(a) Customer Service.
(1) A franchisee shall maintain an office which provides the necessary facilities, equipment, and personnel to comply with the following customer service standards under normal conditions of operation:
A. Sufficient customer service representatives and toll-free telephone line capacity during normal business hours to assure that a minimum of ninety percent of all calls will be answered within thirty seconds and ninety percent of all calls for service will not be required to wait more than thirty seconds after such call has been answered before being connected to a service representative. All incoming customer service lines shall not be simultaneously busy more than three percent of the total time the cable office is open on any business day.
B. Emergency toll-free telephone line capacity on a twenty-four hour basis, including weekends and holidays.
C. A franchisee shall maintain a presence within the franchise area with adequate hours to meet public demand. The Cablecasting Board may require a franchisee to alter or extend these hours if there is significant evidence through subscriber complaints that the posted hours are not adequate. For purposes of this provision only, "franchise area" may include neighboring municipalities acting jointly under an intergovernmental agreement to which the Village is a party.
D. An emergency system maintenance and repair staff, capable of responding to and repairing malfunctions on a twenty-four hour basis.
E. An installation staff, normally capable of installing service to any subscriber within seven days after receipt of a request, in all areas where trunk and feeder cables have been activated.
(2) A franchisee shall furnish each subscriber at the time service is installed or reinstalled, and at least annually thereafter, written instructions and information regarding the franchisee's general policies and practices applicable to subscribers including, without limitation, information regarding products and services, prices and options, installation and service maintenance policies, instructions for using the system, billing and complaint procedures, and such additional matters as may be required by law or as may reasonably be required by the Village or the Cablecasting Board. Such instructions and information shall include the franchisee's business address, applicable phone number, and the name of the appropriate official or department of the franchisee to whose attention the subscriber should direct a request for service, request for billing adjustment or complaint. Such instructions or information shall also include the name, business address, and telephone number of the Cablecasting Board's administrator and the name, business address and telephone number of the Village Administrator or other designated Village employee to whom the subscriber can call or write for information regarding the terms, conditions and provisions governing a franchisee's franchise if a franchisee fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to the subscriber's complaint or request for installation, service or billing adjustment.
A. A franchisee shall furnish revised written instructions to each subscriber whenever the instructions previously provided have been changed, and at least annually.
B. The written instructions and information provided for in this section shall be subject to the review and approval of the Cablecasting Board which shall not withhold its approval unreasonably. The Board shall have the power to compel changes in such materials if the Board deems the same to be incorrect or inadequate in any material respect, and a franchisee shall promptly institute any changes so required by the Board.
(b) Cable Service.
(1) A franchisee shall interrupt programming service only with good cause and for the shortest time possible and, except in emergency situations, only after periodic cablecasting notice of service interruption for two days prior to and on the same channel and at the same time as the anticipated interruption. Programming services may be interrupted between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. for routine testing, maintenance and repair, without notification, any night except Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, or the night preceding a holiday.
(2) A franchisee shall maintain a written log, or an equivalent stored in computer memory and capable of access and reproduction in printed form, of all subscriber complaints. Such log shall list the date and time of such complaints, identifying the subscribers and describing the nature of the complaints and when and what actions were taken by the franchisee in response thereto. Such log shall be made available at a location convenient to the Village, reflecting the operations to date for a period of at least three years, and shall be available for public inspection during regular business hours. The franchisee shall submit a copy of such log quarterly to the Cablecasting Board for its review. For purposes of this section, "complaint" means any expression of dissatisfaction or report of a failure or defect, by a subscriber or other user of the cable system to the franchisee relating to any product, service, price, facility of the franchisee, or action or omission of the franchisee relating to the franchisee's status as a cable franchisee of the Village.
(3) For purposes of this section, "subscriber problem" means any malfunction affecting a single subscriber; "outage" means a complete loss of picture and sound affecting more than one subscriber; "system problem" means any problem other than an outage which affects more than one subscriber. With respect to matters within a franchisee's control, a franchisee shall maintain a repair force of technicians so as to resolve any subscriber request for service or to repair any malfunction within the following time frames:
A. For an outage. Within two hours, including weekends and holidays, after receiving knowledge of such malfunction.
B. For a subscriber problem. Next business day service and repair, seven days a week, for all complaints and requests for repairs or adjustments. In no event shall the response and repair time for calls received subsequent to 2:00 p.m. exceed twenty-four hours, including weekends and holidays, from the time of receiving a subscriber's request for service.
C. For a system problem. Within twenty-four hours, including weekends and holidays, of receiving a request for service identifying a problem concerning picture or sound quality affecting any two or more subscribers.
