR told me that inspections were only planned for the afternoon, and they called Chorus about it, and then called me back. Of course, no one explained where this missing inspection team was, or what was going on with me sitting on my arse all morning waiting for Chorus. They told me that I didn't have to be there for the inspection, they'd do it from outside.

And then I heard nothing. Until Friday just gone (14th) when someone from Chorus called in the afternoon to tell me they were half an hour away and they'd want to look inside and outside.

So they turned up, looked around the place, asked me where the ONT would best go. All of that stuff. Took some photos.

Then they told me that they'd probably have to trench the driveway. Which came as a shock to me, because the house is pretty new - less than fifteen years old - has ducting for cable, and is down a 20m driveway from the road. So that's 20m of driveway that needs to be dug up for only a marginal increase in speed that might be wiped out when VF finally tell everyone what the speed increases will be and when they'll happen. There was some other stuff, but my line at getting it installed was basically digging up the shared driveway. I don't care to have that done, or go through the consent process with my neighbours, if it can't be done with the existing ducting.

The guy told me that it'd probably be a few months. It certainly wasn't going to happen on Tuesday 18th. He indicated it would be a long time. It would have to go to designers, and they'd have to come round again, and they'd definitely have to dig up the driveway. Or if I liked, they could dig up all the plants and trees at the side of the driveway instead and lay the cable there. But they'd also have to, at some point, install a split in the ducting so that our neighbours would be future-proofed for fibre.

See, I don't need to know this. I'm not future-proofing my neighbours. I know one is happy with VF, and the others are semi-retired, and they don't care about UFB. I'm only interested in getting fibre and it being easy for me and the people around me. And this doesn't sound easy for anyone.

So I called MyR, and told them this wasn't going to be easy, it was apparently going to take months, and I wanted to cancel. But they said they'd call Chorus, that they had powers to do this, etc., pay extra to get the install moving, and that it shouldn't be months, it should be at most weeks. I left it with them, but I'm still probably going to cancel, because the Chorus guys were pretty convinced that the drive needed to be trenched, pretty convinced that the only possible location for the ETP (next to the existing cable point and demarc point outside the bathroom) and the most sensible location for the ONT (at the other corner of the house where the cable and Sky enter) were going to be a problem because of the corrugated steel cladding.

So.

1) Is the install usually planned before anyone's been out, and then cancelled when Chorus turn up to do an inspection and find out they can't do that?
2) Who does that date planning for the install? Chorus or the RSP? If it's Chorus, why would you arrange an install before anyone's been out, and if it's MyR, then why would you act on no information from Chorus?
3) I have ducting. It's a new house. So is the one next to us. It has everything fed underground. Why do I apparently need to piss everyone off and install more ducting?
4) Dealing with MyR and Chorus, that's an awful lot of buck passing in a few days. I didn't like the way Chorus palmed off their non-visit to MyR. Who's responsible when I arrange to be somewhere and no one turns up?
5) So if something goes wrong, if the install is half-baked, if they ruin our driveway or punch unsealed holes in my cladding, who fixes that?


This all seems terribly shady. I know nothing about UFB and after this last week, I'm not sure I really care to know anything about it until they actually know what they're doing. I know every project is individual, but there should be certain processes to follow. This seems to be made up by everyone involved on the fly.