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[Azzaka]

for a long while they even sucked up the £150+ fee, but (understandably) are just reconsidering this now.. 

I believe the policy now (for some time actually) is that customer within the first few months of a contract (6 or 9 maybe) will be asked to pay up front for an SFI visit, getting a refund if "appropriate".
The main problem I see with that is the rather vague definition of what an SFI will do and what skills they arrive with, plus the limited time (2 hours?) they are given on site.

To me as a consumer that doesnt sit right. If the ISP doesnt do the diagnostics with the customer properly this can cause the customer to be charged.

As for the vague definition, OR need to fix any isses before and upto the Test socket., Anything beyond that should be checked first before an engineer is arranged including the modem. This eliminates any chance of the customer getting charged for it being thier fault.

The 2 hour slot can be bent but you need to know how and the engineer has to want to. Personally I would not pay up front, but we do charge the customer if they refuse to do the diagnostics and it turns out to be thier fault. At this point we actually ghet it in writting so they can not say they were not informed. In my time it hasnt happened to often.

[kitz]

>> I believe the policy now (for some time actually) is that customer within the first few months of a contract (6 or 9 maybe) will be asked to pay up front for an SFI visit,

Gosh sorry time flies - didnt realise it was so long ago now that they first brought the topic up last year that they were going to do this.
I certainly didnt realise that you had to pay upfront!  I thought that was only if you wanted the expedite an SFI visit without doing the usual tests?

[mr_chris]

I certainly wouldn't pay up front for an SFI visit (Be is my ISP too).

Fair enough if, like kitz said, you wished to expedite the SFI visit, but not for an SFI visit after completing all diagnostics the ISP had asked me to complete. It simply isn't fair or right if an ISP passes this charge onto consumers IF the consumer has complied with ALL requests from the ISP.

A thought that's just struck me - do ISPs receive guidance from BTo, or preferably concrete diagnosis steps, that the ISP should be obliged to follow, before requesting a SFI visit?

[kitz]

>> would you say O2 are along the same lines as Be,or are they totally different in support etc.

O2 sell different products and have a different call centre which is UK based.  Be seems to be aimed more at the 'techies' but both are fine if they fit your needs.

Re their support perhaps not as close intervention as with Be and info about the network etc tends to go out to Be users first,  but Ive not seen too many major complaints and most users seem happy enough.  Most of O2 complaints seem to come from the IPStream rather than LLU products.

They have user forums which you can browse through to get a feel of things
http://forum.o2.co.uk/index.php

If youre not registered access them though the section towards the bottom right marked "General Customer Forum" > General Discussion.

[UncleUB]

Thanks for that Kitz and the 'linky' 

[Azzaka]

... A thought that's just struck me - do ISPs receive guidance from BTo, or preferably concrete diagnosis steps, that the ISP should be obliged to follow, before requesting a SFI visit?

We do have a set of guidelines from BTW.

We based all our customer fault questions on those provided by the BT system when a fault is being raised. This way we can make sure we have covered the bases and then if we do need to dispute anything we can.

[mr_chris]

Thanks for replying Azzaka I thought that would be the case.

It's just mind-boggling to me then, how some ISPs can get it so wrong!

[Azzaka]

T bo honest Chris, in some case it could be the customer saying its been done and not doing, or it could be the ISP being lazy. There is no sure fire way to make sure it doesnt happen, other than to make sure-as ISP support-you do the checks and have someone check it again before its raised to BT. We also note if we are unsure if the full diagnostics arent done. This gives us a bit more ammo with the customer if they do indeed get charged.