(4) Upon receipt of a request for service, a franchisee shall establish a four-hour appointment window with the subscriber or adult representative of the subscriber. A franchisee shall respond to the request for service within such established appointment window.
A. If access to the subscriber's home is not made available to a franchisee's technician when the technician arrives during the established appointment window, the technician shall leave written notification stating the time of arrival and requesting that the franchisee be contacted again to establish a new appointment window. In such case, the required response time for the request for service shall remain the next business day from the time the franchisee is contacted to establish the new appointment window.
B. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if a franchisee's technician telephones the subscriber's home during the appointment window and is advised that the technician will not be given access to the subscriber's home during the appointment window, then the technician shall not be obliged to travel to the subscriber's home or to leave the written notification referred to above, and the burden shall again be upon the subscriber, or adult representative of the subscriber, to contact the franchisee to arrange for a new appointment window, in which case the required response time for the request for service shall again be the next business day from the time the franchisee is contacted to establish the new appointment window.
(5) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (d) hereof, a franchisee shall be deemed to have responded to a request for service under the provisions of this section only when a technician arrives at the service location, begins work on the problem, and proceeds diligently to complete such work.
(6) No charge shall be made to the subscriber for any service call unless the problem giving rise to the service request can be demonstrated by a franchisee to have been:
A. Caused by subscriber negligence,
B. Caused by malicious destruction of cable equipment, or
C. A problem previously established as having been noncable in origin.
(7) All service personnel of a franchisee or its contractors or subcontractors who have as part of their normal duties contact with the general public shall wear on their clothing a clearly visible identification card bearing their name and photograph. A franchisee shall account for all identification cards at all times. Every service vehicle of a franchisee shall be clearly identifiable by the public.
(c) Franchisee's Billings.
(1) A franchisee's bills to its subscribers shall be clear, concise and understandable and shall be itemized as to each charge reflected thereon. The billing content in use by a franchisee as of the date of adoption of the ordinance from which this chapter is derived shall be subject to the approval of the Cablecasting Board. Any modification of the content of a franchisee's bills to subscribers shall also be subject to the Board's approval.
(2) The Board shall not withhold its approval of the content of a franchisee's bills unreasonably. If the Board disapproves of any of a franchisee's bills to subscribers, it shall so notify the franchisee and shall specify the basis for such disapproval. A franchisee shall then modify the bills so as to remedy the defects specified by the Board. The modification shall be implemented by a franchisee effective with the first billing after the expiration of forty-five days after receipt by the franchisee of the Board's notice of disapproval, unless the Board extends such time.
(d) Disconnect and Downgrade Charges.
(1) A franchisee shall make no charge to any subscriber on account of complete discontinuance of service. Except as may otherwise be provided by a law which preempts this section, a franchisee shall make no charge to any subscriber on account of a net downgrade of service whereby the subscriber requests a lower tier of basic service and/or a reduction in premium service.
(2) A franchisee may only disconnect a subscriber if at least forty-five days have elapsed after the due date for payment of the subscriber's bill and a franchisee has provided at least ten days' written notice to the subscriber prior to disconnection, specifying the effective date after which cable services are subject to disconnection; provided, however, notwithstanding the foregoing, a franchisee may disconnect a subscriber at any time if the franchisee in good faith and on reasonable grounds determines that the subscriber has tampered with or abused the franchisee's equipment, or is or may be engaged in the theft of cable services.
(3) A franchisee shall promptly disconnect any subscriber who so requests disconnection. No period of notice prior to requested termination of service may be required of subscribers by a franchisee. No charge may be imposed upon the subscriber for any cable service delivered after the effective date of the disconnect request. If the subscriber fails to specify an effective date for disconnection, the effective date shall be deemed to be the day following the date the disconnect request is received by a franchisee.
(e) Late Payment Charges. Late payment charges imposed by a franchisee upon subscribers shall be fair and shall be reasonably related to a franchisee's cost of administrating delinquent accounts. No late payment charge shall be imposed upon a subscriber, and a subscriber shall not be deemed to be in arrears on a bill, until at least forty-five days have elapsed after the due date specified on the bill; and, for purposes of this section and the prior section, the due date specified on the bill shall not be earlier than the first day of the monthly period to which the bill is attributable.
