[admars]

When I asked for a modem, they just arranged for an engineer to come out and do it, no mention of doing it myself.

I would have thought the problem with letting you do it yourself, is that they don't know how competant you are, so if they haev a free engineer, it's easier to send one out in the first place, than risk you mesing it all upthem sending an engineer out to fix it, which could take longer.