Erik,
A useful option, however in these scenarios, the files need to remain on the providers site, as there are times when they replace existing files on the download site, until they are ready for us to download the files, which is when they would place a trigger file such as "start.trg". we then download all the correct files, and the trigger file is deleted.
This is currently how we use it with our exisitng FTP product, which it seems we will need to keep using for these types of jobs until we have a working replacement.