(f) Notice of Programming or Channel Change. Except as may otherwise be provided by Federal law, a franchisee shall provide at least forty-five days' written notice to subscribers prior to discontinuing any channel or programming service or to realigning any channel and shall provide written notice of the same to the Cablecasting Board no later than the franchisee's notice to subscribers. This provision shall not preclude the right of the Village to contest or prohibit any such action by a franchisee if, and to the extent, such rights exist. The foregoing notice requirement shall not apply in cases in which a programming service is discontinued because a nonaffiliated provider thereof discontinues furnishing the same to a franchisee on less than forty-five days' notice to a franchisee. In any such case a franchisee shall nevertheless furnish notice to its subscribers and the Cablecasting Board promptly upon a franchisee receiving notice of the discontinuance of the programming service from such unaffiliated provider.
(g) Notice of Price Increase or Reduction of Service. Except as may otherwise be provided by Federal law, a franchisee shall provide at least forty-five days' written notice to subscribers prior to implementing any increase in subscriber rates or reduction in subscriber services and shall provide written notice of the same to the Cablecasting Board no later than a franchisee's notice to the subscribers. The provisions of this section shall not preclude the right of the Village to contest or prohibit any such action by a franchisee if, and to the extent, such right exists.
(h) Franchisee's Communications. Prior to or simultaneously with any communication made by a franchisee to the general public or to a franchisee's subscribers announcing or explaining any increase in subscriber rates or reduction in programming services, a franchisee shall furnish a copy of such communication to the Cablecasting Board. The copy of the communication required to be furnished to the Board under this section shall be deemed to be a report under Section 820.09
(h) and hence subject to the provisions of Section 820.09
(h).
(i) Disclosure of Information on Franchisee's Costs. If a franchisee, in any communication to the general public, to the Village, to subscribers, or to the Cablecasting Board, justifies a price increase or reduction in service on the basis of increased costs to which the franchisee has been subjected, a franchisee, on written request of the Board, shall promptly furnish the Board with the underlying information on which such claim of increased costs is based in such form as the Board may request. The information furnished to the Board pursuant to this section shall be deemed to be a report under Section 820.09
(h) and hence subject to the provisions of Section 820.09
(h).
(j) Subscriber Rebates.
(1) Upon a violation of the provisions of this chapter by a franchisee which results in a subscriber not receiving cable programming service or receiving only significantly impaired service, the Board may order and direct a franchisee to issue a rebate to such subscriber in any amount determined by the Board to provide monetary relief to the subscriber substantially equal to the subscriber's unliquidated detriment or loss resulting from such violation.
(2) Except for planned outages where subscribers are provided reasonable notification in advance, upon a subscriber's request a franchisee shall provide not less than a one-day credit for each day in which there is a period of four hours or more during which the subscriber experienced an outage or significant impairment of cable service not attributable to any action or omission of the subscriber or to any defect in the subscriber's equipment. The credit specified in this section shall be equal to one thirtieth of the subscriber's total monthly bill for all services and equipment multiplied by the applicable number of days, but excluding any pay-per-view charges; provided, however, if such monthly bill includes any charge for a pay-per-view program subject to such outage or significant impairment, then the credit shall be increased by the amount of such charge.
(3) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to preclude a subscriber from requesting and receiving from a franchisee a rebate greater than that provided in subsections (a) and (b) hereof.
(k) Liquidated Damages.
(1) The Cablecasting Board may assess liquidated damages of up to one hundred dollars ($100.00) per day against a franchisee for each day a franchisee is in violation of this chapter. Such assessment may be levied against the security fund specified in Section 820.09(b).
(2) Assessment of liquidated damages shall not constitute a waiver by the Village of any other right or remedy it may have under the franchise agreement or applicable law, including the right to recover from a franchisee any costs and expenses, including reasonable attorney's fees, which are incurred by the Village on account of a franchisee's violation of this chapter.
(l) Remedies Available. If the Cablecasting Board determines that a franchisee has violated this chapter, the Board may order appropriate rebates to subscribers as provided in subsection (j) hereof and/or assess liquidated damages against a franchisee as provided in subsection (k) hereof. In addition, the Village may pursue any additional or other legal or equitable remedies available to it under the franchise agreement or any applicable law.
(m) Appeal Process. A franchisee may appeal any action of the Cablecasting Board to the Village by submitting a written appeal within twenty-one days from the date of the Board's action to which a franchisee objects. Upon such appeal, the Village Council shall conduct a de novo review of the action of the Board being appealed and shall set a hearing date within forty-five days of the date of receipt of the appeal. A franchisee may present any information, data or other evidence to the Council either prior to or at the time of the hearing. Hearings shall be open to the public and members of the public and members of the Board may also present any evidence or information pertinent to the matter appealed. The Council shall then determine whether to uphold, reverse or modify the action of the Board. The appeal shall stay any further action on the matter appealed until the appeal has been decided by the Council.
(Ord. 2000-59. Passed 7-10-00.)