This is yet another horribly painful fibre install experience with Chorus that is still ongoing. I'm going to describe what has happened to date in some detail below, and make people aware of what Chorus and their contractors are up to. I have been dealing with @Chorusnz for some of this, so he or others from Chorus can also respond if they choose to do so.

We ordered fibre through 2degrees at the beginning of March. Chorus sent a team of techs for the first scope visit. We want the ONT to be placed in the office, which is at the front centre of our house. This is roughly 5m away from the roadside, all paved with bricks along the way. To the right hand side of the office is the garage. The techs did not want to touch the bricks at all. They said that the existing phone cable conduit runs along the right hand side of the house, along one side of the garage, so they first proposed running fibre along this route, putting the ETP at one side of the garage, then running the fibre cable from one garage wall directly across to the wall on the other side, which backs on to the office wall where ONT should be, then running the cable down the office wall (which is of course ridiculous). We objected to this because: (a) clearly they could have avoided running cable down office wall by running cable to exact location on the other side of the wall, (b) we feel that cable run through the garage should not be directly across, but along the perimeter at the top of the garage, and (c) we feel that any indoor cable run should be in capping/trunking. The techs were clearly looking to do a minimal amount of work, so they were not interested in what we had to say, and since they were adamant they would not touch any bricks at the front of the house, they left without reaching any agreement with us.

Subsequently I got in touch with both 2degrees and @Chorusnz, who offered to intervene and make sure that a different crew of techs are sent out for the second scope visit. 2degrees told us that they can't be sure we would get a different crew, so I asked @Chorusnz to double check, and he confirmed again that a different crew would be sent out.

The second scope visit was earlier this week. The same crew turned up - they got a different tech to talk to us initially, but as more of the crew turned up and joined in the conversation, I could recognise many of them from the first scope visit. I wasn't happy with that at all. I wasn't sure that they would do a good job for us after the first visit, but I was prepared to give them a chance.

Once again, initially they refused to touch any of the bricks, so they said the route can't be though the front of the house. Again they suggested a similar plan through the garage, and we were raising the same concerns as last time to them. At this point they halted the conversation, claiming that they first needed to test the existing conduit on the right side of the house to make sure that it can be re-used. After 30-40 minutes they told us that that route is "blocked" and can't be used, so the *only viable route* is through the front of house, by lifting 5m of bricks. They said they needed to make a new connection on the roadside by digging up the lawn (on Council land), lift the bricks, then run fibre to just outside the office. Inside the office, the ONT is to be installed on a different wall to the one that the fibre comes in from, so there would be less than 1m of bare fibre cable run. We don't like this, but the techs said that if we buy the capping/trunking ourselves and supply it to them then they can use it for the install. We were not very happy because not only are we not knowledgeable about buying this stuff, but also they declined our offer of paying for the capping material and get them to buy it for us. Eventually we relented and agreed to this plan as it was presented to us. At no stage was it mentioned to us that this would not be a standard install.

The techs came back the next day to dig up the lawn outside of our property. When we asked them how they would start the job inside, they said they were very busy and probably wouldn't be until next week. They left shortly afterwards and have not returned since.

Today I got a message from @Chorusnz, informing us that we have agreed to a plan, but it "requires moving our dropoff from the right hand side to the left", which makes this a non-standard install and so would be chargeable to us. What a nasty surprise. At best the techs are misrepresenting the conversation and agreement between us, and at worst they are lying. We are very upset about the extremely poor experience we have had so far with Chorus, and we are taking this very seriously.

I have sent a reply to @Chorusnz raising my concerns and I'm awaiting his reply. Also I have contacted 2degress to let them know the situation and to put the install process on hold.

Our concerns are: (a) we never agreed to a non-standard install; (b) we can't see how we can be responsible for any charges if a "new connection" or "moving the drop-off" is the only way to supply the fibre - it's our firm belief that Chorus need to take care of this themselves; (c) we now have no confidence that this crew of technicians (who turned up twice for both scope visits despite assurances from Chorus to the contrary) would do a good job for us, and we would not want them to be involved again for any future scope visits/installation; (d) the lawn outside our property is now a mess; (e) it's unclear what the way forward is now.

I have been advised by the 2degrees CSR that I needed to call Chorus on one of their phone numbers, and he acknowledged that Chorus can be "difficult to get hold of". It's now the weekend, so I can't phone them until next week. As I said I already sent @Chorusnz a reply. I'd like to hear from Chorus first, but I'm thinking that I might need to make a complaint somewhere, because what has been happening is simply not acceptable to us.